Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Quebec City

Last night I had a very rough sleep as we were in our first and only youth hostel. It costs us $60 for the night and we were only in Montreal for the night so figured it would be fine. The hostel itself was lovely, clean and had wonderful facilities. Had a rooftop beer garden and two separate jacuzzis on the roof, a fully equipped kitchen, bar with free pool table and a car park. The problem wasn’t with the place itself but more the fact we were sleeping in a dorm with 10 other people. I was sweltering hot and didn’t get actually asleep until around 5am which is horrendous. As far as I’m aware Katy didn’t manage too badly and had a nice sleep, I tend to really struggle to sleep when it’s hot and there’s no fan/air con etc.

Anyway we drove the 2.5 hours to Quebec City which is the most eastern point of our Canada trip. As we arrive to the cobblestone streets it really felt like we were arriving in a different country. Everything is 100% French speaking and even the architecture has a European feel to it. It’s magnificently unique with lots to see and a surprising amount of things to do. There seems to be a lot of young people around too. Haven’t yet figured out if it’s because there’s a big uni or if everyone was on school excursions 😂

We are staying at a lovely studio Airbnb right in the middle of “old town” Quebec City which is World Heritage Listed. We couldn’t be any more central it’s perfect. Our little studio is small and perfect for what we need too. The lovely French lady let us leave our bags while she cleaned it and we went exploring.

While we waited to check in we explored all the alleyways and market stalls we could find. Just letting ourselves wander without worrying about where we actually ended up. As expected, we stumbled across most things that we had read were worth seeing. We walked through what is now the Fairmont Hotel (formerly Le Chateau Frontenac). It’s a hotel in the old city center that was originally used as a secure secret conference center for Winston Churchill and the military to make important decisions on World War 2. It’s now transformed into a 5 star hotel in all its opulence. It has various shops and bars and some very interesting art galleries too.

I know mum loves Salvador Dali and they were selling these sculptures for around $60,000. I even got in trouble for taking photos. We glanced passed the bars as we knew we couldn’t afford a cocktail on our backpackers budget but they were all very quaint.

We then kept walking and found ourselves on this pier walk that goes around the old Citadel. I was hoping to check out the citadel but it’s all closed for what looks like safety reasons so I wonder if they’ll eventually turn that into a museum as well.

From the back of the citadel you look over the old town and can see the landscape in all its beauty.

I have included this next photo for two reasons. As you know I’m growing my hair so you can see it’s starting to look nicer. And also I’m modelling my second lululemon garment. My shorts!

This was the landscape. You can see the old town underneath and Le Chateau Forntenac in the background

We headed back and rested in our Airbnb before heading out for dinner and to watch the Raptors basketball game. The 6th game out of the finals series. THEY WON! They won a very tense game that was neck and neck the entire way and this mean that they’ve won the entire finals series 4-2 in a best of 7 series. The first time the Toronto Raptors have ever won the NBA Championship.

We had a great night watching the basketball on the big screen sharing a delicious nachos over a few drinks in the nearest Irish pub.

Still have two more days in Quebec City so we will be exploring and eating our way through the best parts of what seems to be a very foody city 😋

Au Revoir

M 🙂

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Last day in Ottawa

We woke at the cottage by the lake to a wonderful view. We slept in due to the time difference from Calgary so a 10:30am wake up was actually an 8:30am wake up. As expected everybody had eaten breakfast because we didn’t expect them to wait for us sleepyheads. We spent most of the day lazing around the cottage and played a few board games between breakfast and lunch. We played this interesting dominos game called “Mexican Train”. It was a long game and over 12 rounds Katy came out victorious, second place went to me a grand total of 1 point behind. After 12 rounds I lose by 1 point. You all know me well, I wasn’t sour about it at all 😐

Afternoon time arose and we needed to scoot back to Kyrie and Dave’s house so said our goodbyes and jumped in the car. It was peak hour so it took twice as long but we eventually made it to their home and we quickly changed and went to “lone-star” for unlimited fajitas.

My only photo of the night consists of our margaritas. They were delicious. Afterwards we went to get “Dairy Queen” which is basically Canada’s version of the McFlurry but a million times more delicious. We had some reservations at a sports bar to watch the next Raptors game but all 5 of us decided we were tired and over full of food so we cancelled the reservation and headed home to stream the game in the comfort of our own home. The Raptors lost the game 106-105… thats right they lost by one point. As a consequence they have to continue playing in this best-of-7 finals series. The score now sits at 3-2 to the Raptors.

This morning we scrubbed ourselves out of bed and headed into downtown Ottawa. Kyrie had to work a 12 hour day and Dave had things to do so Katy, Kirsten and myself headed in for some sightseeing. Kirsten lived around here for 2 years so we were relying on her to show us the sights. The weather for the first time was very overcast and windy but as yknow, nothing can stop us, because we’ve spent our time in Scotland and no bad weather can stop us!

We walked to all the main points of the city. Seeing all the sights and tasting all the foods (as usual)

Beaver tails are a delicacy here (according to Kirsten) and let me tell you they were just as delicious as she made out. I don’t actually know what it is but from what I understand it’s deep fried pastry with the obvious toppings. Delicious!!

We walked up towards Parliament Hill

There’s lots of cool stuff to see in this area of town. Unfortunately there’s a lot of construction going on at the moment so we couldn’t walk all the way around and it was pricey to go in but we saw all the things we wanted to see from the outside anyway.

We did some shopping in the city and ALSO! I just remembered I made my second Lululemon purchase. Both girls were so proud of me. I bought a pair of shorts that are sooo comfy and can be used pretty much for workout/comfy wear/walking around. They were pricey as expected but I’m happy. Will show up in pictures later on in the blog.

We walked passed the Fairmony which looks like a castle and is set on the river. It’s also right next the canal that has a lock system that can let water and/or boats through. It was quite a cool sight so I thought I’d test my gymnastics. It was pretty high up so Katy was not impressed and refused to take pictures as I tried. 😂 these were the best I got.

You can see the province of Quebec on the other side of the river. Quebec is the French part of Canada. It’s a lot more French than I expected but I’m sure I’ll get used to it in our coming days of travels (Montreal/Quebec City) This side of the river is Ontario and the other side is Quebec. It’s one city but the river is the border between the two provinces.

Kirsten took us to this street halfway home with more shops because Katy had some birthday money to spend at the bigger LuluLemon store. We spent some time there, went and got a few groceries for Kirsten for the week and got a famous pizza called Willy’s pizza that Kyries brother swears by. Once again he wasn’t lying it was delicious. We polished off our pizzas and watched some Netflix before heading to bed.

Into our 4 wheeled companion tomorrow morning, destination; Montreal.

Night

M

Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 1 Comment

Days 9 & 10 (our anniversary)

Hi guys,

So we’re combining two days into one as Tuesday was pretty chill for us. We had a bit of a lie in Tuesday morning since we’ve not had the most restful sleeps. With a house full of early workers and sleeping in the living room, we both tend to hear our roomies (for the week) getting ready and sneaking off to work.

Anyway; we woke up and decided to skip breakfast (it was 11am) and got ready for the day. One of the boys, Kieren, recommended an independent Italian sandwich shop called Peppino’s which is know for its delicious subs. Let me tell ya, he’s not lying. They hit the spot and a bit more! I had chicken pesto and Mitch had chicken parmigiana 🤤 we ate these on a bench in the sun by the river.

In the evening we headed to Lynn and Malcolm’s (Morgan’s mum and stepdad’s place) for dinner. It was a great meal and even better company (cheesy I know) but we really enjoyed spending time with everyone and catching up.

Wednesday; if the title of this post didn’t already give it away; was our anniversary. 4 whole years together and by the end of this trip will have added another 3 months.

We started off with lunch at a bar/restaurant called Hayden Block. It’s specialties are smoked meat and whisky so you know Mitch was in heaven. We each had a main and shared a watermelon salad (weird to imagine but very tasty).

I had a pulled pork sandwich while Mitch had 14 hour smoked brisket which he says is the best meat he’s ever eaten. Topped with their espresso barbecue sauce and we were both very happy with our choices ☺️.

We also picked up a sweet treat (or 4) from a bakery called Crave. Safe to say I’m an oat cookie convert 😍

After lunch we met up with Lynn and Malcolm again to go beer tasting at a brewery.

They’ve changed the laws in Canada recently which meant that microbreweries don’t have to be able to produce massive quantities in their initial batches anymore. Previously this had been a block for those breweries that didn’t have the money to fund such a big startup. So now it’s actually possible for them to get off the ground with their first few small batches which is why Calgary has so many popping up.

We headed to a place called Legend Seven Brewing which supplies some of Lynn’s taps at her pub. Mitch and myself decided to do a beer flight which is lots of little tasters. I would describe the glasses as “Katy sized” and was disappointed that I couldn’t buy any. I guess I’ll have to be on the lookout in Australia for them.

We enjoyed our beers while playing shuffle board (which is basically miniature sized curling but on a sand covered board).

Since Lynn and Malcom seem to know everyone with a brewery we got treated to a private tour of Legend’s brew house which was really cool. They make it start to finish including bottling and labelling. We didn’t even pay for our drink flight because the rep for the company wrote it off on his tab! I think he was trying to persuade Malcolm to add another tap to the bar.

We moved on to another pub that Malcolm recommended then headed back to K Pub for some food to go with all that beer. We had a brilliant afternoon and had to fight to pay for anything. If you’re reading this Lynn & Malcolm; thank you for your generosity.

Finally to end this amazing day (best anniversary yet) we watched the raptors beat golden state (woop woop) and went to The Gateway at Calgary Tech to see Ocean Alley. They’re an Aussie band who got #1 in triple J’s hot 100. The gig was so much fun, the band were fab and we were surrounded by the entire Australian population of Calgary (or so we assume). The new boy on this picture is Conner (Thomas and Trents Canadian friend). He does comedy part time and loves Aussie music! I’m introducing him here because he’ll be appearing in the next blog post 😉.

Heres Ocean Alley for those above the age of 28

Not a haircut between them! – Katy xxx

Posted on by Mitch&Katy

Day 7 – Calgary and Basketball

So we’ve been away for a week already! Time flies when you’re unemployed and having the time of your life; but at the same time it feels like we’ve been away for ages. Probably because we’ve seen so much and been in 3 different cities already.

Sunday morning we woke up in beautiful Banff, honestly the views of this place are out-of-this-world! Everywhere we went you could see another snow covered peak of another mountain which is surprising since the weather was a toasty 24. When I packed I was expecting Scotland weather: bit of sun, some rain and mostly just ok weather but we’ve had some really hot days already. Me being me (a cold frog) I’m almost too scared to wear my shorts in case it gets chilly.

Here’s a pic of Mitchy enjoying his fruity cocktail and simultaneously slow roasting himself.

Back to the story – we left Canmore (just outside Banff where our Air BnB was) and drove back to Calgary where we met up with all of our housemates for the week. We had breakfast in the garden and chilled for the afternoon before heading out to watch the basketball.

For those not in the basketball scene, like moi. The Raptors are Canada’s only professional basketball team playing in the NBA. Surprisingly they’re doing very well this year and have made it to the finals which for some reason takes like 7 games to prove your the winner.

We spent the night eating nachos and drinking cocktails (ok that was just me) off of a converted pool table while watching the Raptors play game 2 in which they played well but ultimately got whooped in the last 2 quarters :(.

Here is all of the housemates enjoying our front row TV seats.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this baby update of Calgary. Hopefully we’ll have more to show you this week coming! – Katy xxx