Thanksgiving

This weekend was THANKSGIVING. It was only Canadian Thanksgiving, which is quite different to American Thanksgiving, but is still cause to stuff your face full of too many goodies. To celebrate thanksgiving Lucy and I decided to take a trip over to Ottawa. Annabel didn't join us as she had secured herself a traditional thanksgiving with her Canadian friend in Halifax (where she ate moose)! Friday night we bus to Ottawa after a great deal of panic! I get home at about 4:00 and Lucy tells me that Amanda (my balcony mate, who was also going to Ottawa, but because her family lives there) had left for the bus two hours before it was scheduled to leave, as she was worried / knew about how busy the station was this time of year. So I had to race to do my washing, buy groceries for when I would return home, as the shops would (in my mind) be closed for the public holiday, tidy room and pack. A task that also should have been on the list was withdraw money from the bank. A problem: in that Ottawa didn't seem to love my Bank of Montreal as much as Montreal does. Our bus was meant to be at 7, but Lucy had me shoveled out the door by about 5:45. My bed - unmade, my wallet - empty, by fridge - full (to no avail as the shops were open on Monday! - curses). Anyway, there were hoards of people wanting to go to Ottawa for thanksgiving. It seemed to be the thing to do. There were about 8 bus loads going!!! We waited about an hour and a half to get onto the bus though. They were letting people onto these 7:00 buses from about 6:00 and just filling them up, and bringing in another bus to fill...
We finally piled onto the bus and began our journey to the forgotten capital of Canada. It is always overshadowed by Toronto, this is somewhat like Canberra and Sydney's loving relationship. When we arrived, it was dark and raining. We were checked into our hostel by the vaguest lady in the world. She spent a good five minutes laughing at my surname and joking that I came from Holland, ha ha, let me go now, so I can dump my stuff and I can get something to eat. She then demanded $50 each from us for accomodation. Which I didn't believe, as I thought I had paid online! SO in outrage didn't pay up. Upon checking, I made no such payment online, but managed to avoid the lady the entire weekend, so potentially got free accommodation - unless they look me up and charge my credit card. We dumped our stuff and went out to scout out some dinner. We had some tea in a cute Canadian chain diner. I had a tasty club sandwich. We moved on to an Irish pub where we had some amazing cider. The hostel room that we stayed in, was an 8 share girls dorm. Anyway, we were with 4 Asians and 2 fat old ladies (one of which had a cold, and being in such close proximity to her (i.e in a room with no ventilation for two nights) have caught). We each got a top bunk, which had its pros; Pro: I was the one who disturbed the person on the bottom bunk. Con: had to make top bunk at 12:00 at night (a task hard enough to do in the middle of the day) Pro: this was to the annoyance of my bottom bunk mate - fat old lady #1. Con: when she wake up - I woke up. Ergh. So at about 6 or 7, I don't know, it was early, when all the Asians and old ladies got up to explore Ottawa, I was rudely awakened. Lucy and I slept in until about 8:30. We got up, and went to the Byward markets for breakfast. We went to the most amazing bakery and got some nourishing coffee and croissants. We enjoyed the markets and all the amazing produce, clothing and arts and crafts stands. I do love the markets. We sauntered around the town. The Rideau Canals run through the town, so we walked alongside them, took in the glorious sunshine, and frolicked in the fall leaves. It was amazing. We took a tour of parliament (they won't let you look around by yourself). We were really lucky, we went in at about 11:30 and got assigned to a tour at 12:50. By 12:30 Parliament had been booked out of tours and had to turn tourists away! That was a close call. We went up the peace tower in Parliament and at 9 stories high could enjoy most of what Ottawa had to offer. The tour was really funny, as our tour guide asked us all where we were from (most people were Canadians) and when he found out Lucy and I were from England and Australia always tried to mention things that were going on in Australian and English politics. For example he let me know, that this is where my Australian Prime Minister would come if he were to visit Canada - thanks mate. And he would point out the constant British empire rule reminders to Lucy. After our delightful tour we went back to the markets for some luncheon. We wandered around the city some more, being very touristy. This was glorious. We ended up at the mint, when upon walking in, they were just starting the free tour. Why not - we thought. But I must say I enjoyed the mint a lot more than I imagined I would. I mean, they were making the olympic gold medals there at the time - which was super exicting, and we got to see gold and silver bars, and a 100kg coin! This is because Canada is blessed with many gold and silver mines, and as such this mint was a gold and silver coin mint, not a common paper money mint (the paper money is s crappy to manufacture it is made alongside the stamps). Then we went to the National Art gallery until it closed. All these attractions were free, so Ottawa was quite good to us. We had bought some OBAMA cookies from the bakery earlier, and ate them at a lookout for afternoon tea. The deal with the Obama cookies, is that once Obama visited Ottawa (and they never forgot it) and he stopped by this bakery and tried a cookie (maple leaf shaped, with Canada written on it). The bakery is full of photos of Obama, there is a T.V screen showing non-stop Obama footage and there is the words "Obama Cookies Sold Here" written about 100 times. Naturally they charge way too much for these cookies - but how could I resist. I mean if they were good enough for Obama!
We wandered back to the hostel to relax and get ready for dinner. We went out to a pub - the clock-tower, under the pretense that they had pumpkin ale (what better way to toast thanksgiving). They were sold out! But we had some raspberry ale instead and I enjoyed a mildly healthy salad. There was a hockey game on, between the Toronto Maple leafs and the Ottawa Senators (how cute) and so we watched that on the T.V at the bar. We didn't come home too late, as Ottawa is not that happening, and we didn't particularly want out roommates to hate us.
On Sunday - Amanda came and met up with us. We went to ye olde faithful bakery for breakfast, and then Amanda drove us around Ottawa! Oh, it was so exciting and nice to be driven somewhere. But crazy to be on the wrong side of the road. She took us to Gatineau National Park, we walked around amongst the pretty fall trees, and then admired pink lake. Which is not in fact pink, but the most gorgeous shade of turquoise. It was such a nice location, and it was so nice to hang with a local and have her show us around! Oh, I was quite happy. We then had some lunch at the markets, and for lunch desserts, has the Canadian classic - Beavertails. A pasty which is long and beaver tail shaped, funnily enough, and covered in cinnamon, sugar and syrup. It was quite tasty! At this stage it was time for us to head back to the hostel to grab our stuff, and make our way back to the bus station to head on home. I managed to catch up on some homework on the bus. When I got home, Eric invited me to the end of the quidditch team's trifecta of "power hour". This is a concept where you drink 60 shots of beer in 60 minutes. I got ready for this phenomenon and met Eric at the metro to head over to this event (at the quidditch coaches house!! so it was serious game). Various members of the team had been completing the power hour Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night. Naturally by Sunday, the coach wasn't looking too happy, as he was the only one who had properly finished power hour the previous nights. Anyway, I gave it a shot (ha ha) or 38 shots. But stopped there. Beer is too bubbly, and I didn't particularity want to vomit or push myself through the power hour. Only Ben the coach made it through.

Ben on Yasin, Eric and MeMe, Yasin and KarenFocus: me and Eric - for those after a peak ha ha

Monday was proper thanksgiving. (but all the shops were still open, despite it being a very serious public holiday). My day was pretty quiet, and involved doing much needed washing, and much needed homework for the two midterms I have this week. Annabel came home on Monday afternoon, and we went out to dinner and caught up. We went to a really nice Indian restaurant a block from our place. It was really good and they gave us the left overs in two little containers each for our lunches the next day. So sweet!