the world through my eyes…

Beat, is a very friendly guy from Switzerland (thankfully), so driving to Ottawa with him was a lot of fun. His English is quite impressive and the 7hrs of driving from Niagara Falls seemed to fly by. Upon arrival in Ottawa our first goal was to find the B&B he was staying at and then we’d look for the HI Ottawa Jail, where I would be sleeping.  Luckily they were about a 10 min walk from each other.  After dropping his rental car off, we walked to the HI Ottawa Jail, where I was staying.

Thankfully, I work for Hostelling International, as my room was free! The hostel in Ottawa use to be the jail until 1973 and is the site of the last public hanging in Canada.  They’ve kept it pretty true to form.  The halls are very cold, white and institutional.  Each room is an actual jail cell complete with heavy iron doors.   The room itself, however, was fairly roomy.  I must admit that I wasn’t too keen about taking the Crime and Punishment Tour.  After we took a few pictures, Beat and I headed for the Byward Market.

I immediately feel in love with this area of Ottawa.  Lots of fruit and veg farmers, cool shops, great places to eat and lively Irish and Scottish pubs.   Our craving for fish and seafood won out as we settled into our seats at The Fish Market.  The food was excellent and the free Salmon Pate appetizer was fabulous.  Afterwards we just roamed the market streets and tried out a couple pubs.

After a pretty restful night at the jail (oh how I was teased about this), we met Tuesday morning in the lobby.  Beat had planned out our entire day.  Although its not something I would normally do, it was a lot of fun.  I did things that I never would have done otherwise and to top it off I had a quirky Swiss guy to do them with!

The morning consisted of a walk to Parliament Hill to watch the changing of the guard.  Although it was interesting to watch, it was way too long! After 20 mins we just looked at each other and agreed to go elsewhere (I feel so unpatriotic saying that!).  Instead we did an impromptu walk through Parliament building, including walking down some hallway until we were stopped and asked to go back because we weren’t a part of a tour group.  However we did go to the top of the Peace Tower for free, which had beautiful views of both Ottawa and Gatineau, Quebec.

Leaving Parliament behind we walked along the Rideau Canal to the National Gallery of Canada.  Beat wanted to see the 1930’s collection, which I gladly agreed to.   The Dali paintings we fantastic and I was more than thrilled to view work by some of my favourite artists, including: Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Van Gough, Picaso, Jackson Pollack, Klimt and so on.

After lunch at the pub we took a boat tour along the Rideau Canal.  It was a beautiful day for it.  I kept chuckling though as there were several times when I would look over to see Beat sleeping beside me.  However after tramping around the Byward Market and a fabulous dinner at an Italian restaurant it was my turn to feel tired and draggy.  I tried hard to stay lively as we visited the pubs from the night before, but by 10pm we were back at the B&B and I was getting ready to take the Greyhound bus back to Niagara Falls.

I LOVED my 2 days off in Ottawa.  Last minute trips are always the best ones!

Last nights event was a group to Nightmares Haunted House followed by the Wild Mushroom.  I’ve seen pictures of people that have gone through Nightmares and really had no desire to go.  However, I was doing the group last night, so that meant that I HAD to go in. There were 10 of us all together, 4 of the them had gone out with me the night before to watch the fireworks, so we were more friendly with each other this time around.

I had to convince one of the girls to go, and she kept saying how scared she was to go and that she would probably chicken out.  The 3 guys from France came as well, so I thought it would be a fun idea to put her with them, as I had a feeling they would make it more fun for her.  Yeah…. I wasn’t wrong at all! haha  I went in with the first group and in no time the Pierre (who was in the front) kept stoping… “No, I don’t want to be in the front, you go first!”  We had to push them all the way through!

It wasn’t a gory thing, it was a case of not knowing what was going to happen and where.  However, so as to not ruin the experience for anyone who may come to Niagara Falls, I’m going to stop there.  Needless to say there was a lot of screaming, which is played over the PA system in the store below as you walk through.  I was told I was screaming the loudest, which I would believe as my ribs were a tad sore when the whole thing was over.

Afterwards we went next door to the Wild Mushroom.  A very lively night, everyone mingled, drank and had a good time.  I was proud to see my little french boys open up and have fun, as they were so withdrawn the night before.  Those boys are hilarious!  They bought 1 pint of Guinness to share amongst the 3 of them, took a sip and didn’t like it, but that didn’t stop them.  They continued to buy 1 at a time and share it.  It was too funny for words.  8 pints later there was a lot of dancing going on!

Hidden just off Victoria and Bridge St., is a fabulous Italian fruit and vegetable market called LoCoCo's.  Surprisingly enough, this market has been in business in Niagara since 1906!  They sell all kinds of super fresh fruits and vegetables in ... [Continue reading this entry]

I have never wanted it to rain so badly in all my life.  The heat today mixed with the humidity is intense.  I feel as though I've sweated of 10lbs already.  However, this is Niagara in the summer time, so ... [Continue reading this entry]

This morning was spent getting the housekeeping routine down, as I'm covering for the regular girl.  This is the deal, I cover her days off and I don't have to pay to stay at ... [Continue reading this entry]

So last night was my first night in Niagara Falls.  Michelle wanted to go to the bar, so I said why not.  Apparently she was in charge of the hostel tour, which meant taking guests with us.  As we left the ... [Continue reading this entry]

I can’t help but wonder when reality will kick in and I’ll realize that I’m gone for the next 10- 12 mths.  It still doesn’t feel real to me.  Even saying goodbye to ... [Continue reading this entry]