Well hello faithful followers, an unusual day time post from me but I am actually blogging from a train!! And the amazing thing is the internet connection is faster than mine at home! Well I digress, lets get on with the matter in hand. Now where was I? Oh yes I remember, in bed surrounded by chocolate wrappers....
So, after my squiffiness made me wake at 3.30am I embraced the early morning and sat watching the sunrise whilst blogging. This was the day that I leave the lovely city of Toronto behind and head for French Quebec. With a nice little 10 hour train journey via Montreal! So after watching the day begin and packing my belongings, a quick cheap little brekkie by the lake courtesy of Tim Horton (a coffee chain, not a fella) I bid farewell to my lovely hotel by the lake and headed to Union Station to pick up my ride.
Well as mentioned before, signage in Canada is obviously not a strong point so after much wandering, gawping and staring mindlessly at numbers on the walls I finally found the gate and baggage drop. I checked my bag as the helpful size chart (one sign there was plenty of) assured me that it was no permitted to travel with me on the train. Then I promptly stood in line watching all the other passengers join me with cases of the size that would easily conceal 2 dead bodies, leaving me with a not too irrational fear that my lovely new bag filled with all my worldly goods would not be joining me at my final destination.....
The flavour of the line was distinctly French and I began to wish I knew more than hello, goodbye, 1-10 in numbers and the title of a raunchy French song in Quebec's native tongue. But mange tout, mange tout mon petit filous, life is an adventure after all!
Then we began boarding for the first leg to Montreal. This part takes 5 hours and as I settled into my seat I was joined by the other passengers in my carriage who collectively resembled the casting for a 1970's disaster movie (think Poseidon Adventure and Towering Inferno) Thankfully I was sitting next to one of the crew not the cast and he turned out to be a writer!! Shut up!! Blog plug delivered I turned to look out of the window as the suburbs and industrial sidings were replaced by water to our right and green land to our left. The scenery rolled by, switching from Little House on the Prairie to Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and back again. TRAIN!!! (you may need to google that....)
Then I nodded off. Then I woke up. Then I nommed a packet of cheese and jalapeno Cheetos
that I was distraught to find contained half my daily amount of fat and made my fingers go orange. So to console myself I washed them down with a beer, served by a very polite Canadian steward. We had an interesting exchange of words when I asked for a bagel with my beer. 'Can I have a bagel please' I asked. 'A beagle??' he replied. 'No a bagel' I said 'bagel'. He came back with 'I'm so sorry you have a very difficult accent' (that'll be my English accent then) 'A bagel, BAGEL' I repeated and once again he smiled and politely shook his head until the Canadian writer next to me said 'She wants a bagel' and the steward said 'Oh a bagel, I'm sorry I don't have any' I replied 'It's ok I'll have a beagle instead.....' You had to be there.
Then I slept some more, woke with dribble down my chin and needing a wee. So after clambering over the writer twice to get in and out, here I sit blogging on and covertly watching the film he has on his laptop as we are almost at Montreal.....TTFN
Good morning or should I say Bonjour!! Well here I sit in my room in the Hotel Le Saint Paul in Quebec City ready to explore the delights this beautiful city has to offer. Late rise for me today as I was cream crackered after my little train ride. Talking of that let me finish what I started yesterday.....
As we approached Montreal the writer next to me stopped watching the Will Smith film I was engrossed in and we chatted about this home town as we pulled into the station. We bid farewell and I left the train hoping that my bag would be leaving with me and not on its own little adventure.
Montreal station was slightly easier to navigate than Toronto and I was soon wandering around the concourse marvelling at all the little French eateries and shops selling wares to weary travellers. I resisted the urge to have a MacDonalds (I still had the Beagle after all) and decided to buy something more appropriate for my destination - an umbrella.
Yep, I had apparently managed to plan my trip around a massive storm which is taking Canada, well, by strorm! And far from me travelling away from it, it appeared to be following my around. Hailstones, thunder, lightening, advisory notices for flooding and to wear rain boots. Humidity high, so a steamy 26. Sticky. So armed with my newly purchased pink brolly from a very smiley man who was highly entertained at my impression of an umbrella I waited to join the next train whilst franticly trying to download a French phrase book onto my book reader......
Now I would love to describe the ride from Montreal to Quebec in detail, but I can't. All I can say is I was extremely happy to see my bag already on the train near my seat so I sat down with my faith in the train network restored. The fact is, I slept for the entire trip. Well, not exactly true, there was one episode where I woke myself up with a spectacular nod of the head, a dribble and an unfortunately loud snort, much to the amusement of my fellow travellers.
And as 10pm approached we pulled into Quebec station. As I stepped out into the muggy evening air the beautiful city I had heard so much about lived up to its name. After standing in the taxi queue for 20 mins, I was informed when it came to my turn that my hotel was across the road and left a bit and wouldn't be needing a lift. So off I trundled with map in hand and sure enough the hotel appeared.
And that is where I shall leave it for now, so imagine the Eastenders doof doof music and tune in later for the next instalment...... TTFN!! xxxxx
Brilliant lisa, popxxxxxx
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