This was my last stop on the east side of Canada. Quebec City. One of the oldest European cities in North America. Mostly French speaking. The train station in Quebec was located below the city. I climbed the steep roads with my backpack, which luckily had wheels, until I reached the road where my hostel was. HI-Quebec Auberge International de Quebec was a cute renovated building. The staff were friendly and I checked into my room with ease.
I decided to do the hostels free walking tour which first took you to the fortified walls. They were built to protect the citadel and old Quebec City. We walked along part of the wall and down into the cobbled streets. Along the way we passed a sculpture dedicated to the nuns who came to Quebec and educated both French and First Nations girls. Passing through the small streets the tour guide pointed out the oldest restaurant and stopped us at a tree. In the tree you could see the roots were wrapped around a cannon ball. He told us the old stories told that during the war a cannon ball was launched into the tree. The trees strength stopped the ball and it’s roots grew around it with time. We continued round and up to a small hidden garden where a church sat. Back down and under another part of the city walls, this lead you out to parliament with a beautiful fountain outside the front. We followed into a small park by the side of the Chateau Frontenac, the worlds most photogenic hotel. A castle. Through the middle of the building it had a road which tunnels through, connecting one side to the other. This brought us to the main square where the Basilique Cathedrale Norte Dame De Quebec stood. Its bells started to chime. We walked down to the Samuel De Champlain statue and admired the hotel and decking which stretches across the front alongside the St Lawrence river. The last part of the tour we walked back through the main square and to a modern day fountain which was built into the floor and preformed a sequence of water and lights. By the end of the tour I began chatting to one of the girls in the group. Her name was Gabriela.
Gabriela and I headed out later that night. We wandered the old town streets, a singer was busking, we grabbed ice creams, sat and listened for a while (A cute little dog beside us staring at our ice creams). We walked along the decking under the hotel again. It all looked so pretty lit up at night time. The sound of super cars driving around. An old couple dancing and preforming in the street. We stopped to watch them. It was adorable. On the opposite side we noticed a Christmas shop, in June? I was confused at this shop. It was fun to walk in and look at the decorations.
The next day we decided to head out and do a tour of Champlain’s old house which was ruins underneath the decking along the front, made into a museum. We purchased tickets and headed to the little hut which had a door leading down. The museum was lead by a guide who took you through each room, explaining the different artefacts. Once we finished we walked down the steep stairs to the bottom half of the old town which sat by the river. This cute section had the oldest street in Quebec City. Quarter Petit Champlain. We slowly wandered down, grabbed a coffee, ice cream and sat in the court yard. It was a cute, quaint street with cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops. After we headed through the square and found at the end of the buildings a giant mural of Quebec. All the painting on the mural linked back to Quebec’s history past and present. Our final stop was the museum of civilisation which had a expedition on for London. It also had rooms full of illusions, for example you could stand in one room and look like you was falling from a crane if you took a photo. It also had a room where you would walk into pitch black darkness to show you what it’s like to be blind. It was a really interesting interactive museum. After going back and chilling in the hostel for a while we decided to go out for dinner. We went to a small place just outside town.
Gabriela was not like many girls I had met before, she was very forward and told me a lot about her personal life and past, in full details. I was taken back by a lot of things she told me and how open she was about her life and sexuality. She was definitely a free spirit. Didn’t care what others thought. She was planning to leave the next morning however told me how she was using an app called Poparide where she could message people who had put up ads saying they were travelling from one place to another and had room in their car. Basically they are driving that way and you can get a free lift. Kind of like hitch hiking. A guy had responded to her and she decided to jump in his ride when he was leaving that evening. After our dinner we headed back and she grabbed her bags and left. I reflected on our conversations and it really made me think about myself and struggles to open up and how I cared way too much what people thought. The more I thought about how she was, the more it helped me really accept my past relationships and that I didn’t have to give myself such a hard time.
I had a few more days in Quebec, I decided to take a trip to see the Montmorency falls. It was a few minutes from the town. The falls are higher than the Niagara Falls. The pathway lead up to the suspended bridge. You kept walking along until you reached the 487 step staircase down the cliff side brings you to the foot of the falls. In the winter these falls completely freeze over.
In my room I met two girls who had checked in. Erika, from Austin and Prachi, Toronto. We ended up spending the full few days together. We got some food at an amazing Italian restaurant just 5 minutes walk from our hostel. Drank cocktails. I showed them around Quebec, tracing back the steps took by my tour guide for them. It was nice to walk around the city again and I told them as much information as I could remembered. That weekend was a big weekend for Canada. A festival was held in the city for free to celebrate a national holiday. They had live music on stage and finished with fireworks (30 minutes late, we were dying to leave after a full day, but they were worth it) drunk and tired we grabbed some poutine to share. Poutine is fried potato’s with gravy and cheese. It was delicious. It filled a drunk hunger.
Final day. We decided to go to the citadel. It was a Sunday and due to the national holiday there was a few things happening within the citadel walls. The citadel itself is an active military base and forms part of the fortifications. The fort is star shaped. We watched the military march and play its orchestra. The icon goat with golden horns was walked down the path after the brigade marched up the streets and around the courtyard.
Sarah’s Voyage 