Previous – Montreal

Dec 22 – Transit day! We took the metro to the central train station. The train was half an hour late. Between that and all the hassle of lining up and getting bags weighed and tickets checked 3 times, Tharash will never complain about NS again lol. I think probably VIARail is more comparable to the InterCity trains, but again – nobody queues for those like there’s only one door to the train. Can we go to where our traincar will be before it arrives, for greater efficiency? What is a platform for if not for waiting on??? This sounds like a philosophical question but it is not.

Anyway we began seeing more snow towards Ottawa and by the time we arrived I think it was actually snowing a bit. This is what we signed up for, so we were happy to see it. My Uncle M, who we were staying with, picked us up and took us to the house to put down our bags. They had just finished renovating the dining room the day before and only just cleaned up stuff temporarily stored in the spare rooms that morning. And my Aunt B and some other family were in Toronto for a funeral. Busy time! This post is all about my family, sorry haha I have a lot of family in Ottawa.

After we put down our stuff, we went to a Mexican chain called BarBurrito. It was very good; based on previous experiences with burritos in which Tharash got a gigantic burrito and I got a tiny burrito, I got a regular this time and it was pretty big but I managed to finish it. Then we went over a block to pick up my grandpa to visit with us for the rest of the day because my grandma was also at the funeral. Grandpa is getting on in years, but he had some fun stories from when he lived in Europe, like going shopping for a wedding dress for Grandma in the Netherlands and the shopkeep ladies picked her up and stood her on a stool (??? because she was short???).

My cousin also came over, ostensibly to move dining room furniture and to get Christmas decorations out of the basement, but also to drink tea with us and talk about video games. My uncle and my cousin are both super into tea, and so is Tharash, so that was interesting.

Dec 23 – Finally I slept well. The guest bed was very comfortable and I had two proper pillows as is my preference. There was a big bookshelf of manga in my room, but I never read or watched any of them except there were half a dozen volumes of Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun which I did greatly enjoy the anime of. (but it was like volumes 8-13?)

I also noticed when getting ready to go out that I appeared to be missing my grey knit infinity scarf. I am so paranoid about losing things when traveling, but it still happens periodically (AuDHD?). I decided not to be emotionally destroyed by this for this time (which is tough for me).

BUT LUCKILY (note from the future) I had just put in a pocket of my bag that I didn’t check until I left Ottawa again. So I was just uncomfortable with having a cold jaw while I was in Ottawa, not actually down any possessions.

Anyway, my uncle drove us to the train station where we could take the bus that would take us to the metro that would take us to where we could walk to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau. We walked past the Library and Archives, over the Portage Bridge, and took a riverside path to the museum. We saw some tracks along the way, possibly belonging to foxes? We also saw a raven who made noises at us. The ice in this river was also astounding. In fact it seemed that the Rideau Canal was going to be opened for skating early this year – in the next few days, and not like the middle of January – though it didn’t open in time for us to go on it. As soon as we got to the museum the snow started coming down super thick and didn’t stop for the rest of the day.

We spent like 4.5 hours at the museum and besides the time we spent for lunch, we only saw one floor. We spent a little while in the front hall, looking at the totem poles and the West Coast nations houses/artifacts, and then went for lunch at the cafe. Tharash had the vegetarian burger with fries, and I had the tofu falafel bowl (which was really good, the tofu was nice and crispy). I also got a can of local lemon soda, which was not too carbonated, which was really nice – I find most big brand sodas are way too aggressively carbonated. I also bought some maple thumbprint cookies but we didn’t need to eat them so I put them in my purse for later and they got a bit pulverized. I think we finally ate them in Rawdon like a week and a half later.

We went back into the museum and saw the rest of the first floor, which was about the First Nations in the rest of the vast territory that currently falls under the international name of Canada, beginning from the very first comings of humans. It’s quite astonishing that people were living right at the top of Ellesmere Island I think they said 12,000 years ago. I have to wonder what life was like for them, like could they imagine living anywhere else in the world? Life must have been really difficult, did they know that other people in other places lived differently?

We are unfortunately the kind of people who try to read every caption and try to understand the information being given in its wider context, sometimes to the point of not really looking that closely at the actual item on display. I’m sure the museum curators would be delighted by our attention, but also it’s pretty tiring. So we didn’t quite finish the end of the hall even, though I did see some neat modern art towards the end: a ‘star blanket’ made out of motherboards, which was both very cool and quite pretty, and also an Inuit stone carving of a motorcycle.

There were a lot of neat things in the gift shop, though many of them I am sure I could find in my own local museum gift shop. Though there were these little wolf plushies that were soooo soft…

Then we walked back over the Alexandra Bridge, taking pictures of Parliament and the Connaught Building and the Canal and the War Memorial. I know that Parliament is getting its big seismic upgrade and will have a giant hole in the ground in front of it and scaffolding around it for quite some time, but in the twilight with the snow coming down it was still lovely and you didn’t notice the construction quite as much. It’s so very gothic. We took a shortcut from the bridge through a snowy park, Major’s Hill Park, and that was nice too.

Dec 24 – Tharash wanted to go for a walk, so my uncle went with him while I stayed in bed to rest and read my astronaut book – I brought Mike Collins’ autobiography and it’s really interesting and entertaining. He said himself in one of the intros that he gets bored easily (in a different into, from one of the anniversary editions, he says he probably has ADHD though that was never diagnosed back in his generation) so he doesn’t write stuff that would bore himself, and the result is a good book imo. I did miss out on seeing chickadees come right to Tharash’s hands, and then fly away disgruntled that he didn’t have any seeds for them. There were some kids playing hockey in the street like proper Canadians, though, haha.

Also my ankles were really bothering me from my boots, so Tharash gave me some blister band-aids that he’d bought for me years ago – it seems I use at least one every time I see him. I’m going to put some in my own travel kit next time. DX But it was also nice to have a day where I wasn’t wearing my boots very much. Again, they weren’t exactly blistering, but they were definitely chafing and having the pad of the band-aid was very helpful.

In the afternoon we went to spend time with my grandparents, who moved out of their house into an apartment a few years ago; I’d never visited the apartment before so I was curious. Grandma was working on a ‘puzzle Advent calendar’ – 24 mini-puzzles with each a different country theme. Some of them were a bit strange; Belgium got the windmills (wait what?), so what was the Netherlands? Some random Amsterdam canal houses (not even Dam Square or tulips or anything). She had even more stories about Europe, like first meeting Grandpa on a Canadian-military-weekend-leave-trip to Italy. She made a ginger-soy sauce tofu with bok choy and Japanese cucumber salad, and it was really good; Tharash got the recipe. The secret is balsamic vinegar.

Dec 25 – The day of socializing! My two cousins came over to open presents with their parents. We started with stockings, and they had prepared us stockings as well which was very kind and slightly unexpected tbh – especially since they contained an outrageous amount of chocolate. Aunt B is a chocoholic, is the explanation. Together with gifts from my students, I will not be running out of chocolate any time before my birthday at the very least. And my cousin gave us both tins full of homemade cookies – ginger, chocolate, and sugar cookies.

Tharash and I gave each other books, predictably. I gave him the Map Men book This Way Up, which he proceeded to read after he finished reading his first book (Terry Pratchett’s Thief of Time, which then I read after I finished my astronaut book). He already knew most of the stuff in it, but still found it entertaining because… well, it’s Mark and jay. They’re hilarious. He gave me Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything which is pretty funny to me because at the same time that I bought my copy of Mike Collins’ book (my dad originally lent it to me but then I saw it in a used bookstore and went ‘mine‘) I also bought the soft-cover version of Bryson’s book. But Tharash gave me his own copy, since he had read it, and it is hardcover and has a lovely picture of the Earth on it. I finished reading it on the very last day of vacation, so I read three books on this trip – not bad. I would like to keep it up now that I’m back. Goodness knows I have enough books on my shelves I haven’t opened yet (but as they say, buying books and reading books are two different hobbies).

I think there was a bit of a kitchen theme, because one cousin was given an air fryer, the other cousin was given a microwave, and my aunt was given a new cutting board. And more chocolate, cleverly disguised in a headphones package box. Then we had brunch, with French toast and latkes and sausage and bacon. I talked a bit about neurodivergence with my one cousin (who is mentally very much like me, similar interests and so on – physically she has a black belt and will not hesitate to destroy any puny mortals who antagonize her, which is very much the opposite of me lol) – anyway, she went on a bit of medication even before she got diagnosed with anything, which makes me wonder if that could be useful for me – especially as I dig deeper into the idea that I might be specifically AuDHD.

Then we went over to Aunt K’s place, who was hosting the mass family dinner/gathering because she has the biggest house. There I chatted a bit with my third-youngest cousin, who also plays piano (though he’s getting a degree in something else, I forget what) so he tried my arrangement of the 12 Days of Christmas and I tried his arrangement of Auld Lang Syne (which went into 6 flats with double-flat accidentals o_O ). There were a lot of cookies, and a charcuterie board, and mildly alcoholic eggnog. I was worried about having space for dinner. It was very noisy with so many people (19, I think) so Tharash and I retreated to the front living room where most people weren’t for a bit.

At dinner, we were seated near Aunt D and Uncle S, who were very interested in Europe – both their daughters are going to be there this year, and will be at least passing through Amsterdam. But also they were interested in European customs, like the differences between Dutch and Canadian Christmases. There was so much food! I only had a little bit of everything and I was still stuffed. Aunt K very kindly made a lentil shepherd’s pie and non-bacon brussels sprouts so Tharash could continue to be vegetarian. Then there were more cookies and butter tarts and macaroons for dessert.

Dec 26 – I started my day trying to find my scarf by using my phone, and the VIARail lady was super nice. But we were going to go to a different museum, so Aunt B drove us to a bus/metro station… which ended up being closed for construction. But the bus still ran of course, so we just got on one stop later and made it to the Museum of Nature around lunchtime.

The museum had an exhibit on the Tiktaalik, so we went to see that first. The name is an Inuit word, because it was discovered in the Arctic! I did not know that, but I appreciate that it’s mentioned in a Nightwish song. Then behind that was an exhibit on Canadian birds which Tharash greatly enjoyed.

We just had a bit of lunch in the cafe. I got a breakfast sandwich and Tharash had a slice of pizza; I also got a bag of salsa sun chips and Tharash had a blueberry muffin, and we split those.

I got really excited by seeing ‘exhibition space’ on the map of the fourth floor; I was carried away by the giant Earth and Moon spheres in the lobby and thought that it actually said ‘space exhibition’ because I have Special Interests, okay. It turned out (naturally) to be space not currently in use. (What would even go there in a museum about animals? Idk, I guess I just expected ‘science’ stuff. Something about the Canadarm, maybe. I was too excited to think clearly.)

We did go to see the big Canadian fauna exhibit – moose and bears and so on, and then to the aquatic exhibit of both marine and freshwater creatures. This came with a West Coast tidepool, which I figured we knew about from having been to the Sidney Aquarium, but Tharash wanted to listen to the presentation anyway and it was still interesting. The lady put a starfish under a magnifier and showed us its butt. We did not stick around for the touching part of the demonstration, there were a lot of people there and we had touched anemones and urchins at the Sidney Aquarium.

We stopped by the gift shop and I bought a pair of dinosaur socks for my nephew. : )

Uncle S came to pick us up ‘by the mammoths’ which were big statues outside; we were going to have dinner with Aunt D and Uncle S. First we spent some time hanging out in the living room, with nachos and some chai; their two daughters popped in and out but they were each doing dinner elsewhere. We talked a lot about travel again, especially after the one cousin said she and her boyfriend were planning to tour the Heineken brewery while they visited Amsterdam and Tharash said “I think I can recommend a better place than Heineken” lol. He started making a list of interesting things to see and do in and around Amsterdam the very next day, categorized by type.

Dinner was Thai curry, with spring rolls and cucumber salad. Then we bundled up (they lent me a second scarf) and we went to the Christmas market nearby. It’s small but perfectly serviceable as a Christmas market. We got some hot apple cider at a stall. A different stall had a viral gingerbread cider sensation, but we weren’t interested in virality, just something hot to drink. We wandered through looking at things, and then came to the skating rink. Tharash and my uncle decided to try it, while my aunt and I held the drinks and watched the shoes. They rented skates and did laps for about 20 minutes. Tharash got more confident with every lap even though it’s been a while since he last skated. My aunt said it was definitely obvious that he’d skated before. The music was quite loud, it must have been even louder to skate past.

Then we wandered back around the other side of the market. There was live music in the middle, they must have had some powerful heaters going. They were playing Winter Wonderland, which is not a song Tharash is familiar with somehow. Then I saw a stand selling custom engraved shotglasses and bought four lol (Star Wars Rebel Alliance, Empire, Mandalorians, and also the Alien from Alien).

Dec 27 – We were to leave Ottawa that day, but first Tharash wanted to go for another walk in the snow. Uncle M recommended a path, and we saw a few chickadees and squirrels, but they didn’t come close this time.

After lunch of spinach and mushroom omelettes, we got ready to go, and a piece of my rolly bag wheel broke off… but I think that just evened it out? I’d noticed in Victoria and Toronto airports that it didn’t roll smoothly, but I think it was that my wheels had an outer layer that had broken off one wheel but not the other – until now. Now both wheels are broken the same, so it rolls evenly. …But it’s still heckin noisy. Tharash’s bag is a lot quieter.

Then Aunt B drove us to the train station – though I checked my email after we set out and discovered that the first train (coming from Toronto) was hugely delayed so she just drove us to the Ottawa station. The train ended up waiting for those connecting passengers anyway, but first I talked to the ticket agent about my lost scarf… and then sat down, opened my bag, and found my scarf. So I went back to tell them they didn’t have to look anymore. We bought sandwiches at the cafe there to eat on the train, because it was going to arrive late in Québec City – and even more late now.

On the train I finished reading Mike Collins’ book and Tharash finished Thief of Time. We were hungry (a sandwich is not really much for dinner) so when we arrived, we went to a small bar and split a 9″ cheese pizza that came with butter for some reason. Tharash also had a stout and I had a fancy multi-fruit lemonade. Because there is a hotel next door with the same name as the bar, and we had all that luggage with us, the waitress thought we might be looking for the hotel, but no, just food.

We arrived too late at the hostel for anyone to be at reception, but fortunately they sent me an email with codes to get in. …Though the dorm room door was ALWAYS left ajar while we were there, so the code for that was not really needed (which was nice to not need it for going to the bathroom). For valuable belongings they had big plywood lockers, although I blithely popped on my combination lock from undergrad and then later realized that while I had the combo, I didn’t know how to unlock the lock. It took two youtube tutorials to figure it out.

This hostel is where I made my biggest mistake of the trip. I had fond memories of the hostel in Oslo and how nice it was there, and hoped it would be like that. It was not. And furthermore, it’s winter. In Canada. In cold and flu season. More people came in even later than we did, including two guys in the beds directly beside us who were sick with colds (I heard them discussing it in French the next morning; my French is not great but Duolingo at least taught me ‘la grippe’) and they gave it to meeeeee (and no gift receipt) which I didn’t find out for a day and a half >: I

The hostel itself kind of sucked. About the nicest thing about sleeping there was that it was warm; I almost didn’t need the provided blanket. But the mattresses were as hard as bricks, and noisy, they had some kind of plastic covering under the sheet. I made myself my ‘second pillow’ out of my day clothes wrapped in my down vest, and that night someone was playing loud music nearby until like 2 or 3 in the morning. Also snoring. It’s a good thing Québec City is the prettiest city on the trip.

Next – Québec City 1