It's the final count down :(

After slowing down for a bit, I'm up to full speed again!

Just a quick response to the comments under my last blog:

Noddy: I must have been to honest ;) Nope actually you can ask the mulders...i even mentioned how awesome Armadale is in a play Bec and I did at Kym's wedding!
Maybe he understood that I STILL lived in Armadale when I told him that i used to live there...I mean, that we explain the outcome of his decision!

Aunty Maria: Thankfully Irene didn't do to much damage in New York! The people I stayed with are Trevor and Vanessa Hekkert.

The day after I wrote my last blog (Saturday) Bev and I took the bus to Hamilton.
I wasn't feeling to well, so Bev gave me some gravol. It is mainly for motion sickness, but Bev warned me that some people do get a tad drowsy from it. It knocked me out!!! It was the best!

I'm not sure about this girl...she comes to Holland and takes me to the pub while I should be at school...I come to Winnipeg and she takes me to a casino...and now she is feeding me drugs!!! ;)

We took the greyhound bus from Ottawa to Toronto, which was about a 4 hour bus ride. If I can help it, I will never put a foot on a greyhound bus ever again! You have absolutely no space! However, because I took the wonderful gravol, I slept for about 3 hours! Apparently there were a lot of people talking loud and kids crying, but I didn't hear anything!
When we got to Toronto we planned to take the train to Hamilton (1 hour train ride). The bus driver told us that it was to far to walk to the train station and we should really take a cab. He was willing to take us there, but because it was the funeral of Jack Layton, some of the streets were closed off. Bev and I decided that we could just start walking and see how far we would come. We made it easily to the train station.

The amount of times I have heard: you really can't do that with your backpack!
Well I have proved them wrong every time! I know the back pack is pretty much 60% of my size, I must be tougher then I look!

We got to the station and wow, that station is confusing and chaotic! Anyway, we made it to the train and to Burlington, where Vanessa picked us up and took her to her house in Hamilton.
Bev and I knew Vanessa because she also came to Holland the same time Bev came to Holland.
That night we just chilled and watched a movie.
The next day Bev and I went to church with Vanessa and Trevor (Vanessa's husband).
The rest of the day we just had a great old-fashioned sunday and did absolutely nothing!
The next morning (Monday) it was time to go back to Toronto and sleep there for 2 nights. I really wasn't feeling that well and was tempted to just stay in Hamilton, but I hoped that by being active, I would feel better soon.
Well...I thought wrong. We got to Toronto and because Bev wasn't feeling to crash hot either we took a taxi to our hostel. We had actually booked a hostel way out of downtown (which we only realized when the taxi took 20 minutes to get to our hostel) so that was a bit of a bummer already.
We could check in early and we went for a walk down the street. We found this really cool Italian place and I was able to have about 5 bites of food, before I really needed to go back to the hostel and go to bed.
To keep a long story short...I stayed in the the hostel till Wednesday afternoon.

The owner of the hostel actually lived in the hostel as well and the common area was actually pretty much his living area. It was a bit creepy! There was a tv in the common area that we were allowed to use, but it was clearly the owners tv. The good part is that he was a fan of Law and Order and records all the episodes...so I got to watch that for 2 days!

Bev went back home on Wednesday morning and I could go back to Vanessa's place in the afternoon.
It was soooo great to be able to sleep in a good bed and have a room aaaaaall to yourself!!

On Thursday I had one of the best days ever! Vanessa has all the seasons of Gilmore Girls, so I watched that for like 9 hours straight! In the episodes I watched Rory goes to Washington and New York :D and in one of the episodes they go to martha's vinyard...I thought this was just a made up place untill I got to Boston airport yesterday and there was a flight to Martha's vinyard!!! There you go..Gilmore girls is not only the funniest tv series EVER....it's even educational!

On friday I was feeling a bit better so Vanessa took me to her work in the morning so I could get my glasses adjusted. They are soooo comfortable now...I even WANT to wear them!
After that I walked to the train station and went to Toronto for the day. I went back to Hamilton in the afternoon and at night Vanessa and Trever took me along to someones birthday party.
On Saturday I didn't do much besides going to some stores with Vanessa.
On Sunday I went to Hamilton church again.
Monday was a public holiday and Vanessa and Trevor had a family thing to go to. Vanessa dropped me off in Niagara falls in the morning.
I spend the day walking around in Niagara Falls, seeing movies about the falls, going up a tower, doing some shopping and going on the Maid of the Mist. It was really nice to see the falls and it was cool to take photo's, but to be honest, I think it is a tiny bit over rated. I mean the falls are great, but everything around it felt a bit tacky. However I am glad I have seen it.

On tuesday I took the train from Niagara Falls to Buffalo (USA). I got on the train, the train went over a bridge and I was in the states! We had to wait (and stay on the train) for 2 hours to get clearance from customs. The custom officers weren't actually to bad! I thought it was interesting that they just asked a few question...they didn't check any bags and they didn't have dogs or anything.....so next time........

After we kept going it was only a 45 minute ride to buffalo. I got off the train and had a bit of a culture shock.......Everything looked so dodgy! I went outside the station to look for a taxi, but I couldn't find any. Just as I went back inside a taxi rocked up because someone else needed one as well. I told the taxi driver that I needed one as well and he said someone would be there soon. I thought he meant that if I would phone them they would be there soon. So I went back inside and tried to use the pay phone. I really hope I'm never going to be stuck somewhere where I can only use a pay phone. I have no idea how to use those things!!!! As i was struggling with the stupid phone, all of a sudden a guy comes up to me and asks me: You rang for a cab? I was rather confused and said: Well I'm trying to, but it's not working. He just gave me a confused look. So now we were both confused! Seeing the rest of the station was pretty forsaken, it was obvious that I was the only person that still needed a taxi. When I was in the taxi, the driver explained to me that the other driver had called him on the radio....Ooooh, now I get it! If he wouldn't have done that, I would still be standing in buffalo trying to figure out how to use this phone!!
The cab driver was so funny! He heard that I came from Australia and he asked me all about the kangaroos. He had this big story about how in Australia the kangaroos must just jump right on top of cars etc. He was so into his whole theory that I just let him believe it....He is never going to get to Australia anyway...so he won't know any better :)

I got to the Buffalo airport and had to wait for about 5 hours. I could already check in a go through security. Let me tell you...buffalo is not the most exciting airport to be at....they have 2 shops and a food court with 3 take away places! At least it gave me a good opportunity to finish reading sense and sensibility.
When I thought that my waiting time had finally come to an end, they announced that my flight was delayed for another 2 hours! So instead of leaving at 6pm we left at 8 pm. I flew to Boston and thankfully the flight from Boston to Washington was delayed as well.
I got into Washington at 11.30pm and took a cab to the hostel. I have to say, I love cabdrivers! You can have the most interesting conversations with them! And seeing you are only in the car for 15 minutes, you can say pretty much anything!

Anyway, I would like to thank everyone for their comments and emails :)
It's always good to know that your not forgotten even when you're on the other side of the world!

I don't think I am able to upload any pictures. You might just have to wait untill i'm back in Australia.

Montreal and Ottawa

Our friend we found in the insectarium

Our first full day in Montreal. We had a bit of a slow start, cause I managed to sleep in with 9 other people around me! So there is an advantage of having a lot of siblings! :D

When I was finally ready to hit the road we walked to the Notre Dam first....wow! I could happily stayed there the rest of the day! It is just AMAZING! I'm not even gonna try to describe it.....It's just to beautiful for words!
After we had looked around for a bit and listened to one of the tour guards (who clearly wasn't a christian and was rather annoying and rude at times) we walked to the river and had a quick lunch.
After lunch Bev went on some sort of rodeo boat on the river and I went on a guided walking tour around the city. It was interesting to find out more about the history of Montreal. It's a very 'different' city. A lot of old buildings, but more just grey and boring then interesting. Apparently 20 years ago old town Montreal was abandoned and the city counsel actually wanted to throw all the buildings down and build new ones. They didn't do this and started restoring the old buildings. This is still happening today. So there are about 3 really nice streets in 'old town' and the rest still need a lot of work. It is also interesting to see how the French and the British wanted to build the nicest buildings and competed against each other.

At night we went back to Notre Dam to watch a light and sound show. Which was pretty cool!

The next morning we went to the St Joseph Cathedral. It is really big and from the outside it looks really impressive, but the inside is not all that breath taking.
In the afternoon we went to the Olympic park. It was a bit different then I expected, but still cool. There are different section, 1 of them is a man-made dome that has 4 different eco systems inside them. So this includes plants and animals. Another section was a insectarium, full of dead and alive bugs. The third section we went to were botanical gardens. By that time our feet were pretty sore, so we only saw the chinese, japanese and first nations gardens.

The day after that it was time to go to Ottawa! We took the train in the morning and got to Ottawa around lunch time. We dropped our bags of at the hostel and after a big late lunch we went SHOPPING!!!! That was one thing I hadn't really done yet on my trip!!
At night we went to a light and sound show at the parliaments house. It was pretty cool! It kind of shows the history of Canada...it was really well done!

This morning we had another slow start, cause I tried to get the rest of my trip organised. That still hasn't really happened yet, but I'm working on it.
When we did get started we went on a river tour by boat. Ottawa really is quiet a nice city!
After the tour we went to the parliament house and had a few tours.

Tomorrow we will be off to Hamilton to spend 2 nights with Bev's friend (she also came to Holland when Bev came to Holland) After that we will spend 2 nights in Toronto. Bev will then go home and I'll spend a night at Niagara Falls....not sure what's happening after that.

I better go and put some moisturizer on my skin...seeing it's rather red after spending more then an hour on the water in the sun!

St Joseph Cathedral

THE Notre-Dam Cathedral

Yum-Yum

Parlement house at night

Chinese gardens in Montreal

Bev stuck in the middle of the road!

Bev and I on the tour cruize

Parliament house Ottawa

House of the Prime-Minister (I think I might go for that job)

Parliament house

Bonjour Qubec

I LOOOOOOOOVE Quebec!

It's even better then I thought it would be!

I'll try and give a short update. I left my travel journal in my bedroom and I can't get it cause someone else will take over the computer. So I'll try and remember what we all did!

On Thursday morning Bev and I left Winnipeg. We flew to Toronto, waited there for a few hours and flew to Quebec.

When we arrived in Quebec we decided to go to our hostel in real backpackers style and take the....taxi :S They don't even have busses going from the airport to the city! This is according to the person at the info desk anyway.

So we hopped in a taxi and the Quebec adventure began!

Our taxi driver didn't really speak any english. A lot of people have told me that many people in quebec don't speak english, but it is still so wierd to be in Canada and hear and read french everywhere around you! I should have paid attention in my french classes!!

We got to the hostel alright and after we dropped off our bags we decided to go for a walk. Our hostel was right in old quebec, so that was great!!! After about 5 minutes it started pouring down with rain! It was about dinner time so we went into one of the MANY restaurants and had dinner. On the way back to our hostel we went past a cute grocery store and did some shopping.

Before we went to bed we just popped into the bar that the hostel runs and we met some interesting people. We talked to 2 english, 1 German and 1 Dutch! person. They told us to make sure we would go to cirque du soleil.

On friday we rented 2 bikes and biked out to Montmorecy falls. It was about a 45 minutes bike ride. The falls were quite amazing, apparently they are higher then Niagara falls, but I will be able to confirm that in 1,5 weeks. We climbed all the stairs and went on a board walk over the falls. It was very nice! After we climbed down the stairs again we rode our bikes back to town.

When we got back to the old town, we walked around for a bit more. There is just soooo much to see! We went into the Basilica-Chathedral Notre-Dame and had a look around. After that we went back to the hostel and we were so tired that we slept from 4pm till 6pm.

After our amazing mac and cheese dinner we went together with our korean room mate to a show of cirque du soleil! It was amazing!

It was pretty much just an open space under a bridge, so when we first got there we thought: this is it? but just wait till the show starts...... :D

It was about 10 when the show finished and after that it was bed time for us. No party life in quebec....the only way to survive all the hills and stairs is to get a lot of sleep!

Then it was saturday. We first went to the citadel. This is a fort that the Canadians built a while ago because they were scared the Americans were going to attack again. We watched the changing of the guards which is always interesting to see. After that we had a tour around the whole complex.

Afterwards Bev wasn't feeling to well, so she went back to the hostel and I checked out the cathedral of the Holy Trinity. When I got there a guy from the churched asked me if I was interested in an english bell ringing demonstration. Sure! I wish I had known that I had to stand on my extremely sore feet for another hour! The guy that did the demonstration was an australian and he was very excited to meet another australian. Through out the demonstration (in front of 10 other people) he kept asking me things about the australian history. He was a bit disappointment that my knowledge about english bell ringing in australia was not that great!

After the demonstration I made it back to the hostel. Once I sat down for a few minutes and had time to read my lonely planet I realized that it would be interesting to see the parliament house....so off we went again! We also went for a walk in battlefield park. This is where the english and the french fought....a while ago.

We had an amazing dinner somewhere and after we went to a place where I wanted to go ever since we arrived in quebec....the waffle place!...we went to bed...at 8.30! I know...it's getting a bit sad.

But at least we were kind of well rested for the sunday! I had send the pastor of a church here in quebec an email already to tell him we were coming. He had given us some directions so it was pretty easy to take the bus to church. However when we rocked up at church it was an anglican church building.....huh?!

The doors were open, but we couldn't find anyone! We walked up and down the streets for a bit, but couldn't find anything else. After a while some people rocked up and yes, we were at the right building!

The pastor was nice enough to type out some notes for us in english, so we had an idea what the sermon was about.

After a very interesting french service we met some very nice people!

Jonothan and Cindy invited us over for lunch. Jonothan is from Holland and his father is a pastor in....Vroomshoop! Of ALL places! Jo, a guy from america who has lived in quebec for 4 years, also came over for lunch. It was the best lunch ever, cause I got the eat hagelslag! :D

After we played a few games it was time to leave and join the pastor and his family for dinner. Also they have dutch connection, which is pretty obvious if you look at the blond hair and blue eyes of their children! After dinner it was time to go back to the hostel again.

We were invited to bible study at night but seeing it was going to be all in french, there wasn't really much point!

Jo came over to the hostel and we introduced him to phase 10. We finally had a later night for once!

This morning it was time to say goodbye to quebec and take the train to montreal! It was a bit said to leave such an amazing city. I think it is best to actually finish your trip in quebec, cause after that city, nothing is going to look just as great!

This afternoon we spend some time in the science centre and I went on a boat tour on the river.

We have another 2 days in Montreal and it's going to be crazy!

It is pretty intense trying to see as much as possible in 3 or 4 days, but I'm loving every minute of it!

Still don't understand why the queen would give the army a goat!

Dinner a la backpacker!

Cute restaurant in quebec

Trying to stay dry (didn't work)

At the falls

Waffles!!!

Specially for you Justin...I tried it and took 1 year of my life!!! SOOOO unhealthy!

Jonathan, Daniel, Cindy and Jo. This is where we had lunch on sunday.

Church building where we had the frensh service on sunday

Goodbye Alberta, Hello Manitoba

Calgary (on my way to Winnipeg)

Everything is so square..reminds me of holland



Out for dinner in Winnipeg







At the mint

At the science centre

Taking a shot (hit 1 out of 4)

Sienna and I

Oma Mulder taking a shot...hit first shot....don't mess with her!

Kayson on the way to the airport

Not wanting to give me a hug

I just finished talking to my mum on skype and she told me that she couldn't leave a comment on my blog. I have changed some settings and now it should be easy to leave a comment.

Last sunday was my last day in Neerlandia/Barrhead. After church we went to Michelle's parents house. It was nice to be able to spend time together after the wedding. In stead of worrying about what needed to be done, we could look back on a great day!
After the second service we all went to Justin mum's house where I said goodbye to part of the family. We went to Trevor and Michelle's house for dinner....AGAIN!! And did some shooting....great activity for sunday evening :D
Kym and Justin dropped me back off at the place i was staying at and I had to say goodbye to them :(
I had such an amazing week!!!!

Monday morning Bec, Kayson, Jess and Michael picked me up to take me to the airport.
After saying goodbye to them, I hopped on the plane to Calgary. That flight was only 45 minutes long! This means that between the closing of the doors in Edmonton till walking out of the plane in Calgary there are 45 minutes! Amazing!
When I got to Calgary I made sure that my bag was being transfered.
Then I flew for 2 hours from Calgary to Winnipeg. When I arrived Bev was there to pick me up. It was great to see her again after 4,5 years!
After dinner we went to the casino (when Bev was in holland she took me to the pub while i had to be a school....and now the casino!!!) and she showed me some awesome decorations! I have a crazy amount of coins, because I don't dare to use them here. It always takes me 5 minutes before I can see what kind of coin it is!
Because I have so many coins I wanted to use the machines just for the fun of it, but you had to buy a card for at least 5 dollars to play and I couldn't be bothered doing that....so that was a pity.
Bev also took me to the 'can't think of the name!!!' but it's a shop where everything is in bulk. It's mainly nuts and lollies....YUM :)
She was also nice enough to buy my some pop rocks! wow...they do pop! They are lollies that when you put them in your mouth and they get wet they start popping. But they pop so much that when you open your mouth to talk...they actually jump out of your mouth!!
We also went to see the movie 'the smurfs'! So for the rest of our trip we will be humming their song!!

On tuesday we didn't do much. I was still rather tired from last week so I slept till 10.30, which was great! We played a bit of guitar hero on the wii :D and at 3pm we went and visit rev and mrs Poppe. Seeing I was in Winnipeg anyway. It was great to catch up with them!

We went out for dinner to a new restaurant on a bridge. Krista's sister Michelle joined us. It was great to meet here, because I will also see her in Australia at Krista's wedding! We went out for dinner with 7 people and 2 of the girls has also come to Holland 4,5 years ago, so it was good to see them again!

This moring we went to the mint. It was quit interesting to go. They produce not only canadian coins, but coins for about 60 countries world wide, including australia!

After we finished there we went to the museum of Manitoba and the science centre. The museum was pretty interesting, but they had HEAPS of different things and it was a bit overwhelming. We spend about 4 hours in the museum and that was without reading hardly anything! So that was a bit of a disapointment....she science cente however.......!!! It is basicly for kids....so I felt right at home!

Winnipeg overall is kind if 'interesting'. I haven't spend much time in the downtown area, but what I have seen of it doesn't really blow my socks right off. Everything seems to be pretty old and there is not a lot of green. And there is no real character. But to be fair....i've only been here 2 full days and we have done a lot of things inside, so I could be completely wrong!

It is however good to spend time with Bev and her family!

Tomorrow Bev and I are flying of to quebec...I can't wait!
We have even organized a church for sunday already! We will be going to one of the churches there, but we thought we might have to warn the minister that we don't understand a word of frensh! He told us he would make english notes, so that's nice of him and he will organize something that we can go somewhere for lunch! It will be fun to experience a frensh service and to meet some new people!

So that's all for now....I'll try to upload some photos again, re-pack my bag and go off to bed!

Cya later!

Annette

Wedding photo's