Bonjour Canada! - Solo travels (Day 1)

Bonjour!

This and the following posts will be about my first trip to Canada, which is also my first solo travelling experience! I'm really excited about it, and feeling rather depressed when i'm back as i had to come back when i've just started to getting used to the place, the weather and the people there.

The purpose of my trip was to attend a conference held in Gatineau, a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is situated on the northern bank of the Ottawa river, and immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Ottawa is the capital city of Canada, the fourth biggest metropolitan cities in Canada, and is one of the most beautiful G8 capitals in the world.

I wouldn't dwell much on the details of the conference, for the purpose of this blog is to note down the "fun" part of my travels. We stayed at Four Points by Sheraton, situated in Gatineau and 5 mins' walk away from the banks of the Ottawa River. I've explored mainly Ottawa during this trip, and spent a day in Montreal.

Our flight was on 26th Oct, Sunday 10:55 pm. It's a 13 hours' night flight, and we would be taking British Airways to London, Heathrow Airport, and then taking Air Canada to Ottawa Airport. It's the first time that im taking such a long flight, and i was rather apprehensive that i would feel stiff and sore, and lethargic due to lack of sleep after the flight. Amazingly, i was able to fall asleep, after watching "The Happening" and "Indiana Jones" on the plane (both were pretty boring, esp "The Happening" was yuck). We reached London, Heathrow Airport at 4:50 am, London time.

Netx was an excruciating 8 hrs' wait for our connecting flight, which departs at 1 pm. As we felt rather tired after just taking a 13 hrs' long flight, we didn't want to venture out of the airport. Furthermore, it seems a bad idea to step out into 8 degree celsius' weather with no suitable winter wear on hand!

At last, it's time for our connecting flight, which brought us to Ottawa Airport at 4:35 pm in the afternoon, Ottawa time. I had a good time watching "Sex and the City", "Pushing Daisies" and re-watched part of "Interview with the Vampire" (still love Louis very much, hehe) on the plane.

A blast of cold wind greeted us as the doors of the main entrance opened as we stepped out to catch a taxi. Maple trees can be seen right outside!

It was not difficult to catch a taxi, as there was already a queue waiting outside the airport. It was already getting rather dark by the time we left the airport and on our way to our hotel. This is partly due to this being close to the end of autumn, and the beginning of the onset of cold winter.

We reached our hotel at 6 plus in the evening. The taxi fare cost us over CAD$30, about S$37. Good thing that we have transport claims for this trip! We settled into our individual hotel rooms, and i was pleasantly surprised that my room is rather big, with 2 beds, refrigerator, TV set, workdesk, coffee-maker etc. There's also free internet access in the room, which allowed me to surf the net and chat with my friends at night when im bored at night. The time difference between Ottawa and S'pore is 12 hrs, which meant that it was 8 plus in the morning on Tues in S'pore, when i logged on at 8 plus on Mon night when i arrived in Ottawa.

As it was already rather late by the time i was settled in (almost 8 pm), i did not venture out too far, and instead asked for directions to the nearest convenience store to stock up on mineral water and some snacks. The area around my hotel was rather dark and quiet at night, so i was kinda apprenhensive when i first stepped out on foot on my own to the store (later i realize that it is rather normal for the place to be so quiet, and i wasnt so worried after that. in fact i felt safe enough to walk around by myself).

It was about 3 degree celsius outside, and it was really comforting to step into the warmth of the store after walking 10 mins in such cold weather. It was a pleasant surprise to see a Chinese couple manning the store. They were rather friendly, and we had a good chat. They told me that they're from China, and emigrated to Canada about 5 years ago. I thought it was rather brave of them to decide to emigrate to a foreign land where they had no relatives or friends to rely on in times of need, but they were rather optimistic about it. They were rather surprised when i told them im a Singaporean Chinese, as they initially thought i was a Korean before i spoke to them in Chinese. Haha!

After making my purchases, i made my way back to the hotel, and after watching drama serials like Heroes III on TV, i went to sleep at 10:45 pm.