Au revoir, Québec City - thanks for the intriguing insight into the French version of Canada...Let's just say, I'm sorta glad that England kicked France's ass when it came to the colonization of this beautiful country. No hard feelings ; ) But we were a little stunned that while the rest of the country is making a real effort to be bilingual - the people of Québec kinda outright refused to speak English. That is even if they earned their living in the tourism industry. One museum we went to had all descriptions in French and you almost think to yourself - they really couldn't care less if you are a paying customer - as long as you don't speak the language you don't really deserve to get to know their history either...So what can one do to survive a visit to Québec? Well, you find yourself some friends that are fluent in French ; ) Problem solved! So yeah, again we got to know quite a few funky people. It started with Homi from Mumbai who was so much into Sascha that he didn't only force his business card onto him - but also demanded Sascha's contact details. Unable to cope with the mounting pressure, Sascha gave out a fake email address - I reckon that's an obvious sign that he has spent too much time with a girl by now... But we formed more mutual bonds with other people - the highlight being two really sweet American girls from Philadelphia and a group of French exchange students. The last evening in Québec was by far the best - we went to see the Cirque du Soleil with all of them, plus one Canadian and an Iranian. It was such a fun group! We went clubbing after that and on our way back to the hostel we actually happened to walk into three of the artists from the Cirque du Soleil- super random and outright hilarious. I guess Québec is only that big - but still, I am loving all these weird coincidences during our trip. Apart from all those people that made our stay really enjoyable despite the language barrier, our personal highlights included the Moulin Images - a movie about the history of Québec that is projected onto gigantic walls - plus the really lovely food we've had...pure bliss!!! A famous speciality is Poutine - hand-cut french fries topped with gravy and melted cheese - do I need to say more?! We also enjoyed cycling around the beautiful historic city centre with its new and awesome bike lanes and the free open air pool near the St. Lawrence River. We weren't too impressed with the suggested ferry ride over to Lévis - there's really not much to see - and our trip to Wendake. It's supposed to be a traditional and almost undisturbed village inhabited by Indians that continue to follow their old traditions...but really - it's a charmless place with a few cheeky (border-line pathetic) Canadians dressed up as Indians, trying to squeeze a few bucks out of tourists that are stupid enough to go there (aka us). After realizing that and the fact that our shuttle bus wouldn't pick us up for the next 4 hours, Sascha and I decided to have beer and pizza for breakfast, determined to make this visit as much fun as possible. And sure enough we did - but nonetheless it felt a little sad that this is all that seems to be left of the first Nation...All in all, we very much enjoyed our visit to Québec City - I loved spending one entire evening in front of the TV - so simple but you never get to do that when you are at home - so it felt like a proper week on holiday for me : )
A train ride later and we find ourselves in Montréal...but more of that soon!