Compared to any trip where a flight is necessary, a road trip to Canada is a wonderfully easy way to travel. This was my first real road trip for strictly travel and vacation purposes, and I learned a huge amount about what goes into the planning of such a trip. I traveled with my boyfriend, Fred, and our itinerary included two nights in Montreal, two nights in Quebec City, and a night car camping in Parc National de Frontenac. Montreal was simply fantastic. The city is lively, even on a Monday and Tuesday, public transportation is a breeze, and the people-watching is A-grade. Our first night there we stumbled upon a street festival called Vive Montreal. Along with maybe 5,000 other people we saw The Village People perform on the street for this festival. Yes, we did the YMCA. Amazing!! The following day we took the metro to the Montreal Botanical Garden and got lost for 7 hours. I know this is not technically "in" the city part of Montreal, but I believe it was one of the most amazing things the city has to offer. It was like the Penn State Arboretum times 10. And when I say we got lost for 7 hours I really mean it. It was not until a security guard in a SUV pulled up along side us and told us the park was closed did we even think about leaving. At that point I wondered how the day could get any better, but then we took the Metro back downtown and when we came above ground we were in a trans rights/ gay rights festival street! Imagine that. So we had dinner at an outdoor restaurant then walked the length of the festival which was complete with a rainbow of flags above the street, numerous gay bars/clubs, and more unbelievable people-watching. After walking the length of this street and back we headed more downtown and stumbled across three more festivals including an African beats and culture festival, a game festival (complete with human foosball and street checkers), and the Vive festival that we had seen the previous night. At Vive this night we saw a drag Lady Gaga and her dance troupe perform Lady G hits. The energy was high and we couldn't have been happier to be entertained for free on the streets all night. Quebec City was the same kind of hype... if we had been 45 years older. That's not to say it was not a grand time, it was just quaint and cute as opposed to Montreal's hip and lit. We participated in Rendez-Vous 2017, a gathering of tall ships in the port. We got to board the ships and watch lots of street performances which kept us occupied for most of the day. We also had crepes and Fred enjoyed some poutine. We did lots of walking, street shopping, and marveling at the charm of the city. Our last stop in this road adventure was to Parc National de Frontenac, which was south of Quebec City. We had a car camping plot which came fit with a fire pit and picnic table. We set up the tent, started up the campfire, then headed down to the shore of Grand Lac St. Francois for a swim. The water was warmer than we thought it would be and the lake felt more like a refreshing bath than a recreational swim. Such clean water! We finished off the day with 5 games of Dominion (a relatively nerdy card game that takes at least 45 minutes per game) and roasting hot dogs over our campfire. The park was a tremendously fun and relaxing way to end our road trip/vacation. I use the word "vacation" hesitantly, and would prefer the word "trip" for this particular adventure. Relaxation was intertwined with lots of planning and stress, so when the national park finally came around it was the ultimate relaxation because there was no more planning left to do.
Overall, Canada was a really wonderful and do-able trip. Omitting flights is an awesome way to cut down costs. And to be honest living out of a car for a week was a ton of fun. I got to have McDonalds as like a legit lunch how often does that happen? It was awesome, Canada is a dope place. I leave in a day for Europe, can't wait to see what else is out there. Comments are closed.
|
Archives
February 2024
Categories |