Hostages

So Day 2 of our Quebec adventure. We spent the day with Georgie as well and had our day fairly well planned out, starting with breakfast. Oh OK, checking out came first but yes... breakfast. We found a lovely little place full of breakfasty goodies. Mmmm waffles. I didn't actually have a waffle saying that. Anyway, I forget in what order we did things. I think we may have gone on a postcard hunt and thus perused the nearby shops. I promise it's not all about shops!

We worked our way out of the walled part of the city and almost unexpectedly found ourselves outside the government building, a word I seem to be having problems with spelling in English. Oh dear. You can see the big wreath on the front. Classy. Manchester's idea of Christmas decorations is a gigantic inflatable Father Christmas outside the city hall. Poor in comparison. We couldn't get close to the building. Whether this is because you simply aren't allowed, or because the eager beavers were arriving to start the protest about raising university fees. At first I felt sympathetic to the cause, what with the brouhaha going on in the UK until I actually looked up the proposed changes. They pay c.$2500 per year. The increase is $500. Positively tame compared to the hijacking of English fees from £3200 to £7000+. I'm fairly certain they will still be able to afford an education. It seems these Quebecois don't know how good they have it!

Victoria at the choc. museum

Anyway that was totally off track. I blame the snow. It's gone to my head. From there we searched out the chocolate museum. There was even a free taste of chocolate on offer. It was however, much smaller than expected so after browsing the wares for sale in the shop we set off again. This time our destination was the plains of Abraham. Full of historical contexte and stuff that I have no idea what it is, it appealed to Victoria. We battled our way through the snow, which kept whipping up and seriously must be attracted like a magnet to the eyeball. There was also the problem of walking up a steep hill in the snow as well as avoiding the large piles of snow at the roadside. Crossing the street became a task equal to the hurdles.
However, we made it to the edge of the park before realising that one, it was frette à tabernak and well that there wasn't much to be done in a very snowy park. I made a snow angel and we attempted to make a snowman. It was definitely only an attempt since the snow was too fine. We did find boulders of snow though so we tried piling those up. Georgie then put her scarf on it, decapitating it in the process. It was quite the formless snow man. Whilst Georgie went to warm her cockles inside, Victoria and I tried to find sticks for arms but short of cutting down a tree, it wasn't happening. Instead we had a nosy at the citadelle, just next door. Sadly at this time of year it is no longer open for tourists such as ourselves. We went back to find Georgie. After drying ourselves off and warming up a little, we decided to head back inside the wall fro some lunch and to decide on the afternoon's activities. In our absence the protest had grown a fair bit, with plenty more students still arriving and the police shutting off nearby roads. Apparently they crashed a cabinet meeting. At least they didn't beat up royalty though.

After a little wandering we found a wonderfully quaint little restaurant. We opted for the midday special menu - thinking we were just getting the cheapest main course when in fact, we were treated to a starter, the main course, tea and a pudding. All for the grand total of $15. Bargainous meal!
Sadly with it being a Monday, it scuppered our plans of visiting the things we had missed out on within the walls the day before. We had a nice wander round and looked at a few things, just having a nice ramble after discovering that the Ursuline convent and a church were both closed. We ducked into some more shops to try to finish off the Christmas shopping. In one of these shops I found myself humming along to the music without really being aware what it was. In the end I had to ask the assistant if it was who I thought it was. My suspicions were confirmed when she came back brandishing a Mike Oldfield album. I am too cool for my own good.
From there we decided to hop on the ferry across the river. An artist we had spoken to the day before had suggested doing the trip just for the views. Not bad I have to say. I good view of Chateau Frontenac looming over the city. We didn't get off the ferry, simply staying aboard for the return trip. After a few more ramblings we made our winding way back to the hostel, stopping to pick up some food for dinner. However, once back at the hostel and checking my email, I discovered that our car-sharing trip has been cancelled. We panicked a little and tried to find out the bus times but we wouldn't make it to the station in time for the last one. We had to book ourselves in for another night. It was a quiet evening spent in the dorm, writing postcards, catching up on reading and not doing an awful lot really. We booked another car-share for the morning.
This should have been simple. Get up, go to station, go back to Sherbrooke. It wasn't. We ended up going to the wrong station so we missed our lift. Bad times. If we were waiting for the next bus we'd be there until 6pm, not exactly desirable since it would push up the cost of our trip by a large amount and also, we had work to do for class the next day. We went out on a limb and headed towards the Allostop office, hoping they would be able to hook us up with a lift. They did. This time, the woman gave us full and detailed directions to the correct place for our pick-up. We had a bit of time so we went for lunch. Again the midday menu proved to be a hit, if not quite as good value as the day before. Feeling much relieved to have a way home, we hopped on a bus. Arriving in plenty of time we found a nearby cafe and plonked ourselves there. Free wifi and warmth. Can't go wrong!
Thankfully Quebec did let us leave third time round (they always say that one's the charm) so by early evening we were back at the university having picked up something for dinner.
I hope next time I go to Quebec I manage to leave as and when I want!