Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Study Week Trip

Saturday morning we left to Monteal by rideshare and got there in the afternoon. Unfortunately, we had to wait for and hour until the stupid guy from the reception came back so there wasn't much time left to do sightseeing so we just got ready to go out. We were all kinda spread out through the city because some were staying with friends and the rest was staying at different hostels. Sasha, Natasha and me went to Xela and Tone's hostel (I'm just gonna mention the names now; just pretend you know them ;) ) to stay there for a while and later we wanted to go to a bar/ club but we didn't really end up anywhere nice and Natasha and me hat to walk for almost an hour to get back to the hostel :(
The next morning Sasha, Natasha and me went to the Notre Dame of Montreal and later met up with Cristian and Rodrigo (both from Chile) and their friends. We had all you can eat buffet in Chinatown and then went down to the old port and strolled through the latin quartier. There's lots of really nice houses - I liked that a lot :) Towards the evening we 'climbed' up Mont Royal from where you have an amazing view of the city. By the time we got up there it was already dark so we had a great view of Montreal with all its lights! It was Cristian's birthday the next day so we got together in the evening and made Wraps and celebrated a bit.

Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal
View Port/ Old Port
View from Mont Royal at night





 The next morning the whole road trip group met up to get into the cars and discover the magnificent country of Canada ;) We started heading to our first stop: Rivière-du-Loup. We only stopped for short lunch and bathroom breaks and got to the hostel in the early evening. We had one room booked there and a few couchsurfing places. We all stayed at the hostel for dinner and a nice night in with some drinks for Cristian's birthday before heading to Bic National Park the next morning. We hiked for around 3 hours before we reached 'Pic Champlain' where we enjoyed a breathtaking view on the park and the St. Lawrence River. After having lunch there we walked back to the cars and drove down to the water to watch the beautiful sunset. We all had couchsurfing places for that night so we split into a few groups to go to our hosts. I stayed at one place with Solenne, Cristian and Rodrigo and it was quite fun. We stayed at a student's apartment with 3 students who all study Oceanography. We all had Poutine together for dinner and went to bed quite early.

View from 'Pic Champlain' (Bic National Park)
View from 'Pic Champlain'

Let's try to get everyone on the picture :)

Sunset down by the water

beautiful sunset



 The next morning we all got together again to take a walk by the river in Rimouski (that's the city we were staying at that night). I just LOVE LOVE LOVE that river! The weather was great and the beautiful view ...ahhh :D  We left Rimouski to go to Matane where we had the next hostel booked. On the way there we stopped at Point-au-père where there's a nice lighthouse and a submarine 'memorial'. That place was a major trade point during WWII and lots of German submarines came there. I need to do some more research on that to clarify some facts ;)
We also stopped at 'Jardins de Metis' which are supposed to be amazing during spring/ summer. Most of the leaves and flowers were gone already since it's getting close to winter so we didn't stay that long. We kept driving until we reached Matane where we went to "La Fabrique" for dinner. Most of us were craving some fish so we had fish & chips and salmon burgers. We all stayed at a very nice hostel in a even smaller town just outside of Matane.

St. Lawrence River at Rimouski

Walk through Rimouski

Point-au-Père

Lighthouse at Point-au-Père





The Hostel in Matane
  The next morning we drove to Gaspésie National Park. We did a little bit of hiking there again, enjoyed yet another sandwich lunch with an amazing view before heading aaaaaall the way back to Quebec City where we stayed for two nights with lots of partying. We had a really great time and got to see a lot of Canada's beautiful nature!!!! Thanks to everyone for this awesome trip!

Gaspésie National Park
Gaspésie National Park
Quebec City

We saw Caribous!! Looks like a horse but it's not! :D
Ottawa - Montreal - Rivière du Loup - Matane - Gaspésie National Park - Quebec City - Ottawa

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