Friday, January 5^th, 2001

At 1:05pm I enter the airporter, the shuttle bus that connect Waterloo to the world. I'm carrying my backpack with my snowshoes tied up to it. The bus brings me to the Toronto airport where I meet Sabine who is coming back from western Canada today. I meet her as planned at the gate from where we get picked up by Paul, a student fellow of Sabine who is working on his PhD in Germany and is back to Canada for Christmas time staying at his family's place. That's where we going to spent the first evening of this weekend. We are welcomed very warmly and are invited for a delicious dinner. We have some good talks with Paul's parents, his brother and friends of his family who are on a visit, too. Beside we are invited to stay for night as well.

Saturday, January 6^th, 2001

After a short, tasty breakfast we get started early in the morning, heading for Ottawa where Paul as well as Sabine and I are going to visit friends. It's a short drive and in the early afternoon we park the car at the international youth hostel from where we start a walk through the city.

Not far away we hit the Rideau Canal, where we try a beavertail.

We continue our walk passing the Rideau locks, walking around the parliaments hill.

We pass the parliament and have a look into Chateau Laurier which belongs to the chain of luxury hotels which were built by the railroad companies at the beginning of the 20^th century.

Searching for a good place for a lookout we walk through the entire building, but it isn't high enough to get a good view. Following we stroll through the nearby shopping mall and the bar and pub quarter named Byward Market.

In an Irish pub called Heart & Crown, we get some inexpensive food and warm up for a while before we head back to the hostel.

We are invited for a Indian dinner at Jeff's and Anu's house. They invited some more friends and so we have a very interesting evening with good talks, the first time Sabine and I only have Canadians to talk to. We hear from journeys and travels to India, some amusing gossip about outdated Indian customs and about ignorant US Americans - shortly - we have a real good time. Paul stays a t Jeff's and Anu's place while Sabine and I are spontaneously invited to Erik's and Holly's place. When they heard that - apart from a stay at the youth hostel - we don't have a place to sleep yet they offered their living to us. Holly and especially Erik are two very kind "squeer fish" - pleasant and uncomplicated. As the dinner is over Sabine and I are packed into their car. Unfortunately Holly is tortured by a migraine, but Erik shows us the apartment and introduces us to African music that he likes very much. As an option - he tells us - there is a beach party going on and a friend of him wouldn't mind if he brings us along. He gets some funny costumes and so we get dressed properly ;-))

As we arrive in the yacht club unfortunately the party is about to end. The last hour of music Erik, Sabine and I dance a lot. Around 1am we get back to the house and not much later a wonderful day packed with new impressions and new friends is coming to an end.

Sunday, January 7^th, 2001

We have breakfast then Paul picks us up. Erik lends us his ice skates and shortly later we are on our way to Gatineau Park north of the Ottawa River and Hull, Quebec.

The park extends across some square kilometers and is a paradise for winter sports, especially for xc (cross country) skiing.

Paul brought along his xc equipment, Sabine and I by contrast stick to our snowshoes. We want to meet Paul in one of the shelters in the park where we plan to have a break. Naturally it takes us much longer to get there using snowshoes and even though we took that into consideration Paul comes towards us halfway up. He is going to phone a friend with who we want to go ice skating on Rideau Canal later on. He couldn't get any connection from the shelter so we change plans and arrange to meet back at the parking lot. After one and a half hours Sabine and I reach the shelter and have a short break for snack.

The trail we just hiked was just wonderful, although a bit too crowded. Its close location to Ottawa make the park a perfect place for everybody, even for townies. Beside that the trails are rather designed for doing sports than for appreciating nature. Nonetheless - the trees are covered with snow and the ungroomed trail we are on passes beautiful lakes. We fail to climb a small hill to get a view on the other side - even with snowshoes we are sinking into the snow up to our hips and we can't find any hold. However, we have to roar with laughter and now we are warm enough ;-))

As we reach the parking lot again we only have to wait for Paul for a couple of minutes. We head back into the city and meet Pam at Rideau Canal nearby the locks. We skate down the canal the whole 7 km that are prepared, every 1,5 km a line up of little huts where you can rent skates or eat beavertails.

On our way back we stop at one of those and Paul and Pam get something to eat.

After that we stop at Erik's and Holly's house once more, hand back the skates and say goodbye. Our next aim is located in Hull, where Brian, Rob's ex brother-in-law lives. Rob just came back from his parents house in Nova Scotia and so we are going to meet him here. We unload our stuff at Brian's place who unfortunately has another appointment in the evening. So we pick up Rob and drive back to Byward Market to get something to eat.

It's considerably late but finally we find a restaurant typically styled as in the sixties, where we get some burger and pizza. After we had a real feast we are longing for a beer and end up in the Heart & Crown again. This time they cranked up the music that loud that we have problems to talk. We finish our beer and head back to Hull again.

Monday, January 8^th, 2001

After a real outdoor breakfast (oatmeal with apples and bananas) we head back into the city to spent some more hours walking around. We visit the parliament where we climb up the peace tower and get a guided tour through House of Commons and Senate. The Library - the only part of the middle block that wasn't destroyed in the great fire in 1916 - is especially impressing.

Afterwards we stroll through the city a bit and then end up having Ethiopian food. It is delicious, parts are hot and spicy and everything looks like pap which has to be eaten by fingers using the provided pancakes. Later on we meet another friend of Paul in another Irish pub, then we have to get going. We drop of Rob at Brian's place and head for Toronto. Paul drop s Sabine and me of at the bus station in downtown Toronto from where we take the 9pm Greyhound to Waterloo.