Day 9 Ottawa - Rapids, Cliff Diving, and Turkish Food

I think today will be a short entry – somehow I’m completely exhausted.

We had breakfast in our room – leftovers: yogurt, toast, ham. There’s always coffee in the room, which is really convenient. Since the weather was nice, we went for a walk and checked out a little park we found on the map. From there, there was a lovely view of the city – probably particularly atmospheric in the evening.

Then we headed out for city rafting. Swimwear, old shoes – let’s go. At the meeting point, nine other participants were already waiting, including some from London, Toronto, and Denmark. Our guide Peter shared some history about Ottawa on the way – to be honest, I didn't catch too much of it. We had to keep paddling, sometimes through small rapids, sometimes just leisurely along the river – and had a really nice view of the city. Ottawa is situated on a big river: French is spoken on the left, English on the right.

In between, we were allowed to set the paddles aside, and Peter turned on the small motor. The highlight was a side channel with current – he called it the “lazy river.” There, we could just glide into the water and be carried along for a bit. In the end, Peter came back to pick us up – it was nice to just rely on the life jacket.

Next highlight: cliff diving. Sounds more dramatic than it was. Mika chose the high cliff twice – very brave. I opted for the lower option. It was really low – but you had to go all the way to the top, and I was genuinely afraid of slipping. I was the last one to go. Really cute: the whole group cheered me on – and then I actually did it.

When I looked up from below and saw how low it actually was, I had to laugh at myself.

I wanted to film Mika's jump – but somehow messed it all up. What can I say…

We returned by transport – right in the middle of rush hour. We were ravenously hungry, so just a quick visit to the room, a quick change, and then off to eat. This time it was Turkish – a very good choice. The service was super nice; she was from Morocco. We struck up a conversation: she has been living in Canada for a year. Ottawa? Boring. Montreal? Much better. Toronto? Way too expensive. And overall: you have to work incredibly hard here to make ends meet – we definitely feel that too.

At this point, a quick service note: Prices in Canada are always listed before tax. You always have to add 13% – plus tips. And tips are expected everywhere, even in very normal stores. When paying by card, you are kindly offered a choice of 18, 20, or 30% for tips. You can also tap “no tip” – I did that once. In total, one often ends up easily paying 30% more than listed prices. This applies to clothing as well.

Now we are lying in the room – 8:00 PM local time – and I think I’ll go to bed early tonight. Tomorrow we continue. I really liked Ottawa – but Toronto impressed me more.

Good night – or good morning.

Insight of the day – powered by Mika: jumping off a rock once is enough.

And my concluding thought:

A jump into the water, a few friendly encounters, and a little laughter at oneself – sometimes that’s all a day needs to be complete. Not to forget, the bed in the evening.