Publisearre: 26.09.2017
On Monday, I booked a day trip to Québec with the Grayline tour bus. The bus departed from the tourism center at 8 am. Since it was my second-to-last day in Canada, I treated myself to breakfast at Tim Hortons, as the hostel wouldn't serve breakfast until 7:30 anyway. Of course, I arrived 15 minutes before departure at the correct location, as stated on the voucher, and stood obediently in line (the bus was full, there were many people). However, when it was my turn, I was told that I had to exchange the voucher for a ticket and return to the office. The employee scolded me for coming at the last minute, but how was I supposed to know? The email explicitly stated that the voucher had to be printed out and brought along. What a waste, as you still need to get a ticket. But well. The trip lasted three hours and I slept like a baby again! I have definitely learned how to sleep on buses during this trip. However, I don't have the same success sleeping on trains, when you have to worry about getting off at the right place.
In Québec, we were greeted by the slightly overzealous tour guide, who repeated everything about three times and constantly quizzed us on what he had said. So, we had to repeat the most important words three times in two hours: Bonjour, bonsoir, merci, merci beaucoup, au revoir. Uuuuh! That was quite an intellectual challenge 😂
The guide proudly presented the city's most important buildings and their history to us. We also stopped at a waterfall, where there was a cable car, but we didn't have time for it. My reaction: Another waterfall 😂 (my camping buddies would understand 😉) and then we had 3 hours to explore the town. Plenty of time to go to a 'real' restaurant with DISHES again - I'm already tired of plastic and cardboard. The food was, as I was used to from Montréal, very European again. I ordered a seafood pasta, which came with free liver mousse and coffee in the menu. Yum! After that, I climbed the small hill that led to what is apparently the most photographed hotel in North America. There was even a cable car, similar to the one at Hotel Montana in Lucerne. And just like there, I felt at home, because the city was full of Asian tourists 😋 Or maybe more like in Lausanne or Geneva, since everyone spoke French everywhere.
At 5 pm, I was looking forward to the air-conditioned bus, and once again, it was emphasized that the heat for the region was abnormal 🙈 Let's see how the temperature continues in the States! Tomorrow: ✈️--> Boston!