In America, Episode 6: Expanding Views and 1220 Km's of Highways

Back in T.O. after a week on the road. Visited both Ottawa and Montreal so it was a lot of driving for Annu , and she did brilliantly! There were a couple of exciting moments with parking and one way streets in downtown Montreal, but we got through them as well :) And when we drove into Toronto last night after dark, she was pretty exhilarated, doing over a hundred in four-lane traffic with a sea of fast moving headlights and tail lights everywhere.

Ottawa turned out to be a dignified but also warm and welcoming capital city. No skyscrapers; in their place lots of castle-like old stone buildings, bridges, the Rideau Canal and the breathtaking Parliament Hill. The downtown area is very walkable so we did a lot of that and got a good feel for the place. And such nice people too - Annu would not mind moving there! We met and talked with all kinds of folks who made us feel at home.

The Museum of Civilization had wonderful sections on Canadian history and the First Nations, so we learned a lot in Ottawa, too. Marko's work meeting went well and he hopes to keep the Canadian Connection going now that it's been opened.

Being non-French speakers, we were a bit nervous about Montreal but no worries: the city is very bilingual and again very open, polite and friendly. Not to mention European: it was very easy to forget being in North America. On top of the atmosphere, the city has a high hill (Mount Royal) right by the city center, just like the Petrin Hill in Prague, and having visited Prague several times, the ambience was eerily similar at some points - you just had to pinch yourself and keep repeating "I'm in Canada, I'm in Canada..."

We only had about 48 hrs in Montreal but we got to have a good look around the downtown. Marko's Rush shirts and us being Finns (Saku Koivu's compatriots!) led to many fun chats with the nice Montrealites many of whom seemed genuinely sorry Koivu had just been traded to Anaheim.

The only thing that gave us a bit of a problem in Montreal was the Old World way of giving tips in restaurants. But our very nice waitress in the Hard Rock Cafe took time to explain the right way to us, so that was cleared too. And the guy who sold HRC stuff in the restaurant's gift shop got chatting about prog rock with Marko, and so on... In short, it's this easy socializing and openness we will again miss so much when we return home.

Most of all, these modest travels have helped to expand our views on Canada. Before, Canada was mostly just Toronto to us, but having seen other cities and noticed how different the three are with each other, we are much better informed now - and even more eager Canada fans :)

We have less than two weeks to go, and our schedule for the remaining time is pretty much set. We try not to think about it too much now and instead concentrate on the time we still have. And, of course, we will return here - no doubt.