At the end of July, I visited eastern-central Canada for the first time in my life! My trip took place from July 23 to the 28 and it was a coach tour that went through Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal! It was a jam packed tour and we went to a lot of different places! I’m going to try my best to recall and summarize everything that I have seen and done throughout my trip. It’s taking a (helluva) lot longer than I expected, to go through, resize and upload all the photos I want to share. (I have over 1000 pictures to sort through!) I’m only about halfway done but I don’t want to keep you all waiting too long for a new blog post. So I’m going to split it up into two parts! This is part one, which will include the first three days of my trip. Please enjoy and don’t forget to comment!

Day 1 – August 23: Calgary to Toronto

Woke up at 3:30am and headed to the airport at 4:15am to meet the tour group. It took awhile for everyone to get checked in but once it was all done we had time to get some early breakfast. I had a bagel and coffee, Tim Horton’s is my hero for being open so early! After finishing the earliest breakfast I ever had in my life, it was off to wait to board the plane!

Arrived at Toronto airport and just waiting for our bags to come.

Taking a few test shots while waiting for the Coach to come pick us up. I’m excited to start taking tons of pictures of the trip.

My little travel buddy haha, I love it, he’s so cute! One of the many adorable plushies you can get from the Fortune Pork Series 2 by Kidrobot and TADO.

We got to our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express in Richmond Hill. It’s a pretty new hotel and it was quite nice inside! Waiting in the hotels lobby while the key cards are getting sorted out.

Our room is on the seventh floor. Aren’t the elevator buttons so pretty and shiny looking?

Everyone had two choices for pillows, soft or firm! I don’t remember which one I used, I think I just slept on both of them! So my pillow was both soft AND firm at the same time.. Just like how I like my hugs! lol

We ate lunch at Times Square which was a short walk from the hotel. (Omg Times Square?!) No not the real one, just an Asian imitation one haha. After eating, we went back to the hotel to rest because we were all really pooped from waking up so early.

I was bored and flipped on the TV and this crazy commercial came on with this Asian man that wanted to buy your gold jewelry from you for cash. Then it turned into some kind of dance video and hot chicks came in and started dancing with the Asian man! It was so ridiculous I wish I remembered the name of the store, maybe it’s on youtube lol.

Holy crap I found it!! Please enjoy below.

We had the whole afternoon free to do whatever we wanted, so after a nap we took a cab to this place called Pacific Mall. It’s North America’s largest indoor Asian Mall and there were over 500 stores inside! I wasn’t in the mood to buy anything but I enjoyed looking around. There were lot’s of cute looking clothes and interesting gizmos, I was quite tempted many times but figured I should save money for when I go to Japan.

Day 2 – August 24: Ottawa

Our first stop in the morning was in Kingston at the Bellevue House. We didn’t go inside or anything, we just had a short photo op outside of it. The Bellevue House was home to Canada’s very first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.

A maple leaf! Canada’s National emblem and seen on our Canadian Flag! I don’t think I’ve ever seen any maple trees in Calgary.

Crawford Wharf in Kingston was our next photo op stop.

I didn’t venture too far from the Wharf since we were only given about 30 minutes or so to take photos.

Our next stop was the Parliament Building in our nation’s capital city Ottawa! It looked like it was going to rain but luckily it didn’t and it was quite warm outside too. The weather was overcast just about everyday during the trip so the outdoor photos are kind of blah, but what can ya do.

The Centennial Flame outside of the Parliament Building. I think this is a beautiful monument and a very cool combination of the elements fire and water. So neat to see fire burning on top of water.

The security at Parliament was pretty tight, they had a metal detector and a bag scan like they would at an airport.

The House of Commons. I really like the stained glass windows, so pretty.

The Parliament is very nice on the inside.

The Senate Chamber.

Our last stop in Ottawa was at the Royal Canadian Mint. It’s where Canada’s specialty commemorative coins are made. It was cool to see the process of how the coins are made. There were really cute quarters with the 2010 Olympic mascots on them. I wanted them but I was not about to buy a quarter for $10.

After the mint we headed to Montreal. Had dinner at a Chinese buffet (a common meal during the trip) and then retired to our hotel.

Day 3 – August 25 : Montreal and Quebec City

Had breakfast at McDonalds located on rue Notre-Dame in downtown Montreal. It was a pretty fancy one with two floors.

They had these bicycles you could rent all over Montreal. I thought that was neat.

After breakfast we went to the Olympic Tower.

Going up the elevator on the tower.

The view from the top.

This photo is a sneak peek of what’s to come in the part two post.

After taking some photos we then headed to the Biodome located right next to the Olympic Tower

Entering a world inside of a world. Are you ready?

How cute is this? He is so amazed

A new species? Feathery looking ball on a stick??

Nah it’s just a bird! It just sat on the railing that separated the people from the animals/exhibits and didn’t mind people taking photos with it.

Can you spot the feline in this pic?

Oh my gosh I absolutely loved the penguins. One of my favourite animals. They are so cute, especially when they waddle around. It was funny to see them right against the window, it’s like they were enjoying watching everyone who was watching them.

So funny, they were lining up single file or something.

We had lunch at the Biodome and headed for Quebec City afterwards.

We visited Old Quebec which is a neighborhood in Quebec City. It’s the only remaining walled city in North America. I loved visiting here, it has a very European feel with all the 17th century architechture. Overall, it was very nice to just walk around and see everything. After visiting, I really wish I knew how to speak French heh.

A huge painted wall on the side of a building made to look like more buildings!

A very charming duo singing some lovely French songs.

We took a lift to the upper city.

We had a little snack at this cute cafe called l’Omelette. We weren’t really hungry, we just went in because I really needed to use the washroom. Haha! I had some very yummy strawberry crepes.

The menu of some restaurant. Look at the item third from the bottom! mmm.. haha

A street perfomer, he was doing some pretty awesome robot dance moves.

There was tons of art for sale, and artists that will draw your portraits.

The boardwalk in the upper city. It was really windy and chilly that day, and I was smart enough to be wearing shorts.

Ugly dolls! I love these things.

Garden decorations you can buy. So cute, look at the bumbum!

Got some dinner there and then headed to our hotel for the night, it was a very good day.

Wow, what a long entry! Hope you’re enjoying reading about about my trip so far! Stay tuned for part two of my trip. Coming up is more Montreal, Niagara Falls and Toronto!

Be sure to follow me on twitter if you aren’t already, so you’ll know when my next post is up!

Thanks for reading! :]