This post is a continuation of the recollections from my recent trip to Ontario and Quebec. If you haven’t read the first post yet click here to read it. I’ve decided to split the posts into single days because the last post which contained three days turned out to be extremely long. (What was I thinking?!) So, I thought it would be better to divide up the posts into smaller doses, since the entries are photo based which take a bit longer to load.
Optional: You can view this blog post with a song of my choice, just press play!
(Yea, I just resized a youtube video lol) Postal Service – Brand New Colony
Day 4 – August 26 : Montreal
Bienvenue means welcome in French! One of the few words I know in French haha
In the morning we went to Saint Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal which is the largest church in Canada.
The view from Parc du Mont-Royal, where we went for a short photo op after the Oratory. It was too cloudy to see everything though.
Next, we went to the Botanical Garden in Montreal which is very beautiful and very big! We didn’t get to see it all. Warning: A bunch of plant photos coming up.
Hi all! Sorry I haven’t updated earlier, I’ve been having a bit of trouble with my computer recently. It starts up just fine but then it just randomly shuts off on it’s own! I’m trying to look into what’s wrong with it, but for now I have resorted to using my laptop.
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.
This is a camera I received as a gift for my birthday earlier this year. It’s a film camera with a fisheye lens that can get a view of 170 degrees around. Although film cameras are a rare sight these days, I really enjoy taking photos with this camera. I like the mystery of not knowing how the photo will look until you get it developed, and some photos can turn out really spontaneous. Here are some of my favourite photos that I’ve taken with the camera so far.
A very cute seal mascot with a good message! “Hug me! Don’t club me!” In support of the PETA. I spotted this guy while going to grab lunch on Stephen Ave one day and just had to get a photo of him (or her)!
A shot of the Ferris Wheel at the Calgary Stampede. This year’s wheel seemed smaller than the one they had in previous years.
The camera is great for taking photos in tight areas and getting everything in sight! This one was taken while walking by The Bay in downtown. In the photo are some of my co-workers! mwaha
The Calgary Tower looks so short in this pic in relation to the Palliser hotel. I think this is a pretty cool perspective of the city’s landmark!
Those interesting sculptures on Stephen Avenue. My friend thinks they look like giant spatulas haha
This looks like it could be anywhere in the world. The city bus kind of gives it away it’s in Calgary though. I really like when streets/sidewalks are lined with trees on both sides, it’s so nice to drive/walk through!
~ You can view the rest of my fisheye photo set on flickr.com.
~ If you’d like more information on the fisheye camera or you’d like to get one for yourself, check out the official site here: www.lomography.com
Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to leave a comment while you’re here ^_^
