Ottawa: Parliament buildings, canals, live music and halloween parties!

October 29th:

I`ve spent the past few days in Ottawa - I have to say I didn`t expect much from the capital city at first but I`ve really enjoyed my time here! After my first night at Jeff`s parent`s house in the suburbs of Ottawa (so nice to rely on the kindness of strangers!), we went out to the agricultural museum at the experimental farm and learned about this working farm right on the outskirts of the city. See my pics for some happy and some probably not so happy animals at the museum. Jeff took me on a bit of a walking tour of the city too where I saw the Parliament buildings, the Prime Minister's house, the most well protected building in Ottawa: The American Embassy, and more. I was told I had to try a BeaverTail - an Ottawa classic. Here I am eating this unhealthy pastry with cinnamon and sugar:


The following few nights I stayed with Pam and her boyfriend Adam from CouchSurfing.com in Gatineau, Quebec, which is just over the bridge from Ottawa (about a half hour walk). During my days here I spent a bit of time walking around the Parliament buildings, went up to the observation deck of the Peace Tower for some nice views, walked around the city, and checked out the shops at the Byward market.

So, instead of heading to Montreal as originally planned on Friday, I stayed two extra nights to have some fun with Pam and her friend Julia. For the past few nights we went out to some èast-coast`bars with live music where we danced the night away and closed out the bars at 2am. `East coast`of course refers to the eastern Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, so the bands we heard were from those areas. One band played mostly 80`s American music (oh how I love Jon Mellencamp!) while one on Saturday night played more traditional east coast songs - they were great! I stayed in Ottawa to celebrate Halloween by going to a pagan event with Pam and Julia Saturday night. Thanks to some lovely thrift shops I found a lion mask, an animal-print shirt, and a brown skirt, to which I added a brown braided yarn tail and some face paint. Pam went as a leprechaun and Julia dressed as a fire element, complete with a fire-red wig. Here's pam and I at the halloween party:


Check out more pics on Picasa Web!

Ottawa seems like a good place to visit in the winter, maybe before it gets unbearably cold, as their long canals/rivers turn into a 'skateway' where people can ice skate for miles through the city. Some people even commute to work this way in the winter. I hear there are also nice ice sculptures in a park in the winter! I just may be back to check it out!