My Trip To Ottawa

Monday- August 21

My sis and I got up extremely early and got to the station where we needed to buy our tickets at about 9:00. I had stupidly decided to bring my laptop and stuff my bag with way too many shirts and socks. It turned out that we had to walk a LOOONG way just to get to the bus stop. It was all the way on the other side of the highway. I was there, trudging under the hot Toronto sun, cursing the entire situation. I was literally just dragging my bags over the walkway. On the way, this old lady passes by me and speeds off as I struggled with my heavy bags. It was so embarrassing. When we finally got to the bus stop, I told my sister that this must be my penance and since I had completed it, Sue Bird's nose couldn't possibly be broken. It turned out, later on, that it wasn't broken. Hehe. Cool stuff.

We got to Ottawa at about 5 pm. The hotel, although it wasn't our first choice, was actually very nice. It was located at ByWard Market, which is this place chock-full of restaurants, which was excellent for us. Our first dinner there was at Zak's Diner, which served burgers and stuff.

We tried to look around the little stalls around the restaurant but then it was pretty late and there were lots of beggars approaching us, which kind of freaked me out. They were very polite but it was just a little scary to be in a strange land, looking like a tourist and everything.

Tuesday- August 22

We wanted to get a Grey line tour with a hop on and hop off bus. When my sister called the place and asked for a pick up, they said it's near enough to walk to it. So off we went, trekking through Canada's capital, past the Parliament and everything. It was NOT near at all. We sat through one full tour of the bus so we could decide where to go. Then we took the next one out to the War Museum. Interesting enough, it was the same tour guide that took us the second time and she was saying the exact same lines as she did earlier. It was hilarious. I guess if you give these tours everyday, you'd come up with a script in your head and just stick with it.

I LOVED the War Museum. It had everything from pictures, to sound bites and actual objects. On the exterior of the museum, spelled out in small windows is the Morse code for "Lest we Forget". Also, it is shaped like a bunker to make it more realistic. At the end of the exhibits, there was this part about what would you do and what you are willing to stand up for. It was very well done. It wasn't meant to inspire people to go to war all of a sudden and support their country. In fact, in some sense, I felt it was promoting peace and avoidance of war. It was also a tribute to those who have given their lives to give Canada and Canadians what they have today. There were even cards there where you could write to officials to tell them what you thought. They had words and quotes on the walls that were inspiring. It was a moving museum, especially given all the conflicts in all parts of the world nowadays.

After this, we went to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Stables. There's this thing called the "Musical Ride" where the Mounties and the horses put on a show. It's kind of like dancing, except with the Mounties on their horses. We didn't see the dance or anything but we saw the stables where they kept these horses. It was pretty neat because these horses were all picked carefully. You have to be a certain color, height, weight, etc. in order to be considered. When we got back on the Grey Line bus, we decided to sit at the top of the open-air double decker bus. She was on the side and I was beside the aisle. As we were passing this park, the tour guide says, "Ooh, careful of the branches there." The bus was too near some trees and the people on our side of the bus were going to get hit by the leaves. Miraculously, everyone in front of us gracefully batted the leaves out of their way. They didn't even looked fazed by it. By the time it got to my sister, she tried to bat them away, but the leaves just kept coming and she ended up yelping and battling with the branches with both arms, swinging madly. Hehe. We couldn't stop laughing on the way home.

That night, my sis and I walked to Parliament to catch the Sound and Light Show projected onto the walls of the Central block of Parliament. It was the most incredible thing ever. There were hundreds of people seated on the bleachers, on the ground, even standing. The images themselves were impressive, but it was made even more impressive with the exterior of Parliament backing it up. Sometimes, they'd just have this huge flash of light illuminating the entire exterior of Parliament with a different color which just made everyone gasp. At the end of the show, they played the Canadian National Anthem as images flashed across it. It was truly inspirational. I know I'm not Canadian or anything, but at that point, you couldn't help but fall in love with the country.

Funny stuff on the way home. My sis and I were moving along with the throng of people leaving the show. No one was pushing or anything, and my sister and I were walking pretty fast. It was about 9:30 already and we wanted to be off the streets as early as possible. All of a sudden, behind me, I hear an "Oh, Fudge!!!" and a thud. I turn around to see who on earth had fallen and see my sister on the ground. I know this may seem bad that I'm laughing, but if you know my sister, she's the clumsiest person in the world. Not a trip goes by without her falling somewhere. I was concerned initially, but she got up pretty quickly and we moved to the side of the sidewalk to let her gather her composure. People were really nice and stopping and asking her if she was alright. They were genuinely concerned about her. She later told me that she hadn't tripped over anything on the road or it wasn't slippery. She just felt herself falling and then she fell. She left with only a bruise, thankfully and we had something interesting to laugh about all night long.

I broke my promise to my sis and checked out the Storm game online. Bad enough that I broke my promise, but they lost the game too. Yuck.

Wednesday- August 23

We took in the Museum of Civilization first. It was a pretty good museum, but I'm not really interested in learning about how the Aboriginal people lived back then and their jewelry and stuff. It was really well done, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. My sis loved it though. During lunch, we ended up eating in this way overpriced place with average food because we didn't know there was a cafeteria in the museum. I was alright walking all over the place before, but I got injured sitting down for lunch. Weird, isn't it? I sat down without any pain and when I stood up, the back of my left knee hurt like crazy. It was buckling and I couldn't straighten it out very well. It hampered me for the rest of my trip.

After that, we went to the Aviation Museum. I LOVED that place. They had tons of aircrafts all over the place and even a display on engines and everything. I think I took the most pictures here. Of course, I was forced to limp through displays. Sigh. Anyway, it's not like I'm a huge fan of aircrafts or anything, but I do love looking at them and marvelling at how they are designed and all. We went to the gift shop and my sister said I could get a model toy plane. This sounds kind of childish but ever since I was a kid, I've always wanted model cars and planes. I'd never get them, of course, by virtue of being a girl. I went in all excited until I saw two little boys deciding which toy to get. I was hit by my self-conscious side and decided against it. One day, I will really get over my fears of how I look to other people.

Thursday- August 24

In the morning, my sister and I went to Parliament Hill to catch the changing of the guards. It was a pretty amazing experience. They started off with the guards parading from Rideau Hall, which is where the governor-general's house. They march their way onto Parliament Hill with a marching band and everything. There's this whole big ceremony thing that, frankly, I didn't understand very well but it was visually amazing.

After that, we took a tour of Parliament. We chose the Centre block to tour. We saw places like their library, the Senate room and the House of Commons. The architecture is amazing. The entire place just feels like it came out of a storybook. Everything was so grand.

We walked to the Supreme Court after that for a picture. Of course, this was with me limping all the way. After that, my sister took pity on me and said we could WALK all the way back to the hotel so I could REST my achy knee. The walk was torture, really. It kept buckling in pain and I kept stopping to grab my sister's arm. It got me thinking about what my favorite athletes have to go through when they play in pain. I mean, LJ plays with shin splints and she's moving all over the place. I was shuffling along with a majorly less severe injury and I was whimpering all the way. Yeah, I'm such a baby.

We got to the hotel and rested for about two hours. Actually, it was only supposed to be for an hour, but my sister fell asleep while watching this Court TV show. We had to drag our butts out of bed because we were both so lazy but my sister really wanted to see the art gallery.

We walked to the National Gallery (actually, I staggered there). We got to see this special exhibit of Emily Carr artwork. She's this famous Canadian artist whose works concentrate on nature and totem poles. Seriously speaking, she's an amazing artist. I'm not very sophisticated, however, so I was yawning my way through some inspirational works. The thing I don't get with art galleries is that everyone thinks they need to be as quiet as mice in there. Even I was whispering. It adds to the stiffness of the place for me, which makes it less exciting for me. Anyway, there was this guy in the wheelchair who saw me limping around the place, wincing and grabbing my leg every now and then. He kindly comes over to me and informs me that they have free wheelchairs downstairs that I could use since I looked like I was really hurt. It was really nice of him and he was genuinely being helpful but I was a little embarrassed because it wasn't like I was really injured in the true sense of the word. We went to all the other galleries including one on Aboriginal art. My favorite part was the European art section. I guess I just like the more traditional works. There was this section on contemporary art, and while I appreciate their creativity, some of them were just crappy. They had blocks stacked high. Another one was just a piece of rope. Anyway, it was funny because I was just thinking how weird and dumb some of the things were when we passed by this dude who said out loud "It's amazing what some people will call art." My sister and I looked at each other and burst out laughing, especially after his mom shushed him all horrified.

We ate at Fat Tuesday's, went home and watched UFC on TV. Yeah, I got to see my Storm scores and my sister got to see her UFC. We both got what we wanted.

Friday- August 25

Greyhound screw us up. They sold us a ticket from Toronto to Mississauga. When we got to Toronto after a looong trip, they said that there were no more buses going to Mississauga. My sister and I had to drag our heavy bags to the subway, to the GO Bus, and finally to a Mississauga Transit bus just to get home. I was swearing under my breath how I would sue Greyhound until they had no more money for gas. Hehe, I was pretty steamed.

It was an awesome trip. It was fun on every level and it's good to just hang with my sister especially since I'm leaving for university in a week. Ottawa is a place I recommend everyone visit. It's culturally stimulating and the leisure activities aren't so bad either.