Tourist Sites

We woke late today, so our time in Mont Tremblant was not what it could have been. That was mostly my fault, owing to my pressing need to do laundry (I had absolutely no socks or underwear left! Probably TMI there, but hey!), but I’m a sharing guy, so let’s all accept the blame!

Regardless, we got to Tremblant, Quebec’s most famous and arguably best ski resort at 1:30pm. I hired my gear (with shoes that fitted perfectly!) and we all bought our 2pm onwards lift passes. We got to the lift, reached the summit and Juliana’s nose began to bleed. We guessed this was due to the altitude or the extreme cold, but we never really found out. The short of the story is, after dealing with completely inept first-aid attendants, we didn’t begin skiing till 3pm. For Tremblant, this was the last ride up, so we drove for 2hrs for one trip down the mountain!

Shit happens, so it’s not an issue at all. And the weather was absolutely amazing, so that made it all better. Wearing Dan’s uber ski-jacket and orange glasses helped too. As did our decision to take the green run, which took (no joke) 90mins to ski down. This run was HUGE and went from the absolute top of the mountain to the ski hire place right at the bottom. Impressive, eh? It was the first time I had skiied properly and without an instructor so I was stoked. Dan took some awesome photos too, so it’s all recorded for posterity!

Dinner was eaten at a crepe place Juliana had been raving about all day. It certainly lived up to expectations, and to top it off we had Timmy’s!! My first Timmy’s in over a month … is it right to be suffering withdrawal symptoms for really bad coffee and bagels? I must be turning Canadian!

To my surprise, Dan & Juliana offered to take me to Quebec City today. I had really wanted to go there myself, but thought it would be just too cold to do it via public transport. Luckily, D & J had a heated car and a similar interest in seeing Quebec in the winter.

It turned out today was the first main day of Carnaval – Quebec City’s big winter festival. These events are fantastic ideas. It’s -35 outside and typically no one in their right mind would spend any more time than completely necessary, however for the few weekends when the weather is typically at its worst, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE comes out to play. The cities put on concerts, sledding, public ice rinks, ice sculpting and tubing, not too mention loads of chocolat chaud cafes. Mmm…hot chocolate at -35!

So it was that we ended up hurtling down a ice slide in an old wooden sled, spinning down snow in an inflatable tube and eating beavertails. I’m converted! This weather has its benefits after all!

(FYI: Beaver Tails aren’t as bad as they sound! I can just see Gabe and others out there going “what!! Tristan you’re a bad bad man!”. They are like stretched out donuts – take that sugary pastry, add maple syrup and nutella or more traditionally lemon, sugar and cinnamon and you have it. Brilliant invention, eh?)

Before too long it was nightfall (one of the downsides of being winter) and subsequently dinnertime. We opted for Aux Anciens Canadiens, a ‘typical’ old-style Quebecois restaurant. It was amazing – located in a converted house, with most of the tables in the loft, the food was hearty, unique and so Quebecois. We dined on buffalo, pheasant, bison and other meats, all prepared in thick, rich stews and gravies. Just how I like it!

To top it off, on the way home we visited the world-famous Ice Hotel. It was just as touristy as we had imagined, but it was special nonetheless. We’d missed the last tour for the evening, but we had a chance to wander around and see all the nifty sculptures, and take a ride on the mini ice slide there. We also went to the bar and had cocktails served in ice-glasses. As you do. The bar was pretty awesome – everything that could be made out of ice was – but it was just too cold to spend any substantial time there. Juliana kept ourselves amused by dancing around just to keep warm. Well, we thought we were clever!

I nabbed one of the special Heineken ‘bottles’ made of aluminium so as not to freeze, but I left it at D&J’s place. Ah well, that’s what memories and photos are for.

Our final stop for the evening was the 24-hr Maison de Bagel back in Montreal. This place is world famous and rightly so. There are queues there round-the-clock for the super-fresh bagels. Mmmmm… bagels

I had given myself 5 days in Boston originally with the intent of working for a friend of mine for a day or two. In the end, that work was done in the evenings via email, so I had more time to sightsee, which I took full advantage of!

Sunday
I arrived late on Sunday afternoon owing to a flight cock-up on both United and my parts. Basically, if you book a flight through unitedairlines.com.au, you don’t ‘book’ it, you ‘confirm’ it. This means they take your credit card details but you don’t pay for it. Thus you can’t check in because you don’t have a ticket. So instead of quickly checking-in and boarding my 8am flight, I was put in the “ticked purchase” line which only had one person in front of me but still moved SUPER slow. A ‘friendly’ attendant informed me that I had missed my check in deadline and had missed my flight, before moving on to serving the person in front of me. I guess this was meant to help the situation by making me resign myself to taking the next flight, but I had never missed a flight before. I’ve been close (see my entry on Jan 9-10), but never missed one. Thus I didn’t know how it worked with ticketing or extra costs or anything.

Luckily, after a pricing scare (“That’ll be $540, sir”), I boarded the next flight (at 11am) fine, and having paid the original price (US$60). Phew!

So … instead of having a lot of time on Sunday (which turned out to be a really nice, sunny day), I had about 2 hours. So I went to the Boston Public Library (which is really worth a visit) and Chinatown. When I returned to my hostel, I met Alex, a Brit working at Disneyworld in Florida, and we decided to head with the hostel-organised group to the Jazz Club. There we met Aubreya, Ocean and others. So there you go – I can make friends in hostels. Singapore was an anomaly.

Monday
On Monday, Alex and I went sightseeing. We visited the Aquarium, with its excellent displays on Penguins and awesome 3-storey tank housing all manner of aquatic life! From there, we had lunch at historic (and touristy) Quincy Market (and saw the replica Cheers bar), before heading to Charlestown Navy Yard and the USS Constitution Museum. The USS Constitution is the oldest US Navy ship still in existence, dating back to 1797. That’s quite a life considering it’s a navy vessel!

For the afternoon, Alex and I parted ways – Alex to Harvard, and me to the Freedom Trail. I only got to the first stop, because I decided to take a tour of the Massachusetts State House that ended up lasting 90mins. Basically the woman giving the tour (to two of us I might add!) used the opportunity to tell us the history of the US through the paintings, rooms and what-not in the building. Awesome, eh? I felt very special!

Alex and I met up afterwards to do the Skywalk at the Prudential Tower. The view was pretty good, given it was nighttime, but a lot of the commentary required a clear day to see the buildings. That and the movie on Boston constantly referred to “in the summer”! Argh!!! If I hear that again I’ll hit someone! But it is definitely worth a visit, especially on a clear day, if only to admire the view and hear the “Immigration Rap”. It is as bad as it sounds.

That evening, Alex and I joined others from the hostel (Sarah & Jimmy from the UK) for a trip to a local Irish Pub. When in Boston, I guess! We tried all the local brews, with my favourite being Harpoon UFO. Good stuff, that is.

Tuesday
Today was rather unintentionally sporty. We began with some ice skating, and ended with a tour of the Boston Red Sox’ home Fenway Park. This was the first time I’d skated since I was about 7 (seriously!) and I sucked. It took ages for me to get used to wearing the skates and then I was so petrified of falling over that I didn’t have the confidence to skate properly until just before we decided to leave.

On the plus side I got to skate on the Frog Pond in Boston Common! Yay! Now hopefully I’ll get to skate in the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, or at least somewhere further north. One of the perks of it being freezing cold!!

After a fairly dodgy lunch in a city food court, Alex and I headed to Fenway Park for the Red Sox tour. The Red Sox are probably the most famous baseball team in existence. Despite it being a largely US sport (with some help from the Dominican Republic and Japan), there has always been something about the Red Sox that made both Alex and I want to visit. It turned out that we were the only two people there for the tour, so we had our own personal guide! Apparently during the season the tour can get as large as 170 people, so wooh to us! Unfortunately the field was covered to protect it from the snow, so we didn’t get as great as an experience as we perhaps could have done. To be honest though, I would prefer 2 people to 170 over that!

From there, Alex headed to the airport and back to Florida and I finished off the Freedom Trail. Unfortunately most of the museums were closed, so I’ll go back and see them tomorrow. I did make it all the way to the Old North Church though, so it was quite a walk, given the weather.

Wednesday
Last night I received an email from a contact of mine in Boston to meet her this morning at 10am. I replied as soon as I could, but didn’t hear back from her before I went to bed. So I decided to head out and see whether she got my email. As it turned out, she had, and we had an excellent Italian breakfast in Boston’s North End. Mmm….real coffee!

I was meeting with Yasmina to hear about her plans for an AIDS conference to be held in Kuala Lumpur in May 2007. To be called AIDS Action Tank, it will focus on establishing worlds best practice for the treatment and prevention of AIDS in young children in Africa. Instead of being another talking heads meeting, it is designed to combine practioners with researchers and academics to actually make progress in the field. Good stuff, eh? I’m definitely on board, and if you or anyone you know can help us out (i.e. if you’ve been in the field or done research in the area), comment or send me an email!

After meeting with Yasmina I finally did the Freedom Trail. Properly. The Freedom Trail links a number of sights from Boston (& the US’) history, winding its way from the Boston Common to Bunker Hill & the Navy Yards. It’s meant to be fantastic to do in the summer, but in the middle of winter it’s a bit brutal. But it has to be done, and so, sufficiently bundled up, I began.

You start at Boston Common, 48 acres of public park in the centre of town. It’s been this way since 1634, making it one of the oldest public parks in the country. From there, head up the hill to the Bulfinch-designed Massachusetts State House, dating back to 1795. It’s the one with the big gold dome on the roof. Turn and head back to Park St for the Park St Church and it’s burying ground. The church’s basement was a holding location for gunpowder in the War of 1812, and the burying ground is the final resting place for Hancock, John Quincy Adams, and Paul Revere (i.e. big names in US history). Continue downtown to the King’s Chapel (constructed 1668) and the Old South Meeting House. The OSMH has a fascinating house as a place of free speech, dating back to 1729. It was originally a Puritan meeting house, and grew to play a substantial role in the Civil War. Continue towards Quincy Market, passing the Old State House (built in 1713) and the sight of the Boston Massacre on the way. At Quincy Market you’ll find Faneuil Hall, constructed in 1742. Upstairs there’s a great little military museum and a brilliant hall (surprisingly enough!). Just try and find the stairs!! (they’re in the back corner).

Cross into the North End (the Italian Quarter of Boston) and visit the Revere House, dating back to 1680. Amazingly enough, this place still stands – and not because it was the home of Paul Revere! He wasn’t famous until after his death, and it’s just by luck (because the previous owners didn’t have enough money to redevelop it) that it is kept in its original condition. Well worth a visit! After the Revere House, head up the road to the Old North Church. It was here, on April 18, 1775 that two lanterns were displayed to warn the citizens the Red Coats were coming ‘by sea’. (‘One if by land, two if by sea’). Just beyond the church is the Coop’s Hill Burying Ground. This place is super old – dating back to 1659. I can’t remember if any famous people were buried here, but its age alone makes it worth visiting.

For today, that was the end of my Trail. Tomorrow I’ll go to the other side (near the Navy Yard) to board the USS Constitution and see Bunker Hill. Instead, I went to the exclusive Beacon Hill neighbourhood to snoop around. It’s very impressive, as the photos show. Basically it’s all own brownstones and similar buildings. Even the 7-11 is done up nicely, selling ‘sundries’. Aw!

This evening I headed with Paul & one other mate from the hostel to the Museum of Fine Arts. This place is awesome, and even more so on a Wed evening as it’s free! It’s surprisingly huge and has an excellent Asian & Egyptian art section. We didn’t get there till quite late, so it was a bit of a rush near the end, but so worth it. I even managed a quick chat to one of the guards there about her upcoming knee operation! Best of luck!! We then went out to dinner at a gourmet pizza place near our hostel (down Hemmenway Rd). Quite impressive food for a basement restaurant.

After dinner we headed back to the hostel and stayed up till 3am chatting with some Argentinian guys. As you do!

Thursday
This morning, on the advice of Yasmina, I decided to visit Harvard University. I walked around the Yard and saw the statue etc., but my main reason for visiting was to see the Kennedy School of Government. You see, at some point in the future I would like to study there. Seriously! They have an excellent Masters program in International Development, and so I went to ask about it. I had set up a meeting with the head of the program, and she was more than happy to answer my questions. I think she felt it a little odd that I would come all this way when it is at least 4 years away, but ah well, I hope one day that works to my advantage!

Anyway, I learned very quickly that Harvard is not just another university. It’s a clear step above, and this was apparent in the answers to my many questions. For example, I asked if there was a language component to the courseload. Most other Masters programs include this, and I couldn’t see it in the paperwork she’d given me. Her answer surprised me, but in hindsight it probably shouldn’t have. This is a School where the alumni includes Foreign Ministers, heads of the WB and Presidential advisors. Basically, Harvard don’t require any language component because “most students arrive speaking 3 or 4 languages already, so we feel it’s fairly superfluous”. Oh, shit! Better get back to that Mandarin then!

After being suitably impressed at Harvard, Paul and I met up once more to have lunch at the oldest continuously running restaurant in the US, opposite the Holocaust Memorial. It was pretty good actually – I had a burger with blue cheese, and one final UFO. From there, we took the train to the Bunker Hill Monument, which commemorates the first major battle of the American Revolution. The weather was awesome, so we thought we’d walk up to the top for a decent view of Boston. Unfortunately, it was another of those ‘in the summer’ situations, as the Monument was closed for the season for renovations! Argh! We did get to board the USS Constitution though, which was great.

From there, Paul headed to the airport and home to Arizona, and I had a domestic night in blogging at the hostel.

For photos of Boston, see here

My final day in DC was spent with Melissa – Kristin’s friend from William & Mary. We went to the other National Air & Space Museum (on the Mall) and joined a guided tour. This place is huge, and so we limited ourselves to the tour and certain sections we both wanted to see – like the Wright Brothers plane, and the Space shuttle. We also saw one of the first IMAX films ever made – To Fly! – which has just celebrated its 25th anniversary. It charters the history of transport and flying, and why we find it so thrilling.

We had lunch at the National Museum of American Indian which was AMAZING! This museum, which by many accounts doesn’t live up to the Smithsonian standards, has a hidden food court at its base, serving Native American food from around the continent. Thus you can have salmon, buffalo, traditional dressings, burgers and everything. In the end we settled for a “five region sampler for two” with cedar-plank fired salmon steak and buffalo (!) with an assortment of beans and vegetables cooked in traditional methods. It was fantastic, and really not what you expect from a museum food court! Especially in the US! We were so impressed with our meal that we left too late to make the aforementioned IMAX film and had to run against the wind back to the Air & Space museum. Never try that in -5 degree temperatures. It’s FREEZING!! Haha!

For the rest of the afternoon we headed to Connecticut & 18th to explore the “shopping district” of DC and check out Filene’s. Really I don’t understand why they call this the shopping district, because there are no more shops here than elsewhere in DC, and it’s mostly office towers anyway. Filene’s was good though, although small compared to New York.

For my last meal in DC we had Ethiopian on 18th Ave in Adams Morgan. This had been recommended to us by a few different people so we felt we should give it a try. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but I think it was at 2450 18th. Ethiopian food is excellent – lots of meats and dips. Basically you eat with your fingers by ripping a piece of bread (more akin to naan than sliced) and wrapping it around the meat. I also tried some Ethiopian beer which was pretty decent!

We stopped off at the busiest Borders in America (!) on the way home and I picked up L’Auberge Espagnole (Spanish Apartment) on DVD for $6 and a guide book to Boston. Then I packed – for hours!

Photos from Washington, DC