Bienvenue à Québec!

Days 12 - 15: 575 miles, destination Québec, Canada

Total miles: 2823 - The CRV just hit the 100,000 mile mark!

I have wanted to come to Québec for AGES. I cannot even count how many times I have looked up flights to Québec, at all different times of the year to come and see this city and now I am finally here thanks to an exit from my long time company. Life is weird.

I did try to speak French as much as possible while in Québec, it was absolutely petrifying at first, but of course by the time I had to leave I got more comfortable. I'm far from being conversational any longer, but I am good enough to get by when travelling. When I'm the initial speaker, I'm fine but when I have to respond...OMG. Everyone was so nice though, probably because I was *trying* and I have a decent accent and therefore don't totally butcher the language. Being here has inspired me to brush up on my French skills though - not a bad project for funemployment in between travelling. 'Je parle un peu francais' and 'Lentement s'il vous plait' are my most popular phrases after 'Je voudrais un cafe latte avec lait d'almonde et le quiche jambon et un bouteille de l'eau, merci'. (I speak a little French/Slower if you don't mind/I would like a latte with almond milk and the ham quiche and a bottle of water, thanks). Now, I didn't check my spelling on any of that, so don't @ me. Also, for the life of me I cannot get this web host to let me use accents unless I Google the word and then copy/paste it in, which is too tedious most of the time. Please know that I *do* know my French accents. Merci, Madame Schauble et Madame Gibson.

It was a very long drive to Québec from Prince Edward Island - about nine hours. By the time I got to Québec all I wanted to do was drop my things off where I was staying (at a hostel - more on that later) and get some real food after eating gas station food all day. One of the reasons I chose where I stayed is the location/price variable. It was VERY inexpensive and right in the middle of everything. So I was able to walk right out the front door and have my selection of restaurants to dine at. After that long drive, a glass of prosecco to relax followed by a filet and a glass of pinot noir were just what the doctor ordered.

After recovering from my long drive with a good night's sleep I started my day hunting for a cafe with a tasty looking croissant and coffee to get my morning started. Alas, I slept a little too late and all of the other tourists beat me to the fresh croissants so I ended up at a little place that has crepes and man...this did not disappoint. Oddly my first experience of the day was watching the Manchester United vs Arsenal game with a bunch of Man United fans while I ate my crepe and drank my Americano, but they were the quietest and most polite football fans I've ever encountered.

I spent my first day walking around a very crowded Québec - tourism is definitely in full swing here. I can't be mad about it since I am also a tourist, but man it was crowded. I know it doesn't look it in some of my pictures, but trust me, it took a lot of waiting to try and get some without 500 people in the way. Still, Québec is beautiful. The architecture, the flowers, it's enchanting.

I spent my second day on one of those old tourist standbys, the double decker hop on, hop off tour bus. In all of the research I had done in preparation for Québec I just felt like I must be missing out on something, that the 'tourist' area seemed so small, and that the bus would open up the city to me to explore other places. It really didn't, the Old Québec and the immediate area is really where most things are, but I did enjoy the two hour tour as well as the accompanying audio with commentary about the different sites and areas which I would have missed out on otherwise.

But seriously...

Something of note, every restaurant seems to stop serving food between the hours of two and five, so eat your lunch, people. But if you find yourself looking for something to eat at 4:30, speaking from personal experience, find where you want to have dinner and sit and have a glass of wine or two until they reopen for dinner service. Literally every restaurant that you'll want to go to for dinner operates in the same fashion, so there is no point of going from place to place - they're all on the same schedule. Also, it seems like a good idea to make reservations during season. Being a solo traveler it's easy for me to squeeze in at the bar or a small table, but I did overhear many restaurants asking people who came to be seated if they had reservations and them turning them away when they did not.

Dinner of 'deconstructed' french onion soup, bison steak and crème brûlée at Bistro Hortus.

My last day in Québec - I've spent it mostly in the cafe where I've been coming for my morning coffee and quiche the past two days. The upstairs is quiet and I wanted to catch up on writing and reading. This is a vacation after all and it doesn't all have to be hopping from thing to thing. I'm quite content to sit and breathe and relax. There are drawbacks to solo traveling like you have to figure everything out and make all of the decisions on your own. Then again you get to make all of the decisions, so if you decide you want to hang out in a cafe all day and listen to music and write, no one else gets a say in that decision. I'm sure by the time I get to my final destination of Wilmington, NC to hang out for a couple of weeks I will have absolute decision fatigue though and will be over figuring out what to do and where to eat. At least there I have many go-to restaurants to carry me through!

The Joan of Arc garden was right by where I stayed and I almost missed it but saw it as I was leaving and stopped to walk around before I headed to Montréal. The statue itself is amazing, but the garden...OMG. The flowers are just to die for.

One last thing before I go - I did say I'd get back to the choice of staying in a hostel while I'm here. It's been about ten years since I've stayed in a hostel, the last one was in San Francisco because at 33ish San Francisco hotels were so cost prohibitive so it was the best option for a week's long vacation. That hostel left much to be desired. In my 20s I spent many nights in hostels travelling Europe, some good, some bad. So you must be thinking "why now?" I mean, I can surely afford to get a hotel in Québec. Sure I can, but when I was looking at AirBNB options I came across this listing...

4 bed dorm. Heck, I've stayed in a 16 bed dorm, 4 is nothing. It looks really nice, the reviews are good. The area is perfection. It's sooo inexpensive. What was my total? $160 total for 4 nights. Not $160/night. $40/night, taxes included. I booked it. Compare this to a 'real' hotel in this area...$1,300 for the 4 nights. That's $1,140 I can for sure find a better way to spend, than for a place I'm only sleeping and showering in. You also have to remember that I'm funemployed and on a 30 day road trip - gotta save those dolla bills, y'all. I have other places to see before I head back into the workforce.

It's as nice and clean as the pictures show. I know it's not for everyone, but people, I was just camping in a tent in the forest for 3 nights, consider that. And the bed is ridiculously comfortable. Like so comfortable that I want to figure out what kind of mattress it is. If this place is any representation of what hostels are like in Canada, I really wish I had known this sooner because I would have just gone this route instead of true AirBNBs for the rest of my stays.

If you're appalled by this, feel free to Venmo me at @iamfunchris to fund my travels. I'd be happy to book at The Ritz if you'd like to take care of that for me.

Just when I thought I was done I went to dinner and the waiter recommended I get the poutine with my burger - it's a thing here, it's even on the t-shirts.

So yeah, when in Québec also get the poutine*!

*Diet Coke to offset the calories of the burger and poutine, because that works, right?

xoxo

iamfunchris