Hello, I blog!

[Written at 11.04 P.M. (08th June) Singapore time, 2.04 P.M. (09th June) Vancouver time.]

We joined a package tour that brought us around the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada – comprising Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and the Niagara Falls. Quebec City and the Niagara Falls were awesome. Montreal and Ottawa was meh. And I didn’t see enough of Toronto to have any thoughts on it.

The bus that took us around the Ontario and Quebec provinces.

Quebec City
Strongest memory from that place was when I was exploring the lower city on foot. Quebec City is one city where there are absolutely no high-rise buildings around – which means the sky is visible all the time, which is a refreshing change.

And the architecture. How can I forget the architecture?

Streets of Quebec City – Lower Area.

Quaint little streets. Little shophouses a la Switzerland style with souvenir shops retailing knick knacks of all types. And the t-shirts too! How can I also forget the t-shirts?!

I bought me two t-shirts with ‘Fuck la mode‘ screenprinted across it. ‘La mode’ means ‘Fashion’ in French, so the tee literally means ‘Fuck Fashion’. Hahaha. So very true. So very me, too.

For me, the tee has a double meaning. I also interpret the tee’s slogan as also being in a mode where my response to everything will be “fuck, lah!”. Hurhur.

Niagara Falls
Well, the falls were beautiful – I cannot deny that. Plus, it’s awesome to be able to see one of the seven wonders of the world up close, despite getting drenched in the mist (we took a little boat cruise that brought us all the way to the base of the waterfall – which meant everyone on board getting wet) and all.

Niagara Falls – American Side.

But … I personally have a fondness for a different type of waterfall.

For me, big, massive waterfalls don’t quite grab me. I like tall, skinny waterfalls that land on a gradient of rocks at the base, which eventually leads to a little rocky stream with rapids – the type where I can jump in and soak my feet in.

Plus, the fact that my DSLR took a drowning at the Niagara Falls dampened the experience there kinda. Somehow, despite protecting my ol’ camera with my poncho, the spray of the mist was so strong (it was like a heavy rain) that water pooled around the base of the camera and the whole thing got soaked. It went kaput for the rest of the day and is still in the process of recovering now.

The Niagara Falls ARE majestic, most definitely. It was just my personal preference of waterfalls which got in the way and made the Niagara Falls slightly less impressive to me. But I’m pretty sure that it will awe virtually everyone else.

Montreal
Well, I like the culture there – which explains why I got myself a hoodie from one of them souvenir shops that reads ‘I love Montreal’ – but the city itself was blah. It didn’t have anything unique to offer, so nothing stood out.

The strongest memory I have from that place was having the wardrobe door nearly fall on me in the hotel room.

I was in the midst of placing some clothes in the wardrobe when I heard a sudden explosion, followed by a giant screw flying from the wardrobe door towards the hangers. I took a step back in shock, just in time to watch the wardrobe door collapse. It would have probably fallen on me if I had remained in my previous position, so I am thanking my lucky stars I didn’t leave Montreal with a concussion!

Ottawa
Ottawa has an awesome museum. Some parts of its interior was modeled to resemble the streets of Canada in the olden days, which was so realistic you’d feel as if you were there. Plus, the exhibits were categorized such that you can view the museum according to your own interests and preferences.

Exhibition set-ups in Ottawa’s museum.

I am not really a museum person. When I visit museums (especially those in Singapore), I tend to walk around admiring the building’s architecture more than looking at the exhibits themselves – which defeats the original purpose of visiting a museum in the first place.

However, I found myself doing a mixture of both in Ottawa – which is a really good thing because it definitely indicates there is something special about that museum.

On the whole
Notice how I am not exactly gushing about most of the cities or places apart from Quebec City.

Well, this partly stems from the reason why I dislike packaged tours. The schedule is so hectic to the point where you don’t get to see much of a particular place. Five different cities/locations jam-packed into four days (the first day doesn’t count because we were on board the plane most of the time and landed only in the late evening) leaves us with very little time – less than a day on average – at each city. One doesn’t quite have the chance to fully appreciate the beauty of the place at their own time and leisure.

We are ‘released’ at one attraction after another, and usually asked to return within an hour. And the places are usually massive.

Not to mention how the tour company had listed so many sightseeing spots on the itinerary, and conveniently left out the fact that we would only be seeing them from a distance on board the bus. We passed by this particularly scenic harbour spot at Ottawa – with the tour guide happily pointing it out as the bus continued to amble on – and I was like, what?! We are not alighting to take a walk around?! :(

The only place where we were left to explore on our own was Quebec City, and so there was enough time for me to fully experience the place … and ended up loving it. Otherwise, the speed at which we were whisked from one place to another left me disgruntled.

I still prefer free-and-easy travel. Rawr.

I personally believe there are many beautiful aspects of the various cities in the Ontario and Quebec provinces, and my perspective of the places will be unfairly skewed due to the hecticness of it all.

I’d love to return one day and properly explore around – and not be bound to a schedule dictated by some tour company to squeeze every cent out of us. (Look at it this way, admission ticket to an attraction is valid for a whole day – and we were only there for 1-2 hours. Hmm.)

[Written at 1.09 P.M. (07th June) Singapore time, 10.07 P.M. (06th June) Vancouver time.]

I was always under the impression that places in the USA and Canada will be a little more prudent when it comes to nut allergies because it is pretty rampant there. From what I heard, the rate of peanut allergies is highest among Westerners – I read about it on some article in a health magazine in Singapore about a year or two back.

It’s pretty cool to see nut allergy warnings on food boxes, labels and whatnot for once. I think it is a requirement here in view of the high nut allergy rates. T’was really helpful for people like me. (And helpful for the food companies too, so that they don’t get sued their pants off in the event an ‘accident’ happens.)

So I somewhat expected the same out of restaurants.

I was dining at a Chinese restaurant at Aberdeen (Richmond, Vancouver) this evening and my aunts ordered watercress soup (my favourite!) as one of the dishes. When the order was being taken, my uncle asked the waiter over and over again whether the soup contained nuts, which the latter denied. (For the strangest reason. He said nuts were expensive. o.O Huh and double huh?!)

So the food arrived and I slurped my soup happily, flashing my gleeful yum yum, watercress soup! grin at everyone in the vicinity, particularly my mum. She got suckered in by my grin and gave me some of her soup in response. Heh.

All things went well until I chanced upon this strange white solid … thing in my soup. It looked suspiciously like the edge of an almond, but I wasn’t sure. Plus, the waiter did say that the soup did not contain nuts. Could … it be some herb? Ginger? Garlic, perhaps? Sliced garlic sometimes looked like that.

My relatives tried tasting that little white solid mystery object for me, but no one could decipher what it was. By then, one of my aunts was beginning to look worried and told me to stop drinking the soup just in case.

Within a coupla’ minutes, my gleeful yum yum, watercress soup! grin had turned into a disappointed I have a bowl of untouchable watercress soup in front of me frown. (And at that time, I was already slightly itchy and could feel my throat swelling slightly – but I was trying to not think about it.)

My uncle summoned the waiter over.

The waiter studied the little white mystery object for a while before waving it aside.

“No, no, no! This is definitely not a nut or a peanut.”

I heaved a sigh of relief.

“It’s only an almond.”

A … WHAT?!?

At that moment, I wished I could have thrown up all the soup on the spot – because the hives were starting to appear in droves. I remained scratchy scratchy for the entire dinner. And the worst part? I chose the wrong day to change the bag I brought out because I had apparently, forgotten to transfer my medicine case over. :(

According to the waiter at the Chinese restaurant, they don’t consider almond as being part of the nut family. To them, an almond is like a fruit.

I’m fine now. Still a little itchy, but otherwise fine.

And I think the definition of what is a nut should have a worldwide standard.