Arrival in Canada

Hello everyone!

Well, here we are in Canada... and it is REALLY COLD!!!

We arrived in Ottawa at midnight on the 9th Jan, and were met by Bill and Brenda, our Canadian hosts. As it was minus 18 degrees outside, they brought along some winter coats and gloves and touques (beanies) for us to wear. Thank god they did!! It sure is a huge contrast to the 40 plus degree days we had gotten used to in Laverton and the lovely humidity in NZ!

We walked outside the terminal building, and there was snow everywhere!! We have never seen anything like it! You drive along the roads here, and there are huge snow banks everywhere... people are constantly having to dig their way out of their homes and driveways or they would never be able to leave their houses!! It is pretty amazing how they can live in this environment!! And we think it gets cold in NZ!!! YEAH RIGHT!!! :)

Our wonderful friends took us on a tour of the city of Ottawa at night, and we got to see the Parliament buildings which are absolutely amazing, and HUGE!!! We also went to the outside of the museum of Civilization, where we could look across at the Parliament buildings on the other side of the river. Ottawa is really interesting because there is a river that runs through it called the Ottawa river that acts as the border between Ontario and Quebec... so you drive across the bridge and all of a sudden you are in Quebec, and all of the road signs are in French, and there are different laws etc... it is really trippy! We drove past about a million museums! Ottawa is really lucky to be the capital city of Canada, as they have lots of museums... and we are hoping to visit some of them before long. We also saw a whole bunch of other interesting stuff but i was way too jetlagged to take it all in!! Was very strange to be driving on the wrong side of the road, but we survived to tell the tale!!

We then travelled out of the city to Metcalfe, which is a village of about 1500 people that is situated about 20km south of the city itself. We were introduced to where we would be staying, which is a really neat loft above Bills armoury. There are pieces of armour adorning the walls, and Lee is in heaven!! There is a lovely gas fire, which is very necessary... especially when it is minus 30 degrees outside!! The only mission is that if nature calls, it is about 15 steps across from the workshop to the house to use the facilities!! Brrrr... wouldn't want to run across in the PJ's, with bare feet that is for sure!

Here are some photos from around Metcalfe.

This is a photo of Becs in front of a snowbank across the road from where we are staying.

Huge eh??!!

This is a small stream that has frozen over.. just down the road. Beautiful!

This is also just down the road... can't beleive how much snow there is!!

This is where we are staying... the house was built in 1867. We are staying above Bill's armoury around the back of the house. (Note the car shelter to the right of the house, which is like a tent and is used to keep the snow and ice off the car).

The next day we woke up to find that Brenda had made us a traditional Canadian brekkie, which consisted of pea-meal back bacon, pancakes and maple syrup. YUMMMMMM!!! Was absolutely delicious, and the maple syrup is to die for over here... especially when it is from a sugar shack (where they make it) just down the road. Highly recommended.