Quebec, Canada by Kev

12.12.2025 onwards. Today we're driving to Mel's cousin's place near Montreal, in Quebec. We had originally planned to drive there after picking up the car yesterday, but that would have had us arriving pretty late, so we held off until today. Around 7 hours later we pulled up in front of Rox and Kev's place. Their house is on the smaller side, so we're staying in a caravan they have. It's cold so we'll see how it goes. Over the next few days we did some catching up and visited a few places. We went to Montreal a few times to visit various places and to do some Christmas shopping. We visited a small town close by, Joliette, where the kids played in the snow and we had a look at their local art museum. We went to the ballet in Montreal, the Nut Cracker. We went to the super glissades. Big slides built on a mountain using snow, which we slid down. The more people grouped together, the faster you went. We had a warmer day, 0° or 1°, so the kids stayed outside and built a really good snowman. We took a walk in the woods and stood around a fire and Andrew had a go at chopping wood. We visited Quebec city, one of the oldest cities in Canada, where we visited La Citadelle. A star shaped fortress built by the British between 1820-1850. We walked through old Quebec city, and looked at a few shops. We witnessed an amazing light show, inside the Saint-Roch church, in Quebec City. We've had, what I consider, bloody cold weather. Thankfully, the warm stuff we bought and some things borrowed have held up to the cold. We haven't thought much about blogging or schoolwork these last couple weeks, well I haven't, hence my condensed blog. We have just enjoyed being somewhere nice, Mel loves the snow scape, and seeing part of another country. I thought it would be hard here in Quebec, as I speak very little French. What I have found is that most of the people that I have interacted with, that being in some form of service industry, speak English. We talked with a bartender, and he said more of the younger generation speak both languages, while the older generation are still mostly French. In just a short time we have gotten used to the cold, mostly. We woke up to -30°c one morning. The heater in the caravan worked overtime just to keep us at 14° and we were happy to have an extra blanket. We had another day close to 0° all day, perfect snowman weather. The kids finished with two snowmen, a snow tower and a baby snowmen. Jeffery, Jeffery the second, baby Jeffery and the tower of Jeffery. They also tried to make an ice skating rink. It wasn't very big, but it worked. I saw them both slip arse over head on it. We ate some great food and I tried a lot of different Canadian beers, all with great company. Unfortunately it all had to end. On the last day, we took Kev, Rox and Savannah out for brunch. When we came back we packed our bags and said goodbye. Mel and the kids had trouble saying goodbye. We'd had a great time and would miss them all dearly. We drove to Montreal the day before our flight to make it easier for us the next day. We had dinner at the hotel and spent our last night in Canada. The next morning we got up early and drove to the airport. Dropped off the car and wandered on in. We sat and waited for our flight, not knowing exactly how to feel. Well that was me anyway. We boarded the plane and said goodbye to Canada. Even in winter it is a beautiful country, and I would like to see it in the summer. It is hard to believe our next country is Australia. See ya there.
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