Solo travelling to Canada day 8

 On Monday, I'd planned to meet up with a girl I'd met online. I started the day with a solo walk to the old port as she was only meeting me at 11am and I was up quite early.

She picked me up and we went straight for lunch. Before that we had to deal with an animal emergency in the car park. Somone had left their dog in their car and it was really hot so we called security and had to find them in the shopping center which was a whole adventure lol 

I paid for the car park that day and in the two car parks we parked in we paid around 80cad if i remember rightly. 

If you read my previous blog posts about Canada, you'll know I discovered the restaurant LOV. We went there for lunch. It was really pretty inside the restaurant.

We were only planning to have a main but there was an offer going on where you could have a drink and a started for 5$ extra so we decided to do that. As a starter I had gyozas which is one of my favourite foods!! They were very very nice

We both had cocktails. I had an alcohol free cocktail and I can't really remember what it was but it was very nice, and my friend had a mojito.

As a main I obviously had to have what I'd ordered previously which was the butternut squash ravioli and they were just as nice as the last time I had them!!!!

Back in the car we go

We parked in the old port and I showed her all my favourite spots. We parked near the beachy bit of the old port which was a serious downgrade from the beach we have in Dunkirk lol but the view on the marina was nice!

Did some exploring.

The flag on the big wheel had changed as on the 1st of July it's Canada day!

Explored the actual pier which I hadn't actually been on since I got here even though I kept coming to the old port, I kept only going back to the spots I went to already lol!

We were both really hot from walking around and I was also having a hypo so we decided to grab drinks. I had a mango and strawberry smoothie and my friend had a pink lemonade which were both very nice, very refreshing and made my blood sugar go back up!

We did a bit more exploring around the old port and the place Jacques Cartier. We hit up a couple shops. My friend bought a ring from a little stand at the pier and we bought matching caps at a gift shop.

After that we wanted to watch the football game that was happening in the evening (it was the World Cup) so we decided to go to the restaurant as we knew they had TVs! We went to 3 brasseurs which we have in France but I we have in the north of France but I was intrigued as to if they had the same menu as we had in France!

They had nachos which poutine cheese on which I was very tempted by but my friend wasn't hungry enough for a starter so we only had a meal and we both had flammenkueche which are typical from the east of France. I had flammenkueche "de Lille" (town in the north of France where I lived for 3 years) and my friend had a peperoni one. We both loved them. 

We had planned to go to the parc du Mont-Royal (where I'd been a couple of days ago) to watch the sunset, it was the main reason for our hangout. We ended up staying at the bar longer than we'd planned and we had a 40mn drive to the park and we knew we'd never make it so we decided to just watch the sunset from the port and improvise the rest of our evening. 

My friend and I took pictures of / with each other to be able to look back on.

We had also planned to go to the Jazz festival but by the time we left the port, we we were stuck in traffic and we couldn't find anywhere to park so we gave up and just drove around the town for a while which was nice. I hadn't had the chance to see the town by night so it was very cool to see.

My friend came up with the idea of still going to the park but to see the town by night, so that's what we did. We ended up seeing loads of wild raccoons in the park which was very very cool. I'd never seen raccoons before so it was even cooler to see that up close.

My friend took a picture of me at the park which looked very cool but when I tried to take a picture of the view itself the pictures looked terrible lol. 

We met up at 11am and by the time she dropped me back off at my hotel it was almost 1am and then she had almost an hour drive home. I think it was one of my favourite days in Canada!!!!! She was lovely and we even said if (when) I go back, we need to hangout again!!! 

Solo traveling to Canada day 7

The next day, after spending the day in Ottawa I was quite tired so I had a later start to the day and decided to have brunch at this restaurant that I'd found online before coming to Canda!

I went to Le Cartet which was very very nice. I had a maple syrup oat milk latte and I had a poached egg on top of spinach leaves on top of maple syrup pulled pork on top of tasted buns and it came with roast potatoes. It was lovely!! I think it was one of my favourite meals I had in Canada. 

Then I had a plan of going to picnik electronik festival so I went to the parc Jean Drapeau via the metro but didn't realise you needed to book tickets 

Instead of going to the festival I went to the Biosphère which is this cool building in the park.

It was okay, very interesting but also I was having a hypo and didn't have anything with me so I hurried around the place so I could find a sugarry drink! It's funny because after brunch my blood sugar went up to almost 400 and after doing an insulin bolus and walking a bit I had a hypo which was quite annoying.

Then I had a break in the park while I was having my drink. I saw these very pretty flowers and some yellow birds flying around.

I then remembered there was a vegan food festival in Montreal while I was there and it was the last day of the festival and you didn't need tickets so I got the metro and walked for about 30mn and made it to the festival.

After walking so much I was having another hypo so I went to the bar and asked if they had any sugarry drinks and the man at the bar said it's funny because usually people ask if they have any sugar free drinks. I said I was diabetic and he said oh well I'm a nurse so have it lol.

Here's the food I had. I was going to have more different foods but a thunderstorm hit the place (it was bright sunshine 30mn before I was even putting suncream on because I was scared of getting sunburn!). I was planning on having a vegan burger or hot dog but didn't have time for it because they had to shut down because of the rain and lightning!!

Before they shut down I had time to look around the different stands they had and bought this crochet ray. I also bought a body cream that smells really nice. 

I had either a 2 hour walk back to the hotel or a 30mn walk to the metro under the pouring rain and lighnting so I decided to get a lyft back to the hotel. I waited 7 minutes for the car to arrive and by then I was completely drenched and I was so wet that I made all the car wet when I sat there, I felt really bad so I gave him an extra bit of tip lol!!

By the time I made it to the hotel it was bright sunshine again. I decided to rest for a bit and decided I would go to the restaurant for dinner. I had planned to go to the vegan restaurant I ordered from (LOV) but I got there too early so I sat on a bench and waited until their opening time but they never opened. I then found a French restaurant that looked nice but when I got there I got told I needed a reservation to eat there. On my way to the French restaurant I walked past a fish and chips shop so I decided to go there!

While I was waiting for LOV to open, a duck and ducklings walked past me. It was very weird to see as we were in the middle of town, quite a way away from the water. There was a group of people walking around them to protect them from the cars on the road which I found very nice and cool.

This is what my fish and chips looked like. It was very very nice and they even had real english mayonnaise!!!!

I had a ginger beer with my drink and it was very nice!

By the time I'd finished dinner it was sunset time. I'd thought about going to the bar but the one I'd found online that I wanted to go to was shut so I gave up and went back to my hotel!

I sat on the picnic tables next to my hotel to write my postcards and saw a man put his dog on a trailer on his bike and found it very cute!