I HATE Airports (part 2)

Flying anywhere near New York is a nightmare.

A small propeller driven plane got me from Quebec to Montreal without any hassles. I spent about 20 minutes searching for the US transfer area, cleared U.S customs before even leaving Canada, and jogged off towards my flight. As I neared departure gate 42, I couldn't help but notice that 10 angry Americans had laid siege to the check-in counter and were practicing some of their naughty words. An intercom announcement confirmed that my flight to New York had been cancelled due to 'bad weather'. All flights to anywhere in the New York area for the next 2 days were either cancelled or overbooked and because the issue was weather related, no compensation would be offered. As a final insult, everyone had to leave the vicinity of the gate immediately - for security reasons. In the area just outside the vicinity of the gate, I got talking to 3 New Yorkers who were independently stuck in the same boat as me. They let me in on the secret that 'bad weather' is actually code for 'more flights are scheduled into New York than they can possibly handle'. We all agreed that being stranded in Montreal for 2 days was not acceptable. The only reasonable alternative was to hire a car and take a road trip! So thrust together by fate, the four heroic travellers checked back through customs into Canada and jumped into an SUV. Spending 8 hours in a car with three complete strangers wasn't exactly how I expected to spend my evening, but as I rolled into Times Square at about 3am, I realised things could've been a lot worse. At least i didn't have to work the next day. Thanks again to Craig, Eric and Chelsea for a memorable journey and also for offering some great advice about New York. Chelsea, a finance company recruiter, even took the time to check out my resume, improving it to the point that it might actually get me a job. Perhaps one day - but not today...

Canada - Quebec City

A pleasant, three hour train trip got me to Quebec, the oldest city in Canada. Founded in 1608, the city is tactically positioned on a large cliff guarding the entrance to the St Lawrence river. Although the city now sprawls down the hill to accommodate 500,000 people, the European styled old town remains, complete with cobblestone streets and a city wall.

Just for a change, I arrived right in the middle of a music festival. The Quebec Summer Festival had 3 practically free open air stages and an impressive international line up including Michael Franti, Xavier Rudd and an amusing rock opera. Once again the people were friendly and the atmosphere was great.

In another fortunate coincidence, Griff was attending a Banach Algebra conference in Quebec the very same week. Don’t even bother asking what Banach Algebra is - unless you’ve got a postgraduate pure maths degree and a special interest in infinite dimensioned vector spaces. One of the members of the group jokingly suggested that one well placed bomb would all but remove Banach Spaces from the pool of human knowledge. I’m pretty sure no one would notice...

A liberation interpretation of ‘partners welcome’ saw me holding hands with Griff to join the group on a whale watching excursion. I’ve never really seen the appeal of whale watching but the scenery and buffet dinner made the day worthwhile. After being around ‘normal’ people for a couple of months, I was glad to be back in my element - obscure internet references and maths puzzles abounded. Matt (my musical twin) and Chris, both from Ottawa, were particularly good value.

The weather was very wet for my final couple of days in Canada so I stuck mostly to indoor activities, sampling a couple of nice restaurants, touring the parliament building and having a few beers with Matt, Chris and some friends from the hostel. I shared a cab to the airport with a friendly Swedish couple who offered me some useful advice about travelling in their country. Next stop, New York! Or at least that was the plan...

Canada - Montreal

I was greeted at Montreal Airport by my Quebecois friend David and stayed one night at his house in Saint-Hyacinthe, which sits directly downwind of a large chocolate factory. I think this explains why he has such a good looking girlfriend (CV - are you taking notes?). The next morning I taught him a thing or two about tennis before heading to my hostel in the city.

At 3.7 million, Montreal is the largest city in Quebec, the second largest in Canada and has as much cultural diversity as any I've seen. Although the official language is French, everyone is also at least semi-fluent in English and usually a couple of other languages too, just to make me feel inadequate. Almost every kind of food is on offer and i never had a bad meal – from 3am, $3 kebabs to a $40 French/Asian fusion extravaganza.

Purely by chance, my visit coincided with the world's largest 'International Jazz Festival'. For 10 days they filled five main stages and several smaller ones with incredible live tunes, from traditional Jazz and blues to more eclectic world music. Remarkably, all the outdoor stages were completely free with more than 50,000 people packing the streets around the most popular acts. There were also a couple of smaller pay-to-view indoor stages where little known artists like Van Morrison and Bob Dylan performed. I ebayed a ticket to my fourth Dylan show – the best yet.

I met a bunch of interesting people at my hostel, including Britney, an acrobat/gymnast from Vancouver Island, who joined me to ride rollercoasters and Salvatore, the quintessential middle-aged Italian. I was amazed at his ability to ask every good looking girl for directions, even when he wasn't going anywhere. He'd inevitably extend a dinner invitation, at which point they'd walk/run away leaving him to shrug and look for another. He wouldn't have to look far - the city has the best looking women I've seen anywhere in the world.

A series of late nights at Jazzfest saw me sleeping through most mornings, but I did manage to make the most of the afternoons. I biked around the Grand Prix circuit in the pouring rain, hiked up Mount Royal for a nice view of the city, and also explored the city's diverse architecture. Old Montreal has cobblestone streets and 17^th century buildings, while the business district is full of skyscrapers with an underground pedestrian network linking them all together. Although more of a novelty in summer, they tunnels apparently get a little busier in Winter when the outside temperature is 30 below.

Like most parts of the world with extreme weather, the locals really celebrate the long days and warmth of summer. There are huge outdoor festivals running from June through August and although the atmosphere is exciting and frantic, the friendliness of the Canadian people still shines. If you haven't already been to Montreal in summer, it really is a must – my favourite city in North America. I ended up extending my stay to 8 days, and could easily have stayed a month.

Thanks again to David for all his hospitality, unfortunately he had a very hectic week organising athletes in an international beach volleyball competition so I didn't get a chance to catch up as much I would've liked. I'm hope he can visit Australia sometime soon!

Canada - Winnipeg

After 7 busy weeks I was overdue for a break, so i headed to the flattest part of Canada to avoid the temptation of mountains. Located in the Manitoban prairies near the geographic centre of North America, Winnipeg has incredibly seasonal weather, ranging from +40 in summer to -40 in winter. Although the weather wasn't perfect, I was never in danger of freezing to death.

Although Winnipeg is a lovely, elm lined city of 630,000 people (with a surprisingly similar atmosphere to Adelaide) it isn't the most exciting or popular tourist destination. In fact the locals were so impressed with my visit that they immediately rushed me in to anchor the daily news bulletin.

Many thanks to Vince and Anna for letting me crash at their place and also for doing everything possible to make me feel welcome. They introduced me to their friends and family, loaned me a great bike, gave me beer and even remembered to take me out for my birthday. They both worked weekdays, which gave me a chance to relax and wander around, and at night we managed to fit in plenty of funness.

My trip coincided perfectly with the Winnipeg Jazz festival and I made it out to see a critically acclaimed experimental jazz band, (Vijay Iyer) and a blues guitarist, famous for being able to play whilst standing on his head (Guitar Shorty). On the weekend we took a road trip out to Lake of the Woods, a gorgeous weekend escape about 200km east of Winnipeg. I also fit in a some running, a little baseball and couple of great bike rides.

I've convinced Anna and Vince to come and visit Adelaide for a few months (provided i help them find work, which should be easy given my job expertise) so hopefully we'll get a chance to catch up again soon!

Canada - Whistler

I was a little disappointed to be leaving the Rockies, but the drive South-West to Kamloops soon cheered me up. Driving a brand new SUV in British Columbia was great fun. Good roads, a courageous co-pilot and magnificent scenery made time on the roads something to look forward to. The only negative aspect was all the road works, which i'm told are in preparation for the 2010 winter olympics. All up we covered 2660km at around 9km/L.

After stopping the night in Kamloops, the rest of the journey to Whistler was particularly scenic, along a spectacular and windy mountain road. The town is very modern, constructed in the past 20 years, and is a lot like a retirement village for young people. All parking is underground which allows the chalets and hotels to be packed tightly together and completely surrounded by pedestrian malls. Although the permanent population is only 10,000, this can increase more than 10 times during ski season. Although summer is the low season, there are still plenty of activities on offer. We started by taking a pleasant 'stroll' along Cheakamus Lake - anything which doesn't involve climbing a mountain through multiple feet of snow no longer qualifies as a hike. We did run into a crazed, chainsaw wielding park ranger though.

Next we joined an All Terrain Vehicle tour of nearby Cougar Mountain. With motorcycle style handlebars and a thumb lever throttle, the ATVs were quite tricky to control - especially through puddles and over rocks. Jo, who had never driven any kind of motorised vehicle before, found it particularly tough. Her first driving experience very nearly ended in disaster as she rolled her whole ATV sideways on a seemingly flat section of path. Luckily she was thrown clear of the falling bike and landed on some comfortable rocks, escaping with a few bruises. Despite her new found driving expertise I decided it probably wasn't a good idea to put her in charge of the SUV just yet...

We ended our time together with one of my favourite dinners ever at the Rim Rock Cafe and Oyster Bar - an absolute must visit if you're anywhere near Whistler. The caribou and halibut were incredible!