Visiting the Neighbors

Oh Canada! 

What a beautiful country, I had a great weekend! Took a bunch of pictures, had a beavertail, tried poutine, skated more than ever before, saw some amazing icesculptures and laughed with crazy people. 

Wednesday night Kathleen picked me up at home, and with a suitcase stuffed with sweaters, scarfs and other warm clothes, we went to West Bath to dump it of there, picked Derek up and then went out to dinner at a nice little Mexican place in Brunswick. After some pretty good enchiladas we drove back home, watched an episode of Top Gear, and then got in bed. 

My alarm lock rang at 5.00 am the next morning, I packed my PJ's and toothbrush back in my suitcase and brough it all back upstairs. Kathleen had been up for a while and while I ate a light breakfast, she a Derek got the last things ready and then we headed of to Canada!!! 

On the way we stopped to pick up Kathleen's mom, Louise, who made sandwiches and cookies for the trip - which, of cause, was eaten in the car American style! 

We drove through beautiful landscapes, woods, next to lakes, over fields, and by the time we crossed the boundry to New Hampshire is started snowing. 

Getting into Canada took a while. I brought a bunch of paperwork, visa papers, and signatures from EF and my parents in Denmark. We all handed over our passports for a start, the guy asked a couple of questions and then he left, taking all of our passports with him. We waited for quite a while, he returned, asked a few more questions and then let us drive into Canada. Kathleen's sister, husband a daughters got over a lot quicker, but my red passport among the three blue ones probably made a little bell ring?

Anyway, we got over and continued our adventure. 

Eight hours, a short nap, a chicken sandwish, a bottle of water, two cookies, an endless number of songs, three bathroom breaks, and a very blue house later, we arrived in Ottawa, Ontario.

Our hotel - Lord Elgin - was located right across the street from the park, where the icesculptures were made, it was very nice! 

Took a quick walk, just to see the Parliament and to buy some water and beverages, and then back to the hotel to unpack. Then we hang out at K+D's room, and Martha stopped by. 

Now before I really start using all of these names, maybe I should make a list, for your sake, but also so I don't forget as time pass by. On this trip was: 

Louise (K's mom) 

   Joe + Mary          Susan + Bob          Kathleen + Derek          Martha + Walther

      Anna                     Joanna                                                      Elizabeth

                                   Trevor                                                         Emily

Also on the trip was Olivia (another one of K's nieces) Emily (Anna's roommate) and of cause - Me!

I hope that made a little sense? 

So anyway, after a little chill out, we got dressed up, and went out to dinner with the rest of the family. Now that's a funny story! 

We were supposed to go to a restaurant called Friday, Kathleen had called a couple of weeks ahead to get a table - after all we were 17 people! - and they had confirmed. So we got in a cap, and told the cabbie to take us to Friday, he had no idea where that was, to he talked to another cab driver, he didn't know either. Fortunately Bob had the address, unfortunately, he had already taken of, walking to our restaurant. Someone then remembered that Friday was across from Mama Teressas, another restaurant, and the cabbie knew where that was, so we went there, and we found the right building, with Anna, Emily and Mary standing outside. It turned out, that were Friday used to be, was no longer Friday, but a new place. After a bunch of phonecalls, Anna got to talk to the manager of Friday, who gave us a new address, and we went there instead. Turned out, Friday didn't excist anymore, but the mananger had another restaurant - Prime 360 - so that was were we ended up...

After dinner we walked back to the hotel, and half of us went to K+D's room. It was quite entertaining, and I found out that there's a lot of things I don't know about Denmark, and the Olympics. 
After everybody left, Kathleen put on her forever lazy, and we took a few pics! 

The next day - Friday - we - we being Kathleen, Derek, Louise and me - started with breakfast at a little diner called The Maple Flower, though they spelled it like The May Flower. -Another country you know...

Then we went to Parliament, and up the Peace Tower, from where we could see the city, which was a lot of fun! Went back to the hotel, and got ready for skating! 

Ottawa has the Worlds biggest skate rank, it's almost 7 km long - Yes, I can use km today, because Canada mezures in km! - so I rented skates, K and D put their's on, and we headed down the river. 

Now, I'm not the best skater in the world, and my feet hurt quite a bit when I do, so we went slow, but it was very nice! After about 3 km Derek suggested that we should try to tighten my skates, to see if that would help, so we crossed some bumby ice and sat down at a bench. Derek tightened my skates, and unsecure as I was on my skates, very carefully got over the bumby ice and back on the rank. Kathleen also walked carefully to get out there, but Derek told us "All you have to do, is to go out hot", and so he did, took a few quick steps and then fell as long as he was. He sat up, looked around, and said ''Did I just break my skate'', and it was as true as he said it. The blade was lying on the ice a couple of feet behind him, and after making sure that he was okay, Kathleen and I broke down laughing! It was hilarious!!! 

"All you have to do, is go out hot!", that stuck with him for the rest of the trip! 

But then Karma joined us, and while Derek put on his skates, Kathleen and I continued down the river. It didn't take long though, before I was flat on the ice, and my black coat was all white on front. Nothing happened though, and both Kathleen and I had us another good laugh. 

We stopped a little down the ice, where we found a bench and got a cup of hot cider or chocolate and a beaver tale. Yummy!

We finished skating and then meet up with Louise again, and went to a Hard Rock cafe for lunch, that was very cool, I've never been to a hard rock cafe before. 

That night we had a hockey game to go to, we got there at six. It was a huge arena -  or so I thought - but apparently, hockey arenas are usually bigger! It was alot of fun though, specially because the hole family is very into to hockey. 

Once again we headed back to our hotel for the night. It was another night of fun, but a lot of it took some kind of background story from someones childhood. 

Also there were Cheez-it. Little orange crackers -Yes, they were ORANGE - that were supposed to taste like cheese, not my favorite kind of cracker, as you might have guessed. 

Saturday Joe picked Kathleen, Derek and me up and we went to Hocked Life, a huge store filled with hockey gear - skates, pants, jerseys, sticks and all the other stuff people use when they play. Derek, of cause, needed a new pair of skates, and Kathleen got a pair of pants. I was amazed by how big the store was, for just one sport, and even though I don't play hockey, I found it very cool, not as cool as Kathleen though, who described it as Heaven! 

After Hockey Life we once again went to the skating rank, but since it was now Saturday, there were a lot more people. There was even a line for renting skates. So that took a while, but I got a pair, and we skated all the way to the end of the river, where the Bed Races were held. Now you might be thinking, what are bed races, and to answer that - It is excactly what it sounds like, people pushing beds on the ice, to see who can get down to the finish line first. It was fun to watch. We meet with Joe and Mary who were also watching. After a couple of races Kathleen and I took the bus back, while Derek skated. My feet were killing me after the 7 km, so it was nice to get the skates of. 

Another visit at the hotel and then we had lunch with Anna, Emily, Louise, Joe and Mary at a nice pub, not to far down the street. We had poutine - another Canadian thing with french fries covered in gravy and squeeky cheese, it was very nice!

That night we had dinner at Mama Teressa's with Louise, Martha, Walther, Elizabeth and Emily. We sat at the best table in the restaurant in a small room on the 1st floor, we were the only table in there, and we could see down at the street. 

When we were done we went to Anna and Emily's for beverages and snacks, and to watch the hockey game with one eye while talking and laughing at the same time. Time flew by and quickly it was past 11 and we walked back to the hotel. 

Sunday we once again went to The Maple Flower, then walked through the park to see the icesculpture - which at that point were almost done - before we started our eight hour drive home.

It was an awesome vacation!