All aboard...and on to Ottawa!

31 July -- The trip has commenced! Getting our tickets in Halifax was no problem and the attendant did not bat an eye at my name misspelling, so I felt no need to mention it as well. We did this at 9am to be sure all was in order, after popping over to the Trident Café on Hollis Street for coffee and a cinnamon bun. It's a cute café and used book store.

We were back at the station at 11ish, and Barbara and Al saw us off, giving us lots of food goodies for the trip. Matt scaled this down to a more reasonable amount to bring. We boarded at about 12:10, and were off on time. Matt and I chose opposing seats, and I thought I had made a bad decision as I was facing backwards and feeling slightly trainsick as the trees whizzed by the train. Leaving Halifax we got nice views of the Bedford Basin, and tried to wave to Matt's parent's house. Hours later, after Bathurst, NB, there are views of the Bay de Chaleur, and at this time of day the sunsets are most lovely. Looking west over the mountains on the Gaspe the sky was like a pale watercolor rainbow, quite beautiful. I love sunsets, and over the St Lawrence are some of the nicest ones I have seen. It's unfortunate we don't leave Halifax a bit earlier to catch these, but that would put us into Montreal too early.

We're stuck in Cambellton, NB, now for awhile, for no aparent reason. We're supposed to meet the Chaleur train in Matapedia and delay even more there... The bridge to Quebec is big and green and lit up. I am optimistic about sleeping as our seats recline pretty far, and I am getting tired (at about 10pm). The blankets they gave us are subpar, quite thin and small, though. No sleep for the next 7 miles whence we go through our first tunnel (only 45m long though)!

1 Aug -- To sleep perchance to dream, and dream I did about our train going through some sort of pirate amusement park. and the train split between Matt and I and we went down different paths, and all the while I was quite keen with my camera, documenting our adventure. That sleep was short and often broken though, I would estimate I slept between 3 and 5 hours. We had an interesting simpleton family with a baby sitting beside us... and therefore lots of crying through the night. And the train seats though sort of comfy, aren't that comfy for sleeping. humph.

Due to the delay at Matapedia (the Chaleur was late coming in and then had problems hooking up i guess), we were already about 1.5 hrs behind at Charny (near Quebec city) and then about 2hrs behind when we finally reached Montreal. We came over the Victoria Bridge, and it was nice coming into a familiar city. The train turned west towards St. Henri, then backed up and we went in the reverse direction into the train station downtown. People with connections to Ottawa had missed their train, and a bus was being arranged for them. Back in Halifax we had checked our bags to go to said missed train, so we tried to figure out how to get our bag back to check in Montreal, but the half the VIA people we talked to were rude and unhelpful. Eventually we got outside at the bus... ugh.. a gray and humid, heavy day in Montreal, not so desirable to stay there. Since there was room on the bus, and we were worried about future train delays, we hopped on that bus to Ottawa! Our first spontaneous change in our North American adventure!

The bus took 2.5 hours, and brought us in to the capital of Canada, which awaited us at the balmy temperature of 104F/44C degrees, or so the bus driver said.. ahhh!!! too hot! We found a cab, and popped on over to the hotel here. The heat here is quite oppressive, when one is used to Maine and the Maritimes. Thus, our afternoon has consisted of going to the Rideau Centre to eat lunch, find Matt some sandals, and pick up some much needed Tylenol and ear plugs. We're plotting invading the swimming pool sometime soon, then going out for dinner when perchance it will have cooled down. Right now weather.ca says Ottawa is 36C, and 48C with the humidex. We're seeing on TV that Chicago is 107F, so this will be good preparation for the heat. And we'll have a break in Churchill, where it is 8C now!! haha! More on Ottawa and our sight seeing to come tomorrow. Stay cool everyone!