Mario, a Swiss friend met in Vancouver, decided to join me for a few days to Ottawa and Montréal. We met in Toronto and then caught the train to go to Ottawa. Okay, the train is more expensive than the bus, but I like it more... Our hostel, the Hi-Ottawa Jail Hostel, is a former prison and became a National Site of Canada a few years ago. You can sleep in a cell, in the prisoners' area or in a nice dormitory in the former hospital and offices. It's pretty cool actually.
On Thursday, we met Leonie and Laura to hang around in the city. We walked a bit, but not that much because the centre of Ottawa is quite small in fact. We crossed the bridge to Gatineau, in Québec, and we wanted to joke about being in two Provinces at the same time but there's no sign between Ontario and Québec... too sad... There was the Tulip festival, the weather was beautiful and all we needed was a fresh beer so we started our "pub crawl" before 4 pm... Hahaha...
In the afternoon we walked by the Legislative Buildings, the headquarters of the Canadian government, the main streets, Byward Market, many museums and I think that's almost all you can see in Downtown.
The next day, the two of us tried to find something else to do... We choose to visit the Legislative Buildings with a guided tour and it was very interesting to understand a bit more how it works...
Then, well, we still had some hours to kill so we went to the Canadian War Museum. Impressive and very detailed... but too long honestly!
Ottawa is a very nice city, a mix of cultures, the headquarters of the government, the place where a lot of people meet to demonstrate in the streets, in short a place to see. But I think one day is enough if you just want to discover the main spots (and if you don't start drinking as early as us the first day). Anyway, it was really cool. Thanks to Leonie, Laura and Mario.
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