[060515-190515] EASTERN USA + CANADA PART IV (Days 7-8)

DAY 7
MONTREAL --> QUEBEC

In the day we went on a sightseeing tour of Old Montreal. After we are done with Montreal, we went on to Quebec City for sightseeing. You'll realise that the architecture of these two places are more colonial style is that what you call it? Like the olden days those nice nice buildings kind of style la haha. #failblogger
I was actually looking forward to Quebec City cos I thought it's q similar to Europe so I thought it will be real pretty and would show a diff culture from the rest of the cities we have been to. Oh and they speak French (I think ppl in Montreal speak French too). But our tour there was short (say 2-3 hours only?) so we didn't really get to bask in their culture or what not.

the sky is so gloomy the photos are all not nice aiz.

the pro photographer uncle in the tour group said the colours are "flat". hahaha don't you agree? 

#actlikeiunderstandbutiactuallydontreallygetit but yes there's no contrast and the colour's bad lol

oh and i realise this tour group got quite a few ppl got dslr hahaha all these rich ppl ah

and you realise until now i haven't said what this place is?? HAHA

okok this is the St Joseph's Oratory i just googled hehe and all the photos on sunny days are so nice?! unfair lolol

Some point in the Mt Royal Park where we get a bird's eye view of Montreal. But too bad we had gloomy weather that morning. So all we saw were trees and clouds and some buildings.

In Montreal, many buildings are all connected underground. They have like this huge underground network which connects the trains to the buildings and what not. So we went underground to explore also hahaha and here's their train station as seen from above.

Canadian train lol

AND CAN YOU BELIEVE IT THIS IS KPMG TOWER BUT I DID NOT REALISE UNTIL LIKE A WHILE AGO WHEN I GOOGLED "TOUR KPMG"??? #FAIL I still thought it's some random place aiz. 

I blame it on the usage of French. 

AIZ hence there's no good pic of KPMG tower lol.

The tower is really tall, probably one of the newest tall towers in Montreal. The tour guide did say smth about this but why didn't he mention KP LOL.

But ok at least I spotted KP in Toronto and in Montreal.

And it faces this beautiful church

With beautiful flowers. Damn chio

And this is the Notre Dame Basilica. 

Looks simple on the outside right, but on the inside, IT'S GORGEOUS.

So gorgeous.

And this is their chapel.

Some celebrity had her wedding here but I forgot who hahaha.

The guy with the long hair was our local guide for Montreal.

BUFFET. THE DAY WE HAD TWO BUFFETS.

We actually had a choice for lunch -- buffet or fast food. 

Of course fast food right duh cheaper somemore (we had to pay for this meal on our own). But nobody raised any objections (probably cos nobody knew we were gonna have buffet for dinner too oh gosh).

So buffet it was. 

But ok the food here wasn't as bad as the other places. At least the food was edible with some sort of taste hahaha.

After lunch, we went to see a waterfall on the way to Quebec.

And I spotted a magic school bus! Who remembers the cartoon? hahaha

Name of the waterfall

How it looks like hahaha

Of course it pales in comparison to Niagara. 

Cable car at the waterfall which we didn't take lol

And then we continued our journey to Quebec where we picked up our Quebec local guide.

In both Montreal and Quebec, there's a requirement to have local guides guide the tours.

Then we explored Old Quebec. There's actually a wall that separates the old parts and the new parts of Quebec city.

Parliament building

That guy in the pic is our local guide for Quebec. He's a v cute old man hahahahha the older ppl in the group say he treats us like primary school children though. 

He would say, "Do you want to follow Ben?" or something to this extent hahaha. It's quite funny cos our guide from SG told us another local guide did this in another tour then someone said no lolol. 

This local guide made the entire group laugh like siao (at him) oops cos he v cute la hahaha.

When he left, he ran across the road and rushed to the nearby bus stop but dropped everything in his pockets lol. Our guide from SG had to get down our bus to run after him. Smth was funny about this too but I forgot oh man.

But haha happy memories so funny lolol

Cochon Dingue = Crazy Pig hahahahahahhaha

Cobbled streets I love

Place Royale

La Fresque des Quebecois wall mural

Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac

(the palace like place on the top of the hill haha)

I actually thought I would like Quebec more. From this trip I didn't learn much about Quebec nor did I have a lot of time to slowly explore and come to love the place, but I guess there's always a next time hahaha.

DAY 8
QUEBEC --> BOSTON 

First thing on the itinerary was to visit a sugar shack, and learn more about the process of making maple syrup and all the maple related products.

Lots and lots of maple trees

MAPLE LEAVES

Bought lots of maple-related products and then we continued travelling towards Boston.

Lunch stop was here at MCDONALD'S.

Where we had the chance to try a Canadian favourite-- Poutine. It's basically french fries with gravy and cheese. I heard from a friend it's damn nice and damn good. 

But, this Mcdonald's version is not impressive and we didn't have the chance to try the famous one at Ashton's.

So I believe this is a lousy version of Poutine. Really.

And I tried the CBO, for novelty sake.

What for get the usual stuff when you can get them here in SG too right?

And I just had to get this at the rest stop too.

MAC AND CHEESE YO. I think it was not bad hahaha as far as I remember.

And we reached Boston, so of course....

WE HAD THE MOST FANTABULOUS DINNER EVER.

Lobsters never fail yo. Never.

And lobsters, because we were in Boston~~

Only regret is that it's not the angmoh style one they showed on tv where they had like a 3-course lobster meal sia i was looking forward to that.

But nevermind, steamed lobsters were nice and juicy too.

And now i'm hungry lol