entries
November 2011 Trip
Thursday, December 22, 2011 @ 11:58 PM
It’s been ages since I’ve last posted omg cause this trip is really long and good and I couldn’t bear to blog slipshod-ly. Sorry to keep disappointing my regular blog visitors! Anyway starting from the next paragraphs there’s like more than 4300 words, and I highly doubt most people will read everything. So omg if you actually bothered to read all the words here, 我真的对你感激不尽! Oh and btw the font of the captions of the pictures are uber big. Rawr don't know how to change it and I kinda give up thinking how cause I was rectifying something else. Meh.
Headed for
my really unexpected trip to US and Canada during the wee hours of 11 November,
the day right after Higher Chinese Os and right after Graduation Night. Felt
like some celebrity chionging to the airport after the event at Marriot Hotel!
:D Took the Korean Airlines (cause it was cheaper according to my mum) and
honestly I was super excited to take it cause I usually take Singapore Airlines
and I’m quite sian of it already, although yes it’s good and all, but you know
sometimes you need a change! And stopping over at Incheon Airport made me soooo
excited teehee! What I really love about Korean Airlines is considerably large
number of Korean movies (as compared to other languages except English) and all
the Korean food OYEAA! Totally ordered all the Korean food cause the other
alternative was western which is what I’ll prolly be mass eating during this
trip. I LOVEEEE THEIR BIBIMBAP GOSH IT’S HEAVENLY. :D And oh I also love how
the cup noodles you can request is the Korean 辛 brand one
hehe! ^^ Oh the second plane ride from Incheon to New York, we took the A380
(AWESOMENESSS), and that plane is absolutely cool to the max la! The stairs up
to the business class is super duper wide and grand, like those ballroom kind
(though I couldn’t go up la), and there’s such thing as a skyshop at the back
of the plane, where they actually display their products on shelves (more like
the products are glued onto the shelves haha). DAMN COOL CAN. xD
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| Korean Airline's Bibimbap that I'm in love with! Looks pathetic but IT'S FREAKING AWESOME! Package on the extreme left is the steamed rice! |
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| The Skyshop in A380! |
Manhattan,
New York (United States of America)
Arrived at
John F. Kennedy Airport in the late morning of 11 November. (I love how you
seemingly travel back in time when you go to US, but when you go back home you
lose a day so :/) Instead of taking a taxi all the way to our hotel, my mum and
I met dad (yea he was in US 2 weeks earlier than us for work) and we took a
train and subway to our hotel. Had quite bad jetlag cause I didn’t sleep and
was spam watching videos. Entered the subway station, and boy, everything felt
so super surreal. Like I was this cameraman in a Hollywood movie. And their
subway station is super cool, like it’s really old looking but yet gives the
very cool feel, I don’t know why maybe it’s just my biasedness or what, since the
stations are not exactly presentable looking as compared to Singapore’s haha!
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| Statue of Liberty! |
Went for a
2 hour cruise ride around half of Manhattan Island. (Oyea New York comprises of
several islands like Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan is where all the
big stuffs happen la, used to think that New York is just one big state haha silly
me) The cruise was pretty damn awesome, since you get to see all 3 bridges
(forgot their name eeks), and get quite close to the statue of liberty! Though
it’s quite 遗憾 that I didn’t go to Ellis Island to visit the statue up close. And it
takes you around to see Manhattan’s city skyline, there’s even a live tour
guide on board (and he’s quite hilarious haha).
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| Times Square |
In the late afternoon/evenings
we headed to TIMES SQUARE! I loveee all the billboards everywhere gosh! Super
colourful and eyecatching! Oh and that’s where I bought my black I ♥ NY at US$14 only! It’s the cheapest
price for a similar hoodie! ^^ Along Times Square you can observe damn interesting
people, like the way they advertise, instead of just giving out flyer, some
people just hold up this long stick with a poster attached at the other end and
they either walk around or just stand there. HAHA was quite amused I don’t know
why either. And they have damnnn good buskers! Like on the way back to the
hotel, in one subway station there was this guy singing while strumming a
guitar WITHOUT MICROPHONES WHATSOEVER and it sounded super godly. Other
interesting buskers I saw was this huge bunch of Black bboy dancers, FRIGGING
AWESOME PEOPLE. All the popping and locking and waves, gosh!! (Y)
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| It's common to see roses placed beside people's names |
Visited the
911 memorial park on 13 November, a place that I’ve always wanted to go. You
have to register beforehand to enter, as they want to control the size of the
crowd, and there’s even a limit to the size of bags you can bring (there’s no
lockers in there either), so backpacks are a no-no there. Can tell that security
is super tight (Y) but at the same time a bunch of policemen were more than
willing to take pictures with tourists hehe! Got a pic with them and I look so
small hehe I love how macho they look (though I don’t know what’s underneath
their uniform la hahahaha!!) I loveee
the concept of this memorial park, creating to huge waterfalls at the
footprints of the North and South towers, carving every victims names (from the
crew/passengers on board the fateful planes, the ones trapped in the building,
and even the firefighters who lost their lives trying rushing in the building
to save others), and how organized they were in carving their names. There are
even machines at the side for people to locate victims names, like they even
have photographs of these victims and their information (age, job, company,
country, etc) in these machines. Walking around the footprints and reading
their names, it’s quite D:. Especially when you see something like xxx and her
unborn child. Super :’( lah! It’s not uncommon to see flowers placed beside
names too. Near the park there’s this memorial museum (the smaller version
cause the actual one is still constructing), and there’s this part where they
wrote what happened every minute after the planes crashed the two buildings.
Reading it just made me more :’( in my heart. The logo they created for this
memorial is “In darkness we shine brightest”. Super good logo really! (Y) This
place is a must go when one visits Manhattan!
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| Beautiful reflection of the sky from a building beside the memorial |
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| Took a picture with the New York policemen! Hehe xD |
Walked
around Broadway, Wall Street, all those famous streets/avenue in New York. It’s
just coolness ttm lah! But if you take away the cool factor those streets are
pretty much quite normal HEH. Oh then the even more awesome part came, we
passed by an occupy wall street demonstration and went super close to them!
What I like about it is how they are policemen around but they allow these
demonstrators to demonstrate so long as it is peaceful. And these demonstrators
have very, very creative and ingenious way of demonstrating. Some will even
pose for pictures! :D
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| New York Stock Exchange buildling |
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| The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators! Love the creativity of the guy on the left! |
Oh and
there’s a Chinatown in New York which really felt like I was in China, like
even the streetnames were in Chinese, billboards all in Chinese. It felt,
rather interesting seeing so much Chinese stuffs in a western place.
Beginning
of 14 November was spent going up to the 86th storey of the empire
state building, beautiful view of Manhattan, though it would be nicer if it’s
in the night I think, since seeing buildings everywhere of about the same
colours can get rather dull and boring. Oh but you can keep yourself occupied
by trying to spot iconic buildings from up there, like you can see the statue
of liberty far far away haha! And this huge green patch surrounded by tonsa
buildings which is the central park. Pretty cool concept, having one huge land
in the middle of the island dedicated to nature, though its manmade la, but I
didn’t visit it.
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| View at the 86th storey of the Empire State Building (accompanied by a pigeon!) |
Went to the central library WHICH IS JUST FRIGGING COOL TTM.
So damn different from Singapore’s NLB and goshh it’s a must see okay! The
interior gives the super Harry Potter feel and they have such rareeee books. Can’t
describe the awesomeness of this library in words, really. Proceeded to the
grand central station, another damn cool place haha. I like how they have very English-y
buildings amongst the modern high-rise ones. Oh and I stood outside the station
for like 5-10 minutes observing how after office hours along the streets of
Manhattan looks like. Practically every other person on the street was talking
on the phone or sms-ing. And they all work super fast hahaha! It’s cool how
fast-paced everything is here, but I think if I had to face this everyday it’ll
get quite D:.
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| SEE THE HARRY POTTER FEEL AT THE BACKGROUND!! |
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| Exterior of the Grand Central Terminal |
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| How the street outside my hotel looks like SUPER CHIO OMG! |
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| The 4 I ♥ NY shirt I got for Callie, Jermia, Kaixuan and myself! ^^ |
Niagara
Falls, Ontario (Canada)
SHALL MOVE
ON TO CANADA! Arrived Niagara Falls on 15 November via a 10 hour bus ride. Cause
the place is a tourist attraction, around it pretty much look like another
Genting haha, with haunted houses, 4D movies, that kinda stuffs. The Falls honestly
wasn’t that amazing when I first saw it cause I saw it from like far far away
from the hotel, couldn’t see the grandness of it from there. But going close to
it, I must say it was spectacular, especially the horseshoe one. I didn’t find
the American Falls that appealing though. (Yea Niagara Falls is made up of 2
falls – Horseshoe Falls and American Falls). Cause there weren’t much to
explore there, we went for a local day tour around the areas, visited a
chocolate factory (spammed ate sample chocolates there muahaha), chapel and a winery.
Oh this was when I finally like a type of alcohol – called icewine. It’s like
they wait for grapes to be frozen and harvest it. Really expensive form of
wine. Though it tested more like syrup than wine haha, that’s why I like it!
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| Tried to squeeze in both falls in a picture! Left side is the American Falls, right side Horseshoe Falls, though the right one doesn't look exactly nice here meh. |
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| Behind the seagull is the American Falls! It's looks hazy cause of the impact of the Horseshoe Falls! (The bird is actually nearer to the Horseshoe one.) |
Toronto,
Ontario (Canada)
Took a taxi
(driven by a super nice Italian driver) to the bus terminal to take a Greyhound
to Toronto on 17 November! This place is like another New York haha, though maybe
not as fast pace la. What is cool about Toronto is this 28km underground walkway linking shopping centres. Super duper cool
lah! It’s so that people will still shop despite harsh weather! We used that to
walk to our hotel, and on the way Starbucks was giving out crème brule frappe sample oyea~ Went to the St Lawrence
Market (super a lot of food items there, like EVERYTHING), and Bata Museum
(shoe museum, pretty cool cause they talk about the different history of shoe
from the different cultures/religions).
The next day we went up the CN Tower, which according to Wikipedia, “The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, standing at
553.3 m, was formerly the world's tallest completed freestanding structure
on land. Opened in 1976, it was surpassed in height by the rising Burj Khalifa
on September 12, 2007. It has the world's second highest public observation
deck at 446.5 m.” Later in the evening we went to this place
called Casa Nova, built by some super rich Canadian. It’s like this damn chio
hugeass castle, witih like 90 plus rooms and 52 telephones and their very own
stables. The whole evening there I was trying to imagine myself living in it.
Frigging big there’s even like a secret passageway and a tunnel and a lift. MAD
LA. |
| Avril Lavigne's sneakers with her signature on it! It was displayed in the Bata Museum! |
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| CN Tower! |
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| Casa Nova, not a very nice shot of the exterior though so please see the next picture haha! |
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| Damn pretty la! But my flash kinda spoilt the picture, but it'll look horrible without the flash. |
Montréal, Québec (Canada)
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| Interior of Notre Dame |
Spent 19
November in a train to Montréal. Had my first time real life
French encounter at a metro station to buy tickets. The guy was super
unfriendly gosh and I felt as if I forgot all my French, fortunately I could
understand his super fast “Je parle francais seulement.” LOL. Checked into a
hotel with an epic newcomer receptionist, who had no idea where our room was
and brought us up and down the staircase, turned out it was in the same level
as the main lobby! Oh yea our hotel was surrounded around gay places which was
quite o.O. The next day we explored Old Montréal, visited the
notre dame which is this super chio chapel. Apparently there’s this part of the
chapel which is so well known for holding weddings that you have to book like a
year in advance if you want your wedding to be held there. The guide was like
joking to us about it, saying “Don’t worry, you have a lot of time to change
your mind.” LOLOL (Y) Oh and then was the first time I saw a confession room
too, you know those places where people who sinned will go into this room to
tell a priest but the priest cannot see him. SCARILY COOL HAHA.
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| Olympic Stadium surrounded by the flags countries who won at least a gold medal during the games |
Then we went to
their Olympic Stadium which was where the 1976 Olympics were held, pretty damn
long ago but the stadium was still super grand nevertheless! The guy who
conducted the guided tour was epicly zai, like he can memorise all the facts
and figures so frigging well, and can translate it into French so quickly also,
damn scary la! But it was interesting to know how they had to modify the
architecture of the stadium as time passed cause they realized some features
were impossible, like some retractable roof which failed (can’t remember why)
so they built a permanent one instead. Oh and there’s this inclined tower which
is like inclined at 45 degrees or something and it’s the world’s tallest
inclined structure. Pretty cool! Though cause the stadium is like so old, it’s
kinda like a white elephant already and they can’t destroy it either cause of
the cost and everything, so it was kinda amusing when the guide told us how
they tried to make use of the space, dunno what kind of sports and performance
venues and whatnot.
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| Saint Joseph's Oratory |
Went to a basilica named Saint Joseph's Oratory the next day (21 Nov) which looks
super, duper grand. Apparently more than 2 million visitors and pilgrims visit the
Oratory every year. It’s built by Brother André and it’s damn cool cause
they preserved his heart and stored it in the building for people to visit, and
they replicated the office he worked in and the hospital room he died in. Quite
amazed really. Sat in a worship session though it was all in French and I could
barely understand it meh. Oh and they were selling holy water for 50 cents haha
super interesting la!
In the evening we headed to Mont Royal (a mountain) via
public bus, it was frigging cold up there but the scenery was super beautiful
omg. Especially when we were there when the sun was setting, plus all the city
lights, absolutely stunning. Was quite shag when we went back to the hotel
cause we walked so much, and just nice it was a Monday and this convenience
store had Monday special which is any hot drinks of any size at only 99 cents
zomg. SUPER WORTH LA! So glad I could understand French else I’ll never
understand what the “ENFIN LUNDI” on the promotional poster meant!
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| The lighted cross on the top of Mont Royal, didn't post a picture of the city night view cause my crappy camera did no justice to the scenery |
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| The 99cents promo! (enfin lundi = only monday) |
Old Québec, Québec (Canada)
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| Snow everywhere~ ^^ |
Got to the bus
terminal to take a 2 hours coach ride to Québec City on
22 November. We didn’t really know what to do here since we didn’t plan much,
so we walked around on the first evening of arriving there and went to a
Tourist Information centre and this guy is superrr helpful, he practically
helped plan our 2 days there and he gave really, very good suggestions that
usually tourists wouldn’t go there. So after that as we were walking around,
there was this black guy who tried to get our attention by saying “Bonjour”. My
parents were obviously quite freaked out and hurried forward to ignore him,
then he continued by saying something like “Pouvez-vous prendre une photo pour
moi?” (Can you take a photo for me?). Somehow miraculously I could understand
him when usually I fail at understanding huge chunks of spoken French, was
quite scared but since I could understand him I went to help him lor, I think
my parents were still freaked out until they realized what his purpose was LOL.
Then he helped us take a picture too, and somehow we made friends with him and
found out he’s from West Africa (zomgg ikrr), and we invited him to walk with
us since we were walking around and he was alone, and he agreed la omg (oh his English
not bad de, but not exactly good either later you’ll know why). So my mum was
like telling me in Chinese haha we got a 保镖 EPIC LA. He was like 185m tall and really looks kinda
intimidating, even he told us that he was a ‘big boy’ LOLOLOL. We planned to
hope on a 5 min ferry to get to another coast to see the night view of Old Québec, but he didn’t join us, either I failed at communicating what we
were trying to do in French, or he didn’t want to spend money, mehh felt a
little bad then. Then when we came back my parents and I were super high cause
it was below 0 degrees and there were ice forming on the floor and we were
happily playing and crushing them. EPIC LA like children~
The next day we explore
the lower part of Québec City, AND IT WAS SNOWINGGG like it already
started snowing in the morning. I have seen snow before (in Harbin), but I
haven’t witness snowing itself. So was pretty damn excited in the morning (haha
it was very evident on Twitter), opened up my hotel window to touch the snow on
the ledge, and was being this happy girl announcing to everyone it’s snowing
buahaha! Then as we walk, I was doing
all sort of stuffs like opening my mouth to let snow enter to taste snow LOLLL.
It’s really like super finely shaved ice kacang! Oh and like when walking I’ll
try to step on places with untouched snow, ie super smooth snow haha the
feeling of stepping on ‘new’ snow is really awesome! Visited the citadel which
is like this star shape fortress served for protective function, still don’t
quite get how it works till now though. But the guide who guided us is this
frigging cool guy lah, he experienced five wars as an infantry, like how he
survived all five la my gosh! And he even has medals for what he has gone
through and he has already written in his will to put his medals in this medal
cabinet in the citadel. It’s like tradition for soldiers to write that in their
will. Frigging cool la zomg.
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| The Hurons have a really interesting language! That's how the streets are named in Wendake. |
On 24 Novemeber we
travelled 15km away from Québec City via public bus to a village called Wendake. It’s
like occupied by the natives of Québec, called the
Hurons. Though now they are mostly mixed and not pure Hurons (I think). When we
arrived there we had quite a hard time finding the place of the tourist
attraction to see how the traditional Hurons lived like, cause there were
hardly any signboards and hardly any people.
Fortunately we met this 79 year old guy who was walking for exercise
ESPECIALLY WHEN IT WAS STILL SNOWING, omg and he walks quite briskly, a lot
faster than the average teen here, super 佩服 la! Arrived at
the native village and it was very interesting to know how the Hurons’
lifestyle were like, like when planning a marriage the girl gets loads of
advantage. Three weeks before the marriage the guy will come live at the girl’s
clan house, and they will receive gifts from friends and relatives, and if the
marriage doesn’t work out the guy has to go back home empty handed while the
girl keeps the gifts, and if it does both gets the gifts la. Plus if the
marriage is successful the guy lives with the girl’s clan, not the other way
round. Pretty damn cool la!
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| A native Huron doll, I suppose they look like that in the past. |
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| Montmorency Falls! Though this picture doesn't do justice to it hmph. |
We then took another bus to a waterfall called
Montmorency Falls. IT WAS FRIGGING BEAUTIFUL MY GOSH. It’s 84m high, 30m higher
than Niagara Falls, and omg there’s this over hanging bridge where you can
cross over midway of the waterfall, plus sun was setting which made it even
more beautiful with light shining on it. And the thing is there was hardly
anyone, unlike Niagara Falls which was filled with people and people. Got back
to Old Québec and shopped at a supermarket for our dinner,
cause we wanted to have a different dinner at our hotel room. I realized that
their supermarket is A LOT MORE INTERESTING than our supermarket, they have
super cool food la (can’t remember what heh paiseh). Then outside there was
this natural ice skating rink which allowed people to skate for free so long as
they have their own skates, which made me think about how expensive kallang
leisure park’s skating rink is hahaha! Then there was some belly dancing event
which attracted a lot of crowds but I felt rather …. cause those ladies didn’t
exactly have very nice figures (I’m sorry) so even though my mum insisted on
taking my camera to take pictures of them I forcefully refused to HAHA.
25 November! Last day
travelling~ checked out and the reception guy was a mix of Irish and French and
Greek. COOL TTM LA. We took a taxi to the bus terminal and the driver was a Moroccan
and I could converse with him SUCCESSFULLY in French omg. Though quite fail
cause I had my first proper French conversation on the last day of the trip
LOL. It’s simple French la, like how I felt about the place, the weather, how I
find the people. Yeah, but my parents were damn amazed LOL cause they couldn’t
understand a thing. My mum was totally like “WHY YOU NEVER CONVERSE IN FRENCH
EARLIER!” after it. While waiting for our bus we went to a nearby market and
there was some Christmas fair going on. Tried alcoholic cidar omg one 9.5% in
alcohol and the other 13%, never drank so much alcohol in my life before la,
felt a little dazed after drinking it meh. Took a bus back to Montréal, then another bus back to New York (spent a night on the bus). Then
from New York took a plane to Incheon, then finally back to Singapore.
Practically spent 26 November travelling la! Oh and cause I watched and used so
much of their entertainment system, the last flight back to Singapore I hardly
touched the screen and just listening to my music on my iTouch.
Okay before I conclude
this post, some INTERESTING STUFFS of this trip! To make up the rather dry post
up there (I hope it wasn’t that boring la..)
1. Unlike in
Singapore, you can eat whatever you want in their subway. Got quite a shock at
first when I saw so many people taking their breakfast on the subway hahaha!
2. Oh and unlike
in Singapore, there’s no glass door/gate between the track and where the
passengers stand, so it can be really quite scary and dangerous.
3. And their
subway fees are really freaking expensive, Singaporeans really shouldn’t
complain about expensive transport la! Like a one way ticket cost US$2.25 in
New York, and Canada $2.50 in Toronto. Really damn costly!
4. Oh this is
really quite random haha. Cause on day my dad was wearing rather dark coloured
pants, with this black windbreaker, black gloves, black shoes, black haversack
on 17 November which really reminded me of Lee Min Ho in City Hunter bahahhaa
(and making me think of Kaixuan at the same time hahahaha!)
5. I realized that
Canada have really pretty low rise cottages around, and part of why it looks so
pretty and homely is that most of them don’t have fences or barriers surround
them, so it’s like just this small pathway right to their doorstep. Unlike in
Singapore where (I think for security sake?), all the terraces/semi-detached/bungalows
are fenced and have gates, making it not really nice looking. :/
6. This is about
whether I look my age or not. Zzz. Cause when we took a train my dad bought a
youth ticket for me, and it was for people aged 13-17 I think, and the train
master could tell that I was below 17 years old for sure without checking my
passport. Ironically, when we were climbing up Mont Royal in Montréal, we met this super friendly female who thought my whole family were
friends. =.= Okay I shall forgive her LOL since it was like 天黑了 and we were wearing jackets and hoods and hats and
stuffs so it’s harder to tell.
7. And the love
for Chinese! At the hotel we stayed in in Montréal, there was
this super enthusiastic old receptionist guy who kept greeting us with 你好 and 谢谢! Once when my parents asked him some questions about Mont Royal he said
visiting it in the night is 最好! And his 最好 was super
accurately lah! And then when leaving he went on saying 中国最好 LOLOL even though we aren’t from China. Seriously
damn cute la him!
8. Oh and usually
in most hotels you’ll see boiling kettle right, but in all the hotels we stayed
this time round they only provided coffee machine. (Why does this point sound
rather boring when it’s supposed to be interesting?!)
9. Oh and in Québec,
the people are really nice la! Even if you wanna cross the road when there’s no
traffic light or zebra crossing, like in the middle of a road, the cars WILL
stop for you willingly and let you cross, like even if you didn’t signal for
them to stop or anything. Really impressive la!
10. The cathedrals have DAMN GRAND ORGANS. Like thousand over pipes in them! For example the one below, taken in Notre Dame in Montréal has like 10,000 over pipes. MADNESS LA, BUT SUPER GRAND!
Okay that's all for my super wordy post I think it's more than 4400 words with the captions. Hope it wasn't too boring? >.< Got pictures mahh should be okay la hor? Hehe thanks for reading through hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed this trip~ Okay after this post still needa post on 2011, and my work! (But wait for a while for them la hahaha) Anyway Merry Xmas in advance to everyone~ Spending my Christmas working in a hotel mehh don't know if I should be feeling happy or not HAHA!
