Day Four - Honey, I'm home!!!

Well, here I am again. At Bishops. It was so nice to escape for a while, be on the road, see new sites, and again venture into deeper 'French' territory where I can test and learn some new vocab. With four great people too, who I got to know better than I did before :)

Last night was excellent - we drove for an hour to Chicoutimi, and by the time we got there we were starving, so our first stop was a restaurant. We were fooled into thinking that a (very) premium steakhouse which had a very 'exclusive' feel to it had meals going for $16, but we didn't realise the menu was just an artefact from 1975! Today a decent steak is $35-40 there. So we abandoned that dream and found a fast food place called St. Hubert, which is actually a proper restaurant, sort of like Pizza Hut but with a specialty in chicken. We scored a 4-course meal - i had a coleslaw salad, chicken noodle soup, quarter chicken with chips, and triple-choc brownie & icecream dessert - for the same price as a steak in 1975, meaning we left feeling very satisfied :D

After a bit of waiting around we caught a movie at the local cinema - we saw '2012', in French. A very interesting experience. Being an action movie, the script is not the most important aspect so I caught the general gist of what was happening, but would like to see it again. It was very unrealistic, but the action scenes were great and the sound exceeded that. Next stop was a club that we found in a Quebec guide - I was pessimistic and did not have high expectations, but it turned out to be fantastic! We managed to get in even though two of us were under the 21-year-old age limit, and the DJ/music was excellent with a good variety of house and rock, meaning we danced until 2.30am. It also meant that on the trip back, contrary to all expectations, I somehow fell asleep in the car.

So now we're up to today. Please tell me if you get sick of hearing every little detail - I'm not very sure what I should be writing, and compared to other blogs I see, this is very boring and to the point.

We spent most of today in the car. Originally hoping to take a new route home by taking a ferry across the river and bypassing Quebec completely (a total cost of more than $80 put a stop to that idea), we had to take the same road back that I did last time I visited the region during Thanksgiving. This was no problem though, as our little car had a good sound system and was quite comfortable - including lunch at Maccas, we didnt get home till 7.30pm. A long day indeed, I'm not sure where all that time went!

Here are the best pictures of the trip:

The start of our hike...

Our first destination (the waterfall)

The bridge over the waterfall (From left: Elodie, Me, Flora and Jezza)

What we could see above us - its massive!

What we could see below us...

Experimenting with some macro photography

The tracks were still very muddy from all the rain

Nice view in the background

A lovely clearing towards the top of the mountain

Walking around a fallen tree that had blocked the path...

This was taken further up the path of the waterfall

Obviously a beaver had been here

Some more macro photography

Beautiful colours...

Jezza and the girls (and my attempt to change the camera settings to get the blurred water effect)

Same picture with the girls...

Another massive clearing - I can't believe this is in the middle of a steep mountain!

Our lunch spot at (almost) the end of the trail

Including outhouse.

More beautiful colours

A lookout halfway up the trail

From left: Elodie, Jono, Flora, and Jerome

The upmarket steakhouse that was far too expensive for us!

Clubbing in Chicoutimi!

Me

Packing the car - we never game it a name - outside the hostel

The hostel (we were staying on the bottom floor of the house-looking thing on the right - we had it all to ourselves!)

Now for a little sidetrack:

I'm not sure who my readers are, so if you don't know already, both myself and a Swedish guy (by the name of Anton) that I'm good friends with here at Bishops are planning to do a 2 month roadtrip at the end of our second semester, starting in May. There is no definite route yet, but we are hoping to head south immediately along the east coast to Florida (making stops along the way of course) to get to the heat asap, and then head west along the bottom of the USA until we get to the west coast where we'll head north up until Seattle or something. We'll probably then head back across the top to Montreal, and fly home from there (I'll have to go via LA).

Anyway, the point of me talking about this is that we will likely be buying a 2nd hand car - preferably a station wagon with lots of room - and a tent, to make it as cheap as possible for such a long time. The roadtrip I just got back from has got me wondering whether we should be buying the car now for the Winter, or waiting till just before we leave. Here are my thoughts:

Pros:
- Convenience of always have a car for any shopping in Sherbrooke, to go to Montreal (cheaper than bus), go on roadtrips, etc
- The car could also be used regularly to get to ski destinations without worrying about finding transport. Just chuck the skis/boards in the back, charge some friends a bit to come (and cover fuel), and we can go whenever we don't have class.
- I will get my driving fix, sooner rather than later :P

Cons:
- Its obvious: The cost. While no matter what we will be buying a car, if we get one now we have to pay insurance for an extra 5 months (could be expensive), may have to buy a set of winter or summer tires (depending on what it comes with), pay for anything that may go wrong with it up until May, and of course our own fuel costs.

The cars are dirt cheap here though: I saw a used 1997 Volvo 850 wagon with 170,000km on the clock, all-wheel-drive, and two sets of tires (summer/winter) for $3900. There is no way you can get something like that in Australia! Anyway, I'll have to have a chat with Anton about it - but let me know what you think of the idea...

OK, so there is one (make that two) things I have to do before I finish up. First, I have to list my first 5 cultural differences in the series I said I would do, and I will also write a quick manual on how to post a comment on the blog for those who don't know how.

Here are 5 things that are different between Canada and Australia:

1) They have 1c coins. This means that there is no rounding up/down of prices - paying $4 for something worth $3.93 results in 7c change. The coins are useless and annoying, but i've been collecting them and hope to have a significant amount by the end of my time here. It is also worth mentioning that the 20c and 50c coins of Australia are substituted for a 25c coin (quarter) here.
2) Prices do not include taxes, or tips. It has taken me so long to get used to working out that a $15 meal is actually $20. There are two taxes totalling 12.5% on every single product sold (except private sale), and the expected tips are 15%. It sucks, and it needs to change.
3) They don't just drive on the opposite side of the road. They also walk on the 'wrong' side of the footpath, stairs, and escalators. It took me forever to get used to it!
4) Transport is expensive. Over $3 to catch a 10minute bus ride into Sherbrooke. The same price gets you a ride on Montreal's subway - it doesn't matter if you only catch it one stop or 30 stops, its the same. For a comparison, I can get a return bus trip from home to Brisbane (50min each way) for the same price. A few dollars more will get me to the Gold Coast and back! Oh, and there is only one company that can get you to Montreal from Sherbrooke, and they charge $30 per ride one way. Very, very expensive.
5) There are many language differences. They call utes 'pick up trucks', they have no idea what Maccas is until you say McDonalds, and lollies are know as 'candy' here. There are plenty more, but I might just compile a separate list just for that!

Now, how to comment (and I expect you to leave one after all this typing I've done!):
- Read the blog
- Scroll to the bottom of the post to the white box that says 'Posted by Jono at ....' and 'x Comments' (x = number of comments that have been posted so far)
- Click on the 'x Comments' button
- It should come up with a larger white box with the title 'Post a comment'
- Simply type "Jono your blog is super awesome, from _____" (or something along those lines :P)
- Click the drop-down box underneath next to the 'comment as:' bit. From there, you should be able to click 'Name/URL'
- It will then give you a section to type your name (please do!) and a URL (don't worry about), and once you click 'continue', that name should now be there next to the 'Comment as:' bit
- Simply click 'Post comment', type in the letters you see for the security/validation check that it asks you to do, and hit 'Post Comment' again. You should now see your comment there, and I'll get an email saying that someone has posted on my blog :D

Hopefully this is a good-enough explanation. If it is all too difficult, send me an email at aussie_jono@hotmail.com, or add me on skype with the username 'aussie_jono'

Till tomorrow!

Jono