I think the “big guy” upstairs heard me complaining about the weather in my last blog. He also probably felt bad because the sky cleared up the next few days and it was nice for the remainder of our stay. Gen and I went for a leisure jog on the Mont Royal. The Mont Royal is a very scenic mountain right in the heart of Montreal. Although it is not like Stanley Park back at home, it does have the same feel; people working out in the park, jogging, running. Others were walking and spending family time with their kids. I even saw people mountain-biking and practicing the Nordic Walk.
This mountain also has a very rich history going way back when Jacques Cartier first set feet here in the 16th century. I’ll spare you the history lesson :) It was just very pleasant to be there and to have a complete view of the city from above. (photos)
That second week, I spent a lot of time with my parents, catching up and eating flavourful home cooked meals. I also visited Gen’s grandmothers in the Laurentians, two very good visits in the country. On my way back, I stopped at Mont Tremblant and at St-Sauveur, two ski towns. The first town was quite nice; the architecture is a lot like Whistler (BC). The second one was less luxurious and much busier! It was funny to visit these places that I thought I knew when in fact I felt like I was there for the first time. My souvenirs of these places were from back when I was a kid competing in cross country running on the Mont Royal, going skiing with friends on school trips. Twenty something years later, things looked very different. Does this make me sound old :)
I spent a few days in Quebec City visiting good friends of mine. It was truly a great visit. I got to see Lucie and met her husband and son. We hadn’t seen each other since we parted after school nine years ago. You know what this means, more good food, more good wine and good time! No trip to Quebec City is complete until I see my closest friend Judith. It was quite a treat to spend time with Judith, her son and Alex, her significant other. Their son of a little over one year old is one of the cutest little boys I’ve met - he learned how to walk down the stairs while I was there. We had a great time catching up on everything! I also spent some time with Louis, an old friend. Louis actually gave me my first age group coaching job back in 1997. We worked together and accomplished some pretty fantastic things with the Sherbrooke swim club. We went for a long walk in the Plaines d’Abraham in Quebec City. I learned a few things from Louis about the battles between the English and the French when they were both trying to colonize this city, interesting insights.
The last three days were spent writing my will, prepping my bag and seeing my brother and younger sister for our last dinner, lunch together. I wanted to spend as much time as I could with my parents as well, I won’t see them for a whole year. It’s going to be weird celebrating the Holidays away from them. I have the most wonderful family anyone can ask for. I have two sisters and a brother. I’m the third child with the two sisters being the first and last children. My parents took all of us out of Vietnam in 1979 and we travelled to Canada. We arrived in Canada one year later. Our family story is quite interesting, some of you may know it and most of you don’t. My dad is in the process of telling our story on tape. It includes the struggling journey from Vietnam to Canada, the land of opportunities and of new beginnings. I hope he’ll finish his work soon and we’ll have it in a form of a book that I can share with you. I will miss my family. We are a caring family and very supportive of each other.
November 14, the day we left Canada to go see the rest of the world. Everyone from my family came with me to the airport to wave Gen and I goodbye. My older sister lives in Toronto so she couldn’t be there. Gen’s family also came to see her take off with me, the weird & crazy guy she fell in love with. This time around, it was an emotional departure for me. I was commenting in my earlier article how women are from Venus and men are from Mars, and that I was not an emotional guy until much later. Well, I had a lot of Venus in me that day. There were hugs, there were kisses and there were tears. I was happy to have all of our relatives there. We’re both lucky to have such great families! Thank you guys, we will miss you dearly. (photos)
Past the security check point, Gen and I looked at each other and we had a happy grin on our faces, our long adventure was starting! That was exciting. The itinerary was to go to Sydney with stops in Vancouver then in Taipei before setting foot in Sydney. The Vancouver stop was good. I hadn’t visited this airport thoroughly before so I don’t know what had changed in preparation for the 2010 Games. I can tell you for sure that Vancouver is ready for the WORLD! It is a beautiful airport! I was proud to be Canadian walking around the international terminal. Everything was nice and fancy. I felt a big presence of the Canadian history thru the various native arts around the airport. We’re definitely ready for the Olympics, the Canada pride was tastefully displayed everywhere. I hope our athletes will do well, we deserve to do well. You can see for yourself thru the photos I took at the airport.
Going thru the pictures, you’ll see what kind of travellers we are – the kind that dress the same! We noticed at the airport that we wearing the same colours: green pants, blue t-shirt and a black long sleeve. We felt like we were on the Amazing Race show. Hahahaha! I think people will stop calling us crazy Canucks and start calling us cheesy Canucks from now on.
The flight to Taipei was a good one despite times when it was dreadful to sleep comfortably in the tiny seat. Emile, now I know why you flew business class to/from Dubai :) We were pretty happy to get off the plane after 14 hours. The air was starting to get stuffy. We then had a short 2-hour stop before boarding another plane to Sydney. Australia mate! The airport in Taipei was beautiful too.
This flight was an excellent flight. I don’t think China Airlines made any money with this trip, there were so many empty seats. I think half of us had an entire of row of four seats to ourselves. This allowed us to lie down flat across the seats, stretch our legs fully and have a decent sleep on a horizontal plane. We tried to not sleep too much to not spoil our first sleep in Sydney, we were going to land at 8:20 pm... We’re a cheesy Canuck couple but we’re also smart Canucks :)
Our friend Terry came to pick us up at the airport. Some of you may know him: he was that crazy guy with the weird Australian accent who came to coach in Calgary a couple of years ago :) We were glad to have a familiar face waiting for us here. Terry drove us to the first of many youth hostels we’ll be calling home for the next 365 days! Funny story: we loaded our bags in the trunk, then we both proceeded to the right side of the car to hop in, Terry came over to open the right front door and I thought to myself: “wow, he’s a gentleman”, then he said: “this is the driver’s side mate”.
I’m writing to you from our private room. We booked a private room for the first two nights to allow us with the jet lag, then we’ll be in shared rooms after that where we’ll meet a lot of interesting people. Right now, I don’t feel any jet lag. I think the 30+ hours spent on the plane eating rice and stir-frys for breakfast, lunch then dinner really help me get over it :) I’m exaggerating, the food was great and we did have the choice to not eat rice type breakfast if we wanted. My favourite meal was a MOS BURGER. It was like a hamburger only the buns were replaced with sticky rice cakes and the meat patty was substituted by an octopus stir-fry. Yummy in the tummy! Overall, I am happy with China Airlines. I recommend it if you intend to come to this side of the globe, the flight attendants were good, fast and efficient. I wish China Airlines would pay me for this short publicity...
It is 8:08 am on Tuesday morning, my lover is still sleeping. I’m hungry and I hope she gets up soon. I want my breakfast on the beach, which a minute walk from the hostel. How did the Stamps do against the Eskimos on Sunday? Did we win? I would love to see a Stamps vs Alouettes rematch. After living in Alberta the last 8 years, I will cheer for the Flames, but the Montreal Alouettes remain my religion!
I would love to hear how you are doing. Write me and let me know if there will be a Stamps vs Alouettes Grey Cup final. Take care guys!
