Ottawa

From Toronto I took a rideshare to Ottawa. I stayed with a lovely newly wed Ukrainian couple. The husband is in training to become a priest (don't worry Ukrainian Catholics can marry as long as it is before priesthood) They were delightful and generous hosts. They taught m a lot about Ukrainian culture and continued to feed me. They took me to a party and we joked that they planned it just for me. 

As for city exploration... it was COLD. Yes i know at home everyone is still enjoying their 80 degree Fahrenheit weather, but here it was snowing! But that isn't enough to stop me. I walked around the town and went into parliament, i even went up the peace tower (where there is a view of the city) after it was closed because i convinced all of the security to let me be an exception. 

I also spent one of the days with a couchsurfing crew. One person from Ottawa, one from Germany and two from France. We took a lovely stroll through Gatineau Park. 

Finally on my last day there I went to the remembrance day ceremony. In Canada Nov. 11 is their equivalent of veterans day and through November people wear red poppies to respect those who have died in war. Now I just so happened to be in the capital of Canada the 11th of November and went to their Remembrance Day ceremony in the center of town. They had veterans march around and they did some speeches, the airforce flew over, and we all went to lunch after. Lastly I went to the museum of civilization (which was free for remembrance day) and that was a really cool museum with a special exhibition in vodou. 

 Still hanging on to the few colors left

 So what it is snowing that shouldn't stop anyone from dancing or jamming out

 Parliament, the center is peace tower

 Remembrance Day

 Please read that sign... yes in the middle of the forest they felt it necessary to post that sign. I guess it was becoming too much of a problem? But as one of the couchsurfers said "you don't need to put a sign up it is too cold to be naked"

Leslie Street Spit

The Leslie Street Spit... Legend has it that Toronto faced a time in their history where they were faced with two dilemmas. The first being they wanted to increase their harbor and the second being they wanted to de-urbanize a bit and get rid of some buildings. So they decided to kill two birds with one stone. They blew up some buildings and and used the rubble to build the leslie street spit which is pretty much a peninsula that expanded their harbor. They covered it in dirt and now it is actually a nature reserve. As someone told me, it is interesting to see what the world would look like in 30 years if we didn't exist and nature took over. The contrast between the rubble and the nature was actually kind of poetic, i thought it looked cool so i decided to dedicate an entire blog post to it! 

 sometimes the rubble looks like a prehistoric sea creature coming up on the land

Toronto

Toronto was my first city in Canada. I almost thought I wouldn't get to go because I had troubles at the border. Yes troubles at the Canadian border! They made the whole bus wait on me while they asked me some questions, did a background check and (to my surprise i found out only late when i arrived) they called my couchsurfer to make sure I was telling the truth. I keep blaming it on the blue hair. So in Toronto My couchsurfer gave me a bike with a flat tire and some other problems, i fixed it up and went around the city by bike. I spent a lot of time exploring on my own. Some of my highlights were seeing a jazz concert in a building downtown with glass windows so i could see the city and car lights and the rain, while i myself was warm and entertained inside. I saw my first glimpse at canadian art and i found some coops! yes the coops were probably the best part. I went to two although there are over 20 houses in Toronto. I went to a potluck at one and that was just a lovely night. I also went to a talk given by one of the founders of Food Not Bombs. It was a great talk and they had so much food!

oh they are so punny here

 the kensington market (like the haight and ashbury of toronto)

 an art museum downtown, the architecture is so cool. they actually cut out a chunk of the old art museum and put in these cube like structures that now look like they are protruding from an old building. you cant see that part in the picture though.

 Old distillery district

 Still found some colors, although most of the trees have dropped their leaves here

 hmmm never thought as turning a car into a planter. oh did you notice the tree coming out of the top of the car?

street art in action