Ville de Quebec

So, just spend a lovely day and a half in Quebec City, exploring the Old Town and shopping in the many fun little stores. I will share my experiences via photos...

Here we are - five grey hound type bussess full of students - just arrived at Laval University where we spent the night. By the time we were dropped off in the city center, I had enough of travelling with 200+ people so I took off on my own to explore the old town of Quebec.

This is Porte St. Louis, one of the entrances to the walled Vieux-Quebec (old Quebec). Quebec is the only walled city on this continent, north of Mexico. One of many pretty streets that I explored. I had been told by several people that Quebec City is very European and they were right. I had to keep reminding myself that I really am still in Canada!

Before long, I ran into some of my friends from class so I hung out with them for the rest of the afternoon. When we decided that we were hungry, it took us two hours to find a restaurant. Not because there wasnt an abundance of places to eat - oh no, it simply appeared impossible to agree on a place with nine people! Oh well, at least we got to see a lot of the city as we walked past dozens of restaurants. When we finally agreed on a place that had space for all of us (and which we had already passed by earlier), I just had to take a photo. Besides, it was a pretty place: Capitole Quebec Resto.

The grayness in the background is not due to clouds but to haziness - it was 30 degrees plus!

This is the dessert that my friend, Joy, and I shared - some kind of chocolate mouse cake. Delicious! Taking photos of nicely arranged food is a habit I learned from my dad...

So, after dinner I was faced with a dilema - do I go out to the bar with everyone (probably get bored pretty fast as I dont drink and I dont really see the fun in bars and then get into bed really late) or do I take the bus back to the university (alone, at night, in a foreign city). As it turned out, one of the other girls who I had dinner with - Jess - said that she didnt want to go out to the bar with everyone either. In fact, she wanted to do exactly what I did: walk around to see Old Quebec at night and then go back to the university to sleep. Once outside the restaurant, she asked if I was a Christian cause she overhead that I said I go to Trinity and, since she has a friend who went there, she knew it was a Christian university. So it turns out that she also is a Christian! Besides our worldviews, we discovered that we shared many other commonalities such a travelling experiences, disliking the taste of beer, and intraverted personalities. Spent a fun evening walking up and down random little streets and having some good conversations. Meeting Jess was a huge blessing from God!This is the only night pic that sort of turned out - Chateaux Frontenc, the famous Quebec landmark.

This is Jess (red hair) and Joy (she is in my class). We went shopping together Saturday morning - found lots of fun and pretty stores! Then I left them to see a multimedia film on the history of Quebec. Not sure if it was worth the $5.70 I paid as I didnt learn much from it, but the effects were pretty cool. Spent the rest of the day exploring and shopping on my own.

Here is the Fairmont le Chateau Frontenac by day. It is one of the hotels built by the CPR to encourage luxury travels.

This is the little park where I ate my lunch, watched tourists, and took photos of flowers. Nope, this isnt another quaint street - it is a mural painted on the wall of a large building! The mural incorporates the four seasons and peoples of all eras of Quebec. One of the streets of lower old Quebec. The whole old town was packed with tourists on Saturday. I actually got fed up with hearing so much English and I started to hate tourists and wish that I wasnt one!

Yeah, so I would recommend Quebec to all of you - especially if you havent been to Europe. It is one of those places I would visit again.