Canoe Camping with Anja in the Mt. Tremblant National park

Anja on the Parkway during hitchhiking back to Montreal

Our lovly camp fire a fire to surrive :)

The view of the platform on the mountains of the Laurentide

Our canoe on a lake

Relaxing in the sun

Enjoy the silence

On the river

The route? Just follow the stream!

Our canoe didn't broke :)

The dream team

Camp 2 in the bush

Camp1 on the campgroud

Tent life

After the fantastic time in Montreal Anja and me wanted to do something special to spent Anjas last days in Kanada. I had the idea to go hiking but Anja wanted to something more exiting. Together we decided to do a canoe trip in the Mt. Tremblant National Park.
To save money we planed to hitchhike to the national park wich is 150 km north of Montreal. Anyways we had no other choice because there was no public transporttation. We decided to leave the city with a bus. The bus drove us to a village about 25 kilometers away from the park. It was a very rainy day and we stand on the road and hoped for a ride. But we had luck after just 10 minutes somebody stoped. He had the same way like we too. So we came in the park. We relaxed the rest of that day in the tent.
At the next day our canoe adventure started. We went to the visitor centre and drove with some other guys in an old school bus to the start point. We put our backpacks in canoe and drove down the river. At the beginning it was not easy to handle the boat. Especialy in the streams we had to learn how we have to stear the canoe. And so we crashed with a bush, a rock and drove backward. :) But fortunely we always stayed dry. And after a time we got used to handle the canoe. It was a cloudy and windy day. It was very cold on the water. Finaly we had to cross a huge lake against the wind. That was hard. In the afternoon we arrived at our campsite. There we made a fire to warm us up. We had a good meal and set up the tent before we fall in sleep in the bush.
The night was very cold and it was under minus 3 degree. The water in a pot was frozen. We ate breackfast and put all the stuff in the canoe again. This day was just wonderfull. The sky was blue and the sun was shining. From hour to hour it got warmer and warmer. It was the start of a perfect day. We came very fast forward and could enjoy the silence of the river. Everything looked so beatyfull and the landscape was great. The flow of the river was slow and we enjoyed the sun in the canoe. Also the streams we passed today without problems. Even the most difficult stream of the river we passed good. But were stocked at a rock and a big wave entered the canoe. My feets were wet and my backpack too but is was just fun. At the end of the trip we wanted to do it again because it was so a fantaastic experience.
The shuttle bought us back to the centre. We walked to the campsite and set up the tent at the lake in the sun. After that we decided to make a little hike to a lookout platform. The view over the mountains of the Laurentide was amazing and we enjoyed that for hours.
At the evening we had to cook our food over the fire because the gas for the stove was empty. It was very hard to keep the fire burning. On a constuction of stones we cooked our food. The feeling was like thousands years before! :) But it was an unfogetable experience. The sky was full with stars and far away we could hear wolves crying in the night as we fall in sleep.
At the next day we packed the backpackes and hithhiked back to the busstop. At this time it was not so easy and we had to walk a lot. But finally we had the luck to find an old man how drove us to the bus stop. On the way he showed us the area and he also payed for us at Timies. The people are very nice here!
That was the end of a real adventure. It was amazing!!!
;)

Montreal: A great time in a multicultural metropole

In the Pole position :)

The dream team!

Our lovly hostel crew

On the Island in the St. Lorenz River

Dans le cirque du soleile

The contrast between old and new is everywhere in the city

The old district is so nice! It looks like europe.

The view of Mt. Royale

Tasting the nightlife of Montreal- It's partytime!

Hey,

here i'm again. It's already long time ago since my last post. There were a lot of things happening and there was not even time to breathe!

I drove by bus from Ottawa to Montreal. Fortunetly I found an amazing hostel. If you come to Montreal go to the Auberge de L' Apero! It was so cheap and so good. There was a unique atmosphere in the hostel. Everybody was very nice and so we did lot of things together. We had a lot of fun during that time. It was so a nice experince!

On my first day i suprised Steffie, Anja and Julia. A meet up with old friends. Together we explored the many small streets with the typical french flair. I bought me new shoes for the hiking season and at the evening we cooked together pasta.
At the next day we went up to the Mt. Royal. That's a mountain were you have a beautyfull view from the top on the skyline from Montreal. The weather was great! At the evening we went together with some people from my hostel in a bar. There was a very funny seaman and we coudn't stop laughing. After that we checked out the nightlife of Montreal in a great club. Together with Luiz, Tom, Alex and Monika we had a nice night. The music was good and the atmosphere was incerdible and so we danced all the night long.
Together with Alex I spent the next day in the Biodome. there you can see all vegetation zones of canada with the animals which live there. It was very interesting to see the Pinguins, a Lux, a Beaver,... Stephie and there sister flyed back to germany. After a short Goodbye I went together with Alex and Luiz in the worldfamous Circus du Soleile to spent the rainy day. It was expensive but the show was fantstic. The costumes, the music and the artists were just amazing. They show so great and they showed so many crazy things you can't imagine. It was fantasic.
At the next day we went together to the island in the St. Lorenz river. We enjoyed the beautyfull day in the sun and the breath taking view on the skyline. We went around the race course of fomula one too. There we had a lot of fun doing some funny pictures. how you can see. At the evening of that day we cooked all together a meal in the hostel. It was so a nice evening and our french chef cook made a great diner for all of us.

Montreal is a wounderfull city. Everybody speaks french but the tourists and citizen from all over the world make the city to a place with a mix of all cultures. It's a unique experience which i can just recomend. It's strange to see an old church and only modern skyscraper around. It's crazy to see the old part of the city which really looks like in europe. But that's waht makes Montreal so interesting.

Greeting from Montreal

Karsten

Vivre la capital d' Ottawa!

The market place

The Rideau canal and the Parliament hill on the OttawaRriver

The Rideau Canal with the Fairmont Hotel

The Parliament Building

The cathedrale

The art gallery

The libary of the parliament

I arrived late in the night and searched in heavy rain for the hostel untill I found it. I slept in the HI Jail Hostel. It was once a jail and you can sleep in cells.
The next day was cloudy. But it was still very nice to discover the city. The city is so beautyfull and there is so much intersting stuff to do. I went across the old historic market where the city was founded about 250 years ago. Every where there are nice restaurants where you can sit outside. You can fell the french charme and can see old historical bulidings. Everything is already green and in the gardens are a lot of tulips because of the happening tulip festival. I visited the national art gallery which was geat. I saw so many things. I went the full day untill i was so tiered that i couldn't move anymore.
The nexy day was incredible! It was so sunny, warm and nice. I took thousands of pictures of the beautyfull city. I saw the Parliament bulidings with a guided tour and went up to the top of the tower where I enjoyed the great view. After that I saw the Rideau canal and did a walk along the Ottawa river. I went through the Downtown and finaly to the fantastic museum of civilisation. This one was about the canadian history to civilisate the continent.
It was such a beautyfull day!!!
At the evening I took the bus to Montreal the next world metroploe on my journey.

Greetings from Ottawa!

The Camper is sold - On a new way of discovery by bus

The bus my new way of travel

Lake Superior

Camping on the parking lot ;)

My Panorama

Hey,

I spent a lot of time in Winnipeg. The most of the time I camped on the parking lot of Safeway. It was like a life in paradise! You have free internet access, the biggest choice of food and a toillet next by :)
I still got a lot of troubles with selling the car. Finaly I sold our lovely van for just 1300 dollar to a german mechanic. I lost a lot of money during these troubles but now it's the moment to check this chapture and to begin a new one.
I left my luggage which I don't need by Jens the mechanics. Then I spent a nice evening by the friendly manitobians Jason an Eryn. In the morning Jason gave me a shuttle servive to the Greyhound.
The Greyhound is a big canadian Bus company. So I took the bus for the endless riede of 30 hours to Ottawa. I thought if I sell the camper the repair work has an end but in the middle of the night the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere with transmission problems. We waited 3 hours for an other bus untill we contiued travelling along Lake Superior and crossing the canadian schield. The weather was good and you could see a lot of moose and a black bear beside the road.

see you on the road!

Karsten