Taking a Trip down Memory Lane - Eastern Canada 1998 & 1999

June 1998: Sonja and her best girlfriend went on a memorable 2,000km round-trip through parts of Eastern Canada.

We flew into Toronto, and picked up a no-name rental car. But instead of sight-seeing we spent countless hours in huge shopping malls (something completely foreign to us…).

Then we concentrated on the sight-seeing part of the journey. And Niagara Falls didn't fail to impress us. Our road trip would lead us further through huge farmland, some of it was Amish country. We also discovered that what we thought was cheap in the city, cost even less in so called outlet malls.

We decided to take a detour through Algonquin Park, the oldest provincial park in Canada, established 1893. And below picture is the exact place where Sonja fell in love with this country: It happened while overlooking an ocean of trees.

We overnighted in Ottawa, and most memorable to us was an Irish pub downtown. But we didn't linger around because we were drawn to the Montreal Jazz Festival. Montreal had a lot in store for us. The buzz, the jazz, the food, the culture, and yes, the shopping malls, too! Another exciting experience was for Sonja to visit the Canadian headquarter, and meet her direct peer from her then employer, who generously offered to show us around.

Meanwhile we had somewhat adjusted to the peculiar language the natives call 'French', and could even order an 'amburjee (hamburger in English) in the local lingo. With improved language skills we moved on to Quebec City. It looked somewhat familiar to us, quite European, and again the food was the most memorable experience.

We were running out of vacation time and drove back down to Toronto in one day for another overnighter before we had to fly back to Germany. But Sonja would be back soon…

October 1999: Our first time together in Canada. We revisited Montreal during the fall foliage. As we only had a week vacation left, we spent most of our time in the city. 

Montreal has a safe, clean and efficient public transportation system, which aside from walking was the best way of exploring the city. The weather was fair, the architecture of the old city core lovely, and the culinary experience outstanding. One day we rented a car to visit the hinterland.

Then and there we planned to spend more vacation time in Canada in the not so far away future. But it should take another three years before we would return.