A tale of 3 cities in Canada- Prologue

The road trip to Ottawa, Quebec and Montreal has officially begun. Despite the initial wave of exuberant, we soon recalled that the road trip is a grueling 15 hours bus ride from London to Quebec City (our first pit stop for this road trip), and that alone was sufficient enough to dampen some of the excitement. Familiar to most inhabitants of the Northeastern region of Canada, Grey Hound is probably the largest bus service that caters to the travel needs of Canadians in that region. Hence, we purchased the bus tickets for this trip a month prior to setting off from Grey Hound. Below is the itinerary of our bus journey to the Northeastern region of Canada: (for the records, we left London at 430 pm)

1) From London to Toronto (approximate travel time: 2 hours) - Notwithstanding of the precariously tight bus schedules, Allan and Jiahao had somehow managed to squeeze in a shopping escapade at Toronto's famed Dixie Mall.

2) Toronto to Ottawa (approximate travel time: 8 hours) - After the shopping frenzy at Dixie's Mall (we got ourselves a pair of Levi's jeans each at the price of CAD$30+, a bargain only matched by those in New York), we caught a late dinner at 10 pm, before boarding the bus to Ottawa at 11. Here, the most excruiating part of our road trip unfolded. The long journey coupled with the unchanging landscape (imagine flat plains running through both flanks of the highway with the occasional sightings of featureless factory buildings were the only scenery that greeted me for the entire length of this trip), thoroughly dampened my mood. As I stared at the barren stretch of plains, a sudden tinge of home-sickness began to well up. To make things worse, no matter how hard I tried to sleep during this stretch of the journey, the uncomfortable seat thwarted my every attempt. When we finally arrived in Ottawa, I was half dead from weariness.

3) Ottawa to Montreal (approximate travel time: 3 hours) - Since the Parliament building at Ottawa was the only distinct tourist attraction, we spent a mere 3 hours in Ottawa before heading of to Montreal. On a brighter note, the female Grey Hound staffs at the bus terminal were dressed in kinky Christmas costumes, handing out free gingerbread to all the passengers (damn! I would have taken pictures with them if I was not overwhelmed by fatigue from all that travelling!)

4) Montreal to Quebec City (approximate travel time: 2 hours): Our first pit stop for this road trip. The first thing we planned on doing after we arrived was to immediately check into Auberge Internationale de Quebec without delay, a hostel we had booked in advance.


The Grey Hound bus terminal at London, a transit service that I had come to develop a love-hate relationship with...