Canada Day! Montreal & Ottawa

Back when Paul went to Europe for his coaster trip, I went to Canada to visit with some friends and check out our northern neighbor.  Specifically, I visited Montreal and Ottawa for Canada Day.  I had a great time!

Montreal is a pretty neat city.  It has a great transit system and is very easy to get around.  French is the predominate language, but virtually everyone knows English.  I didn't have any issues with the people in Montreal, despite hearing they could be stubborn.  I met up with our friend Janice on Tuesday night.  Janice was in Montreal for a conference along with a few Swedish colleagues, we shared an apartment style hotel near metro station Atwater.  

The next morning, Janice's boyfriend Peter flew in from Sweden and we explored the city while Janice was at her workshop.  Montreal has some rough edges, but a really nice historic area and some really modern areas.  I also really enjoyed the amount of public art scattered through the city.

Notre Dame of Montreal

Inside Notre Dame

Old City Area of Montreal

Old Granary on the St Lawrence River.  These have remained due to cultural/historical significance.

Biosphere - Houses an Ecosystem Museum

Downtown Montreal

Public Art

McGill University

Over the next few days, we explored Montreal in between UEFA Euro 2012 matches (Peter and I are soccer fans)!  Montreal has a good nightlife scene as well.  Janice and her colleague Kristoffer joined Peter and I off and on.  We visited the 1976 Olympic Stadium site, where there is a biodome with different ecosystems (not be be confused with the biosphere pictured above!) and a nice botanical gardens that had music and cocktails.

Habitat 67

They really phoned WWII in on this monument!

Convention Center

Peter being eaten at the Biodome at the Olympic Stadium

So that's where baby Swedes come from!

Downtown from the Olympic Tower

Smoked Meat Poutine - A Canadian Delicacy

Olympic Stadium tower from the Montreal Botanical Gardens

Three Musketeers!

After the conference was done, we went to Ottawa for Canada Day on July 1.  This is the equivalent of America's July 4th, and Ottawa is the national capital!  Canada Day is a lot of fun and Ottawa is a beautiful city.  It sits on top of a hill above the Ottawa River and has lots of pretty government buildings.  The weather was wonderful (although a bit warm for the Swedes) and we spent lots of time walking around in the sea of Canada Day red!  We stayed in a hotel right near the city center, making it easy to walk around for food, bars, and events.

Of course there's a beaver!

Parliament Hill and the Ottawa River locks

Party!

Government Buildings

Canada Supreme Court.  Yep they dress like Santa Clause!

So pretty!

Everything is Canada themed!

Yay!  Janice!  I'm sporting my Canadian best!

Soooooo many Canadians!

Notre Dame of Ottawa and the Art Museum

Getting ready for fireworks!

Overall, this was an excellent week-long vacation.  Compared to most of my trips, the pace was very relaxed.  We spent lots of time just hanging around drinking and talking.  We took lots of nice walks and, overall, the weather was very cool compared to my routine summer in Atlanta.  Montreal and Ottawa are pretty different cities.  Montreal is larger, more urban and rowdier.  Ottawa, on the other hand, reminds me of a scaled back version of Washington D.C.  It's very picturesque and they did an excellent job planning out the city.

Theme Park Review Europe Tour

This past June I went on a week-long roller coaster tour with Theme Park Review. While David was visiting friends in Montreal and Ottawa, I was screaming my way across Germany and France. We visited Walygator, Holiday Park, Europa Park, Fort Fun Abenteuerland, Heide Park, Schlossbeck, Movie Park Germany, Phantasialand, and Parc Asterix, for a total of 47 roller coasters! I had a fantastic time and would love to go on another TPR trip in the future. On to some pictures:

Blue Fire at Europa Park. Excellent coaster!

Euro Mir at Europa Park. It was like a Russian techno dance party in space. 

Europa Park is beautiful. 

Europa Park 

At Fort Fun

Fort Fun

Awesome alpine coaster at Fort Fun

Beer and meat!

After a rainy ride on Desert Race at Heide Park

Heide Park

Heide Park

Taking the plunge at Schlossbeck

Movie Park Germany 

After watching Germany vs. Italy in the EuroCup, at Heide Park

Black Mamba at Heide Park

Heide Park

OzIris at Parc Asterix

Milano

Last week before the start of the Theme Park Review Europe trip, I spent a day in Milan. It's the financial capital of Italy, and it's a pleasant city. While the tourist options aren't quite up to par with other Italian cities like Rome, Florence, and Venice, there are still some neat sights to see. The main plaza is impressive, with a gleaming white cathedral and the amazing covered streets of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. It was a great start to a great week!

Lots of streetcars around central Milan

Cathedral

Big covered shopping streets - Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Top of the cathedral

Top of the cathedral

View of Milan

DaVinci's last supper painting is in this church

Basilica Sant'Ambrogio

Mexico City (La Cuidad!)

Earlier this month we had the chance to spend a long weekend in Mexico City for our friend Elaine's birthday!  We scored an awesome deal at $300/person for the round trip flight from Atlanta to Mexico.  The flight is short, only about 3 hours, making it closer than California.

Día Uno

We arrived on Wednesday evening at about 9pm.  We took the subway from the airport to the hotel in the city center.  The metro system is very comprehensive, and we used it multiple times throughout the trip.  At 3 pesos/trip ($0.25) it's a steal!  Most of the time on the subway you feel like a sardine.  The trains are all on rubber tires so the ride isn't usually very smooth.  The doors often open before the train comes to a complete stop (scary!) and there are people trying to sell you stuff from time to time.  Before every trip we had to make sure we all knew where we were going, because we were occasionally split up trying to get on/off the trains.  Since the system was started before literacy in Mexico had improved, all the stations had iconography as well as written names to distinguish them.

Mexico City Metro Station Iconography

After we arrived at the hotel, we checked in and went to an adjacent restaurant (Café Popular) for a late dinner.  The city was celebrating Candelaria so there were special regional tamales on the menu.  We got a few and some enchiladas and a pitcher of Horchata!  Yum.

Día Dos
This was our first full day in Mexico.  While the rest of us headed over to the Frida Kahlo Museum (Casa Azul) and the Coyoacán (Coyote) neighborhood, Paul obviously high-tailed it to some roller coasters. Six Flags Mexico is a very nice park with great theming. Unfortunately most of the coasters are just so-so, with the exception of Superman, which is awesome.

Señor Churro at Six Flags Mexico

Coyoacán is a great neighborhood.  Before heading to the museum we grabbed a late breakfast in a second floor restaurant that overlooked a plaza.  After eating we walked around a bit and found a tamale festival!  We sampled several tamales and then headed to the Frida Kahlo Museum.  The exhibits were great and we enjoyed touring the house Frida lived in during her childhood and with her husband Diego Rivera.

Coyoacán Neighborhood

Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul

Frida and Diego in the flesh!

Frida and Diego...out of the flesh

Afterward, we all met up and went to the main square of the historic district, Zócalo. We visited the   Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, and the National Palace, all while trying to avoid a rare February rain storm.

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María 

Since it was Elaine's birthday, she made reservations ahead of time for us at Dulce Patria in the Polanco neighborhood.  The head chef there is Martha Ortiz Chapa, famous for reintroducing upscale Mexican food to the capital city. It was a superb meal.  The grand total for the meal came to 3,000 pesos (about $230).  Not bad for 5 people at a five star, top notch restaurant!  Paul had the duck mole negro and thought it was one of the best things he's ever eaten!

Día Tres
On the third day, we set out early on a bus for Teotihuacan, an archaeological site about 30 miles northeast of the city.  The site was constructed from about 100BCE to 250CE, and features two huge pyramids.  Scholars aren't 100% sure who built it, but it was eventually taken by the Aztec people, and flourished as a major city until its abandonment around the year 600.  Both of the big pyramids have been majorly re-constructed, but there are still a few unexcavated pyramid mounds around the site.  The Pyramid of the Sun is by some measures one of the largest pyramids on earth, at 233 feet tall.

The Steps at the Pyramid of the Sun were designed to look like a face and a stick man

Jumping on the moon pyramid!

On top of the Pyramid of the Sun, with the Pyramid of the Moon behind us 

That night, we went to see a Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestling) match.  Lucha Libre is similar to American WWE in that it's pretty fake, but there are back stories and dramatic occurrences that make it like a soap opera with punching making it great for guys and gals!  Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed, so we didn't get any pictures.

Día Cuatro

We started day four with a trip to the Xochimilco neighborhood on the far south side of Mexico City.  This neighborhood is UNESCO designated for it's system of canals that preserve how the city used to look.  Mexico City used to be on an island in the middle of a lake.  The Aztecs built a series of canals to get around, but gradually the land was drained and the canals were lost.  The remaining canals are popular with tourists and family outings.  There are a series of docks in Xochimilco where you can rent a pole-man driven boat for a 90 minute outing.  Other boats will sail up next to you and try to sell you food or have you buy a song from a mariachi band.  All-in-all a very interesting and enjoyable experience.  Should you find yourself in Xochimilco, make sure you haggle down the price on the boats...initial asking price for us was 1800 pesos...we talked that down to 500 after 20 minutes of horrible Spanish haggling from Elaine and David.

Breakfast in the market at Xochimilco

Colorful boat on the canals at Xochimilco

After our boat ride, Paul went off to La Feria Chapultepec to get a few more coaster credits.  The rest of the group went to the Ciudadela Crafts Market back near the city center.  Most of us made it out with a few neat trinkets and a full stomach from the small restaurant in the middle of the market (another steal at about $3/person for a full lunch with soup and drinks).

That night, after Paul rejoined the group, we walked to Garibaldi Plaza.  This plaza is known as a nightlife spot where you can hire mariachis and enjoy hanging out with the locals.  Afterward we hit up a restaurant on the way back to our hotel.  Overall, the restaurants have been pretty good, but not as good as the food you can just eat off a food cart.  Although the sanitation may be questionable, there haven't been any complaints about the tastiness, and nobody got sick.  In all, across the course of the trip, we'd estimate that somewhere between 50-75 delicious tacos were consumed... ¡Viva México!

Garibaldi Plaza Mariachi

Día Cinco
For our final day, we woke up early and went straight to Chapultepec Park, where the National Museum of Anthropology is located.  This is one of the best museums we've ever been to.  The museum is huge and the exhibits really showcase the various cultures and achievements of the native peoples of Mexico.  It's a 100% must-see if you should find yourself in Mexico City.

Torre Mayor, the tallest building in Mexico

War Memorial to 6 Young Men Killed in the American Invasion

National Museum of Anthropology

Giant Olmec head in the National Museum of Anthropology

Crowds in Chapultepec Park

After the museum, we had just enough time to get back to the hotel, finish packing, eat some goodbye tacos and make it to the airport in time for our flight.  The flight was way undersold (because it was during the Super Bowl), so everyone got their own row.  David and Christina even got bumped to business class with Henry!  Woo!  Business drunk for the flight home!

Mexico City is definitely underrated as a tourist destination.  Rumors of it being an unsafe, disease-ridden metropolis are just that; rumors.  Don't let these stories deter you from exploring the capital of our neighbor to the south.  Mexico City was a great short vacation.  It's cheap, easy to get to, has wonderful weather, great food, and there are a lot of things to see.