Days in Cambridge

On 15th of May I returned to Canada to a new home - a house in Cambridge, a little town connected to K-W by iXpress bus. There is a Faculty of Architecture of UW, a nice surrounding, but generally the town is quite small, not providing much opportunities what to do. With my great housemates Monika (CZ), Peter (CA) and Nils (FR) we shared a lovely big house in Beverly street. I was very tired from our 3 weeks travelling and spend the following days in resting mode. There were amazing barbecue and czech dinner evenings which we managed to organize with my flatmates. I really enjoyed those days we spent together talking with beers :) All the time it was sunny warm summer weather. Now it seems to me it was more than just one short week...
I got an old bike to move around and even I went for a little trip to Chicopee, where I hadn't been before. I started also creating an idea for the last week; I had some spare days before my departure and I wanted to discover another place in CA or around. One day I found tickets to Saint John in New Brunswick for quite reasonable price. But before I decided, the ticket to go there got quite expensive, so my final plan looked like: To New Brunswick by bus through Quebec and to fly back. I read some articles about NB and about travelling there; it was said that hitch-hiking works there the best in whole Canada. I was about to prove it!

CA16 Cambridge May 2010

Washington DC and Alexandria

Before Pivko and Franta left back home, I had been thinking what to do next. I had half of May free and I had no longer background in Park st Manor in Waterloo (remember, the house was sold). The first idea of going to Caribbean was abandoned. Not as I would't like, but there was no one left and I didn't want to travel there alone. Then I found a temporary home in Cambridge in a house where Monika was living during her summer term (Monika is also from CTU studying currently at UW) and that solved my housing situation. I was also considering to go from NYC directly north to New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, but I couldn't figure out any reasonable way how to get there through Main. Decision was made by finding cheap tickets to Boston or DC. I choose Washington and then I would go back "home" to Canada.

The Trip part IV - New York City

Big Apple was the last destination on our common travel list. We were staying for 3 days (9.-11.5.), living in the cheapest hostel in Brooklyn (Lafayette hostel). It wasn't that bad, the only problem there were only two showers which was very insufficient. Sunday afternoon we spent lost in Manhattan, walking down Broadway st, taking pictures in Wall st, and admiring night Times sq. I learned in LP guide there were almost no public toilets in NYC and that's absolutely truth! They recommend to use Starbucks, or any other coffee shop :P Although Manhattan creates only a part of NYC, it's so huge that walking around made us soon tired and we got back to our hostel.

Time sq.

Brooklyn bridge

The Trip part III - Union College

The reason for visiting Union College was to see Czech friends studying there and to pick-up some ebay electronics :) 

Crossing the border Canada/USA is a real procedure; the train was stopped for 2 hours and a dinning car was turned into a custom office. We were questioned why, where and how we were going to spend our time in the States, had to fill out a paper claiming we were not terrorists, another paper claiming we were not carrying any livestock and food, and finally pay six dollars of a stamp and a paper stitched in our passports. Moreover to say the train from Montréal to NY was extremely slow! Not as it was old, but the railway had probably stayed in the same condition since the time it was built by first colonists... It was just single-track with unsecured road crossings, so either we were waiting for a train in the opposite direction or going very slow across those crossings (plus these two hours in borders). In total 357km in 7.20 h, wow!

We arrived to Schenectady on Friday 7th of May, easily found Union College (looking like weirdoes as we were walking and with huge backpacks :), met with Martin, got a room in a dormitory, went for a great all-you-can-eat dinner (so good, especially when you are hungry), and later joined other exchange students at a party in Language house and after in Frat house. Frat house is a kind of weird clan accommodation system: in the house can permanently live only guys (!) belonging into a particular fraternity (or brotherhood). Getting into a fraternity is very sophisticated process consisting from 10 weeks of pledging (= serving) for older brothers (basically an applicant has to act like a "bitch", like in the army). In the evenings the house turns into huge alcohol bordel. There young students get very drunk from extremely disgusting Bud Light, or other cheap US beer and lose all their human manners :D Funny. Especially if you realize the campus is alcohol free, there is a campus police, campus safety, canteens, and everything needed for an easy-going student life. Of course for this comfort you (or your parents) have to pay hell a lot of money!

The Trip part II - Ottawa & Montréal

When Nicolas left us on Tue 4th May, we went directly to Ottawa as planed, because we had our car for one more day. It takes about two hours of comfortable driving from Montréal. Ottawa is a very nice city lying on the southern banks of the Ottawa River, a major waterway forming the local boundary between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The city was chosen by Queen Victoria as a capital on December 31st 1857 as a compromise between Toronto and Montréal. It's a real bilingual city; about 80% of citizens under 25 are able to speak both languages.
We were staying in a great (little expensive, but yet the cheapest in the town) hostel Ottawa Backpackers. From the sights to be mention there is Parliament Hill, Major's Hill Park, Museum of Civilization and Rideau Canal (which when frozen creates officially the world's largest skating rink with its 7,8km length) and many governmental buildings and embassies. By an accident we also got inside the parliament and saw part of a political discussion :). In the evening we went to a karaoke bar with some really good singers! 

CA11 Ottawa 4.5.2010

Next morning we had to hurry up to be back in Montréal until noon to drop off our car in Thrifty office (but before to return GPS in Walmart :)). I think in total we made around 2500 km.
In Montréal we met Jean-Christophe, my friend who was studying in Prague 2 years ago. We were staying at his flat for 2 days. There is a great system of city bikes, which we were using very much! All you need to use Bixi is your credit card with a deposit of 250$, then is costs 5$ per 24hours and you have every 30mins of biking for free. First evening we also met some other ex-exchange Prague students in Bílý Kůň pub. The other day we were sightseeing around the well known places (Mont Royal hill, Olympic stadium, Port, etc.) That evening Canadians won over Penguins in a match in Bell Centre in the city, which was a huge holiday! :)
On Friday 7th in the morning we were leaving by Amtrack to Schenectady in New York.

CA12 Montréal 5.-6.5.2010

The Trip part I - Québec

At the end of April our house in Waterloo was going to be sold; I packed everything needed for 3 weeks travel in my backpack and left my suitcase with the rest of my stuff at a friend's place until the half of May when I was going to return back.

On Monday 26th we started the first part of a big travelling through Canada and USA. First we took a bus to Toronto for a quick tour.

This was my third Toronto visit, but it's always nice to walk its streets. It was a nice sunny day ideal for shooting nice pictures :) In the evening we met Nicolas and left together by night bus to Montéal.

CA09 Toronto 26.4.2010

Morning in Montréal, around 7am, snowing, cold! Finding a place for a breakfast was the first thing to do, then waiting till 8 when Thrifty opened. They let us left our bags in the office and we went to kill two hours in Old Port. At noon we came back to get our car (Toyota Camry with a hybrid engine this time! Not a bad one :)). Then we made a quick shopping in Walmart with a purpose to "rent" a tent and GPS for our trip (rent because we were about to return it a week after :D). 

Niagara Falls - Apr 23

The highlight of the whole semester was to come the last month. My school was over, all (two) exams successfully passed and more than a month to spend.
22.4. Franta and Ivan (aka Pivko) landed in Toronto, happily found a bus and in the evening they arrived to Waterloo. With my friends we prepared a little welcome ceremony in Park st Mansion.

Next morning (it was Friday) we picked up our car from DiscountCarRental (we got a white Corolla with a very nice total price $46/day) and left towards Niagara. The crew for this time: Franta, Pivko, Andy, Celine and me. Without a map and with just a little detour we reached the destination and successfully found a free-of-charge parking (we saved $14 at the edge of a forest :)). We couldn't have chosen the better day as the weather was just amazing! Lovely spring sunny day even allowed us to see a rainbow spreading over the water mass. The falls are definitely more majestic from Canadian side, and it's worth a trip. But I wouldn't spend a night there as the city is made in a very ugly disneyland style and everything is overpriced.
After a vision experience we made our way to Niagara-on-the-Lake town few km further down the river. We took a sandwich dinner on a pier watching a sunset and then drove back home. Both driver and a navigator were changed, which led in loosing the way again and ending up almost in Toronto :D Soon after midnight our expedition successfully reached home.

CA08 Niagara Falls 23.4.2010

April in Waterloo

I've promised a continuation of my canadian story, and here it comes!

  The time how it's passing
It just so happened that I met one amazing person and we were spending quite a lot of time together since then :)

Spring arrived very quickly to Waterloo and unlike in Europe it became quite warm and pleasant. While Europe was buried under snow, we were enjoying lovely spring sun rays and I could have biked almost everyday. Since some time ago I was visiting gym at Columbia IceField arena (CIF). It was much better than the old gym at Physical Activity Complex. Not only there were actually many girls going, but also it was modern with much more machines. Only sauna was missing, so PAC remained just for sauna and sometimes swimming.

There were many pubs and many farewell parties. I organised several times common dinners or apéros at our house. This is another great advantage against campus housing: you can do whatever you like and there is no security coming to kick you out! :) At the end we got much more together with other exchange students then before. Was it the condition of off-campus living in the beginning I was not so much in the contact? Or did I experience the arrival cultural shock? I would say I did which surprised me. At the end I was finally feeling like at home, despite the expensive beer, tasteless food and other little things which are insignificant. I enjoyed the last months to the max and it happened so much in a very short period of time. All the tripping, partying and stuff that made me busy, but most importantly my friends, created the time I'll never forget...