I didn’t know what to expect before I came to Québec. The little research I did only answered the questions how I would get there and where I could stay. Since I like trains (there’s Wifi!) the first choice was simple and it lead to some interesting discussions. Opposite from me, a young woman had taken her place and we immediately began chatting about weather, hockey, jobs and where we’re heading to. Turns out, this was her very first time traveling on a train! Can you imagine?! After getting to know she’s from St. Johns, Newfoundland, it sounded a bit more logic, since there’s probably no railway on the entire island. Still something I can’t really understand, since we’re basically born on trains in Switzerland. The second choice, where to stay, was easy as well. The HI in Vieux Québec apparently is the largest hostel in entire Canada. Now “large” doesn’t necessarily mean “good”, but in this case it was alright. Sightseeing wise, there were no big surprises. The one thing you have to take about a million photos of is the view from the St. Laurence River up on Chateau Frontenac. I took at least a billion.
Other than that, the old town was very lovely, with small little “Rue”s, old houses and a mixture of French and British architecture. Nevertheless, if I didn’t know, I wouldn’t have said I’m in North America. Since I was rushing from one thing to the next the previous few days, I took it a little slower in Québec, which in itself is not what you would call a very “energetic” city. Affairs go their way, but nobody is in a big hurry. So I went to a small restaurant in the old town, ordering some fries and coffee for breakfast (it was already 2pm..). The restaurant was empty, outside it kept raining and so I got to ask the bartender about life in this town. The Québecois are crazy about hockey (by this I mean even crazier than your average Canadian), so talking about their favourite sport usually leads to talk about their loss of the Québec Nordiques back in the nineties. You can still see the bitterness in their face – Imagine your towns hockey team moves to another town, and two years later wins the Stanley Cup! Apparently most people stopped watching hockey altogether back then, some kept following the Colorado Avalanche (who are the successor of the Québec Nordiques), some started cheering for the Montréal Canadiens, and some simply kept following their local junior teams. With a new arena being opening this September, there is hope though, that NHL Hockey is coming back to town.
Lunch with a view #quebec #revolvingrestaurant #ciel
A photo posted by Fabio (@nummerus) on
To conclude, Québec is a lovely city, that I enjoyed seeing, but you could probably see all the high- and some of the lowlights by just staying for one night, instead of 3 nights as I did.