Monday 4 July 2011

Saturday Night Circue-du Soleil, DD, surfing and moving couches and no Salmon for me

Saturday night in Quebec City.  Mind blowing.

April, Mitch and I went back to the Citadel and had a picnic on the embankment facing Quebec city's old port.  The view was spectacular as it was the evening before, but seeing the city during the day was awesome. 

After hanging out for a couple of hours we headed into the old city and made our way to an underpass that had been converted into an urban stage for the Cirque du Soleil.  The troupe is putting on a free show for the entire summer and we thought we would catch the performance.  After waiting with the teeming masses we were let in through an industrial, corrugated metal fence.  The stage was made up of empty shipping containers and scaffolds that hugged the supports of the freeway we were under.  It was creative use of industrial materials to make something beautiful.  The show began and I was left mesmerized.  I had yet to see a Cirque du Soleil show and was completely captivated by the dreamlike spell the performance had cast upon me. 

I remember at being in awe of the details, and the culmination of them into a fantastic show.   I thought how can human beings create something so beautiful and creatively inspiring such as this, and on the other hand be able to create weapons of equal ingenuity in the name of war (and peace).  I realise now how important the Arts are.  Art creates joy in people's life, it lifts us up, and inspires us. 

After the show we headed down to the old port and hung out on the pier and had yet another great conversation.  We made our way to the "bar street" and walked into, without paying a dime for cover, a bar with live music on its main floor and techno boom boom on the top level.  We chose to spend our time with the live band, who played everything from Greenday to Metallica.  It was totally gnarly.

After this we went back to the secret enclave bar we had discovered the previous night and listened to more live music, and talked about life.  The show became more interactive when April decided to get up and sing Bon Jovi's "Bed of Roses" with the band.  The whole event is video recorded and will be live broadcast to the teeming masses of the online community later this week.

We headed home and had a cheese and Kolbassa party, and retired for the evening around 4am.

I can honestly say that was the most entertained I have been on a weekend in a long time.  I bought a coke for $1.69 and that is all I spent the entire evening.  I spent 5 dollars on our dinner picnic. April donated $20 dollars for to me for gas since I was the DD the last few days.  So the adventure goes on!!

Sunday morning April left us and Mitch and I had a relaxed day, we made some breakfast fajitas and I went to explore the surrounding river system with my trusty fly rod.  I found a beautiful spot about 15 minutes away from base HQ and hunkered down to do some fly fishing. 

The spot I chose was near a beautiful set of rapids where salmon head up river.  There were a couple other fly fisherman about but none of us could catch anything.  Regardless I love being near running water on rivers and had a great time trying to fish.

Later that evening my host and I moved a pair of couches from his friend on the base to his place.  For my labor Mitch paid me $25.  Sweet!!

Today I am making for Gaspe, a town at the end of the Gaspe peninsula and will be meeting some new couch surfing hosts Yannick and Audrey.  I am looking forward to meeting them, and to driving for nine hours!

So a budget check leaves me with $961 and this is after filling my gas tank to the brim.  Ok need to pack and say thank you to Mitch, a dude who has been absolutely tremendous.   Thank you so much buddy, you are one of the good ones.

Now, on to Gaspe!!

1 comment:

  1. "Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can."
    — Dalai Lama XIV

    Barrhaven is a little dimmer without the shine of supreme ideologies and eternal optimism.

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