Canada Diary Entry - Aug 18

Got a hotel room reserved in Ottawa yesterday, through Internet in the great Bibliotheque Nationale.
In the early morning hours, a car alarm system rang three times. Then, I fantasized about hearing Eastern German voices complaining on the corridor.

During breakfast, down from the condo behind the hotel's terrace, came Montreal's scary sneeze, five times... loud and massive. This mirrored Quebec's scary sneeze, which sent me jumping when I crossed an open window in Quebec's old city a few days before... the MW kind of sneeze, right next to one's unsuspecting ear.

Ottawa is part of Mall Land, meaning people go shopping&dining in malls here, contrasting to Quebec province, which looks just like Europe in not having malls, instead lots of pedestrian zone streets.

Ambled along the Ottawa river in the evening, until some loud bangs could be heard - not only changing of the guards in Parliament Hill, but also a parade celebrating 150 years of Ottawa being the capital of the Confederation of Canada.




Saw great "Spirit of Canada" light show being projected onto the Parliament building afterwards (MW: three beamers, about 2000sqm area (or, as Quebequois would count, about 20000 pi. ca.), and bright); then had very expensive Guiness in nearby bar.