This is how I road trip ;)

We left Quebec City this morning under stormy skies and headed here to the town of Stanstead, where crossing the street can be a complicated affair. The border between the US and Canada in this particular area was set out in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, though it was not properly surveyed until after the War of 1812. In the meantime, numerous settlements were founded by settlers from New England. However, when it came time to properly delineate the border, the surveying was apparently performed incorrectly (rumour has it the surveyors were drunk) and ended up cutting this particular settlement in two. Be that as it may, the erroneous border was confirmed by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842, the purpose of which was to resolve several border disputes, including this one. On the north where I'm standing we have Stanstead, Quebec, and across the road there is Derby Line, Vermont. And in the middle of this ordinary suburban street, marked by the little obelisk and the row of potted plants, is the Canada-United States border hahaha! Had the surveying been performed correctly, Derby Line would be in Canadian territory.

As per the big "Do not enter" sign above, you are not allowed to walk across the border here. There is an official border crossing one block over which you need to go through instead else you risk arrest and a fine, and Border Patrol on both the US and Canadian side are absolutely everywhere to enforce this! This creates a headache for local residents who live on one side of the border and want to visit friends or pick up a pizza on the other side. Prior to the September 11 attacks, this was a non-issue; the Border Patrol agents were all locals, and with a combined population of barely 3,000 everyone pretty much knew everyone. After September 11 though, that all changed. The border was tightened, the local agents were replaced with out-of-towners, and those potted plants turned up hehe.

In 1904, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House here opened after being deliberately built on the border as a symbol of cross-border friendship. A black line runs across the floor to mark the international boundary. The front door of the library is on the US side, and while there is a back door on the Canadian side, it is permanently locked to prevent folk slipping through the border undetected. Visitors from the Canadian side are therefore allowed to cross the border into the US without reporting to customs provided they immediately enter the library, and immediately cross back into Canada upon leaving. This is the only exception to the "Do not enter" rule. Because the building has two entrances, it also has two addresses - a US one and a Canadian one. Furthermore, it has two insurance policies, one in each country, for the items physically located in that country. It also has to adhere to two sets of building codes hehe.

Aaron around the world ;)

Now, as if that wasn't confusing or ridiculous enough, it gets worse! This is another nearby border crossing. The Canadian customs building is on the left for those entering Canada from the US, and the US customs building is in the distance there. The Canadian road I'm standing on continues straight into the US, and also forks round to the left...

...to this - Canusa Avenue or rue Canusa, depending on what language you speak :) It's better known as simply Canusa Street, with "Canusa" being a portmanteau of "Canada" and "USA". This 1,900 foot (580m) section of Canusa Street is one of only a small number of streets in the world where an international border corresponds to the lines running down the middle of the road. I'm looking east here, so in this case the cars driving towards me are in Canada, and the other is in the US. Notice the road curves completely into Canada in the distance, whereas behind me the road forks into both Canada and the US as per the shot on the left.

So I'm walking along the Canadian side of the street here, looking directly across at homes in the US (with US flags flying out front - standard), but I'm not allowed to walk over there without first paying a visit to the US customs building. I am however allowed to drive east along the US side even if I entered from Canada because the road immediately curves back into Canada as I pointed out above. If I was to pull into one of those driveways on the US side however, I would have to immediately report to US customs, or call in on my way past. This is where it gets annoying for the dozen or so US residents along here. If they want to head into Canada, they have to first report to Canadian customs, obviously. On the other hand, if they want to head into the US, they need to cross onto the Canadian side of the road to do so (and drive towards me in that shot above), and so they therefore need to report to US customs before they continue into the US since technically they're entering from Canada! In other words, every time these guys pull out of their driveway, they need to report to a border crossing hahaha! This whole situation also raises other questions. If I throw a rock across the street through the neighbour's window, in which country have I committed a crime? What about if I straddle the centre line there and take a piss in middle of the road? And what if I have a head-on collision along here? And so on :)

Anyway, after all that cross-border fun, we continued driving in Canada to our next destination of Montreal.

This is the view from our hotel room and from the front door of our hotel, right in the middle of Downtown Montreal. The city is located on its own massive island in the middle of the St Lawrence River, and is Canada's second-largest city with a population of about 1.7 million.

Beneath our feet in Downtown is the Underground City, an enormous underground structure stretching 20 miles (32km) in total and covering an area of four million square metres making it the largest underground complex in the world. The whole thing started with the construction of a single underground shopping centre beneath the city's first modern skyscraper in 1962, and as the years passed more and more segments were added. Today it contains and links to about 200 restaurants, 1200 offices, 2000 shops, as well as apartment buildings and condominiums, hotels, movie theatres, museums, and ten of the city's subway stations. Phew! There are more than 120 exterior access points, and during winter some half a million people pass through the underground city every day rather than dealing with the bitter cold above ground. Anyway, we went down there for brunch this morning :)

Just like Quebec City, French is Montreal's official language, and in fact Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world, behind Paris. But its similarities with Paris don't end there. One of Montreal's metro entrances is identical to those in Paris (and in fact this was a gift to the city from Paris, which was nice).

Montreal also has its own Notre Dame cathedral (which is apparently just as stunning inside)...

And Monteal has its own public bicycle sharing system, and cycling is widespread throughout the city thanks to its cycle-friendly streets. My kinda place!

We started our wandering today in the oldest part of the city known as Old Montreal, the main touristy area. This is the Old Port stretching for 2km along the river, redeveloped in the 1990s to open green space after port activities were moved elsewhere. That, thing, across the water there is a housing complex believe it or not, known as Habitat 67. It was designed by a Canadian architect, conceived as his master's thesis in architecture at the local McGill University and then built as a pavilion for the Expo 1967 World's Fair that was hosted here. Interesting.

Inland from the port, Old Montreal contains old cobblestoned streets lined with buildings dating from the 17th through 19th centuries, and no shortage of souvenir shops.

The area around Place Jacques-Cartier square here is littered with tourists, street artists, musicians, and more souvenir shops hehe. Old Montreal is nice enough to meander through, but it definitely doesn't compare to that of Quebec City.

Adjacent to Old Montreal is the Gay Village, apparently the largest of its kind in North America. It's lined with cafes, bars and restaurants, and is has plenty of interesting looking folk walking around hehe. Canada has long had a very liberal attitude to homosexuality. Same-sex marriage is legal in Quebec and across Canada, and Quebec was the first Canadian province to pass a non-discrimination law for sexual orientation and to provide same-sex civil unions. Although a little quiet during the day, I expect the party really gets going at night!

Then we felt we needed some exercise, in the form of 426 steps up the side of Mount Royal (which is really just a large hill). Mount Royal is one of Montreal's largest greenspaces, and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who also co-designed New York's Central Park.

This is the view looking over Downtown from the Mount Royal Chatlet, an event venue located near the 764-foot (233m) summit of the mountain / large hill.

Other than Old Montreal, Kristina and I have come to the conclusion that there is little here in the way of tourist attractions, unless you're into museums; at least for our tastes anyway. Having said that, this does seem like a fantastic city to live in, assuming you can handle the winter, and in fact Montreal ranked 16th in the Economist Intelligence Unit's global liveability survey in 2014.

426 steps up and down is a good way to work up an appetite, and after descending the hill we found this awesome little area full of busy bars and restaurants. Montreal sure seems to have one of the most 'happening' downtown areas I've come across.

Included in the myriad of menu options around here was this heart-attack inducing hamburger, and sure enough right in front of this particular restaurant was an ambulance that later took somebody away on a stretcher hahaha! Salad for us please ;)

After dinner I busted my hump up those bloody steps again to capture the city by night. Kristina however couldn't be arsed :)

We had a bit of a chill-out day today - probably one of many we'll need throughout the trip! Having done most of what we intended to in Montreal yesterday, all we did today was take a wander this afternoon out to a neighbourhood known as the Plateau. At first glance we felt as though we were back in New York, somewhere in northwest Brooklyn.

A block or two later it felt more like Manhattan's Lower East Side hehe.

Apart from some interesting people watching and a cool ambience about the place, the architecture is something of an attraction itself - rows and rows of duplexes and triplexes dating from the early 20th century. Their distinctive exterior staircases and wrought-iron ornamentation have come to define the visual landscape of the area. Good stuff.

I should also mention this local Quebec 'delicacy' since it's our last day in the province. This is "poutine", a Canadian dish originating in Quebec made with french fries and cheese curds topped with a light brown gravy-like sauce and other various bits and pieces of your choosing. It's basically a heart attack in a bowl hehe, but we had to try it :)

Since arriving in Canada we've been staying in rather nice hotel rooms, courtesy of Kristina working her magic just prior to leaving her job as a travel agent when we left New York. Note I said hotel "rooms". Well we arrived in Ottawa this afternoon and opened the door of our accommodation to find we'd been given a whole suite hahaha! Big living area, full kitchen, king size bed, one and a half bathrooms, etc. This is how we road trip ;)

The view from our balcony is nothing great, but you can't have everything :)

So then, Ottawa is located in the province of Ontario and is Canada's capital city. It sits on the Ottawa River and overlooks the province of Quebec on the other side, where we'd just come from. Despite a population of close to 900,000 our first impression was that it's practically deserted, to the point where skateboarders are doing tricks in the middle of what otherwise look like busy roads! Once rush hour arrived however so too did the usual city hustle and bustle. Like elsewhere we've been in Canada, Ottawa ranks pretty high in various quality of life/living surveys. Ottawans also enjoy low crime rates and low unemployment. I'm telling ya, these Canadians are doing something right!

Quiet or not, its city centre is quite the picturesque spot! This is overlooking the Rideau Canal towards the parliament buildings in the distance. During winter the canal freezes solid, creating a 4.8 mile (7.8km) long ice rink - awesome!

Left is the National War Memorial, dedicated to Canadians killed in various wars over the last century, and right is the Centre Block building (with the Peace Tower in the middle) in the Canadian parliamentary complex atop Parliament Hill. The Centre Block contains the House of Commons and Senate chambers, as well as the offices of a number of members of parliament and senators etc. Out of shot to the left and right are the West Block and East Block respectively.

In October last year a series of shootings occurred at the memorial and Centre Block, carried out by local scumbag-turned-Islamic-radical, Michael something-or-other. The attack started at the memorial, when Michael approached one of the ceremonial sentry guards and shot him twice with a rifle. The guard later died in hospital. Michael then drove his car from where it was parked near the memorial to Parliament Hill, a distance of about 200 metres. There he ran onto the parliament grounds and carjacked a parliamentary vehicle which he drove to the main entrance of the Centre Block, and then ran inside the Peace Tower with rifle still in hand. At this point police and local security were in hot pursuit and gun fire had broken out. Hearing the commotion, various members of parliament who were in the midst of various meetings dove for cover, barricaded doors, and grabbed flagpoles to use as rudimentary spears hehe. After a brief standoff, the little fucker was shot dead. In a video made prior to the attack, Michael expressed his motives as being related "to Canada's foreign policy and in respect of his religious beliefs."

In front of the Centre Block is the Centennial Flame, which has been burning since Canada's 100th anniversary as a Confederation in 1967. The Centennial Flame was erected as a temporary monument, but due to great public support it still stands and wastes gas today. The flame is encompassed by a water fountain which, thanks to the heat generated by the flame, doesn't freeze, even in the middle of winter. Although it looks kinda small here, it's actually quite large and throws out a lot of heat. It almost burned the crap out of me while I was taking this shot thanks to a gust of wind (and thanks to my being perhaps a bit too close :)

We later wandered over to the ByWard Market area. Back in the day it was apparently full of taverns and brothels, but alas those days are gone and now it's full of bars and restaurants instead, and a daily farmer's market.

Ever wondered what Santa does in the off season?

ByWard is also the centre of the city's nightlife, but frankly we're always too bloody exhausted at the end of each day to bother. This travelling thing is hard work!

As part of her string pulling, Kristina managed to hook us up with an "Attractions Pass" for travel agents, allowing us free access to various city attractions (some of which we'll be taking advantage of tomorrow). One of the more low-key freebies is Ottawa's claim to culinary fame: a BeaverTails pastry hahaha! It's fried dough, hand stretched to resemble a beaver's tail, and coated in cinnamon and sugar etc. Excellent!

The National Gallery of Canada, apparently one of Canada's premier art galleries, and its view looking back at Parliament Hill, much of which is currently being worked on which is rather annoying for this photographer.

We'll be taking a (free) cruise on this boat tomorrow as part of this Attractions Pass thingy, but I wanted to mention the pathway behind it. Ottawa, like the rest of the country, is big on cycling, and these pathways are absolutely everywhere. This one happens to be part of the Trans Canada Trail - the world's longest network of recreational trails. When fully connected, the Trail will stretch 14,000 miles (23,000km) from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic oceans. It's currently about 75% complete. Now that is awesome!

First thing this morning we headed back down to the Ottawa River to do the boat cruise I mentioned yesterday. We weren't expecting much but hey, it was free, thanks to Kristina's travel agent hook ups. In the distance across the river is the city of Gatineau in Quebec. We'd be venturing over there later.

Looking back towards Parliament Hill out of shot on the right, and the Fairmont Chateau Laurier hotel above the start of the Rideau Canal. The chateau was commissioned by a guy named Charles Hays. Prior to its opening, Hays travelled to England to procure furniture for the hotel. Hays, along with said furniture, was travelling back on the Titanic, and so of course never made it, and the hotel's grand opening was delayed.

Downtown Ottawa somewhere, as seen from the Ottawa River.

The Rideau Falls, where the Rideau River empties into the Ottawa River. The Rideau Canal was constructed to bypass these falls, and meets up with the Rideau River upstream.

And this is the official residence of the Prime Minister of Canada. Nice spot on the river, but I'd be a little concerned about snipers on the opposite river bank.

After leaving the boat we took advantage of another free attraction on offer to Kristina: the Royal Canadian Mint. This facility is not responsible for the production of Canada's circulation coins (that one is in Winnipeg), but instead produces collector and commemorative coins, and bullion in the form of coins, bars, medals, etc. This facility also produced the medals for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Photography is strictly forbidden inside which always pisses me off, except for this 28-pound (12.8kg) gold bar of 99.99% purity (i.e. 24 karat), worth over half a million dollars. It's pretty well chained down, and the security guard standing out of shot looked pretty well armed ;)

Oh, and they allow photography outside too.

Later on we took a short drive up into Gatineau Park, across the Ottawa River back in Quebec. I'd read somewhere the sunset views were pretty good here. They're not bad :)

Then it was off to another option on Kristina's list of freebies - Nordik Spa-Nature, apparently the largest spa in North America. Time to unwind!

They don't allow photography either, so I ripped this from their website instead. The spa contains seven outdoor baths, eight unique saunas, an infinity pool, a restaurant and lounge, body treatments, and the second salt-water floating pool in the world. We spent about three hours in here and left feeling a lot better than when we walked in. We've got a busy few days coming up though so that won't last! We're back on the road tomorrow, heading to a small town that a) we can't pronounce, and b) we're only going to because Kristina was offered some more freebies there, including a helicopter ride hahaha!