Mont Tremblant: my first national park

Hi,
I've waited a long time for this day :)
The reason why I came to Canada was for the nature and of course there National Parks.
Now I did my first one in Quebec, cause I really wanted to do one on this site, before later on my travel doing the big ones on the other side of the country.

I've found a shuttle who did Montreal - Mont Tremblant and booked myself a ticket :)
We left from downtown at 8am with a typical yellow schoolbus! Also a first for me :)
Ones out of the city you had amazing views and the closer we got, you saw the mountains and ski lifts for the winter. A lot of lakes also ones we got close.
They dropped us of at Lake Monroe and we got a map and a reminder to be back at 3.45pm to go back to the city.
First stop to the bathroom and then get some info on the trails.
I went with the 'La roche' trail, cause ones on top you would have an amazing view of the lake and the mountains. Of course that meant a hike going way up :)
I've heard that in this park they still had wolves and it was also home to the black bear.
On one side I wanted to see a bear (from a safe distant), but sadly I haven't saw one :(
Going up was hard, especially ones halfway. It went up really steep and I wasn't the only one having some trouble and in need of some breaks. At a point you don't even notice the nice nature around you, it was that bad.... But it was all worth it in the end, ones you get at the lookout point you forget the pain :)
The view is just amazing...The lake, the mountains, the nature... Perfect!
I took a break and had some lunch while enjoying the view up there.
A little squirrel tried to get in my bag for food, the cutie :)
Ones I took in this beautiful view I started to go down again.
I took my time to take some pictures and enjoy more of the nature, some small waterfalls and I saw a deer :) The only big animal I saw up there, but still beautiful to see :)
Ones back down I went to fill up my water bottle.
I walked a bit around the lake and enjoyed the view.
There was a dock with some chairs on and I took a break there to look over the lake.
Ones more people came on the dock I saw one a bit further with a small beach, so I decided to go check it out. There were no chairs here, but a canoe with paintings on. Looked like one of the First Nations, really nice. I sad a bit on the dock to enjoy the view some more. Can't get enough of that view. While I sat there I knew this is why I came to Canada, to enjoy views and nature like this.
After a nice day it was time to get back to the city :(

This was one of my favorite days so far in Canada :)
Love,
Sarah

Fun weekend in Montreal

Hi,
So last weekend was a busy weekend for me in Montreal.

On saturday one of my roommates invited me to come to Cap Saint Jacques, a park outside of the city. We brought our picnic and beachwear and went to the park. First stop was the ecological farm, where we took a walk and saw some animals. My favorite were the little piglets!! Never saw them in real and of course I needed to pet them :) Then we did a little walk in the park, before going back to the car to go see the beach. Once at the beach we first had our picnic and then had a walk to a Castle nearby. It was a nice little walk. Then we headed to the beach, where I just put my feet in the water, cause it was not that hot to take a swim. We had some relax time there. After we saw you could look at some turtles, so of course I wanted to check that out :) We had a little walk till there and first we could not find turtles, until we looked further in the water. They were all sunbathing on a log of wood. Just a great view. In the evening there was a astronomy gathering at the main entrance of the park, this was the main reason we came :) We had some great info of how to take pictures of the sky and stars. And once it was dark we could go see through the telescopes of the professionals. This is what we saw: Moon, Mars, Jupiter, M57 ( ring nebula), M13 ( hercules cluster).
We had a great day and evening!

Sunday it was the Pride Parade in Montreal, I've heard it was one of the big ones :)
Never been to one so one of my roommates wanted to join and a friend I've met in Toronto was in town and also joined us. It was so colorful and fun! A lot of music and dancing :) I've seen Justin Trudeau and Antoni from Queer eye ( see picture ). What surprised me the most were all of the religions supporting the LGBTQ community, really didn't expect that, but was nice to see.
I had a great time, and at the end me and my friend decided to walk a bit with the parade to show support. It was a great day!

So after that weekend I was so tired :)
I enjoyed myself so much and ready for some more adventures.
Love,
Sarah

Toronto

Hi,
Just got back from a few days in Toronto :)
Let me tell you all about it.

To get there I travelled with a site called amigo express, a carpool site. Never done that before, it's not really something we have back home. But everything went great, did some stops along the way.
It was a 6 hours drive till there and it went like you would expect, hahaha.
I got at my hostel, who was great btw, around 17:30h. So I checked in, got the tour and got into my room. A bit further in the street I found a vegan restaurant and had some diner.
I went to bet pretty early goes the next day I had to wake up at 6am to get my bus to the Niagara falls.

So the second day I woke up real early and walked to the bus terminal, for the first time on a greyhound bus :) They split us up in 2 groups, the ones going to the  falls and the ones going to NY.
Came out a bunch of us going to the falls needed to wait on a other bus cause the first one got full.
But at the end got there pretty much on time. Still had to walk about 30 minutes to get to the actual falls, but it was a walk next the river so not that bad.
I just have one word for the Niagara falls, AMAZING!
Mother nature did great there, I mean it's just wow.
I went on the Hornblower, the boat who gets real close and personal with the falls :)
We got some red rain ponchos and on the side of the US they got blue ones.
I knew we were going to get wet, but I didn't expect to get an actual shower :) That was so crazy, I mean my hood came of just of the power of that water coming down. I was soaked!!
Had a bit of a panic cause some water got in my camera and my memory card did a bit weird, but it got fixed by drying the next day.
In the afternoon I did the Behind the falls walk. Again you get a rain poncho, this time a yellow one.
You get down 38m with an elevator, then you are in the caves behind the falls.
In one tunnel you really got a good view from behind, you just see water coming down. And you hear the power of the falls. You also get to two platforms right next to where the water falls down. On the top platform you get wet, but on the lower one you get soaked :) Afternoon shower anyone?
It's just great to see it from that close.
I also went on top to see the river coming closer to then fall down.
I just had the best day over there, nature is amazing.

On my last full day I visited Toronto itself. Didn't got lucky with the weather in the morning, cause it was pouring down. But the hostel got some umbrella's for people to borrow. I went do Graffiti Alley first and took some nice pictures there :) Then I went to the city hall to take pictures of the big Toronto letters. After that rain stopped, but my feet were soaked :( I found some other shoes at H&M, so I continued my way to the CN tower. I didn't get up but took some pictures :) For the rest I walked some more downtown and enjoyed the city. What was kinda weird for me was to find streets with houses (like regular houses) in the city. Just thought that was a bit weird, thinking of a big city. I didn't felt great cause my feet got so wet and then it got hot, so I got back to rest some in the hostel before going for diner. I went to diner with a friend I've met in the beginning of my travels in a hostel in Montreal. We had a great evening together.

The morning of my last day I walked around a bit more in the city and got some snacks for the busied back to Montreal. It was a 7 hours long busdrive, just crazy. But it was ok :)

I had a great time in Toronto :) Everyone who knows me must know that the Niagara falls was the highlight of my trip, cause I love nature. But the city was nice to visit to. I'm happy I changed my mind to stay in Toronto for a few months, cause I wouldn't have liked living there. Thats just me, cause I'm not a big city kind of girl. But I can imagine people loving to live there :)
I hope you liked my adventures so far.

Love,
Sarah

Toronto by night 

Behind the falls