Thursday, May 11, 2023: A waterfall, the most cheerful traffic jam of my life and the end of time.
Info:
The city of Quebec is the capital of the province Quebec and is situated – where else? – on the St. Lawrence River. About 550,000 people live in an area of almost 500 km2. (In comparison to my hometown Linz again: There more than 200,000 people live in an area of almost 100 km2.) Therefore everything is spaciously laid out and there’s a lot of green in between. The metropoliton region has got more than 800,000 inhabitants, with rising tendency.
Two young Huron-Iroquois called the place, where Quebec is situated today, “kanata”, meaning village or settlement, when the French explorer Jacques Cartier asked them. The name Canada derives from this description. In 1535 Quebec was one of the first European settlements in North America. It is the only town north of Mexico where the original fortifications still exist.
My opinion:
I was fascinated, how much space there is in this city. And by the coexistence of old and new buildings which complete and enrich each other.
Casually speaking: I think Quebec is cool.
Diary:
After not having been able to say good-bye to the ocean in the morning, I arrived later in the afternoon and decided not to go downtown, but to visit the waterfall. As it was rush hour I considered this a very clever idea. Going around the town and not into it.
Monmorency is the name of the waterfall, and with its 83 m it is 30 m higher than the Niagara Falls. But it is a lot “slimmer”. In winter the pool below it freezes, and then there grows an up to 30 m high ice-hill, called sugar loaf.
My plan was to visit that place. Originally. Until I somehow took the wrong lane in a construction area and was guided further on by google maps. Not only into downtown, but into the center of downtown. And into the center of an icredible traffic jam.
When I realized what had happened, I was about to forget my good upbringing and say some words which I would never ever repeat in public. But then I looked into the cheerful face of the driver in the car next to me. He smiled, I smiled. His lane passed on, mine had a stand-still for two more green periods, because I am always in the slower lane. No matter where. A woman overtook Annie Way, looked at me and smiled. I gave her a friendly nod. The roadworker waved merrily. I waved back.
I spent a jolly half an hour in a traffic jam in downtown Quebec, and it was by far the most pleasant traffic chaos I have ever experienced. Nobody was hectic or nervous – just as relaxed and cheerful as usual. And I got an impression of the city center and the places I wanted to go the next day. In front of the Canadian Parliament there is a fountain. I spent four green phases there. Enough time to take out my camera and take pictures.
The advantage of all this was that I reached the waterfall at 5 pm and didn’t have to pay for parking any more.
What I saw then, was just marvellous. You can watch the unbelievable force with which the water masses tumble down the edge of the rock from a close distance because there’s a suspencion bridge spanning the river.
At an observation deck I was asked to take pictures with their cell phoned because the usual selfies didn’t catch enough of the grand view. On a whim I asked a lady to take a photo of me as well. Normally I hate being photographed. But in this case I can prove that I really was there. Some of my friends I even sent it per WhatsApp. This required more courage than standing on the suspension bridge and looking down.
In the evening my wristwatch stopped. Back in Linz I had gone to the shop and asked how long the batteries usually work. Two years, the shop assistant said. Good, I thought, then I won’t have a problem.
I don’t have a problem. It’s time to live by a compass, not by a watch. It’s time to live timeless.
The next morning I lived up to my new timelessness and started out for downtown Quebec only at half past eleven. I wanted to park Annie Way in one of the many large parking lots along the Grande Allée E.
Unfortunately I overlooked the first ones, and when I finally started looking for them, the ones close to the city center were full. I made google maps go crazy with me looking for a parking lot, but at that point of time I had already developed a good feeling for the area, and so I turned it off. In the old city (!) a friendly young man explained to me the system of short-time parking. As I had no idea how long I wanted to stay, I went back out and found a parking lot outside Abraham Plains. In this way I could take a long walk because it took me some time to get back to the old city.
My first impression was strengthened. A lot of space for parks, in which people enjoyed their leisure time, and modern architecture next to old houses. The modern buildings are not always charming, sometimes there is just a lot of concrete standing around. Apart from last century’s construction mistakes, it is really beautiful. Outside the city walls, everything focuses on cars. Broad streets, four to six lanes, but also sidewalks and cycle tracks. Cebra crossings without a street light do not mean that anyone would care for the pedestrian. I tried it out. Shaking heads. Okay, I’ve learnt something new. There’s a street light every few meters, therefore no problem.
While looking at the colourful houses of the Old City, I didn’t realize how far I had got. All of a sudden the massive building of the hotel Chateau Frontenc was right in front of me – and with it the St. Lawrence River. Here it’s really a river. That’s okay. But at Reviere-du-Loup it is an ocean. Estuary – no way!
Here it is, the craddle of Canada, where first the natives enjoyed their lives, till the people from Europe turned up and fought against the natives and afterwards against other people from Europe, until the stronger ones decided how to go on. Nowadays there are efforts to right the wrongs of the past that have been done to the people of the First Nation and to reach out a hand in reconciliation. In Canada they use the term First Nation. In USA they talk about Native Americans which in my opinion is an additional discrimination as the ancestors of these people have been here for at least 15,000 but not more than 18,000 years (noone knows exactly), and not only after the mistake of Christopher Columbus in 1492 which made him the discoverer (!) of America.
After some time I got tired from walking through town. Probably I’ll come back in fall. Now that I am an expert on parking lots. Anyway, you can’t see everything on only one day. In my new timelessness I strolled back to Annie Way. She was standing in the sun. Interestingly, it was not hot inside her. Just the solar system had finished its work and there was so much of electrical power that we would never be able to use it. The fridge, my two tablets, the tooth brush, the lamps, the notebook, the recorder, the camera and my cell phone are rather modest. But better safe than sorry. What, if the sun doesn’t shine and I don’t drive, then the battery has to bring us through some days. Although I have found out what I have to do with the transformer and the adapter. (Thanks to Walmart! I only had to buy three different adapters to find the right one!) From now on I can plug Annie Way into the American electricity system, and it would work. I am disgustingly satisfied with myself.
In the evening I recorded my podcast, and then it took me some time to rememver how to import the audio-files into the program. But finally I was able to do it. As I stated before, I still stumble from one oops into the next one, but meanwhile I am relaxed. Canada-relaxed one could call it.