Bluebird's Nest

Oh it felt good to sleep in. We almost missed breakfast time as we stayed in bed for so long.

We spent the day beside the pool soaking up the heat (Switzerland is now in the cool 11/12 degree range) and trying to stay in the shade.

My sister-in-law and I had been wanting to go into Hurghada to check it out and do some shopping. I really didn’t want to bring the wee babe with us as all she would want to do is breast feed, probably cry and want only me so I wanted to leave her with my hubby (he was ok with that) when we went. But due to the heat and the timing we decided to go altogether and take her along. My SIL also wanted to experience an Egyptian restaurant (rather than the resort food) and I couldn’t blame her but with the wee babe’s witching hour being right at dinner time, I felt it was a better idea if we parted ways and the hubby, tweenager, wee babe and I head back to the resort and the in-law’s head out for dinner.

My sister-in-law had been talking with the guy whom we bought the snorkeling trip off of. It seemed that he had a 3 hour city tour that he could hook us up with for cheap. Ali is his name. My SIL wasn’t totally sure we should pay the price as she felt we were going to get ripped off if we went this route but with 7 people it’s probably better than trying to organize it with taxis plus we didn’t know what to expect in Hrughada.

We walked out to the area where we were supposed to meet him. It all felt a little sketch.

He showed up in a van/bus. It was the most ricketyist thing you’ve ever seen. I asked if there were seat belts (the wee babe was in her car seat of course). He said no but assured me it was safe. I told him we needed seat belts at least for the wee babe. He said it was fine, and it was totally safe. Everyone was looking at me to decide what was going to happen here… were we going to go without seat belts, or were our family going to head back to the resort and let the in-laws go have fun. I spoke harshly and said that accidents happen all the time and there’s no way to know when and where it’s going to happen so I didn’t want to take the chance. Ali then said that he would get a taxi for us with a seat belt. The pressure was too much and I began to cry.

A few minutes later a taxi drove up. I got in the back seat and the hubby put the baby beside me and then we realized that the female part of the seat belt wasn’t there. I said there wasn’t a seat belt. The taxi driver then proceeded to tell me it was safe, no worries. By this point I was freakin’ done. I tried to get out of the back seat and the taxi driver put his arm up in my way. Oh no you don’t!!! I yelled out NO! and grabbed the baby (with car seat) and started walking back to the decrepid van that held the rest of our family while my hubby (much more rational than I) was fishing out the seat belt. I was yelling my SIL’s name and waving my arms. “I’m outta here” I kept thinking and then I heard my hubby yell that he got it out and we could continue into town now.

Sigh…

So I get back in, the wee babe get’s strapped in, and off we go. Immediately, the wee babe starts crying. From what I understand, the city of Hurghada is only 10 mins away so she’s ok to cry for 10 mins. Well, the taxi driver starts to get a bit antsy… asking why she’s crying. Asking if there’s anything we can do to make her stop… pointing to his boob and asking if she breast feeds… So he thinks that turning up his Arab music is going to help. Really? By this point, I was completely frazzled. I stuck my boob in her mouth to shut her up and just sobbed in the back seat.

We finally made it to town.

We did some shopping and got right ripped off. You see, there are no price tags in Egypt. Everything is negotiable. So the tour guide brought us to the shops that he knows the vender. What I’m sure that happens is the vender and him have an agreement that if he brings the tourists there, the vender will give him a cut. So we paid way too much because we didn’t shop around and see if there could have been better prices. Which there were.

Oh and the whole while the wee babe wanted to breast feed and she cried for only me. It was awesome.

My SIL was pissed. She said that we could have taken a taxi into town for way less and not got ripped off. She’s right. Lesson learned. Do it yourself next time. The only thing is that we didn’t know what downtown Hurghada was like so it was impossible to know ahead of time that we could have done it ourselves.

By the time we got back to the hotel, I was spent and couldn’t wait to go to bed.

Tomorrow will be our last day in Egypt and if you can believe it, the only person who didn’t get Montezuma’s Revenge was the wee babe, thankfully.

Oh. My. Gawd. It’s raining AGAIN. I’m writing this from the tent on Cheticamp Island and it’s bloody raining. A huge thunderstorm just passed over us. I’m amazed we get dry during the day cuz nights are damp as hell. Well, I guess hell wouldn’t be damp but you know what I mean.

We’re on the Cabot trail in the way to Cape Breton. Let me back up and tell you about today.

So we woke up and wonders of wonders it wasn’t raining if you can believe it. We’ve been pretty lucky in the morning that’s for sure.

We hit the road and decided to take the day nice and easy. No speeding, just an even keel. We only drove about 80km’s an hour too. It would be hard to go any faster as the roads are narrower, winding and after all, we wanted to check out the scenery.

After looking at the map and wondering where we should stop we decided we would stop for lunch in Inverness. We already knew the menu (soup from Sylvie, left over rice and shrimp) but we needed a stellar spot to cook it in. For me, I needed a picnic table. But for the hubby, I can tell you that he found us a perfect spot but he needed to do a bit of hunching over to cook. Check out the photos.

It was warm and sunny there. Have I mentioned relaxing yet? Really nice. We didn’t have far to go today, so we could kick back and get our feet sandy.

We hopped into the car, and checked out the scenery. It feels a bit like you’re in Ireland (even though I’ve never been there) with the rolling hills, amazing views, cliffs, and ocean that stretches on forever.

We stopped in at a scarecrow field where there were the WEIRDEST scarecrows for you to check out and mingle with. I took way too many photos.

Then we hit up a grocery store and stopped for an early day at Cheticamp Island. We set up the tent (and the hubby ripped it, I was pissed) and took off to put on some laundry and get some wood (that would be useless). After that we headed down to the beach.

So there’s these really lame bugs here that are tiny and fly and when they bite you they must inject you with a numbing agent as you never feel them but the suck your blood and then fill up and drop off. That’s when we’ve been feeling them. Of course you go to touch the spot that itches and you squish them and then you smear blood all over your hand and the spot so then you look at your hand and there’s usually a bunch of blood. Really gross.

Anyway, there were a bunch of those bugs down by the ocean, hence the yellow ducky towel over my head and I guess there were a bunch of jelly fish in the ocean so that was a bit of an uneventful trip down.

The clouds were looming so we thought we better head back to the camp to get in some fire time and start on dinner before it rained. We had just started dinner when the clouds opened up. The hubby dug some trenches and we retreated into the tent where I am now dreading going outside to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth.

Here’s hoping we don’t drown tonight

EXPENSES:

Sleeping: Camping and wood that we won’t use $39.
Wee babe disposition: Splendid
Weather: 17 and foggy. The skies showed blue for a bit but that was only a tease.
Stress level: relaxed.

What a picturesque local. We slept all night with the windows open listening to the sound of the rushing river beside us. It was awesome.

A slow moving morning (just what I like) with some great conversation with John. We had breakfast and took off to see his other camp not far away.

It was really cute and rustic. Not unlike his camp that we’re staying at but nowhere near as big. We met Sylvie’s brother and his wife there.

Then we drove to the Swinging Bridge where this rickety old bridge that crosses the river was. I had no problem going over it but the sides of the bridge are so low that it would be easy to go over board so of course I had my mommy hat on and I was letting loose by “Be careful” and “Walk slowly”. It was a very nice view of the river and surrounding land. No moose or bears sightings though.

We stopped off shortly after that to get some supplies at “Macloskey’s” John’s favourite place to shop.

Then back to the camp to have some lunch (sausages) and then we took off for a dip in the river.

So a few things about this river dip. John had us 4 x 4ing through the bush to get to the river and once we got there there were horse flies. I can’t stand horse flies. But the river was really pleasant to swim in and toodle around for a little while in. The wee babe had a great time and the tweenager had a splash fest with my hubby and I.

After that we retired to the bedroom to get away from the flies and the tweenager and I read some Anne and then me and the wee babe had a little nap.

What a low key, slow paced, relaxing day. I haven’t had a nap in the middle of the day in ages and it was just such a perfect setting to do so. I can understand why John and Sylvie bought the place.

After our well-deserved nap, we headed outside to take in the afternoon sun. Sylvie’s brother and wife came back over for dinner and we talked in French and I understood a lot of it! I even got a compliment that I can speak quite well!!! I was glowing with pride.

We had an amazing dinner. Ham, coleslaw and a typical French-Canadian been dish with molasses drizzled on top. I had to go back for seconds. Of course the hubby and I were playing pass the baby as that is her witching hour but the other people at the dinner table didn’t seem to mind and they even took her for some relief for us.

After dinner we cleaned up and headed outside again. The tweenager tried her hand for the first time at flyfishing with the help of Trefle. I was really impressed. It was pretty cool to see her down in the river throwing the fishing rod in the low sun. She said that it hurt her hands after a while.

The bugs were insane at that point so we retreated inside and chatted for a bit longer. I finally got the wee babe to sleep again. We had some ice cream and then headed outside to take advantage of the fire place that John has. We chatted and watched the fire flies. The stars were so bright (thanks to the absence of light pollution) and when the moon rose it was a beautiful orange colour.

Not long after that we said our goodbyes to Sylvie as we wouldn’t see her in the morning retired to bed.

During the night I woke up to get a drink of water. I walked quietly to the kitchen and this eerie sense of someone watching me came over me. I started to freak myself out and think that maybe there was a ghost in this camp. I tried not to look anywhere else than I needed to for fear that I might see a ghostly apparition. After making it back to bed, of course I couldn’t get to sleep and I swear I heard the sound of a door shutting far off in the house. I told the story to John and I hope he has a good sleep tonight as he’s going to be in the camp by himself tonight

EXPENSES:

Sleeping: At the camp at John and Sylvie’s camp
Wee babe disposition: A lot of squealing and screeching but all in all pretty even keel.
Injuries: Two horse fly bites. One for the tweenager (drew blood) the other for the wee babe behind the ear. OUCH!
Weather: Sunny and about 31. Cooling off in the river was great.
Stress level: Relaxing, but a little stressful for the swinging bridge.

We said good-bye to Allison and Dave this morning. Thanks so so so much you two for putting all of us up at your condo. We LOVED your place.

We drove to the clinic where the wee babe got her 6 month shots. She did really well and barely any side effects all day. She was a little tired but no fever. If anything she had a laughing attack in the afternoon that lasted close to 10 minutes with the help of her big sister egging her on. It was hilarious.

A fourth tooth showed through for us finally with not a lot of angst either. She’s found her fingers and seems to have them CONSTANTLY in her mouth. It’s pretty cute. Ask me in 2 months if it’s still cute.

We got in the car and drove the short drive to Montreal. My hubby discovered something called “Airbnb“. Have you heard of this before? It’s like a cross between BnB’s and couch surfing. You search for the city you’re going to be in, put in a price range, add in some extras that you would like and WALLA! You place comes up. You basically can rent an appartment, house, room depending upon what you need. It’s really cool.

The only drawback of the place is that the parking kinda sucks. And from what I understand is that it’s not usually so terrible. There appears to be festivities happening on the little street so we had to park far away. Should make packing the car interesting.

So we’re staying in a two bedroom apartment in the heart of downtown Montreal. It has a kitchen, living room, bathroom, air conditioning, a huge TV, and internet. We are staying for two nights and it’s costing us $220. I think this is a killer deal for all that’s included. If you wanted to stay in a hotel with all those amenities it would be way more expensive. I’m really impressed with what my hubby found. I just hope we can find something equally as nice elsewhere.

We set out to find lunch and I HAD to have poutine. So we set off to find some. We found it, but I can’t say it was any better than poutine that I’ve had in Victoria. I was a little disspointed but it was still good.

The tweenager and I were tired from the day before and just wanted to rest for the afternoon. The hubby and I looked at what we were going to do for the next day and looked a bit at our upcoming itinerary. We’re going to play it a bit by ear.

My hubby was itching to get out and experience Montreal so he went for a walk and checked out Rue de St. Catherine’s and picked up some groceries for dinner. It’s nice to finally have our own functioning kitchen. It was nice with Dave and Allison’s kitchen but we didn’t want to make a mess

After dinner, my hubby wanted to walk to the top of Mount Royal. So at around 7pm we started on the big trek up the mountain. We didn’t know exactly how to get up there. I think we were thinking to hard about it. We decided to hike through the woods. Unbeknownst to us, there was a huge Galloping Goose like trail just over the hill but we thought it would be better to hike the stroller up the stairs and through the muddy trails. Sigh… It didn’t take too long to figure it out but it sure didn’t help with the walk.

It was a really nice evening and a beautiful walk over looking Lac de Castor and the city of Montreal.

Back down the hill and back to our Airbnb where we Skyped with my mom and all had showers and into bed. We were knackered.

EXPENSES:

Sleeping: AIRBNB: $110
Wee babe disposition: Wonderful as usual. Almost a little more hilarity than usual.
Weather: Nice 28 degree.
Stress level: Fab.