13.7.2012 – 13.7.2012  34 °C

Early start this morning as we wanted to have a look at the Canadian Civilisation Museum before driving up to Montreal. The Civilisation museum had been recommended to us by Lee and Mac so we were keen to have a squiz. The basic layout of the museum is the first nations exhibit, thru to a special exhibit on Mayan culture and finally up the top is short history of Canada exhibit.

The first nations’ exhibit covered many of the different Canadian tribes; from the Inuit in the north, thru to the buffalo herders in the middle and the totem pole builders on the west coast. The collection of totem poles was pretty impressive. Supposedly totem poles tell about the history of a family or a tribe. The many animals stacked on top of each other represent many of the spirits and ancestors of the people who created the pole. Often poles were made to honour elders of the family tribe who had passed away. All in all, pretty impressive when they are carved up to 3 stories high! Another interesting thing is that the poles are half moon shaped. The carvers would gouge out the middle and back sides of the cedar pole and carve just the front. This was done to allow the men to raise the pole.. I guess if you keep all of the timber it would be one heavy pole to try and raise up into position!

The first nation’s exhibit spoke about the many ways that the native peoples hunted and cultivated their foods, the type of clothes that they wore (I personally love the bear and caribou skins myself!) and the types of shelters they made to protect themselves in winter. There was also a section on beliefs of some native tribes. I probably shouldn’t be surprised but nearly every native group’s beliefs (anywhere in the world) seem to be based on a similar story. A celestial being (sometimes male, sometimes female) brought the world into being and created the plants, animals etc. It really struck me that the story I was hearing here today is very similar to the story I heard in Lapland last year about the earth’s beginnings, which in turn isn’t too dissimilar to the story that the bible teaches us! It could be an interesting thing to study, actually go and talk to all of the remaining members of tribes throughout the world and see if their stories of how the world began are all similar!! I’m betting they probably all are in some sort of way just because stories can be corrupted over the years, and we all largely started from the same place either in Africa or Nth Europe (depending on which scientist you believe).. Maybe there is some sort of thesis in this (could be my new vocation….. I’m just not sure if I’m really cut out to be a full time studier!  🙂 )

Our next stop in the museum was thru the special Mayan exhibition. The exhibition showcased many reliefs taken from temples and buildings throughout the Yucatan peninsular. The detail of the carving is just amazing.. probably more amazing is the fact that the carvings have survived such a long time. The exhibition covered the infamous “end of days”. The exhibition assured me that the world is not going to come to an end Dec 21 this year, merely that the Mayan calendar (for this cycle) will come to an end and that a new cycle will begin. I’m not sure what the new cycle will bring but it certainly isn’t going to bring Armageddon… I guess stay tuned for Dec 21!

Our tour thru the museum finished with us spending a good hour wandering thru the Canadian history section. From the first founding of the French in Quebec in the early 1600s right thru to the first world war. The museum is setup so that you actually walk thru time in Canada. This one is setup so that you walk thru actual sets that depict a part of Canada’s history, unlike, most museums where you walk from display case/ board to display case/ board. For example, at the start you walk thru walled forts and look into replica houses (mainly all one roomed, dirt floored dwellings).. the houses change as time continues onwards (multi roomed houses complete with European furniture and carpets). There is even a replica wheat silo and railroad to represent the opening up of the prairies in Canada. Its one of the best museum displays I’ve ever seen for displaying history… Most museums are fairly dusty/ dreary affairs that unless you are a real history buff (like me) you can get bored pretty quickly.. this one is so well done that anyone would enjoy understanding Canada’s history.

Once we had conquered all that the civilisation museum offered we headed off towards Montreal. Before we left the outskirts of Ottawa we stopped in at a Subway just north of the city. Nothing exciting in that, except that we were now in Quebec. Instantly, you know you’re in the French part of the country… All signs are in French, everyone speaks French and menus are in French… you get the drift. After badly ordering our sandwiches… (to the point where the guy behind the counter immediately switched to English) and having our lunch we continued our drive north eastwards to Montreal.

For some reason, I had always pictured Quebec to be a state covered in forests (mainly maple) with a few mountains and story book towns. Quebec isn’t really what I expected… Our drive today was along the banks of the Ottawa River and all we really saw today was endless miles of corn fields, homesteads and grain silos… Same sort of scenery that we’ve been seeing for the past couple of weeks! I’m sure there must be mountains and forests around here somewhere but the route that I took us along today sure is missing my story book images!!

We stopped mid afternoon for an ice cream break. We found ourselves a shop that advertised ice creams so we hopped in! I waited outside in the shade whilst M&D tested out their French to order ice creams.. Apparently, it was tough work, because the workers inside didn’t speak English and to be frank D’s French accent and language isall Aussie… so you can imagine!! (I’m secretly glad that I waited outside, I’m sure it would have been frustrating). For all the language problems, our ice creams were delightfully cold and quite large so it was quite a pleasant stop!

We arrived into Montreal late in the afternoon. Our hotel is a small pension style hotel right in the middle of the action on Rue St Dennis. This part of town is right near one of the universities and is chock a block full of restaurants and bars. We are only a twenty minute walk from the old town so tomorrow we’ll spend the day wandering around the streets of the old area. This evening we dumped our stuff, cleaned ourselves up and then headed out to find ourselves something tasty and cheap for dinner. Indian ended up being the answer and the Chicken dish we had was to die for.. its not one I have heard of before but it sure was delicious…. Mmm yummy Indian, can you beat it?

Song of the Day– Johnny Preston, Running bear