In the morning the Korean left for Montreal and the two Canadian girls left to go shopping so the French girl, called Ludivine, and I took bicycles to the center of the old city.
We ate at the same restaurant I had eaten the day before, which had much more people, I guessed it was lunch hour, around 13:00. I took the menu item that contained an egg, crêpe, Canadian-potato-style hash browns, toast, and bacon (which I gave her). Like I said before, the portions were large just like the United States so after our meal, Ludivine told me that she “did not have the American stomach”. Ha, later too, she explained that the French, like herself, think that the Québec accent is very cute because they speak in the so-called “ancient” French language. She gave the example that in France, KFC is called just that, but in Québec, it is PFK for ‘Poulet-Frit Kentucky’. We walked around and saw more of the Old City, buying little souvenirs and feeling moose pelts and such (or maybe that was just me…). I also found maple syrup taffy ! The lady poured maple syrup onto an iced table and rolled up individual popsicle sticks with the slightly cold maple syrup. [Fun fact: the region of Québec harvests almost 8,000,000 gallons of maple syrup a year. The next ? Vermont at 900,000]. The maple syrup was so sticky and warm that some of it melted off towards the ground when I tried to take a picture of some Korean girls. It was a slow “oh nooooooooo”. I guess I was too hot for it.
While we walked the streets together, I heard a tour guide speaking English about the oldest cities in North America, mentioning St. Augustine in Florida. Instinctively I punched my fist in the air and said “Yeah, Florida !!” Too many stares. She laughed. I quickly walked away.
We worked our way to the place to buy the tickets for Le Festival d’Éte de Québec and I decided to purchase the 98 CAD $ tickets, so, only about 80 US $. 300 bands on 10 stages for 10 days ranging from electronic to folk to pop to (sadly) country. But this is my first ever festival with multiple bands ! Exciting time for me. The gigantic outdoor stage that I saw the day before hosted the electronic show for that day, and we went straight there. The music officially started at 16:00, so we waited in line a bit, but once they started letting people in, everyone ran to the stage. You could have sworn there was a zombie apocalypse or something with the ripped clothes and the screams running away from the entrance.
The beginning act wasn’t awesome so we grabbed a quick bite to eat, then met up with the two Canadian girls, who had decked themselves out in sparkles and dresses to dance to the electronic music show that night. The outdoor stage that we stayed near included some names I haven’t heard: Zed’s Dead and Kieza but also Diplo and Skillrex (I don’t really like Skillrex, but he wasn’t bad mixed with Diplo; together, they called themselves Jack Ü). I enjoyed Kieza the most, she rocked those dance moves.
Molson Canadian Beer boxes were carried over servers heads through the crowds near the outdoor stage and at the hill where we sat. We were waiting for the “real” entertainment, as they really just wanted to see Skillrex. As we watched the people walking towards the stage, one of the Canadians noted that “Québec must be the capital of long-haired men”; which maybe that was just because we were at an electronic dance concert. Other girl servers walked around with Jack Daniel’s and Fireball bottles that they could pour in your mouth for only 3.25 CAD$ ? Is this a thing at festivals or is it just Canada ?
Around 20:00 we headed to the main heart of the festival where lined along the street were clubs and bars. Ludivine had been to one bistro bar called L’Atelier and recommended we go, and how cool it was ! A contemporary metallic and brick interior, three floors, a DJ without a dance floor, and a long and skinny carouse wheel of liquor bottles moving clockwise. Even the bathrooms were interesting with no female or male signs, but individual bathrooms that each contained a mini sink with a hose hanging down to wash your hands. I was starting to think that Québec is awesome. There’s the old city part that has the very old France appeal and then there’s the contemporary Québec which reminded me more of a Chicago or a New York.
When we returned around 21:15, Skillrex was just coming up to play and a massive amount of people crowded the stage donning unicorn masks, tiger suits, and celery (?) Yes. You crazy Canadians. To my surprise, many kids came with their parents too and even the adults without kids were jumping like puppies to some hardcore dubstep. Are parents cool in Canada ? Once the intense sweat and close proximity dawned on us, we moved away from the inside of the crowd and unexpectedly one of the Canadians started to move herself to the music, and slowly but surely, we found out that all of us are awesome dancers. Some people danced with us and many others filmed us but definitely an experience !
After tiring ourselves out, we split ways as the Canadians took the bus and Ludivine and I looked for our bicycles. Later in the night, walking around I was surprised I was in the same city as the Old Québec I saw that day and the contemporary street of restaurants, bars, and clubs. Even though it was midnight, the streets were more alive than ever. 90% of the restaurants were still open, and saying 95% would be exaggerating. The only recognizable place that was closed was Starbucks. Ha. As we passed through the streets, also finding some of the other 10 stages for the festival, Ludivine remarked how friendly the Canadians were. None of them got too too close to us, and definitely apologized a lot, in French, for moving through the crowd.
As we found our bikes in the quieter part of Old Québec, I definitely saw at least 3 people roller skating at midnight. Because, why not. Why not.
Coicincidentally the two Canadians met us at the same time at Daniel’s house. We were all totally exhausted and after taking a shower, I crashed.
Note: Still have not tried poutine. But I looked it up online and well, check out this website. A website dedicated just to finding out where one can order poutine. There’s 30 pages of restaurants and another 26 pages just for types of poutine (29 recipes per page).
Thursday, 9th July 2015
Travel you, travel me 