Quebec City-part one

I sat in the St Patrick's Pub for a couple of hours soaking up the atmosphere and filling my belly with some great pub food.What surpised me the most was the fact that everyone working there spoke really great English.Quebec has a really bad reputaion for not being very nice to anglaphones but apparently(according to my cute little French waitress),there had been a big push for everyone to learn English for the 400th anniversary clebrations that was beginning in a couple of days time.What was even more interesting was that they seemed to be able to sense on sight who could and could not speak French.It was actually pretty spooky but well done to them all I say.
Sitting in the pub also gave me a chance to connect to the internet as I had brought my laptop with me.The pub offered free wireless connection and so I set about contacting all my old friends from Levis.I sent a group email to all those I had met during my last three visits and gave them a quick idea of what I was up to and that if possible could someone find me a bike for the race as riding my MTB 360k didn't seem like a smart idea.I tell you it took less than half a pints drinking time for a response to come through from Michel Gagne (one of the race organisers and a great guy)telling me that he had organised a bike for me and it would be ready for me to pick it up at registration.I was amazed but not really surprised as the people associated with this event will seemingly do anything to make an athletes stay go off without a hitch.They haven't found me a girlfriend yet but I'll forgive them for that.

I was pretty tired after all the riding, emailing ,eating and my three pints and so I headed off to the hostel for another hot shower to stop my legs from hurting and it wasn't long before I was in bed,out cold and in a deep sleep.I think it was the earliest night I'd had for a long time.

The next morning though I was up bright and early and ready to take advantage of the free breakfast that was included in the $20 per night hostel fee.I mean really $20 a night to stay in downtown Quebec City during the hugest celebration in 400 years with breakfast thrown in as well.This joint was amazing!Breakfast was just cereal,toast,coffee and juice but considering I sat there and ate for three hours every day, socialising with everyone it was awesome value.You can only eat so much toast in three hours though but the free coffee took on epic proportions.

It was during those three hours that I met everyone in the hostel and I was loving it.No more days trying to have a conversation with my bike,no more days arguing with myself but mostly the chance to hang out and chat with other travellers.I did get pretty sad as I sat there chatting to the passing crowd that they were way more interested in my life than my friends and family who had known me for years.I sat there with my laptop open trying to get the motivation to write in this blog but I just couldn't.I'd check my emails and still there was no-one responding except the one or two regulars and of course my friend Barb from Penticton who by chance was going to be in the neighbourhood for the double iron weekend.I figured that I'd bail on the whole blog and fundraising thing as clearly nobody was really interested enough for me to spend the long hours typing text and editing photos of my trip.Instead I sat around the hostel and met some of the most interesting characters that I'd met in quite some time.It was great to be talking to people who were excited about every day and were so positive about life.Just what I needed to bring me out of my depressed funk.
Most of the next two days were spent walking around the streets of Quebec City taking in the sights and watching all the entertainment that the city was providing at various venues around town.I could quite happily live in this place as I just love the whole feel of the old town and the palpable history of the place.The two hundered and fifty thousand tourists crashing into each other everywhere I could do without but it is a tourist town so I guess that goes with the territory.There was always the hostel courtyard to retreat to and that was always pretty quite.My evenings were spent there drinking local micro-brew beer with some of the hostels funniest travellers swapping stories and generally laughing lot's before we all headed off to whatever evenings entertainment the city had provided each night.I almost forgot that I had a race to do in a couple of days.