Friday, 18 August 2006

Quebec City

A miraculously quiet night in a room with 8 people - no snorers. I was still up early in spite of having been up late, uploading photos. In stead of paying for film and developing, these days I am a slave to upload costs and time! I went out in search of a barber shop but I could only find a few pretentious pricey-looking fashion hairdressers (Salon de coiffure) so I'll have to put up with long hair (all of 3/4 of an inch long)

After days and weeks of cycling it's a very pleasant change to be able to relax and take things easy, and old Quebec is a very nice, easy place to walk around. I strolled along some of the walls that surround the old city. It was another beautiful sunny day, so perhaps it was good that I wasn't cycling today - it would have been too hot. Perhaps I should stay here until I am bored of having nothing to do. I sat in the sun with a latte doing that most touristy of things - writing postcards, for those of you not on the web.

I had been keeping in touch with Kathy and John, my Californian friends. They were now staying at a campground in Lévis just over the river from old Quebec. They had told me where they'd be for lunch so I went to meet them at 1 pm. We had first met in Nova Scotia back in June. We had arrived in Newfoundland on the same day, and left on the same day, and now after following totally different trajectories we had arrived at Quebec City on the same day. Of course the invisible string that connects us is the internet, but if John hadn't come to speak to me that day in the Manitou restaurant in Port Hood, Nova Scotia as I sat writing my journal we would never have been aware of crossing each others paths so often. Of course, it is also true that we have influenced each others travel plans with recommendations of places to visit. The infinite complexities of chance. Chaos theory; a butterfly flaps its wings in South America and I buy another latte in Quebec.

We went for lunch and caught up on each others travels in the month since we had last met, and then took a stroll down in the heat of the day to the Basse-ville - the low city, just outside the city walls to visit the Richard Robitaille Economusée de la furrure. (Fur economuseum) Basically a store and workshop that welcomes visitors (potential customers) and can show the process of working with fur to produce a variety of items. They had some displays on the history of the fur trade with some mention of trapping (humane) and fur processing. No mention of seal-clubbing here. I would have been more interested to know about the processing of the fur from the animal, but they were more to do with the post-tanning processing. I'm sure that it's something I've read about before anyway, but forgotten. I'm not sure if I just forget things straight away or if I soak them up like a sponge, but like a sponge stored in a random, inaccessible fashion. Maybe it can be squeezed out again in some illogical way in the future.

I don't have any moral objection to the use or wearing of fur, after all I have leather goods and eat meat. My only concern would be the prevention of cruelty and the ethical treatment of the animals involved. Given how mankind treats each other, perhaps the ethical treatment of animals is an impossible dream. I don't think I will ever be wearing fur, although they did have a rather fetching fur cod-piece on display!

I had to go back to the hostel to renew my luggage locker, but we met up again later to get the ferry over to Lévis from where we drove to the 'Transit Campground' to John and Kathy's RV for dinner. A lovely poached cod - the best meal I've had since I can't remember when.

I really must try to find a good little travel atlas to carry with me - it would be worth carrying the extra weight. An atlas to a traveller is like a gourmet menu to a jaded palate. It re-enthuses and whets the appetite again. Wouldn't it be good to go to... [insert place-name here.] The world is an incredibly vast and varied place, and you normally only get to see a little bit, often one time of year, one point of view.
Lévis for example is much bigger than I had imagined - with a big shopping area strip-mall that I had completely bypassed on my cycle down to the ferry.

John and Kathy were rather stressing that I'd miss the ferry as they drove me back to the Lévis terminal as the ferries were only hourly at this time in the evening, but they needn't have worried - I had a Guardian cryptic crossword that I could have puzzled over for much more than an hour. As it was, I made it onto the ferry with at least a couple of minutes to spare.