Geographer, Will Travel: Ottawa, Ontario

A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Ottawa for a conference for work. The conference was a bit boring, but the city was not. The city was smaller than I expected, but still felt urban. It is a government town, and seemed pretty quiet after 6pm, but there was still plenty for me to do. My hotel was attached to a mall after-all!

There was actually a lot of good shopping, besides the mall. There were a lot of cute, local stores (or at least Canadian) in the Byward Market area. The furniture stores were the best. They had such cute decorations, I could have taken home a lot. However, between the conversion rate, the prices not being any cheaper than the U.S., and that annoying international processing fee on my credit card, I did not buy a lot. Also, my suitcase was way too small already. And, Christmas is coming and it is better to give than receive... blah blah blah.

There were a lot of sites to see as well. I visited Parliament, the Rideau Canal, the National Gallery, and Notre Dame. I did not have a lot of time to wander during daylight, so I did not get to see everything.

On my cab ride to the hotel, the driver was telling me about the Canal. I guess it freezes over in the winter and everyone ice skates on it. I asked if it was free and he laughed and laughed. (Yes, it is free. I guess I imagine it costing something like $10/hour where I live.)

Random Thought: How much does it cost Canada to print everything in both English and French?

I also ate pretty well. The Black Tomato was my favorite. It was dark, cozy, and hearty. I also really enjoyed BeaverTails and may have gone twice.

The airport is small, but I guess that goes with a smaller city. It seems like only small planes go to Ottawa, which are not my favorite.

Random Story: My hotel was doing elevator renovations my entire visit and it turned out to be a giant pain. Seriously, I waited over 15 minutes for the elevator one morning. Another morning, I got in the elevator, the doors started to close, and another guest tried to jump in but the doors would not bounce back open. He even tried prying the doors open. Then, once they did close, instead of going down, the elevator went up to the top floor and just stopped. After waiting about 3 minutes, I was about to press the do not panic button to get help when the doors opened. The elevator floor did not exactly match up to the hotel floor, but you better believe I jumped out and then walked down 22 floors of stairs.