my highly entertaining winter trip, part 2: embracing winter

here's some of my favourite pictures from my walks within and around the fortress walls of quebec city. first, from the terasse dufferin, next to chateau frontenac, the view on lower town and the river, the st-laurent. i saw this on the evening of my arrival, and found it breathtaking. i can't really explain, cause i'd known there would be "a view", and there were people lined up with their cameras - but, the beauty of it! with the lights, and the ice chunks slowly floating downriver:

and here it is again in the daytime, early-ish morning, way less tourists:

this 2nd day of my trip was actually one of the warmest, nicest days, though i couldn't have told so at the time. no, at the time i was more like, wah, i wonder if there will be people around today, in this weather (turns out that yes, there were. just a bit later.)
and the weather was...just, crisp. i remember feeling dry, joyful and protected, encased in my new winter coat with the collar and the hoodie up, the boots, the scarf, the gloves, everything alright. my body moving through the white as i started on my walk along the terasse. the feeling you have on good beginnings, when you know nothing yet:)

the noise of the flags flapping in the wind

a look back at the looming castle. man, it's so big! this was from pretty far away already

then there's a climb up toward the citadel walls. (the citadel is an actual military fortification built by the english to defend the town, on top of the cliffy side of the shore; not the same as the older, french-made, city walls)

ship sighting. i actually saw two small boats with rowers that morning, closer to the shore, obviously; crazy people, probably sports-training

returning from my spontaneous tour around the citadel. without knowing it at the time, i had crossed into 'the plains of abraham'/parc des champs-de-bataille, famous for being the site of the 1759 battle where quebec city fell to the english. so, yeah. that's what it's like. it's very large though, i can't picture what it looks like in summer. now it was just an expanse of white...with occasional people sliding or snowshoeing along. 

when i could still smile:), take photos and leave my mouth uncovered

next, pictures of what i think of as typical quebec city buildings/colors. the colors are a dark stony grey and a dark, somber blue which i'm sure you'll see reoccur in the images

yeah, so i have no photos from day 3. day 3 was ...indescriptible, but okay, i'll try. for the most part of the day, i was walking backwards, against the wind, with my collar up, hoodie up, my scarf up to above my nose, my eyes semi-closed and covering my face with my arm.
and there were still people around! touristing is serious business. what i did was, i spent most of my day in 2 museums. one of them, the museum of civilisations, hosts a good exhibition of haitian art, so that was cool. the other one, the beaux arts museum, is located in a former prison!!!(now that i'm thinking, i could've taken pics of that! they have a very cozy lounge room/cafe space, which smelled of hot chocolate and was predictably swarming with people on that afternoon. but the space itself looked very nice.)
the only problem...museum no.1 is in lower town, by the port. museum no.2 is somewhere...in the plaines d'abraham. i could've gotten there on a normal, regular street, i'm sure, but somehow i chose to do it THROUGH the plaines d'abraham - remember, the immensity of only snow that i mentioned earlier?
it was ok. i survived, and i saw 2 martello towers on the way.

so, day 4 was super bright. by this time, we know what bright means in quebec, yes?
COLD. freaking cold.
i was in good humor though for most of the time, so i did try to work with the camera a bit.

in artillery park, by the old fortification system/gate st-jean

stairs, section through the snow.
one photo i regret not having taken: chairs in a parc, all buried in snow so that the backrests barely showed. the reason i didn't take it: i had to get close to the chairs for the image to make sense. as soon as i stepped on the snow, i got buried up to waay above the knee. not cool. on previous days it had been easier to step lightly on beaten tracks in the snow, but that day i was carrying my backpack beside my bag, so...damn. 

anyway. by the time i visited the citadel, it was probably, ah, colder than on the previous day, the stormy one. at least it felt that way. nice of all these places to have coffee machines inside!
actually, now thinking about it, i think it's actually a necessity.
but ok, the piece de resistance of my winter trip:
i introduce to you...avenue george VI, quebec city, qc, canada

THIS IS AN AVENUE

this is the way (avenue!:)) i took from gate st-louis to the museum of fine arts on the windy stormy day. i saw there were indicators pointing out to various touristic things, but with the wind and all it took me a while to realize there were also constant signs along the way marking "avenue george VI". this was it. i laughed. i mean i did really laugh, a half-demented laugh in the wind. i found it "so canadian", on a par with all the viral crap mocking canada on facebook etc.
so i guess i'm popularizing it.