A day in Ottawa

I am now on my way home to Scotland and I am flying out from Ottawa airport. Due to connection times, I decided to stay in the city last night so I had most of yesterday to explore the Canadian capital.

I started off by checking into the youth hostel. I stayed at the Ottawa Jail Hostel which, as the name suggests, is the site of the former jail of Ottawa. I began by going on their free tour of the property. The building has been converted to a hostel but it is a national heritage site so many of the original features remain intact. It is possible to stay in one of the old prison cells which are so tiny that they had to have beds custom made to fit in - single beds were too wide - and, when it was a jail, 3 or 4 inmates would have shared that cell. The showers are also in old cells (not a privilege prisoners would have been allowed). Don't worry if you're claustrophobic though - they have normal dorm rooms and bathrooms too. They still have the original gallows where the first public execution took place and you can see cells that were used for solitary confinement. The tour was super interesting and I learnt a lot from it.

After the jail tour I took a walk through Byward Market towards Rideau Hall. The market area had a really nice ambience and I found an irresistible French bakery where I felt obliged to sample an eclair. Rideau Hall, home to the Governor General of Canada, is an impressive building with beautiful gardens and it's free to explore. On my back I walked along the Rideau Canal which I would love to see in wintertime when it becomes the world's largest skating rink.

I then made my way up towards Parliament Hill - probably the most prominent feature of the city. I walked up behind the parliament buildings which gave me a great view of the Ottawa river and some of the city. I took a tour round the house of commons which exceeded my expectations by a long way. I had to take a tour in French because all the English ones were fully booked (so if you're keen and you don't understand French then book online) but I was able to follow most of what the tour guide was saying. The architecture inside was lovely and it was very interesting to learn a bit more about the workings of the Canadian parliament.

I headed back to the hostel after that to make myself some dinner and move my luggage upstairs to the dorm (7th floor, stairs only) before returning to Parliament Hill in the evening for a free "Ottawa After Dark" walking tour. The guide was friendly and a good story teller. He took us round some of downtown Ottawa and spoke about some of the stories from Canada's past that are often forgotten about or ignored. It was both entertaining and interesting. He talked about assassinations, executions, black history, LGBT history and little known scandals in Canadian politics.

The final activity on my agenda was the Northern Lights show which takes place on parliament hill every evening during the summer. It started at 9:30pm and the grass outside parliament was packed with people even on a Tuesday night at the end of August. The show is put on by the Canadian Government and it is a light and sound show telling the "official" history of Ottawa. Light is projected onto the parliament buildings making it a bit like an outdoor cinema screening and the story is narrated in both French and English. To be honest I didn't really manage to follow most of the story - the sound was not very clear and the constant switching between two languages meant you really had to concentrate to understand. However, the building looked amazing all lit up in different colours so I enjoyed the show all the same just for the visual effects and the atmosphere that was created by the amplified sound.

All in all, a successful day discovering Ottawa. Seems like a very nice city and I've heard some of the museums are great too so if I had more time there's plenty waiting to be done.

#Ottawa #Canada #travel