Behind Bars

It was nice being back in Toronto. Airplanes were flying by every few minutes and the big city held many opportunities for us – especially now that the subway extension was open! York University is now officially connected to the subway, so it is so much easier for us to get downtown. Unfortunately, we missed President Trudeau accompanied by the National TV making an appearance, because we were too busy travelling.

After sneaking back into residence, we had to keep a low profile. Jack´s radiator switch was broken, and the heating was on full blast causing major heat waves. Obviously, we couldn´t contact the housing´s maintenance people because we weren´t supposed to be in the building in the first place. We were living off ramen with toast and instant soup for a few days, since the food places on campus were still shut. Still, we made ourselves at home. In the evenings we all huddled together into one room and watched movies and made plans for the next days. We still had to figure out what to do on New Year´s Eve. The whole purpose of us coming back to Toronto (apart from the fact that we were living on campus for free) was, so we could spend New Year´s downtown. Apparently, the weather had a mind of its own. Being that the weather forecast was predicting an awful frost for the night and there was an extreme cold weather warning in place, most of the outdoor events were cancelled. Even the most important event at the Nathan Philips Square was limited to half an hour (fireworks only). While making plans for the evening we were happily ignoring the fact that it would get really really cold. As a matter of fact, this night would be the coldest night in Toronto since 1899. But we did not know this at the time. Therefore, we all got ready and made our way downtown heading toward Nathan Philips Square. We were quite early, so it did not take long for us to get really cold. We definitely had to find a place indoors where we could wait and be warm. Obviously, most places were closed. Therefore, we had to walk quite a bit before finding a fast food restaurant that was still open. By the time we got there we were shivering, and our legs were numb. Nadiya even googled the symptoms of frostbite (she did not have a frostbite). There was no way we were spending more time than necessary outside! Just before midnight we walked all the way back to Nathan Philips Square. This time the place was packed. Like little penguins we all huddled together and enjoyed the warmth of the crowd. The fireworks were nice! I mean, they weren´t special and they were only short but at least there were fireworks. In retrospect, it probably was not worth taking the risk of losing a toe or two in the cold. Still, it is something we can tick off our bucket list. Thankfully, one of the guys booked a table for us at a local brewery. It took us ages to get there. First, our group got separated in the crowd. Being that there were thousands of people around it was difficult finding the other part of our group. Second, Carly got pushed into the subway entrance by the masses and couldn´t get out for about half an hour. While we stood outside waiting for her, my toes were numbing, my nose was running and my legs were prickling. I couldn´t wait to get indoors! We eventually made it to the brewery though. The menu was incredible, there was nice food and lots of different beers – obviously! Apparently, some of the beers even won awards for their unique taste.

Just a few days later it was time leave Toronto once again. Lectures were about to start in a few days and Jack needed his room back. Also, Carly and I wanted to explore some cities further down East. Starting in Ottawa, our tour would then continue to Montréal and finally lead us to Québec City. On Wednesday morning we boarded the Greyhound heading towards Ottawa. It took us several hours to get to our destination. Once we arrived we went straight to the old prison of Ottawa. What used to be a prison is a hostel nowadays. Still, great parts of the interior remained the same. Several people “share a cell” now and the breakfast room is located in the old basement chapel. It´s really amazing! After a good night´s sleep we went on a tour around the prison. Apparently, the prison was closed due to its inhumane conditions. There was a chamber in the basement where people used to get locked up in solitary confinement in order to punish them. They got strapped to the freezing-cold floor laying facedown on their bellies. There were no windows whatsoever and the prisoners would stay down there for weeks and months on end. In many cases people down there lost their limbs thanks to frostbite or even died. Nowadays, the washing machines are located right next to those cells. Then there is a large room which is used as a breakfast room today. It used to be a group cell for people who were in prison because of minor offences. These included being in debt. Often, the whole family was sent to prison (even though just one person was in debt), which is why this group cell was very overcrowded. After that, the cell was used as a chapel. The staircase is also remains untouched. There were (and still are) large holes in the stairs, so the guards could see who was walking up and down the stairs. Naturally, the guards would wear different shoes than prisoners. That way a guard could prepare himself for an attack by a prisoner trying to break out. As I mentioned before, many of the old cells are now used as hostel rooms. Our room was located on the other side of the building where the guards´ offices used to be. The most gruesome part about the prison were the gallows. Even though there were only a handful of official hangings, construction workers found hundreds and hundreds of dead bodies when digging up the old court yard. Obviously, a lot of people died due to illnesses and lack of medical attention. Also, there were many unofficial hangings. This is very evident when taking a close look at all the wood burns on one of the old beams outside where the gallows are. Some people claim that there is a ghost living in Ottawa´s (former) prison. The ghost of Patrick Whelan to be precise. Thomas D´Arcy McGee was one of the founding fathers of Canada. Unfortunately, he was assassinated by Patrick Whelan. Consequently, Mr. Whelan was imprisoned and sentenced to death, right here in Ottawa. Because there was no DNA testing or other advanced investigation methods at that time it remains unclear whether Patrick Whelan was the actual murderer of Thomas D´Arcy McGee, or not. Because some people believe that Patrick Whelan was innocent and therefore wrongfully executed his ghost is said to haunt the prison. Booh boooh….

We were only staying in Ottawa for one day, therefore we did not have too much time for sightseeing. Luckily, Ottawa is not a massive city with lots of “must-sees”. A lot of people think that Toronto is Canada´s capital. Or Vancouver. Or even Montréal. Well, they are all wrong. In fact, it´s the quaint and comparatively small town of Ottawa that rules over the whole of Canada. Therefore, the only real “must-see” is Parliament Hill. This is where President Trudeau and his fellow ministers reside and come to important decisions. Parliament Hill includes several buildings which are located on the south side of the Ottawa River. Unfortunately, we weren´t able to actually go inside the Parliament´s buildings because all the tours were booked out for the day. Even though it was still early in the day, the tour is obviously very popular. Instead, we walked around for a bit. There were a lot of people who were taking selfies, posing with one of the many bronze statues that are scattered around the park-like surroundings or they were even skating on the temporary ice rink. It started to snow as we continued walking towards the Royal Canadian Mint. On our way we passed Ottawa´s Notre Dame and a sculpture of a spider which cost the council millions and still looks a bit…. well, let´s say arty. We went on a tour at the Royal Canadian Mint. The real “money-coins” that we use every day (looney, tooney, and the rest) are all produced in Winnipeg. Here, they produce the collector-coins and high-value coins (gold, platinum, ...). Although we did not get to see every little detail of how those coins are produced, we still got a pretty good overview of some major historic events that influenced the today´s coin. For example, I did not notice that the Queen isn´t wearing a crown on her head on the most recent coins. This is to remember King George VI who also did not wear a crown on the coin. Apart from that I figured that I am not a big fan of coins. I mean, some coins might be quite pretty but honestly, who would pay thousands of dollars for a coin? Ridiculous…

A few years ago President Obama came to visit Ottawa. Apparently, he visited one of the local bakeries which is located at the ByWard Market. Naturally, it was a big deal for that little bakery. Up until this day you can still buy the famous “Obama-Cookies” while watching videos of Obama´s visit and that day´s news coverage on playback. Other than that, it was a nice place to have a cup of tea while warming up a little. Their lemon tart was really delicious, too!

As we wanted to check out the next morning we hunted high and low for the keys to our room. We could not find them anywhere. It was rather strange because obviously we entered the room the night before using the keys and never left since. They had to be somewhere…. Unfortunately, those keys were never to be found and we had to pay a $5 fine for losing them. I blame the ghost of Patrick Whelan for taking them while we were asleep. Bloody ghost…