Salut and hi,
Living ici dans a bilingual country peut etre somewhat confusing.
All right, I'll stop with the stupid double entendres now, or whatever the hell I was doing.
While it's a fact that you can pick up random snatches of French just reading the back of the cereal packet all over Canada, here in Kingston we're not really a bilingual town. In fact we're totally Englais round these parts - that is people speak English unless they are frogs hanging out with other frogs.
So I haven't spoken a word of frog since I got to these here parts...it was only on a day trip into the Western-most region of Quebec to Wakefield that I dabbled in a morsel wafer thin de francais.
But Kingston is a town with an interesting past. It was originally settled by the frogs, way back around the 17th century I believe, and I think used to be called Frontenac. Of course I could check these facts on wikipedia, but that wouldn't be half as fun as my half-assed historical ramblings.
So, later on the Anglo-Saxons did their usual thing of pantsing the froggies on the battlefields of North America, and Frontenac became Anglofied and it's name changed to the present Kingston.
I believe this town was in fact the capital of Canada for some time, but again if you want a history lesson you should hop on the wwf and find out that shit for yerself.
So here I am in the 'limestone city' - so called for the local stone base to the land, which has been incorporated into many of the old school buildings around here. Kingston, well the downtown area anyway, is full of nice old buildings, which go right down to city hall on the Lake Ontario waterfront. It's a small city full of character, not a totally pristine and sterile city like my hometown Perth, but an interesting mix of old but stylish architecture and grungy slightly dingy alley ways.
It's now been nearly 4 months since I took up residence here in K-Town, and I'm finally starting to feel like a local. I've got a favourite local haunt - an earthy Irish pub called the Toucan, or the 'Touc' to those in the know. It's full of fun, down-to-earth Canucks who like to drink, eat, carouse, watch a bit of sport and generally act the goat, as Professor Cuthbert Calculas of Tin Tin fame would say.
As well as the Touc, there is nearby downtown Bubba's for your late night saturated fat fix - mine of choice is that renowned heart-stopper endemic to Quebec - poutine - which is hot chips and little pieces of cheese curd covered in piping hot gravy. Hmm...you just need a companion with cpr training to accompany you and you're fine.
Other highlights of the downtown area that I've sampled recently are the Sleepless Goat co-op cafe, which has yummy hippie type fare, and Greco's Greek restaurant, which for some reason serves Greek food. The only other pubs I've frequented are the Brew-Pub, or Kingston Brewing Company, which brews its own mean range of beers, and The Merchant pub, which has good live music on some nights and a friendly, dancing crowd down near the waterfront. I've briefly been inside a more upmarket type wine bar called the Tango, which serves good Tapas apparently and a big range of cocktails, but it's not cheap.
So while I've been here for quite a while, I seem to not have discovered all that much about my adopted Canadian hometown. Let's just say I've concentrated my time and effort on drinking and carousing and soccer watching at the Touc, perhaps to the detriment of seeing other places or sights.
But I'm here for about another month, so look out for further posts on my last-minute adventures.
