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| Earlier on in the day before the swarms arrived. |
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| So fast we couldn't get a pic! |
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| No breathing room! |
Ohh Canadaa! - The only lyrics I know of the Canadian national anthem.
Sunday the 1st of July was
Canada Day. It was as crazy as people told us it would be, with a massive sea
of red and white invading the space in front of Parliament as well as
everywhere down Rideau Street, Sussex Street and the general Byward Market
area.
After buying a couple of Canada t-shirts,
which proclaimed we were ‘proud Canadians,’ we wandered up to Parliament to
check out the festivities. We saw the Snowbirds fly overhead as well as a group
that may have been F-18 fighter jets. They were so fast it was hard to get a
photo! We tried to get near the huge stage set up in front of Parliament but
the people were jam packed watching whatever was on stage, so we wandered away.
A friend from Tasmania, Tom Ward, was
busking on Elgin Street, so we went down there to listen to him play Hungarian,
Russian and Spanish folk songs on guitar. Nothing like a concert by an Australian
on Canada Day! How ironic! By this point I was wearing green, Will was in his
Australian soccer shirt and our friend was standing out in the crowd in a
Brasilia shirt (he is not actually from there though, as a pretty Brazilian
girl sadly found out). We ended up listening to Tom play for quite a while and
our Canadian friend was quite enthralled. I think he now loves ‘Asturias’ as
much as I do – my favourite classical guitar song.
We also saw some gymnasts on a trampoline
doing incredible somersaults in mid air. At one point, three people linked
their arms and somersaulted together.
Further down Rideau Street we also watched
the BMX bikers doing crazy stunts, like leaping over each other on their bikes.
The one guy on rollerblades kept me wondering what happened to his bike. At one
point, a biker did a bike-and-person somersault over two other guys. I’m sure
there is a name for this trick, but I just call it crazy amazing.
In the midst of all this people were handing out free chocolate and granola bars, so we happily collected about a dozen! Later after watching Spain thankfully demolish Italy, we also took advantage of the free food at the President’s Choice tent. Mini sausages and rolls with relish and cups of pop. Delicious!
Later that night we found a spot to watch the fireworks – what I had been hanging out for since I heard the Canada Day fireworks were amazing, many months ago!! I will post pictures of those tomorrow.
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| Spot the Canadian... |
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