First Day:
I had booked myself a couple of nights in the Carleton County Jail for my stay, otherwise known as the HI Ottawa Jail Hostel! One of the main attractions that they'd advertised on their website was the "Haunted Walks Tour" that was run in the city. Since I was staying in the jail, I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of them!
The jail hostel was great - like the New York one, except spooky, and a little less comfortable (it did used to be a jail after all!) Classic "the world" - the first girl to walk into the room (or rather, cell) was an Australian and from Sydney!
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| HI Ottawa Jail Hostel |
After settling into the cell, I headed Downtown to buy my tickets for the Haunted Walk and on the way saw the Chateau Laurier, the parliament building, and got a general sense for the city. Ottawa seemed really small, and a bit like Canberra in a sense (mainly because of the whole Parliament thing, and people not knowing it's the capital). It was so nice to hear English around the place after being in Montreal for a bit - it made me feel a bit more at home.
I had a bit of a shop in the afternoon (was also good to see some brands I knew around). After this, I went to grab some dinner and found a little noodle bar called "Wang's"!
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| Wang's! |
That night was the Haunted Walk. Our guide was Charles, and we started on Sparks St, where we learned that downtown Ottawa used to be a graveyard! Here are some of the highlights from the tour:
- Hearing about the Chateau Laurier, and stories of hauntings by the commissioner, Charles Melville Hays, who died on the Titanic and predicted it would sink!
- The Ottawa Normal School - in particular, a super creepy hallway where an old headmistress has been sighted haunting two classrooms. Two security guards have quit their jobs because of this - and the older security guards play tricks on the newer ones using a cardboard cutout of the lady!
- The old Bytown Museum, rumoured to be the most haunted building in Ottawa!
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| Chateau Laurier |
It was a fantastic walk with chilling stories - I would highly recommend it to anyone travelling to Ottawa! It was a great way to learn about the history of the city in a fun way.
Second Day:
I had quite a lazy start to the day, getting out the door at about 10am. After a quick bagel for breakfast, me and my new Australian buddy went off to the Australian High Commission to vote for the federal election (we did what we could...). Much like the US Consulate in Sydney, the Australian Commission was a little room in a tall building in the CBD. It made us quite nostalgic to see images of the Australian landscape and such.
That done, we decided to spend the day together, starting off with the old Bytown Museum - the oldest, and (did I mention?) MOST HAUNTED building in Ottawa!
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| The Bytown Museum |
We did a great audio tour, guided by a friendly Canadian that encouraged us to "imagine ourselves in a green field" or "hear the sounds of the war" etc. He was hilarious. My favourite parts were about the planning of the city, Colonel John By, and I found it surprising how young Ottawa is as a city - almost as young as Canberra! It was officially named Ottawa in 1855 (but started as Bytown in 1826).
At the end of the tour, when we were giving back our headphones, I decided to ask the girl working there about some of the information I'd learnt on the Haunted Walk tour.
"Look...I have to ask," I said, "Have you ever worked here at night?"
"A lot of the people who work here have had haunted experiences." she said. I was expecting her to go on to say "but I'm not one of them." but INSTEAD she said..."And I'm one of them!"
She continued: "I've heard about these Haunted Walk tours and yeah - I hear my name whispered to me up there all the time! (the third floor and attic) But I just put in my iPod when I go up there now so that it doesn't bother me."
My new Australian friend and I just looked at each other in shock. I was stoked!! I couldn't believe my luck.
After lunch, we paid a visit to the National Gallery of Canada. There was a sweet artwork with a giant spider out the front of the building!
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| National Gallery of Canada |
I found the gallery fantastic! Whilst there were not a lot of really famous artworks, there was a great varied collection - particularly of contemporary art. There was also an amazing exhibition on contemporary Indigenous art - it was really interesting and unique.
When that was done, we went back to the By Market area to grab a Beaver Tail, on recommendation from a very nice (and very Canadian!) guy I met on the bus to Ottawa. Turned out it was a very good recommendation! I got one with vanilla icing and Oreos, and it was the absolute shiz.
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| Vanilla and Oreo Beaver Tail |
That night, I did another Haunted Walk - this time of the jail. It was good, but not quite as good as the first one - I liked seeing more of the city. The jail was quite hot at night too, so was a bit uncomfortable in there with all the people.
My favourite stories were about people seeing someone materialise at the end of their bed during the night, and also one about a woman sighted in the bathroom (on my floor!) who had NO FEATURES ON HER FACE. Creepy as anything!
What was weirder though was that my Australian cell-mate said that she kept thinking there was someone on the ladder of her bed at night! (She was in the top bunk).
Too cool.
I didn't do much on the final day as I had to catch the bus back to Montreal quite early. But I had a very nice stay, and will definitely be returning to Ottawa - hopefully during the winter. I really want to go ice skating on the iconic Rideau Canal!
More on my experiences in Montreal soon!
Erin xx
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