American Phive-Oh #8

It’s hard to look like a local when you’re photographing someone’s front door because it looks cute then staring at a map and pointing in random directions. But if you want to sound like a local you’d better be able to pronounce the name of their city properly. So it’s not Budapest, it’s Budapesht and it’s not New Orleans it’s Nu Orlins (preferably pronounced as one word, so Nuworlins). Then we come to Quebec and learn it’s not pronounced Qwebec but K’bec. Fair enough, I guess. We have Launceston or Lawnceston as blow-ins say whereas to the locals it’s Lon’cstn with a long “c”. Best to ‘fess up to being a tourist, put on your “Bring Back the Biff” rugby league t-shirt as you walk round Kyoto and ignore the stares.

Speaking of uniqueness, is there a city in the world that doesn’t have an Irish pub? Okay, I’m not counting places like Tehran or Riyadh,  but come the revolution it’ll be “whack for the daddy-o there’s whiskey In the jar”. The child bride and I were in K’bec City, having strolled around the old, interesting bit. We had developed our daily dose of tired legs and a bothersome thirst so looked for somewhere to relieve both. Murphy’s beckoned. A bonus was the musician who started playing just after our beers arrived. He was picking his guitar in typical Irish style – all good so far- then he started to sing a clearly identifiable Irish song…in French. Quelle horreur. Imagine if you can, the Clash singing London Calling in Japanese. We were eating pizza so I guess were in no position to complain.

With all of the references to bars and beer on this trip, you’d think the child bride and I are staggering from one hangover to the next. That does happen on our cruises where booze is free and is always only a few steps (if sometimes faltering) away. More on this in the next instalment.

We’ve also noticed that unlike the US, there are comparatively few ATM’S in Canada. As previously reported there are more ATM’S in bars than in banks in the US. In K’bec City, the only one we could find was in a Bureau d’Change hidden away in a nondescript building. Maybe Trudeau had most of them removed out of spite because comedians keep remarking how much like Fidel Castro he looks (his Mum got around – ask the Rolling Stones) or because he wants to bring in credit card expenditure monitoring (by eliminating cash) because governments need to know where you are and when, what you’re buying, who’s up who and how far and whether you need arresting for buying a gas cigarette lighter and destroying the climate. No, no, definitely not that last one. Freedom rules ie we have rules governing your freedom.