Today was mostly an admin day. It wasn’t meant to be but it quite literally took most of the day to book our train tickets and accommodation for Canada. We’ve decided to head up to Montreal first which is a 12 hour train journey. Mainly because its cheaper to book on Amtrak than on the Canadian Rail system.
The accommodation really wasn’t that hard to find which was good although I was a little surprised since the comedy festival is on in Montreal at the moment. Next we booked the train leg to Quebec City. Now the train tickets were not that hard to find which was good. The unfortunate part came next. We really should have checked the accommodation before hand. We went through about 3 different hotel sites and all the entries in the Montreal Guide. While we finally found accommodation it was the last place we tried with only two left in the book. Even so they only had one room and it was only available for one night and its a top end hotel so really expensive.
All the other places said the same thing. No sorry, its the Paul McCartney concert…’
Turns out we’re staying in the ‘Presidential Suit’ although while I’m expecting a nice room I’m really not expecting it to be too much since while its expensive its not like we’re spending thousands of dollars.
Unfortunately due to the lack of accommodation that means we only have the one day in Quebec City as we are leaving on the train the next day for Niagara Falls. We spend two days there, mainly due to arriving late so not being able to see the falls and the train for New York leaves early the next day.
By the time we booked all that it was after 2 pm. Still we headed into town briefly. Firstly we picked up my sunglasses which I’d managed to leave at the roof top party the first night. After that we went looking for a DVD that Lou’s dad wanted her to pick up. Unfortunately no one seemed to have it in stock.
Next I went hunting for the lens I wanted. The first store tried to hustle me. Really not going to happen. They worked out I was Australian and then comment about how expensive the lens was in Australia. They then gave me a price for the lens that while under the Australian price was well above what I know it costs in the US. I’m not entirely silly I did do some research before heading into the stores so I knew roughly what it would cost.
They finally came down in price when it was obvious I was going to walk but then tried to swap out the canon lens I was after for the sigma lens. I walked.
The next store I went to was, well professional in there approach and a start contrast to the firsts con artists. B&H is a great shop. A very dangerous shop. I could really spend a fortune in that shop. I went upstairs and then had to stand in a cue to get to the counter. Kind of strange but seems to work really well. Finally my number was up. The price of the the lens was actually a little lower than the lowest price I’d seen online. There was a special on canon lens the sales assistant told me. So I promptly brought the lens. I’m now the proud owner of a 70 - 300 IS DO USM lens.
As for the first store well imagine me flipping them a rude finger sign. I guess I had the last laugh on that one since there dishonesty lost them a sale.
