That a particular subcompact wasn’t a GEO Metro…it was a Pontiac Firefly.
New surprise: I just looked up Ontario’s retail holidays, and one of them is Good Friday. I wouldn’t have even considered that to be a holiday, let alone a holiday when general society shuts down. That just seems really bizarre and clerical to me.
Vodka and CLAMATO. Or clam juice and tomato juice, if you don’t want the premade brand name stuff, but I don’t think I’ve seen clam juice on its own in…decades.
My first visit to Canada was in about 1985, and we went to Quebec City and Montreal. In Quebec city, it was: Wow, these people are really French! I mean, French was everywhere and most people had a distinct accent when they spoke English. And they looked (dressed) more European and you felt like you were in Europe. It was fun, and my GF at the time spoke pretty good French, so we did fine in those few places where English was not spoken. We stayed at the Chateau Frontenac, and it was great. The restaurants were loud and chaotic and we loved it.
In Montreal, it seemed a lot like Boston. Sure, people spoke French, but they would switch to English w/o skipping a beat and with no noticeable French accent.
I only visited Vancouver and was amazed by how clean the city was. This was in 1986 during the World’s Fair. I was use to grungy cities like NY, Chicago. Philly, DC, Milwaukee, LA and even San Diego or SF. Vancouver was just amazingly clean. Also most of the cities we visited in Asia made US cities look clean so Vancouver was by far the cleanest liberty port.
It didn’t surprise me but there was a complete lack of goofy Canadianisms that one might expect from McKenzie Brothers. It was remarked upon by fellow sailors at the time. I can’t recall a single “Hoser”.
I really liked the vibe of the city. Large walking areas, loads of used book stores, electric buses and plenty of good street musicians.
Not much. I’m from Minnesota, though. Thunder Bay is Duluth, except flatter. Victoria, BC is real pretty, but I went there from Seattle and felt right at home. Okay, my brothers and I were surprised that real estate wasn’t more expensive.
I took a hitch-hiking trip in 1977 that took me into Canada and was surprised to discover that it was a socially accepted mode of travel there at the time. Completely different feeling.
The Maritimes and New England are very similar. Toronto is recognizable to anyone who’s familiar with New York or Philadelphia or Chicago. I’m going to assume that anyone from Montana or North Dakota would feel at home in Manitoba or Saskatchewan.
Montreal and the rest of Quebec is the part of Canada that feels different to Americans.
If I recall correctly, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas invented the word hoser for their act. They needed a word they could use on television. In real life, guys like Bob and Doug McKenzie would have been casually using the word fucker all the time.
Yes!
And the family I was staying with used to mix Canada Dry with some sort of ice-cold grapefruit (?) juice in a big jug. I thought it was weird but it tasted pretty good.
Way too many ice cubes in your soft drink.
Roasting marshmallows in a fire although that’s probably not only a Canadian thing. Also, ketchup on pasta instead of tomato sauce (not so great).
Well, I had the opposite experience.
On one of my first days at school (100% English-speaking), I was sitting next to a big guy who had obviously decided that picking on the new kid in town would be fun. He started making a couple of vaguely intimidating comments, typical teenage male behaviour. I didn’t know what to do so I started answering him in French, using a similar tone. He was stunned, turned to his friend and said: “Listen to this guy! I have no idea what language he’s speaking!”
Surprisingly, it was a great way to break the ice. Next, he asked me where I was from and the tension evaporated. We never became friends but we got along fine for the rest of my stay. I still can’t believe that he didn’t realize that I was speaking in French, though.
I’ve only seen ketchup on pasta once, and that was when I was in Connecticut and it was onee person putting ketchup on spaghetti.
As for Sunday shopping, we have that here in Montreal, though many stores/businesses close at 5 PM on Sundays.
I’ve never heard of ketchup on pasta. That must have been a one-off. We’re not complete idiots when it comes to pasta, or international cuisine in general.
Canada has had a friendly relationship with Cuba going way back to the early days of Castro. Castro and Pierre Trudeau considered each other to be intellectual equals, friends, and confidantes. In fact, Castro was one of Trudeau’s pallbearers. The two countries have had free trade between them despite bullying by the US to embargo Cuba in the past.
Pretty sure that’s a federal stat. holiday. At least it certainly is a stat. holiday out here. Don’t you guys have a holiday for Easter?
Not really. I’ve spent (literally) thousands of Ikes over the past 15 years and usually the reaction is just basically “Wait - is this really money?”. Once you get past that its a quick “cool” and into the register.
One other Canada surprise I didn’t mention – the parts I was in are seriously serious about “going green”. Outside of a couple tourist joints, don’t expect them to have bags for your purchases. Luckily we had our usual grocery totes in the car and made do. The one place we sort of forgot was at a stop at a Harley shop. I found a few things and was about to send Her Ladyship out to the car for a bag when the clerk said “This is H-D ---- screw it, we got plastic bags galore.” I took it that it was some sort of local joke and joined in the laugh but again ---- she was just so damn pleasant saying it that --------------
Easter itself isn’t a holiday in any state, I assume because if you’re the type of government worker who gets every holiday off, you’re probably not working Sundays anyways. I found that a handful of states have Good Friday as a holiday, which I admit surprises me a little. I’ve just never experienced Good Friday as a secular thing at all.
(The concept of stores having to close for a whole list of holidays, whether they want to or not, is alien enough. I’m used to shopping being open 363 days a year (or even 364 now that Black Friday is becoming Black Thursday Evening). Good Friday being on that list is even weirder. At least in my experience, it’s a totally religious holiday in my part of the US, marked only in those churches that observe the liturgical calendar. I wouldn’t notice its passing any more than Epiphany or Christ The King or Ash Wednesday.)
Many businesses here in Montreal charge 5 cents (Canadian) for a plastic bag. There’s been talk of banning plastic bags here in Montreal, but so far it hasn’t been done.
Another Huh?? Maybe it’s the stores I shop at, but I’ve never run into a problem of stores not having bags. They might charge you 5 cents depending on the store, but I’ve never had a problem of availability.
The bag availability may very by region, perhaps.
Non-Canadians who have visited Canada - what surprised you about the country?
Flashing green traffic lights.