This week, my work brought me to Ottawa, Canada for a few days of training. The training was organized very last minute (for which they apologized multiple times) and could *only* be done on October 31-November 1. Meanwhile back in Texas, John went to a Halloween party at our landlord’s house, which I had to miss. Shoot!
My colleague, Oliver, helped organize most of the event, so I was surprised when I arrived and everyone spoke French! Je parle un peu le francais, but certainly not enough to do two days of training on business topics. Comment dites-vous revenue model en francais?
My colleagues at work say that I have a “Canada curse” because almost every time I fly to Canada, I get delayed, rerouted, or even get snowed in overnight and this trip was no different. Thanks to strong storms across the US, my morning flight out of Austin to Chicago was delayed by more than 3 hours, which required me to rebook my connections. Long story shortened, I finally arrived in Ottawa at 1 AM, crashed in my hotel room and then had to be up and training by 9 AM. Ouch.
Ottawa, Canada’s national capital, seems to be a lovely city (of about 1.5 million people), but unfortunately it was rainy for the first 36 hours and very cold the entire time I visited. So the picture above (of a picture from my hotel’s elevator) is the prettiest shot I have of the Parliament building. The other interesting note is how difficult it is to get here. The airport is tiny with limited flights. My training participants told me they either took 8 hours bus rides to get here or had to pay $1200 for a domestic flight here. Ouch again.
On Friday night it finally stopped raining and I had awoken that morning with a sore throat. Since I could not leave Ottawa until Saturday (again very few flights into Canada’s Capitol city), I searched for a place for dinner “pour un”. Trip Advisor helpfully let me know that just a 10 minute walk from my hotel in downtown is Sansotei Ramen. In fact, it is rated #4 of 2,218 restaurants in Ottawa.
The reviews were indeed superlative! What I wasn’t quite prepared for was the line outside the building.
Yep, I waited outside in 34 degree Fahrenheit weather for more than 40 minutes. I thought about bailing, but being alone in a foreign city – what else did I have to do? Plus this place is legit – the website is in Japanese first and English second. But no French? How very un-Canadian!
I’m not sure if it was worth the 40 minute wait out in the cold, but it WAS the best ramen I have ever had. The last ramen I had was in Curitiba, Brazil with John when he had the sniffles. There is just something about a good Japanese ramen soup when the weather gets cold!
The guys in line next to me were friendly, although they mostly spoke French. They asked me to take their photo and in return I snapped a photo of one of their ramen bowls. This was the tonkotsu.
My dinner, with 18% tip, was $22 USD – very reasonable. Especially at the 4th most popular restaurant in Ottawa…
It’s a little sad that my highlight of this trip is ramen, but sometimes that’s just how it goes – the weather didn’t cooperate. Thankfully I’m flying home today to Texas, just before the snow hits Ottawa. Brrr! 🥶
Have you had good luck traveling to Canada? 🇨🇦 What is the best ramen you have ever had? Let me know in the comments below and thanks for stopping by!
Hugs, Libby
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