Many Dartmouth students are familiar with the wild stories of our festive northern neighbor, Montreal. The place is replete with all the ingredients for mischief and mistakes including night-clubs, strip-clubs, and when compared to H-Po, a relatively laissez-faire force of Canadian Mounties. Montreal offers a full course meal of exoticism and flair at only a three and a half hour drive from Hanover. While Montreal may be a regular destination of Dartmouth debauchery and often serves as a de facto retreat for many of our undergraduate societies and organizations, many people look past the province's lesser-known gem and capital, Quebec City, which offers these entertainment venues and much more.
I first visited Quebec City during my interim break before sophomore summer. Shocked by soaring last minute plane ticket prices home (this was before the crisis, after all) and with my curiosity aroused by a slew of mystic stories from my father who set up camp in Quebec during the Vietnam War only to stay well after the draft was nixed in '73, I decided to give it a go.
After unsuccesssful attempts at convincing a few close friends to embark on the adventure with me, I hopped on the Vermont transit and made my way north. Arriving in Quebec City later that night, I staggered into a youth hostel down in the old city, Vieux Quebec. I soon discovered that I couldn't have chosen a better destination for this summer escapade.
Though Quebec's metro-area population is just shy of three quarters of a million and so pales in comparison to Montreal's 3.6 million, its culture and beauty overshadow any such comparison of size. Furthermore Quebec's architectural opulence from its cobblestone streets to the hallmark cannons that line the city's historic enceinte (fortified wall) all but makes you feel as if you've been whisked out of North America and placed comfortably in a beautiful city of the Old World, where stone lies in lieu of steel, and the tourist carriages fit right in place as they pass under the city's stone arches.
Though Quebec's fairytale beauty may well be worthy of a visit in its own right, those looking to drink and dance the night away will find themselves in great company. From the high-end clubs of the Grand Allee to the quaint harbor-side taverns, dancehalls and watering holes abound.
So, if you're ready for a city so romantic that you might be as likely to fall in love with a fellow traveller as you would be to fall in love with the city itself, then do not graduate from Dartmouth without making the five hour trip up to our continent's little European-esque oasis. And there couldn't be a better time to go than now as today marks the kickoff of Quebec City's world famous Winter Carnival a super-sized and equally wild version of our own which will enchant the city for the next two weeks.
