The Canadian weekend - cottage country

I couldnt possibly leave here without at least experiencing a small semblance of cottage country. After all, its what Torontonians do. They work in the GTA all week, then migrate northwards up the 400 and highway 11 to 'cottage country'. I am sure there is a double entendre in there somewhere.. Reminds me of a joke Doug told me in the car today. A girl walks in to a bar and asks for a double entendre, so the bar tender gives her one. Yes. I know. Shite.

So, having randomly met Katie about 3 weeks ago in bizarre cicumstances (she had a blanket wrapped round her legs, all very strange..) we got talking the following night and we agreed to visit her at her cottage for the weekend of 22nd. Now this is the kind of thing I do when I am drunk. Compare with 'do you want to come and visit me in Canada?' (My personal visitor count moves to 5 with Joe's arrival on Tuesday.)

So. Me and another English guy Doug jump in a car, at 7 on a Saturday night bucketing with rain, armed with only a hand drawn map that Katie had given me in the pub the previous Monday. How scared was I? This journey was 250km, and to be honest, we had no idea a) where we were going and b) what we would find when we got there...

What we found was a group of 10 youngsters, 17 to 25, drinking beer and listening to music. And for the rest of the night, and the Sunday morning, we did what Canadians do. We sat in the cottage, we drank, we warmed ourselves in front of a log fire, we watched Vancouver win the hockey 6-4, we played poker at 2am (note to self: must stop agreeing to play poker for money at random times of the night after several beers), we went for a hot tub (it wasnt quite a Kiminator hot tub, that one still wins!), and sat and stared out at the lake, taking photos the next morning.

Its the middle of nowhere. Its peaceful. Its quiet. Its scenic. Its an escape from what surrounds the working week. And its fun. I guess thats why they do it!