Uniting for the final time, the Exchanges for 09' set out on one last journey to explore the wonders of Ottawa and Algonquin park. It was a bit of a slow start as people like Angus forgot things and most of us weren't moving too fast, but we got there eventually and we were then out on the road with our amazing guide Katsu for our four hour drive to Ottawa. We spent the time reading, sleeping, talking and listening to our ipods' which is generally what most teenagers do. With a quick stop off at the Swiss Challet for lunch we were back on the bus and heading for the city where we jumped off the bus onto the side walk infront of the Parliment Building. There was multiple police cars surrounding the building as there was some sort of protest in place, as was some festivities for multiculturalism on the grass. Mini Sophie, Tess, Savannah and I all joined in as everyone was joining hands and were walking around in a circle to the beat. It was such an amazing experience to feel everyone uniting and to be apart of it was really funny. We then headed up the stairs and into the building to the Peace Tower. We struggled to stay quiet as we waited in line for the lifts to the top, but we weren't too bad. We began talking to some people from Brazil before it was our turn to jump into the lift on our way up the Peace Tower. We past the giant bells before finally reaching the top where we could look out over Ottawa and parts of Quebec. Katsu told us the history of anything and everything while we took many photos before heading back down to the gift shop and then taking a scenic walk around before jumping back on the bus and heading for the hotel. Okay so the hotel looked a little shabby from the outside and the building infront of it had been demolished, but we weren't judging it yet, as the inside was live-able and that's all that mattered. We dropped off our stuff and had about an hour to kick back and relax before it was time for dinner. We decided we would go to the market area to try and find things to eat, so we did a quick bit of shopping before we split up to find food. A group of us went to Rich Tree where we had pizza and finished with a frozen yoghurt before doing a brisk walk back to the bus to meet again with everyone. We then quickly went back to the hotel before it was time to head on over to the Civilization Museum. Taking the 10 minute walk over to the Civilization Museum we then took a few photos outside before heading in where Katsu once again told us most things we wanted to know. He then gave us a choice of going to see an IMAX film or sitting outside in the park for a while, no one ended up wanting to see the film so we all spent time down in the park before a few of us decided they wanted to make a trip to McDonald's while the rest of us stayed in the park for a little while longer. We then headed back to the hotel where we sat around watching TV, talking, playing cards and fighting until it was about 1am and it was time for bed. Georgie had requested a wake up call for 8am, so we recieved a phone call which she answered and then told us it was 8am, so we began to get ready for another long and eventful day only to look at the clock and realize it was quarter past 7am. We didn't know what was the right time, except that it was extremely quiet and no one else in the hotel was awake and moving so Georgie went down to send a couple of emails and to find out the correct time. It turns out we had recieved a call at quarter to 7am and we now had pleanty of time before we needed to meet down stairs for breakfast. Breakfast was a buffet and was enjoyed by all before we were back on the bus and heading for the National Gallery of Canada. We spent some time looking around at all the famous Canadian art and then once again jumped onto the bus which we then headed off into the wilderness of Algonquin Provincial Park.