Ottawa Tulip Festival

The Ottawa Tulip Festival has officially started and the people are out in droves to take in the colourful flowers. There are many different spots around the city where you can see the tulips, mainly; Parliament Hill, Dow's Lake, and near the National Art Gallery where the above picture was taken. The Festival lasts for two weeks and is the highlight of spring in Ottawa. 

At this moment when I went out to view the tulips I found there were some that still hadn't bloomed downtown. Don't get me wrong, it's still worth a walk around to see the colours and to just people watch too. I would suggest though, actually making the trip to Dow's Lake, where there will be a whole lot more to see. 

If you want more then just looking at flowers, they also have fireworks at night downtown. I can usually hear them going off, but can't quite see them from my balcony. 

Now if this festival doesn't live up to your standards, than I suggest you get on a plane and head to the Netherlands, where it originated. A tulip festival there might be slightly more impressive, I'm just saying.

613 Night Market

Saturday night was the 613 Night Market here in Ottawa, held at the Shaw Center downtown. Now I was very excited to go to this event. I had been looking forward to it for a couple months. It's not like we get the chance to go to a night market very often here.


I must say I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I do have a few criticisms, mainly the lack of food vendors. I thought that when I walked in I would see rows upon rows of food stalls of every variety, that was not the case. There was one long row along the back where they were set up. The food itself was delicious, can't complain in that department. I tried 4 different stalls, all very different styles: Asian, Italian and western and of course I had to have something sweet from a dessert stall.

Shrimp and mango salad

There was also an array of stuff being sold as well, everything from jewelry to hot sauce. I did enjoy the fact that it was not just food, but the vendors selling items far surpassed the vendors selling food. I talked to a couple people that were there and they did mention to me that they thought the amount of food you received was too small for how much you were paying. Now I'm on the fence about this comment, in a way I can see there point, some of the vendors portions were not that big, especially when you're paying five dollars for it. But on the other hand, there were some good portions, and it did allow you to hit a few different stalls and try everything, which of course is the whole point, at least for me.

All in all the event is something everyone should at least go to once just to experience it. Be prepared to spend money, it is far to easy to lose track of how much you're spending when you're hoping from stall to stall.