On my last trip to the Balkans in Sept I was given 25,000 bonus Aeroplan miles by TD Bank for switching cards. Inside the terminal during departure CIBC Bank had another promo and I got 10,000 promo miles on their card.

Recently they mailed a promo that I can goto New York, Montreal, or Quebec from 7,500 points. I was toying with New York but after a lot of negative hysteria in the media I decided I'd rather goto Quebec then some paranoid society.

I used to drive to Quebec City quite a lot about 10 years back when I didnt have money for overseas trips. Montreal is a five hour drive from Toronto, Quebec City is a further two. So about 9 hours with stops and traffic if you do it in one go.

I last went in 2002 & 2006 for my birthdays in Sept but got tired of the driving back and forth so hadnt been since. 2006 I tried to do something different, flew to Ottawa, took the train to Montreal, return bus to Quebec, and flew back from Montreal.

This trip I was going to go in the winter which I'd never done not being an outdoors winter person. They have a winter carnival which had a lot of nice pictures of ice sculptures on their website, as well as two large night parades, and other activities. It would be a nice mini break and less hectic then big overseas trips.

My flight was 10.40am Saturday morning from the Island Airport where Porter flies from. I left at 8.10 and was there by 8.40 giving myself lots of extra time. Recently a foot tunnel has been opened to the island taking away traffic from the ferry which is more scenic.

The terminal is nice, being predominantly in use by Porter almost exclusive, though Air Canada has fought to have access to one gate so maintains a presence. Soft drink cans, bottled water, and cookies are all complimentary in the departures lounge so I stocked up for my trip.

I had my favourite back row window seat but was told to move for "weight and balance". I'm not sure what this **** is that airlines have been coming up with recently. This is the second flight where I've been told "weight and balance" when I want to sit at the back.

They tried to move me from the back row to the front row for "ease getting out". I saw another empty row four rows up so asked to sit there. However the engine obscured the view a bit here.

Having used the airport before there is one small runway and flights all take off towards the west so you need a window seat on the right hand side to get a view of the Toronto skyline on take off. I tried to film it but my battery died right away. I managed to join the clips on movie editor.

youtube video : Toronto Island Airport Take Off
https://youtu.be/CkGcN6-MNJU

The flight will turn left over Lake Ontario straight after take off so its a very quick take off view. This was my first time flying on Porter. People have raved about how great it is but I found the flight average. The terminal experience is great but there is only so much you can do on short haul 90 min flights.

On descent I didnt know beforehand but we actually turned around over old Quebec City back towards the airport at the south end so I had the perfect view.

Later in the pics I realized you could see the carnival taking place in the Plains of Abraham.

The region was completely white covered in snow, while in Toronto it has been mild with barely any snow.

There is no city bus to the airport. On arrival I had planned on taking a cab 3 kms to the Marie-Victorin library on rue Notre Dame from where I could take bus 80 into the city. The bus runs every hour and I needed to be at the stop 40 mins past every hour on Saturday.

At the airport cab fares were flat $35 to downtown or $15 to anywhere else. So it wasnt worth paying $15 just to go wait at the bus stop and I ended up taking the cab all the way downtown.

I got chatting to practice my French. My cab driver was a French Algerian called Ilyas. He gave me his cell number for the return trip back on Wednesday. Lucky I had his number as his heat was so high I took my big scarf off and ended up forgetting in his cab among all the chatting.

I've never used Airbnb before for accomodation so tried it on this trip. Unlike other booking sites your host has to 'approve' you before the transaction completes. So I tried to make a nice friendly profile so they dont take one look at my pic and say 'no way'!.

My first host had to cancel as he was having legal issues with his landlord subletting his place out. Airbnb already charges your card and I was able to use the credit towards another place a few streets away which was actually nicer.

I had a ground floor apartment in a modernized historic home for only $60 Cdn/nite. With a comfy base of operations I could now enjoy the next five days in Quebec.