Jummy

So I went to Montreal.

As usual, I was very disorganized and even though I had planned to go to Montreal sometime before the end of April (I had a coupon for 1/2 price off train fare you see) since late 2004, I didn't say a word to my place of work until the night before, via email. Part of the reason for my apprehension was that my parents are a bit overprotective.

Friday
The morning of my trip, bags packed and ready to go, my dad, for the first time ever forbade me from going. Of course I told him I was going and had booked the train so there, but he still was 100% against me going. I slammed the door and off I went. To work. I figured since I didn't give them enough notice I should do at least a half day.

But he called me at work soon after and things were cool again. He was worried that this just came out of nowhere (he also found out about the trip the night before and I have never ever gone anywhere by myself in my entire life, and he has first hand experience with my inability to read a map or tell north from south, and east from west. I'm his eldest child and he just worries about my safety). So even though I didn't need it I got his somewhere apprehensive blessing.

Then I got a call from my sister who had just gotten a call from the mother of a not really close friend I have in Montreal. This mom was calling to say that I was to stay with her daughter and not at some rundown old hostel. You've got to love how other Nigeri@n moms get involved!

After my half day at work, I realized that I had forgotten a second pair of shoes so I went off to the Ride@u centre to find a a pair of black mules or something. No luck; I bought two pairs of flipfloppy type shoes instead. Then I had to go to Walmart and get some skittles nourishing munchies for my trip.

Then I headed to the train station where I ran into a friend who was going to Montreal too, but for a week. We weren't in the same car though so that was that.

As requested I got a window seat and luckily I didn't have anyone sitting beside me on the way there or the way back! Two hours later I arrived in Montreal and the fun started. My first adventure was getting to my hotel.

I stood on the corner, trying to figure out how to hold my map so I'd have an idea of the direction to go in for 10-15 minutes and people and cars zoomed by. I finally made the right decision and started walking. I got a call from Lee-Ann so I figured I blended right in and was less like a tourist since I was on the phone while navigating the streets. I made one wrong turn but I made it in about 1/2 hour.

I checked in and my room was so cute (pic is kind of screwy)! It had a twin bed in a teeny room with a tv, desk, sink, closet. The bathrooms and showers were a few doors down the hall. I was so charmed by the cuteness of the room that I took a few pics. Then it was off to McGill. Beautiful campus, all old buildings and some greenspace too. But so freaking HILLY. I was panting for breath. The pictures don't quite capture the verticalness of the place. The building I was looking for was on the very far side of campus; it took me almost an hour to walk to it from my hotel. And of course since this was nearly 7pm when I got there, the place was closed and I couldn't get any information on a masters program I might want to do there.

So what else could I do but go shopping? St. Catherine street is the street for that, let me tell you. It's such a busy place with all sorts of cute boutiques full of clothes I can't fit into: Sisley, Steve Madden, Jacob, etc, etc. There was this Urban Outfitters store that had the funkiest clothing and accessories, scarves and stuff. I didn't have enough time to look around.

I went to Chapters and Roots, then to the Montreal Trust Centre. I picked up some bags and some tees there. There was a Dollarama there too but not too much caught my eye. I only had about an hour before the mall closed so I headed home, watched the last bit of some show while I decided what to do for dinner. I dined alone at Nickels (5 minute walk from my place) then went back to my room. I called home and was all sleepy on the phone.

I had dessert (choco cake from Second C up in bed, channel surfed and was snoring by 11:30pm.

Saturday
I was up with the 8:15am birds and eager to explore. Then I looked outside. RAIN. All over. All day.

I had major troubles with the showers. You see they have this arrow that you're supposed to turn so it points at the temperature of water you want (I like warm to nearly hot). Well, I'm blind as a bat without my glasses so I couldn't see the faint arrow (I thought that it was the opposite end from the arrow that had to be turned to the water temperature) so needless to say I got ice cold water. Frustrated, I asked the other lady who had just finished her shower if the hot water was broken and it wasn't. So when she finished showering I moved all my things to her shower, turned it on and got the same result: ICE COLD WATER! I was pretty irritated by this point, thinking the showers were racist. Then I noticed the arrow, blessedly warm water resulted and no more curses came out of my mouth.

I started the day shopping, this time at the Eaton Centre Montreal which is connected to the other mall I was in the night before as well as this third mall called Ville M@rie. There was this beeyootiful paper store that I spent waaaay too much time in. I was going to get myself some purple stationery but I don't do any letter writing. I also went to a fat lady store across from the mall but I left empty handed.

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with my rainy Saturday. Going back to bed and waking up when the weather was more cooperative was briefly considered. Over brekky at McDonalds and a phone call home, I decided to go to the Biodome and Olympic stadium. I walked to the metro in the pouring rain and got to ride the metro, Montreal's subway system, for the first time! After asking a few questions I got to where I was going. It didn't take long to get there at all.

I was so indecisive about what I wanted to do; they had all these packages where you could either go to the stadium or the biodome, or both, or also to the botanical gardens and insectarium. I bought a package of the latter three but I wasted too much time looking around the stadium [they had some cool exhibits on the towers of the world and Canadian olympians as well as the history of Montreal] so I wasn't able to make it to the gardens. The Biodome was very cool, with their 4 different different ecosystems: tropical, marine, polar and laurentian. I'll put most of the pics in a gallery one of these days but here are a couple of pics. I saw the cutest monkeys, some parrots, a snake, frogs, penguins, puffins, a porcupine, big scary fish and a capybara! The tropical zone was best because you were able to stick your camera into the enclosures and try to snap a picture. Some of the animals in the other ecosystems were surrounded in glass, making picture taking hard.

I made the long trek to the Insectarium, after many minutes of frustration with my map. They have a shuttle bus that connects the biodome to the Insectarium and after waiting at the pickup point for about 10 minutes I called their info number and found out the shuttle bus isn't running yet! Blah!

The insectarium was worth it! Ugh! They had live bugs (beetles, walking stick bugs, cockroaches...gross!) and lots of mounted creepy crawlies, namely butterflies, and more beetles. It was interesting and I have to say it gave me that uncomfortable crawling sensation on the back of my neck many times. Parts of the floor in the insectarium were puckered up (from water damage I suspect) and every time I'd step on one such section, I'd jump, thinking I had stepped on some bug. And they had this shelf you place your hand under to feel the shapes of the different types of ants, then bees, and I jumped every time, even though it was just a plastic model. I think it's because the actual insect is right above the shape you're feeling blindly that had my jump reflex was working overtime.

Unfortunately I had to rush through the insectarium because the place closed at 5pm and I got there after 4pm (which was why I didn't have time for the botanical gardens). I got fully soaked on my way back to my hotel, the rain was so vicious that day!

I had dinner (Mexican, super fast service despite the huge lineup to get in and the crowdedness of the place) with the girl whose mom said I had to stay with her and we had a good time, catching up on members of our graduating class and just learning more about each other. After dinner we walked around and checked out Ch@pters. I made her come and see my hotel room so she could give her mom a full report on the safety and cleanliness of the place.

I tried to read the bazillion magazines and books I brought with me, but was so sleepy. I text messaged Nora who was in TO for the weekend then fell asleep, glasses on, tv blaring.

Sunday
I woke up early again but lazed around a bit, trying to figure out if I had enough time to see Old Montreal, which I was told was a cute place to see. After my shower I got a call from Lee-Ann; she got engaged Saturday night!

After brekky I lazed around some more and decided that I should go and find out how far away from downtown Old Montreal was. It turned out it was just 10-15 minutes on the metro so I had to go for it! I saw the Notre Dame Basilica. The stained glass windows were so gorgeous and the inside of that church would take days to fully explore. There was a service going on so no pictures of the inside were allowed but I snuck in a couple.

After that I headed down to Saint Paul Street, a cobblestone-lined street with souvenir shops a plenty and lots of artisan stores too. I went to the Bonsecours Market, where artwork and jewelry by Quebec artisans were for sale or on display. There were lots of pretty things to see but nothing grabbed my attention. Old Montreal was hilly but not as bad as McGill. I didn't have time to go to the port but I'll do that next time. As I left Old Montreal, a guy was playing Pachelbel's Canon in D, almost like a serenade. That is one of my favourite melodies so that ended my trip on the perfect note.

After my adventures in Old Montreal, I headed back to my hotel (got lost trying a new way that turned out to be quite the shortcut...eventually), grabbed my stuff and found my way back to the train station (a wrong turn had me in a mild panic because I wanted to be in the station at least 30 minutes before the train was supposed to leave and time was running out). I had just enough time to grab lunch, buy some curds for the family and get in the train.

The ride home was uneventful. I was met by thunderous rain in Ottawa.

I had a great time in Montreal and will do it again. Here are a few things that struck me about Montreal:

• There are a lot of homeless people there. They are not shy. If they ask you if you have change for them and you say no, they will ask you in the other language (french or english) just to make sure you understood their question. And they rattle their cups or caps (money collectors) at you.
  
• I was dressed pretty slobby compared to most people on the streets. People dress up a tiny bit more in Montreal. I saw so many pairs of those painfully pointed boots but I'm not quite ready to be a slave to fashion yet. I did admire their chicness though.
  
• The restaurants with their front doors open have maitre d's who try to lure you into their restaurant by telling you the specials and reaching for you.
  
• There is at least one souvenir shop on every block.
  
• Same with gentlemen's clubs, complete with topless dancing women. I saw more of those clubs that I had ever seen before.
  
• Most people are bilingual and don't act as put out as their Gatineau counterparts when I asked them a question in English. I did try to stick to speaking french for most of the weekend though.