How cold can you get?

Now thats the question isnt it! How cold can it really get. Well to let all you people in WARM England, it is around -20 C at the momment. We are in Montreal, in a dinky hostel surrounded by french people! Thats it people, the french linguist that is Matt Veira graces Quebec with his fast French tounge. I wish that was the case, but no. Stupidly, me and Randy Mather (my accomplist), did not read up much on Montreal, and found out as we arrived at Montreals main station, that it was practically all French speaking. This was fine in the end, as my C in GCSE french has really helped us out.
After a very long 5 1/2 hour train journey, and a 20 minute trek to find our hostel. This wasnt the worst trip, but it was made worse by the fact that we had to wake up 5.55am to make sure we caught our train. We grabbed a Bagel with cream cheese (which I am addicted to now by the way), and we got the train. It was comfy enough, and after 15mins of the Beatles, I was fast asleep. That was not for long though. The views from the train were amazing, due to everything around us being covered in pure white snow. After an hour of the journey we got to more of the countryside, and all you could see along the horizon was white. This was great for us, but not so good for pictures to show you guys!
The funny thing was that at the end of the journey (well what we thought was the end of the journey), we got all our bags, stepped of the train, and we were greated by a sign saying DORVAL....We thought we were going to Montreal, so we freaked and jumped back on the train quickly! Much laughing, mostly from the guard as he seemed to know that we wanted Montreal.

The hostel is nice. Small....but nice. They have some weird rules about eating and cooking etc, but we have got round them well enough. The room, is alot better than our previous cardboard box though, and we actually have some room to put our bags and wet towels. The worst thing about it, is that there is not much light in the evening, so we cant see much, and in the morning there is no curtain, so there is way too much light! And finally...our mattresses are like breeze block, seriously. So if you have time, go check your local building site, look at a large breeze block, and there you have our beds. Oh well, only one more night left in it.

There really isnt much to do in Montreal, but it is quite a nice City. You can really tell the difference between Old Montreal and New Montreal. The new Montreal is littered with adult shops and places (if you get my drift), and the old Montreal is more rustic and nicer to be around. The nicest part about Montreal is that you can be walking down a busy street with loads of shops and work blocks, and right in the middle of them, there are these huge beautiful churches.....everywhere.
The nicest church by far, was the Notre dame Basilica (not sure how you spell it). It is huge, Catholic, and very beautiful. I have shown you a range of pics that we took from the outside and the inside. We stepped in, and realised that a mass was just about to start, so we thought that we would stay and experience it. Little did we think that the whole service would be in French. Oh well, we picked up random Catholic French chants and now i know how the Lords Prayer in french goes. The organ was HUGE, and the organist had such a beautiful touch, he played a 5min intro to the service that was beatiful. Lots of Tierrce de Picardes used in the Catholic music ei dad?! :P
It was such a majestic church, so large and beautiful, that all you could feel is awe. Even though we didnt understand anything they were saying or singing, you still felt something there.

That is Montreal pretty much, today we were very tired, so we spent a day relaxing and trying to get some rest and relaxation. It was nice not to have to get up early to catch a train, but we were both wide awake by 9am anyway. Its been nice in the hostel, as there arnt too many people around, so we can sit and watch Ice Hockey, and make food (made two trips to the supermarket and have made Chicken Korma/Tomato soup/Bacon Butty since we have been here, so hope you are proud Mum and Amy.

We are off to Boston tomorrow. Catching a flight, not too early in the morning which is very nice. Hopefully it wont be as cold as it is here in Montreal, but im guessing it will still be around -5 C. We will see. The snow here is very thick....Dan and nick you would love it so much. SOOO much untouches snow.
Anyway, I need to pack and sleep. Hope everyone is ok. Loving your comments and Emails, so please keep them coming! Take care everyone. Much love

Matt

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