Bonjourhello from Montreal

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We're not being very good at keeping this thing up to date, so I am going to try and rattle through a few entries now!

Arrived in Montreal after a 6 1/2 hour train journey from Toronto that was supposed to take 4 1/2 hours. It was all very pleasant travelling through the countryside, but it was typical laidback Canadian style that no-one even really commented that we were running 2 hours over schedule!

It was a bit of a culture shock to discover that the first language in Quebec really is French and although most people spoke English almost or just as well as French, in some areas, they really didn't as much. Cue another incident of having to smuggle food out of a restaurant, when Neil was given a basket of bread instead of the bill on our first night, and we pretended to just eat it instead of trying to explain.

I wasn't particularly keen on Montreal at first- it reminded me very much of France and I didn't feel that safe at first. And that was only partly due to the street loony who accosted us within about 10 minutes of arriving, haranguing me for not speaking French to him (imagine not having the decency to trade insults with him in his own language) and accusing me of thinking I was Paris Hilton (I'm confused at that one myself). But we settled in and it really is a beautiful city, the old town and the Notre Dame basilica in particular. Photos of which we'll hopefully upload shortly.

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