parlez vous Canadien? Dec. 13-17

Well before we went to Montreal, we knew that people in the state of Quebec spoke French, but we didn't think it was the primary language! I have never before been to a country where you can hop on a bus, and get out in that same country, only to find you now don't have a clue what anyone is saying. Fortunately everyone could also speak English, so we managed to get by.

We arrived late into the evening, and the first thing that struck us about Montreal was A COLD WIND! We Glaswegians are used to a bit of a chill that comes with all that rain- but we were unprepared for this! My beard was completely frozen a few times, and we both regularly lost the feeling in our toes.

Now, while the weather was extreme, it didn't stop us from having fun for a second. We had a three-day metro pass, which we brandished like a winning lottery ticket, and used to get from one side of the city to the other. On our first day we went to look at the old town, and couldn't resist getting a horse and carriage ride around it (how romantic!) and got to see Montreal as it was centuries ago when it was a young city.

Since we arrived in North America, our "USA & Canada on a shoestring" book has been our bible, but it let us down in Montreal. Everywhere we looked for to eat or drink that we found in the book was shut down or jus' plain ol' didn't exist! (including a mammoth trek in a snowstorm to look for an art gallery) But we still found loads of great places, and even got to sample Montreal's signature dish, Poutine, in a great little burger bar. The Literal translation for "Poutine" is "chips & cheese with gravy" which was apparently invented in Montreal (and here I thought the Blue Lagoon chip shop invented it)

We wanted to visit Montreal because we heard it had a great nightlife, and we got to check out a couple of it's popular bar's. Our highlight however, was definitely La Brique, another massive trek in the snow, but one that paid off. We read in the paper there would be a local music festival on at this place, and had a heck of a time trying to find it. It wasn't so much a bar as an open-plan apartment with people playing live set's in the living room, and beer being sold from the fridge in the kitchen. The music was good, and the beer considerably cheaper than some of the places we had been.

Then next day brought a huge blizzard, and we woke up to nearly 3 feet of snow. It was falling as thick and as fast as rain, but we braved it to see some more sight's and in the evening rewarded ourselves with a nice hot curry. The bus trip from Toronto was 9 hours, and because of delays and other problems, even longer on the way back. But it was worth it, without a doubt. Vive l'Habitent's!

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