I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas ...

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and indeed it was! I hope you all had a nice Christmas too : -)

My second Christmas away from home - a little sad but I still managed to have some fun (although not as much fun as my super-special time in Copenhagen last Christmas. Spending Christmas eve at the hostel with new friends was fun and helped me to forget (just a little bit) that I missed my family and friends.

Speaking of hostels, whilst there are good ones there are also bad ones and my New York hostel was one of them … Arriving in New York after a horror 24+ hour journey from Vancouver (partly my fault but mostly due to plane, bus and train delays due to snow storms), all I wanted was a hot shower and a comfy bed …

Sadly I would have neither - my hostel bed was all rattly and for some reason there was no hot (or even warm) water in the showers for the two days I was there - Not happy Jan!

This left me a little grumpy with the city of New York and, to make matters worse, my hostel didn’t have my booking in their system which meant that I had no room for New Year’s Eve! Given that NY is *the* place to see in the new year, even if you could find a bed, the rates were over US $100 a night which simply is c-r-a-z-y for a bed in a 12 dorm - I can’t see NYE in NY being that much fun!

So I decided to change my travel plans and spend an extra two nights in lovely Montreal and head straight to Toronto for NYE and save New York for the end of my trip.

Naturally it has been unbelievably cold in Montreal. Vancouver was cold and snowy before I left and New York was even colder and whiter, but Montreal has simply been crazy. Temps as low as -21’C (surprisingly liveable if there’s no wind chill involved) and, as the pictures show, the snow has been up to shoulder height in places.

On Christmas Eve it also rained which meant awful, deep puddles of slushy snow and with the cooler temps on Christmas Day, all the water froze and turned Montreal into one huge ice rink - fun … or not!

This makes the roads and footpaths crazy dangerous- at times it was easier to slide than walk! For those that remember (or still have) a cyclic defrost freezer, just think of Montreal being like your freezer after months and months of not defrosting it!

Luckily the Montreal Metro system is one of the better transport systems I have experienced. I sure was glad I bought an unlimited 7 day pass as my $19 went very, very far indeed!

Despite the cold and the snow/ice, I have been able to make my way around the city and made little excursions to neighbourhood areas like Little Italy, the pub/club Latin Quarter, the Old Port area and so on. Montreal certainly has some beautiful old buildings.

On my last day I went to the Biodome Montreal which aims to show the major ecosystems of North America: polar, marine and forest (tropical and rain).

A little sceptical at first (I’m not a huge zoo person), I was instantly impressed by the plant and animal life on offer and the intimate nature of the displays - the birds, especially, being allowed to come right up to visitors.

I also went to a few interesting galleries:

Sympathy for the Devil - a cool exhibition that traced the convergence of visual arts and music over the past 40 years.

Warhol - another exhibition of Andy Warhol’s work, this one focussing on his films and work in the music industry (The Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground etc).

Replay - another fascinating music meets art exhibition based on works by Christian Marclay, a DJ/turntablist who has a habit of experimenting with video, sounds and music instruments. Among the interesting displays was an intense video montage of gun shots on four big screens, Christian playing a phonoguitar that he created and him tying a guitar to- a pickup track and driving it through the fields making all manner of weird noises

My last night in Montreal was spent ice skating and enjoying a beer or two at the winter bar - a nice end to my week in Montreal.

As much as I loved and enjoyed my time in Montreal, and knowing that in summer Montreal would be an amazing place to live, I’m also relieved that I ended up living in Vancouver and not Montreal.

Obviously this is because of all the friends I made in Vancouver but also because winter is (usually) more liveable and the language barrier in Montreal can be annoying (French truly is the first language, although at least most people speak English as well).

Next update (in 2009!!!) from Toronto.

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