Greetings from Montreal!

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September 5th 2012

Published: September 5th 2012

Greetings from Quebec!

We really couldn't be happier to have made it here! Of course, our journey didn't set off as planned and the unexpected things that we will come to expect, have already begun!

Our plan was to leave at around 9 am yesterday in order to reach Montreal by 4pm. Since that was our plan, I was up around 7 am in order to make sure everything was in order and to make sure I was ready to go when Ang came to get me at 9. So 9 am came and went. Now, most of you know my sister and are aware that punctualiy is not her strong suit, but when 9:30, and then 9:45 came about, I started getting a bit concerned. At around quarter to 10, my father called and asked me when we were leaving since he hadn't heard a sound from downstairs. My sister was sound asleep an hour after we were supposed to leave! So I will not bore you with details of all of the curse words I used at this point in time. Come quarter to 11, we were finally on the road.

And, for awhile, things were drama free. We had a reasonably easy trip through MA and NY. Not too much to see that we haven't seen before, but the Berkshires were beautiful with fall colors already showing. It was a foggy and overcast day, but we didn't have any problems with traffic. We made it to the Canadian border without any other issues.

Then we learned that Canada doesn't really like Ang. Now a few of us are aware of this fact already, but for the rest of you, this is new news. We had talked about stopping before the border so I could be the one to drive through customs, but we never ended up switching out. So we pull into line, and are made to wait by the border control agent before pulling up, like every other car. Once we did, the barrage of questions began. What were we carrying in the car? Did we have any weapons? What do we do for work? How much money are we carrying? Have we ever been in front of a judge for any reason? How long did we plan to be in the country? What on earth were we doing going to Canada? Somewhere along the line, we answered something that the agent wasn't too happy with. So we were made to go into the immigration office, hand over our passports, and wait. And this is where I start kicking myself for not driving through customs myself. So we waited for awhile. Got asked more questions. We only had a hotel reservation for one night? What were we planning to do with the rest of our time in Canada? I think they actually called our hotel in Montreal to make sure we were actually staying there. It's amazing how much Canada doesn't like Ang. But finally, we were released. We were given a code to unlock the gate and sent on our way. I had already been mentally replanning our trip on the US side. Ugh.

Canada! Yay! We only had about 30 miles to go over the border, and then we were in Montreal. We thought we had made it. But we were wrong. Reading street signs and directionals in French, and doing it all without a GPS is pretty hard. Especially when you are like me, and having been using a GPS for so long, forget how to read a map. And try to get somewhere in Montreal while reading a map of Quebec City. Well at least I was in the right country and province, right??? Double Ugh.

After probably anouther hour of trying to figure out Montreal traffic patterns and one way roads, we made it to our hotel. And the place was great!!! We have a full kitchenette, are NOT sharing a bathroom, and are within walking distance to a lot of downtown Montreal. Everyone has been fantastically nice, including our concierge, Zachary (from Morocco) who told us of a great place, the Winston Churchill, to go see some of the nightlife of Montreal. We made a number of new friends there, all who happened to not originally be from Montreal. We made some really nice Russian friends (little Ben Sturgell & Emil) who definitely made the night much more fun. Montreal has been so great, we've decided to spend another night! I just made the reservation for one more day here. So here's our chance to get a real taste of Montreal! Our hotel is right next to the art museum here, so maybe we'll check that out in a bit.

Thanks again for following our trip. I'll upload some pictures soon. Au revoir!

Greetings from Montreal!

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