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Published: February 10th 2006
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Off to Montréal
The weather has cleared up some
Excellent! Allons!
I'm not sure if I just wrote down the right word in French for "let's go" but oh well...it fits in with the haiku. haha
Just a quick hello from me. I can't believe that I've made it to Montréal already...in fact I arrived only a few hours ago! I happened across this internet place that seemed quite reasonable especially in comparison to the $6/hour I've been encountering. This isn't free but it sure does seem "bargainous" in comparison. Anyhoo, I plan on spending the weekend here in Montréal before heading off to Ottawa on Monday. I don't have anything in particular planned other than going for a walk up Mount Royal if the weather is nice and I'll also meet up with Dana (whom I used to work with) on the weekend. Other than that, I'll just be winging it!
I've been in Québec City the last couple of days and it is such a beautiful place to wander about. Even when it is raining! I have so much blog catching up to do it's not funny...but that can wait since I think I hear a bowl of poutine calling my name! lol Time to continue my explorations of Montréal. It's great being right downtown and within walking distance of so many things. ‘Til I blog again...
Hugs and stuff.
Bonz
Here's my entry for this day...
As per usual, I woke up with plenty of time to spare and arrived at the train station at 7AM...My train takes off at 8AM. But that's okay. I'd rather take my time and have plenty of it on my hands than to be rushing and panicking like I see some of these people around me at 07:45.
Thank goodness there is checked baggage service here. It makes things so much easier when boarding the train. I can't believe I'm already making my way to Montreal. The last time I was here was 15 years ago and even then I don't remember too much since I was on a tour bus with my parents and the tour was entirely in Cantonese. Being a teenager and not knowing much Cantonese, I do remember being plugged into...hmm, would that be a walkman with cassettes or CD's?? Or at least a radio. I do recall taking photos by the Olympic Stadium but not much else of the City.
The hostel I am booked into is located downtown and from what I see in my Lonely Planet guide, it is quite walkable to many sights including what looks like some awesome shopping. Mind you, I'll likely not do much shopping since 1) I don't really need much and 2) I don't want to carry it and 3) it's not really any cheaper than back home. I think the only time I may seriously contemplate buying something is if it either unique or when I'm in Alberta and there is only the GST to pay.
I met a woman on the train on my way to Montréal. She is from Melbourne. We ended up chatting for quite a bit of the train journey. This is her second time in Canada. She was here last about 19 or 20 years ago and flew everywhere. She too is enjoying the voyage across Canada via train. Like I've said before, it's a great way to slow down our "hectic" lives. She's headed onto Toronto and is a bit envious that I'll have some nice sunny days in Montréal. We picked up our baggage from the carousel and then parted ways. I had pretty straightforward directions to get to the hostel but she kept insisting that I take the Metro. "It's only one stop." Exactly! My instructions said it is only about 500m from the train station to the hostel. That's easily walkable in my opinion. So after a while I just humoured the lady and pretended like I was paying attention to her Metro instructions. lol
I couldn't check into my room until after 1PM so I stashed most of my stuff into a locker and then headed out. My hostel is located downtown so the natural place to go was to St. Catherines - shopping central! As I mentioned earlier, I was only going to be on window shopping mode. But that didn't stop me from trying on a few things. lol Safe to report I did not make a dent in my wallet from over spending. Basically I only spent a bit of money on some food and to use the internet. I have been pretty lazy the last while and have been eating out more as opposed to making myself something to eat. Part of it is laziness to make something and the other is laziness to lug food around other than a few snacks. Oh well! I'll be home soon enough and it's not like I’ve been eating at ultra expensive places everyday.
After dinner my evening was pretty quiet at the hostel. I was going to go downstairs to the TV room or perhaps the reading room but I ended up talking to my Japanese roommate that came in. Then an hour later our Korean roommate came in. I guess we were all talked out by this point and just started reading and taking turns in the bathroom. By the time our German roommate came into the room we were all pretty quiet. lol Well, I guess it was close to 11 by this time. 😊
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