Last day in Montreal

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The rain is sprinkling
My umbrella is mangles
Walking in the rain.

As predicted by weather.com, the rains started to fall overnight. I didn't realize how mangled my umbrella got from when I foolishly opened it on that gusty, rainy day last Sunday. So I ended up tossing my Edinburgh green plaid umbrella into the bin. But that's okay. I have my water resistant jacket and toque to keep me warmish and hopefully dry! Luckily the rain is not coming down too hard and I shouldn't be out in the rain for too long.

My first stop was for some breakfast at Tim Horton's. For some reason I was feeling really famished when I awoke this morning. A growth spurt perhaps? haha Nothing like a toasted bagel and hot chocolate to start the day! Plus stopping at Tim Horton’s gave me a chance to dry off a bit.

Since it was still raining I decided to skip my walk to Old Montréal which was probably only about two kilometres away and decided to spend some time at the museum. So I chose the McCord Museum which is a history museum. They had a few cool exhibits and I utilized a 20% off admission coupon so no complaints from me especially since I was given the student rate again. 😊

The exhibits I enjoyed were "Growing up in Montréal ", "Unpredictable Weather" and a film about changing Montréal. They also had an interesting temporary exhibit on "The Last Spike" which depicted the infamous moment on November 7, 1885 when the last spike of the Trans-Canada railway was pounded in...somewhere in BC but I can't remember the name. They also had about of editorial cartoons from the 80's when funding to Via Rail was cut. Quite interesting.

The rains had stopped by the time I left the museum so I headed over to St. Catherines for a bit of shopping. I was on a mission to find some long johns since my cotton cargo pants are pretty thin and my jeans aren't very warm either. Hmm, where else to look but La Baie (The Bay for you English speakers. haha) I haven't stepped inside a Bay for over 10 months and it seems no matter where in the country, the Bay seems the same. It has a similar set up and displays, lots of sale signs and just the general feel is "The Bay." It’s hard to explain. Anyway it was great to see a 30% sign right by the area where long johns were on display. Score! There were additional 50% signs in the bag section but sadly (or maybe it's a good thing) I didn't find much in the clearance section.

I didn't really need anything else so I decided to head over to Old Montréal since the rains had stopped and finished checking out the areas that we missed yesterday. I wandered through a few more interesting galleries and shops and even stopped by the Bonsecours Marche (Market). They had some really cool arts and crafts stuff on sale but everything seemed to be more than I was willing to pay. Oh well!

By this time it was close to 5 so I decided to head back to the hostel and warm up before heading out again to check my email since I still have about 1.5 hours credit at that internet shop I stopped in the other day. Now to try and remember where it is located! I'm pretty sure it's pretty close to my hostel so it should be pretty easy to find.

Other than that I don't have much planned for tonight. I guess pack up my stuff since I leave for Ottawa tomorrow. Wow, another city, another province. Once again it's been about 15 years since I was last in Ottawa. I'm sure the Parliament hasn't changed much and to be honest that's all that I remember of the place! lol I guess I'll have to consult the old Lonely Planet to see what else is on offer in Ottawa. I think that I should look at my photos from 15 years ago and maybe some memories of my time in Central Canada will be sparked. lol

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