Day 2: Arrival!

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9:30am: L'Arrival, Montreal-Trudeau airport. After the insanely miserable red-eye flight and the boring transfer and being awake for the last 20 hours or so, I finally finally arrive. French land! There is so much more French than I'd expected! It's oui this and non that. Crazies.

Spent some time trying to figure out where the dealio the L'aerobus (shuttle to downtown) was with my pathetic french. Hopped on the shuttle to Berri Central and met up with Andrea! Yay!

Her bachelorette pad is the coolest nichiest spot in the plateau. Ooh la la. I was there to see the christening of her new tv. Yayyyy!

We took a long 1hr walk to downtown because she had to go to class, and I passed by all the sights and sees, including the world-famous Schwartz's meaties. I get my first taste of schwarma (this portugueses? filipino? I forget.. chickeny wrap) because Andy says it's a montreal local must-have.. it only cost $3 and DOOD that was some amazing roasted chicken. Andy heads off to stats class (woot exciting) at Concordia and I'm off to rue Ste. Catherine for an hour! What a gorgeous, bustling street.

Then it started to rain. Hard.

The rest of hour cumulated into me hopping from store to store with my furry hood and long jacket on. Unfortunately my shopping amounted to almost nothing 😞 However I found the coooolest ballet-slipper-ish shoes with a big phat rainbow stripe on it for only $30 from UN Iceland, so I am content with life. Then I meet back up with Andy and we head back to her pad.

Random side note: I actually felt pretty awake despite the eye-popping red-eye and being awake for like 35 hours straight, but Andrea was SO worried she kept asking "are you ok? do you need to go back to take a nap? are you sure? really?" Awwww.

I LUBS U ANDREA!!!

That night we headed to a marketing cocktail that her student council (CASA) was holding. It was TRES fun, at this poshy sorta restaurant called decca77. Their networking event-format is the best out of any networking event I've been to, with groups of students systematically at stations of marketing professionals. The head recruiter at Aldo gave me her business card (score!) and told me to email her and then I lost her card on the flight home. (shit..)

On the way there, we stopped by Frites Alors!, a small place to munch on... POUTINE! Yum. yum. yum. All golden and crispy with rich rich sauce. The servers there were pretty quebecois so we had a fun time trying to communicate. (Or it was mostly Andrea communicating and me attempting to nod my head intelligently at appropriate times).

From Frites Alors we headed to decca77. Along the way we experienced fucking hardcore torrent rains and howling winds. We clung on to each other for dear life, and I lost track of how many times my umbrella flipped and finally died. Poor thing never had a chance. At the first possible moment we scrambled into a taxi and arrived to the cocktail like drenched dogs. Woooo hire me now.

Then we headed home, and I stole some of Andy's shampoo (sorry Andy). With her having a paper to write and me having been awake for about 38 hours straight now, we decided to forgo painting the town red that night, and retired early. My first full day in Montreal completed. Zzz.

Side note #2: I realize I'm switching uncontrollably between present and past tense. If you noticed and you care, go eat a bran muffin.

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Photos

Frites alors! Poutine fun.
Believe it or not, we're sober here. They gave us crayons to draw with! And there's poutine! What a deadly combination.

Montreal Revelation #1
Cars have no frontal license plates, those daredevils.

rue ste. catherine
Headquarters, shopaholics anonymous. Also home to Club Supersexe, world-renown strip club.

random intersection
In the background, the famous Mont Royal. Regrettably, I did not get a chance to hike it.