Chips, cheese and culture covered in gravy

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The old adage says that every cloud has its silver lining and with the current recession, our silver lining was cheap flights. Air Canada and West Jet, the two main Canadian airlines, obviously suffered a downturn in flight numbers so lowered their prices. So as soon as they advertised these cheap flights we booked a multi-city trip to Montreal, Toronto and New York.

After a hard slog of work (3 months in a row for me is a long time) Nic and I boarded our early flight, destination Montreal. We both watched the film Defiance, which is a true story about a group of Jewish people who avoided the concentration camps of Nazi Germany by hiding out in the forest. I highly recommend it.

We arrived into Montreal pretty fresh only really knowing that it had a strong French influence. The bus ride into the city was pretty uninspiring, just a mass of projects-style housing estates and industrial areas. Once nearer to the central city our impressions changed. Old and new buildings lined the streets, people of different cultures and social groups strolled happily. Calgary sometimes feels a bit sterile so it was a welcome change in culture.

Once wed checked into our quaint hostel, we hit the pavements, both of us like to just stroll aimlessly and get a feel for the city that way. We passed through China town before arriving into the old port area. As we sat there a myriad of different people passed us - cyclists, punks, ultra-chic locals with more fashion sense than common sense (Id rather be comfortable and warm than fashionable), roller bladers, stacks of homeless, tourists, runners and people of many different nationalities.

When in a new place I always like to attempt the local cuisine so after a stroll down a restaurant lined street we found a petite (like my use of French?) authentic joint called Montreal Poutine. Incidentally the local cuisine is of the same name - Poutine. It is a plate of french fries covered in gravy and white cheddar cheese curds. It didn disappoint. I also went for the smoked beef sandwich; it too was a tasty treat. I should actually mention just how small the restaurant was, at one stage I yawned with outstretched arms and punched holes in both sides of the restaurant. Well not really, but if I was powerful enough I could have, it clearly used to be an alleyway and had just had a roof bunged on. Didn bother me though, I was too busy stuffing my face.

After a bit more exploring we called it a night. We were a bit out of practice on the walking everywhere front. I fell asleep wondering whether it was socially acceptable to have poutine for breakfast?

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