I live in the wrong city...

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Ok, so pretty much, I think myself and everyone I know should move to Montreal.... It's a REAL city...

So for anyone reading this who would like some information on how to get yourself to Montreal, I've devised a simple three step process that should work pretty darned well.

Step 1: Leave Edmonton

This is key. Leaving Edmonton is pretty straightforward. Get on the skyshuttle, take it to the airport, get on a plane.

Step 2: Land in Montreal

This is probably the most difficult step, since you will need to get on the correct plane at the airport. So it will require some thinking ahead.

Step 3: Enjoy!

Once you get off the plane, make your way to the city, and the rest should come naturally.

My experience was pretty much just that. The flight was uneventful. I slept some, watched some TV.... the norm. Then suddenly I was in Montreal. Magic.

I had planned to take a city buses from the airport the city, but was unable to find where the bus stopped at the airport... So I walked....

... no, not the whole way, just to Gare Dorval, which is right on the edge of the airport land, so not that bad. And that's another thing, the airport is "Pierre Elliot Trudeau International" according to everyone outside of Montreal, but not everyone inside Montreal. The actual ariport is labelled as "Pierre Elliot Trudeau International" but many other things around it, or related businesses still carry the Dorval name. Interesting.......?

So I walked to Gare Dorval. Bottom line, that's not normal. So there's no sidewalk... Apparently nobody else walks from an airport? So I cut across the park and rides, and spotted the station in the distance, walked across a couple of roads, and I was there. Grabbed a bus, grabbed a Metro, wandered around a bit until I could figure out which way to hold the map, then made it to Mitch's apartment.

Wandering around really gave me a taste of Montreal, specifically the French area (Mitch lives in Gilles Duceppe's riding... badass). It's all cool looking walk-up apartments. It reminds me of Paris in that way, if Paris were much newer, and sunk halfway into the earth..... so it's really very different... but I like it. When it comes to cities, I like density.... sweet, delicious density. Main streets all have shops in the main floor, and I didn't see a single stand-alone big box store. Right on.

So I was pretty much already sold on the coolness of Montreal, and then the first place Mitch took me was to a street festival, so that pretty much sealed the deal. Montreal has a summer of habit of closing down entire streets, letting businesses spread the patios into the street, and merchant tables, art, etc.... Then next week they do it all again on a different street... I like it. Montreal is a great city for walkers, and excellent for cyclists... not so good for drivers.

I picked up some food and beer at a grocery store (yes, they do the beer in the grocery store thing) and went back to Mitch's to hang out with him and his roommates, and watch game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. Pittsburgh won. I totally called it.

The next morning, I made my way to the bus station to meet up with Vanessa, who spent the last 5 weeks in Trois Riviers learning French. So now I have a French girlfriend. High five.

Mitch took us to a place that had really good poutine, and many different kinds of poutine...yes, there can be more than just fries, gravy, and cheese. I got mine with ground beef and onions as well. It was quite the meal!

Then the three of us went to a free music festival... yeah I know, Montreal is awesome... Jenn Grant was the headliner, and Vanessa really likes her music, Mitch is very much in love with her, and I had heard of her and some of her stuff. It was a really good show, and in a really small park with a small crowd of people at tables. It was very cool.

In the evening, we did some drinking at a bar, and I sampled a variety of Quebcois beers. Beer is something they do very well in Quebec, and it's a shame we can't get more of it out west.

Sunday we woke lazily, and went to Schwartz', which is a famous smoke meat sandwich shop in Montreal. And I can tell you from experience that it is famous for the right reasons. Great food with that diner/greasy spoon quality, and great atmosphere! Everybody pretty much sits together. You wait outside until they have space for you, then they lead you in and you go and sit at one of the tables together with complete strangers, packed together like sardines. It's awesome though, and definitely a place to go if you're in Montreal.

Then we went to the park where every Sunday, anybody who wants to brings their drums or other percussion instruments, and they play together. It's pretty awesome the way it just slowly evolves, but everyone stays together. It's the kind of thing you could hang around for hours and dance to, or just sit and enjoy. Many people do.

The also have what our friend JJ calls "Larpers", which is an acronym that he invented which stands for "Live Action Role Players"... Basically they have fake medieval battles with fake medieval weapons made out of foam, so no one gets hurt. They get pretty into it to, and the battles are quite intense, but everyone is there to have fun and no one seems to go to far with it. It's another good example of refusing to grow up, which is a philosophy I firmly agree with... even if I would NEVER express that in this particular way...

While we hung out by the Larpers, we were feeling a bit worn out, so we all laid down to have a quick nap. That's when we overheard an amusing conversation between a handful of friends. It was basically a monologue, so here's a transcript:

<< This is what I've been saying. We need to buy a van, for like $500, and drive it around for the summer, and just go wherever and do whatever. Then, at the end of the summer, we can sell it for $500, and we'll only have to pay for gas and food and whatever else and it'll be super cheap and totally awesome. We can't fuck up a van in one summer... well, I guess we could, but we wouldn't, so we'd totally be able to sell it, no problem. We could get like a Ford Aerostar or something, and call it the Ford super van. I'd love to just park downtown with the doors open and just be sitting inside at with a typewriter typing revelations, and listening to jazz. Just think about that concept! You know what I need to do? I decided this right now, I need to start some business that's just like, a money machine, right, and I was thinking of starting a record store, working hard at it for about three months, get it known, then hire some idiots who really want to work there to run the place and sit back and drink champagne with my friends. You know my friend Lauren, she loves me, and she has money, and she'd totally give me the money to start it with. And then we'd be set for life! Yeah, Lauren loves me, she'd totally give me the money. Then we could just sit back and do whatever we wanted!>>

Who are these people?

and ....um... I don't think it's that easy. Best of luck kid...

We all went away and had a good laugh about their conversation.

After that, we hiked up Mont Royal for a panoramic view of the city. Mitch was feeling pretty wiped out after a few late nights and a week of work, so he left us to go have an afternoon nap, which is traditional for him. So Vanessa and I walked out to Old Montreal, and popped in to Notre Dame.

We totally lucked out. Normally, you have to pay to walk around, but there was a service going on (on account of it being Sunday and all) and so we were able to walk in the door and have a quick look around. It was nothing like I expected. I thought it would be very European, and therefore no different from the other churches I explored last year, but I was wrong. It's very unique. Of course, we couldn't explore it, and basically walked in, looked, and walked out, but it would be something to do next time in Montreal.

After wandering old Montreal and the riverfront, we sought out dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant that Vanessa had eaten at the week before on a field trip with her "French camp". And since she had accidentally left her scarf there the week before, we were able to inquire about its whereabouts. They had it. Yay!

Except that Vanessa wasn't sure if that meant that her scarf wasn't fashionable enough for anyone else to take... It's a nice scarf.

On our final day in Montreal, we said goodbye to our hosts and rented the Bixi bikes, which are stationed all over the city. You pay once for 24 hour access, and then as long as you only use a bike for half an hour or less before returning it to any other station, it doesn't cost any extra. It's a neat system (with some kinks to work out) and we enjoyed it thoroughly. We dropped our bags in lockers at the bus station, and headed out to the Ile Notre Dame for a lap around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where they held (until this year) the Canadian Grand Prix. It was a very lovely ride, and as an F1 fan, an extremely fun way to experience the circuit. It takes about 1 minute and 15 seconds for an F1 car, but it took us rouhghly 10 minutes, including stops to take pictures and climb the flag stand... ok, it was just me that did that, but Vanessa still enjoyed the ride. So it's no Ferrari, but a bike is a nice way to experience Montreal.

We were running short on time, so we dropped off the bikes, grabbed our bags, and headed to the airport to catch our flight. We boarded our plane, and it was off to Frankfurt!

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