SO… 3 nights in to Montreal and it’s been a whirlwind, but great fun. I have decided so far that I like Hostels. I’ve met quite a few people already, and every one is really friendly. The first night I got here, I went into the common room and instantly got invited to play some pool… met an Irishman and two Canadians from Nova Scotia, and ended up getting invited out to a bar later on… so about 5 of us went to this place that had been recommended – keeping in mind it was recommended by a Frenchman – the place was only playing French pop/dance music. My first impression was that of a normal sort of nightclub but where everything is French and the music, while sounding like it came from the early 90’s, was also French, and also really bad. I later think I remember thinking that it’s good that they make music for white people to dance badly to, and I also remember being glad that the French, after all their reputation, still can’t dance… So, anyway, I ended up loosing most of the people that I went out with in the first place, and left the place at close which was about 3am… and went around the corner with my new French friends and got pizza… over all a really really good time…
The next day, I thought was the day that I was meant to be going snow shoeing… but it turned out to be the day of the big hockey game Montreal vs. Ottawa. I got a cheap ticket thru the hostel and when I got there I realized why – it was up in the “nose bleeds”. But I enjoyed myself thoroughly, for my first experience of ice hockey I was very impressed, and I’m even more excited about going to the NY Rangers Vs the Detroit Redwings… should be fantastic… someone told me its an inter-conference game too so it only happens between these two teams once every few years… Interesting thing about ice hockey – its played in 3 17minute periods… each of which lasted at least 35 minutes… with penalties, stoppages, and advertising… Crazy… *shrugs* I guess that’s the way the world is now…
Yesterday was the snow shoeing and the pub crawl… but it turned out that there weren’t enough people for the guided tour, and only one other person who wanted to go snow shoeing… the guy at the counter suggested that we go anyway, so we did. Cynthia was over in Montreal from Victoria BC for an interview with an airline, and had always wanted to snow shoe. So Snow shoe we did go, very tiring, but a lot of fun, got some great photos, and snow in my shoe… and very cold, we rode the bus/metro/underground there and back… was a good day…
The pub crawl for me started at about 6 when I was sitting in the computer room of the hostel surprising myself by fixing the problem I’ve been having with the wireless connection on my laptop… now, excuse me while I introduce the cast – because it sounds like the start of one of those jokes where an Irishman, and Englishman, and an Australian walk into a bar… but it was very much like that… there was an Irishman (who came out with everyone the first night) an Englishman (newly arrived from Vancouver) A Frenchman (literally just off the plane from Paris) two other Australians (from Sydney on holidays for a few weeks) and myself… We spent most of the first half hour trying to decipher what the French guy was saying (lots of hand signals… like the most painful charades experience of my life) in the end it turned out that he works for Luis Viton, has a girlfriend back in Paris… (you don’t want to know about the hand signals he used to tell us that…) and he was hungry… anyway, we went out into the cold (0 F) and found a decent little pub with reasonably cheap meals, and happy hour prices of $10 jugs… of which we got 4. The Englishman and myself polished off one each and the other 4 shared the other 2, the French guy was the biggest lightweight I’ve ever seen… so funny… the Irish guy had been drinking all day, so we forgave him, and the other guy and girl from Australia did okay… but we can take into account that they’re from Sydney… so its okay, it was good to have other Aussies there after hearing nothing but French accents for a few days I was starting to go a little bit nuts – I think the first night I actually dreamt in French.. Nothing I understood, but scary nonetheless…
Anyway, we got back to the hostel in time for the tour guide to show up late, which was good, and headed to the first of maybe 4 or 5 bars… drinking was done, numbers dwindled from about 12 (we were joined by a couple of Belgian girls, a German lad, another Australian, and a French Canadian girl who also worked for the Hostel and helped our guide with stuff)… to by the time we got to the last place (which also happened to be the nightclub we went to on the first night) there were maybe 7 or so of us… it was going off… songs that I knew this time (still from at least 10 years ago… but in English this time!!!) and once again the French people that I met the first night were there and I got in at 4.30 this morning… great great night… so funny… *coughs*
ANYWAY…. And now I’m on a bus, slightly hung-over and ready for a nap, having had only about 4 hours sleep…
Oh, this is another reason I love hostels – this morning when I got breakfast (another reason I like hostels) I saw a girl there I hadn’t seen the previous nights, and thought nothing more of it… until I saw her again at the bus stop, and we chatted for about an hour while waiting for the bus… Caroline, about the same age as me… got 18 months thru a 2 year shiatsu massage course, and developed carpel tunnel syndrome… then some other stuff happened, and now she’s decided to quit everything for a while, get away and go to Burlington in Vermont to meet some friends… *shrugs* was nice to have someone to chat to… the randomness of hostels, while I can see it would be tiring doing it for too long, is fantastic…
I slept for a bit… and we just stopped at a little place called White River, transferred busses cause the other ones heater was broken… so I went over and got McDonalds… over salty very average fries, and a burger that I’d never seen before – always one to go for the thing that’s most advertised – I tried the “Big and Tasty” burger… definitely wasn’t big, and certainly wasn’t any more tasty than any other McBurger that I’ve tried… disappointed but not surprised unfortunately. I thin to surprise me they would have to have lived up to the name of the burger.
And now – To Boston – and back to the English language…
The great thing about television is that if something important happens anywhere in the world, day or night, you can always change the channel. - From "Taxi"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment