The Streets of Montreal

Today was the beginning of my house hunt. I surveyed the land first, by walking up and down the streets for hours. Then mum and I sent out some hopeful emails containing the joy I have for quite, clean, happy and affordable housing.

We found an amazing little street (Rue Prince Arthur) which seemed fresh with people from Montreal, and cute Montreal housing and foliage.

Heres me next to one of the many fountains. This street was full of ice creamery's and outdoor restaurants. We had tea at one of those places. It was really nice, but we were such suckers. The man came up to us as we wandered the streets, and said we could dine here, and buy some wine from across the street and drink it there at no charge, and that there was an array of vegetarian foods. How could we resist!

On the other parts of the streets there are two ferals, the rats and their overlords the pidgeons. Here is a photo that I feel sums up their relationship...

There are so many beggars on the streets as well. Strangely enough a good proportion of them hold up signs requesting 13 cents? I don't think I understand. 13 cents must buy you something pretty good over here. They are really aggressive and honest too. One asked for cash for booze so he could drink, throw up and then pass out in his vomit. Being a kind citizen, I did not allow him to indulge in this pleasure!! And one poor man today was fishing for coins and having a shower in the fountain in Rue Prince Arthur. Poor thing, but this did not stop me and MANY others from photographing this viewing pleasure.

After all this excitement, I received some replies from my housing requests. Already I have failed to show up to one housing interview, and I went to another, but with a 30 something year old man, who programs his computer from home so would always be at home. Hopefully better luck tomorrow!

Amusement at Tim's

Tim Hortons glory...

Thanks!

August 9th

I was rudely awakened by my next-door neighbors today! Oh the horror unto my poor sensitive ears. So the Australian mum and I met last night, as we entered out room, had taken a few too many bad pills last night, he was dizzy and confused and angry. So angry in fact many arguments were started about the need for weed and then how to roll a joint. Thanks Aussie.

The second time I woke up was much more pleasant. Mum and I went up to the much raved about breakfast at our hostel. This was toast, but cooked on le hotplate. Very bizarre (or bizaan if your reading). And it did have all the peanut butter and jelly that I could manage. But some bastard ate all the bagels. But when a second round came out and I was kind of full, I could not resist and so grabbed a bagel for myself. After this un-nourishing breakfast mum and I left out Gite. We walked to McGill. The campus was stunning. I think I was most overwhelmed by the fact that everything was so green and lush. I can’t really do it justice but here is a pic of me and James McGill;

founder of this fine institution.

So the first squirrel I saw was actually quite exciting, but I’m sure as time wears on they will become like rats of the streets.

Any way we wandered the campus and I frolicked in the Geology Garden. At the back of the university is the Parc du Mont-Royal. This was packed full of wholesome Montreal-eans running, cycling, dog walking and pushing prams up to the peak of the park. It is no easy task for some of these categories as there are lots and lots of stairs.

The summit was lovely, and the view was amazing

apart from the view of all the shirtless men. I think every man in that park felt the need to take off his shirt in a fit of masculinity. What a terrible idea for poor onlookers.

There was a lap to do of the top of the park, and there was a huge cross that lights up at night. Now, crosses are usually tasteful things, and light up at night, well this just meant there are some spotlights that shine on it during the night time. NO, this was so much more.

At night the cross undergoes this transformation

…..

After wandering around the park and down through the streets of down town, we settled on some lunch, which was wholly vegetables. It had been so long since my system had vegetables, it was glorious. We ate by a fountain, of which there are millions here. Well enough for practically every second street. The rest of the day was pretty much just walking round the suburbs of Montréal. We made it all the way down to Vieux Montreal (the old port) a tourist haven, and saw this neon sign, which apparently is beloved by all, and worth a visit as it may be torn down due to its controversial nature.

I think I know what your thinking. Oh sign, so beloved by many – why did I bother. The other landmark, which was actually pretty cool was this church with a funny Jesus on the roof, and with ships (not to life size as I imagined) hanging from the roof.

This was the Chapelle Notre-Dame de Bon Secours (the Sailors Church). The long walk, ended with an even longer walk home. But we stopped at a hip bar, and had some real French wine to revive ourselves. Not much action in the hostel tonight thank goodness, I think those pills the guys took have wrecked their bodies for at least a couple of days (please) Goodnight!

August 8th : OHHH Canada

I am sitting on Canadian soil as I write this. But my trip was quite tiring. It started with 14 hours worth of flight to San Francisco. I sat next to a lady who indulged in half of my seat as well has hers. She was so large the fold down tray would not fold down on her belly! So come mealtime she would freakily stare at me while I ate my meal and then pretend to be asleep when airhostess tried to serve her a meal. I think she was on a fast; a habit I’ve heard sumo wrestlers take up when on planes too, as they are too fat to fit in toilet! Any way I should of received a discount or something, as I did not use my entire seat to its full potential. The lack of gin and tonics and good movies disappointed. There were few TVs to share and the ‘sharing’ rated movies included a live action dragonball z movie and prime time tv show two and a half men. The flight onto Montreal was also a gip, as we had to pay for our own food, like stingy virgin airlines! Nobody warned us about this, otherwise we would have scoffed ourselves before getting on board. But the good thing about the Montreal flight was the lack of clouds, or our low altitude, or both, which allowed the landscape to be admired. There was a fine meandering river and which had an oxbow lake in the making! When we were landing, the Vieux Port was letting off fireworks, and the side mum and I were sitting on had a great view! It was amazing! Customs was a surprising breeze and I was in the country in no time and wrongly wishing people the wrong time of day. So that’s how people knew I was a tourist I suppose, that and my accent (which apparently is hard to understand, all my flight attendants found me hard to comprehend!)

So a taxi ride through the warm, crowded streets of Montréal lead us to our hostel. We have a nice little room, without fabled sink. But that should be ok. We had a quick snack at legendary Tim Horton’s, which did not exceed expectations.

Any way I go to sleep now in the hope that the people in the room next to us will party elsewhere and the poor breakfast advertised by the hostel lives up to my expectations, of weak coffee but plentiful ‘peanut butter and jelly’ glory.