J'Aime Montreal! <3

Ok. Remember when I was in Chicago and said I doubt anything would top it? Well Montreal is pretty freakin' incredible too! I'm so glad I paid the extra cash for my hotel, it's within walking distance of everything! This morning after writing my entry I packed the laptop into the backpack, put my camera around my neck and headed out to see Montreal. Centre-Ville (downtown) and Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal) are side by side, so first I walked through Centre-Ville and then spent most of the afternoon in Vieux Montreal.

Montreal is a unique city. Downtown is very modern, though in a distinctly Canadian way. Then you walk one more block and suddenly it's like you're in Europe on the waterfront. Vieux Montreal is exactly like Europe (I assume). Old buildings with great architecture, cobblestone roads, nice live music playing everywhere, rooftop diners etc.



After walking around and enjoying the atmosphere I stopped at one of said roof-top resaurants and had some food and wine while I overlooked the docks. Nice blue skies with big puffy white clouds over pristine blue water and boats, seagulls in the air. Amazing.

Whenever I talk to someone I get to put my french to use. It's really surreal being in a city that speaks a different language. It's also really weird being somewhere where your language is the foreign one. I met a few people who didn't know english at all!

And it's actually not just french. There seems to be so many cultures mixed up. I took a walk through China Town and was blown away.

This trip is already a huge success. When I remember the doubt I had before I came I'm filled with pride that I came. This is going to be a story I tell for the rest of my life. And I've been doing a lot of soul searching while on the road and come to a few surprising conclusions.

I've been really lucky with weather too! I've been watching the forecasts, and every place I've visited they've predicted thunder-showers all week, and every place I've been was oddly sunny and warm just on those days. It's like there's a ray of light from the sky following me around. It's quite nice.



Distance wise this is about as far from Winnipeg as I'm going to get since I've decided not to go to PEI. But my trip is only really half over. I've done Minneapolis, Chicago, and my visit to Montreal is half over. It's been one week. I still have Ottawa, Toronto and the long drive back home, another week.

Thanks to everyone leaving comments and writing on my facebook, text messaging me, etc... It's been great having something to come to when I get somewhere that has internet, and connects me to home.

When I get back I'm going to try to have a night out at a bar or restaurant, cause I miss everyone and will have many stories to tell. If you're reading this, you have an open invitation to come!

So I'm in a cafe in downtown Montreal on my laptop uploading pix to flickr on the free internet. It's going to start getting dark out (hence cooling off) and I'll start walking to my hotel.


Crap. It just started pouring out. I had to open my big mouth about the weather, lol. I got a long walk in the rain ahead of me :-P