Bonjour, Montreal!

Seemingly, and luckily, as Toronto's weather had taken a turn for the worse, I was on my way to Montreal. A mediocre on and off bus sleep later and I arrived in the equally as grey, yet slightly cooler, Montreal. For the first time this trip, my lack of lingual skills came to the fore in the predominately French speaking city. In reality, with a largely bilingual speaking population, there were no real issues...yet.

After traipsing through some irritating stop-start rain, I checked in to my hostel, and in a moment of pure luck, managed to walk past the TV area about 20 minutes before the 100m final, and as a result, catch the first decent, live, glimpse of the Olympics all trip. Bravo, Mr Bolt, bravo.

With Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal), full cobblestone pathed roads, wide riverside pathways lined with trees and european styled architecture, I felt as if I were in a completely different continent, let alone country to one I had been in earlier that morning.  I made my way down to Vieux  Port, and noticed large groups of people heading towards some sort of music festival in the distance called 'Divers Cite'. I spotted a couple of promotional posters around, but couldn't pick out what it said, other than that admission was free.

As I entered the festival, I noticed a lot of shirtless men, but as that's a given at any music festival, I didn't think a lot of it. Upon entering the main stage area, I noticed that it was almost ALL men without shirts on. And they were dancing. And holding hands. I know what you're thinking, and yes, as it turns out, I had unknowingly gone to one of Canada's most popular LBGT dance festivals.  After leaving the festivities down by the waterfront, I continued to make my way through more sporadic rain, and more of the old town, soaking in views of the tremendous architecture and rain simultaneously.

Vieux Montreal

Vieux Port

As far as sporting stadiums go, the Montreal Olympic Stadium and its surroundings were almost depressingly drab and underutilised. 36 years may have passed since the Stadium's prime, but it seems as if the stadium is heavily underutilised and very dated. It was hard to imagine that it, and the nearby Centre for Sport (aquatics) were major stadiums in an Olympics given their current state. The nearby Velodrome was the most revitalised of the venues in the area, however, only because it had been converted into a Biodome. The four miniature climate controlled zones mimicked their specific climates perfectly, and it was a good opportunity to catch glimpses of some animals I hadn't spotted before, such as a Beaver. There was no Pauly Shore, however.

Olympic Stadium

Biodome

After heading up to Mont Royal (the mountain the city is named after) and having a panaromic view over the city, I headed on my way to meet Marco, whom I would be staying with for a couple of days. Upon arriving at Marco's and being welcomed inside, I was greeted by a plethora of other travellers from France, Colombia, Brazil and the US, in addition to Marco's grown up Canadian children. For the evening we dined on a selection of salmon (it's growing on me), Quebecois cheese, beer and wine... and that was just the appetisers. It completely confirmed my belief that couchsurfing is one of the best experiences when travelling, as half a dozen or so of us sat around drinking and talking about different cultures and languages until the late hours of the night.

View from Mont Royal

Mont Royal

The next morning I made my way back down to the Old Port to visit Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History,  which was hosting a very cool special Samurai exhibit. After exploring the old town and old port in weather that was much more pleasant than that of of a couple of days prior, I caught the metro to Mont Royal Station again to Parc Avenue, where I had previously heard that there was a place called Tourtière Australienne, which is essentially an Australian bakery. I picked up the first meat pie I had eaten in months, which resulted in nostalgic ecstacy like nothing I've never experienced before.

Pointe-à-Callière

After stumbling across a college and Canadian Football League Stadium set back against Mont Royal, I managed to get inside and have a bit of a walk around. Venturing further into the city, I came across a group of young Indian men playing cricket. After spending the entirety of the trip so far not being able to explain cricket to anyone, let alone play it, I took a chance and asked them if I could join in. Luckily for me, they happily obliged, and I spent the next hour talking and playing cricket with a complete group of strangers, the only connection between us being our love for cricket.

Molson Stadium

Street cricket

The next morning was slightly more chaotic than planned. In my desire to sleep a bit longer, I decided that instead of locating an internet cafe, I would ignore the 'YOU MUST PRINT YOUR ELECTRONIC TICKET BEFORE ARRIVAL' notice on my e-ticket delivery email, and just try and get it printed at the station for a nominal fee as I'd done in the past. After arriving at the station with a calm  30 minutes to departure, I comfortably and calmly strode to the ticket counter, feeling a bit cool that I had rebelled against the ticket purchasing system.

Alas, when I got to the counter, at this stage about 20 miutes prior to my bus departing, I was told that there was not the slightest chance of being able to print my ticket at the station, and I would need to track down somewhere to print it. It was at this stage I was pretty much resigned to missing my train, but upon exiting the bus station (bags and all), I managed to spot a public library just down the road. After a short jog (again, bags and all), I entered the public library with a stress inducing 15 minutes until bus departure. With my bus departing at 3:00pm, the break down over the next few minutes went as follows.

2:45 - Arrive at library

2:46 - Try and figure out where in the library to go

2:47 - Find entrance to computers

2:47 - Told I need to put my bags in a locker

2:49 - Arrive back at entrnace to Library, speak to library assistant about printing out ticket

2:50 - Sign up for a vistitors library pass in Montreal

2:51 - Wait for the attendant to type in every single detail on my drivers licence. Wonder if he will make a comment on the photo on my licence. He doesn't.

2:52 - Get access to a computer

2:53 - Check email, get distracted by football email newsletter.

2:53 - Find email with ticket

2:54 - Try to print ticket with French computer options. Go off memory of computer button locations.

2:54 - Print ticket

2:55 - Exit computer, pick up ticket

2:56 - Exit library, run back to bus station

2:58 - Arrive back at bus station, get in line at last.

Once I arrived, I bought and enjoyed the most enjoyable Coke of my life, loaded my bags on the bus, and enjoyed the ride to Quebec.