Montreal, Pt. 3 - Random Montreal Stuff

I suppose I should finish the story about my trip to Montreal. Days 3 and 4 were much more subdued than days 1 and 2. Largely due to how busy and how much walking we did on those first 2 days.

We started day 3 by heading to the Eaton Centre, near McGill University. After we got Michelle some new shoes, we headed over to the 2 story Addition Elle store. While we do have those stores here, we don't have them quite like this one. It had lines/clothing in it that aren't in our stores yet. I ended up with a new outfit (top/bottom) and a strapless tank top. We decided to go back to the hotel and drop our stuff off so we didn't have to lug it around town with us. We were meeting up with my co-worker for lunch since he was in town and had told us that he knew were to get the best poutine in Montreal. We were sold.

At this point, Michelle and I were very tired and our feet/legs hurt, a lot. It was also cold and had started to snain (kind of rain, kind of snow). So my poor co-worker had to listen to us bitch while he lead us through the plateau area of Montreal (which I'm sure it quite charming when you're not cold/hungry/in pain). We finally arrived at the restaurant only to discover that there was a line up...out the door. After assuring us about a dozen times that the poutine was indeed worth waiting in the snain, we relented and waited. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait outside long. Within 5 minutes we were inside and within 20, we were seated. I'm not going to lie. It was the best damn poutine I've ever had (well, ever had sober). I'm not sure if it was due to the fact that it was food after a long day or if the pogo cut up on top of mine added to it, but it was amazing. And very affordable too. Probably the best value we'd found thus far.

That evening, we venture out to an Irish pub that was within walking distance of the hotel. It was a cold and windy walk over. The pub was packed and was kind of cool. It was a typical Irish pub/sports bar, but the building was beautiful. The ceiling looked like it might have been copper and had neat designs in it. The Montreal game was on CBC so everyone in the bar was watching that. Unfortunately, Montreal started to lose very early and the bar got really quiet. I'd had 3 porn stars to drink so I was feeling pretty good and couldn't care less about the game. We headed back to the hotel after the first period. It was a sobering walk thanks to the crazy wind and low temps. The hotel was only 4 blocks away, yet Montreal was losing 4-0 by the time we got into our room. We stayed in and watched hockey for most of the evening.

On our final morning, we scored a free breakfast at the hotel thanks to a special connection I had. LOL. It was quite nice. We just rested and watched tv and then ventured out to pick up some food and snacks for the train. The train ride back was un-eventful and went by rather quickly. We played a game of "look, there's another church" to keep ourselves entertained.

All in all, it was a great weekend away and I think we both had a lot of fun. I can't wait to do it again next year but maybe this time we can find someplace warmer to go :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Ducks in the courtyard of our hotel

Zoom, Zoom, FOG!

Please excuse me right now if there are a lot of typos in this blog. I'm A: Very tired and B. Have been drinking :)

So there was a bunch of work peeps going out for dinner and drinks after work at one of our favourite bars. I said I'd go. That was before I had an insane week. So by 4pm, I didn't want to go anywhere other than home to bed. Didn't happen. I ended up working late to help get some stuff done for Monday morning. While meeting with one of my managers, a couple co-workers kept texting me "Where are you?" "Are you still coming?" "Why are you still at work" and so forth. I ended up missing Mr. Robertson, who I used to work with (really swell guy) so that sucked. But in the end, co-worker Mandy's text messages wore me down and I decided to head to the bar. That was at 6:30. Thankfully some peeps were still there. I got to have a couple of drinks and a nice dinner and some fun conversations. 

I got to the bus stop and just missed my bus. No big deal. It wasn't raining anymore. I got to stand around and look at my favourite fountain (which I did not jump in despite being unchaperoned at the time) and I waited for the next bus. In hind site, I should have run to catch the first one. The driver was insane. He had 3 speeds: Fast, Faster and FULL STOP! Jesus Christ. I can't recall the last time that I made it home that quickly from down town. Or the last time that the bus was going so fast that I nearly flew off the seat every time we hit a bump. I also think I had whip lash from the sudden stops he made. I swear we were doing over 100km/h down the straight stretches on the transit way. Until we hit the Parkway. Suddenly, we were going at an almost normal speed....which is when I looked up from my phone and realized that I couldn't see anything. Yes, it was dark out but you can still see the street lights and lights on in house windows. I could barely make out the tail lights of the bus in front of me. We were in one hell of a fog bank. Downtown had been crystal clear but as soon as we got near the river: BOOM! Fog. I now became rather concerned that we were going crazy fast in such limited visibility conditions. Maybe my driver figured that the bus in front of us would hit anything that popped up and we'd be fine. I dunno. I made it safely to my stop and then got to wander about in the fog for half a block. Watching the fog move past the street lights is very cool.

Upon my safe arrival home, I sat down at my computer for a bit but soon found myself rather chilly (as I am again now). So I made a very lovely hot chocolate with my Kurig...and then amped it up a notch by adding some Caramel Bailey's to it. That shit rocks. And it worked to warm me up. But alas, it is long gone and after playing 12 games of "Song Pop" my eyes appear to be closing on their own. We're in for some pretty shitty weather this weekend so I'm thinking hibernation is a good idea. Sadly, I don't think that will work out. A trip to the market for some supplies might. Or Ikea....a dangerous idea indeed. Guess I'll just have to wait and see :)

Good Night!

Sarah

This is actually a photo I took of fog moving in over Calgary