Parlez vous Anglais?
Trip Start
May 08, 2009
1
8
27
Trip End
Jul 06, 2009
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Friday, May 15, 2009
I'm hungry and poor. When I got to Montreal, my hostel, and finally my bed, I ran to the grocery store 3 blocks away. I know it is rush hour but Montreal was sooo lively with pedestrians I am jealous. And they speak French and English. I got some fruit and tortilonnis($1.99) and headed to check out. The tortalonis had been mislabeled (I couldn't read French properly) and they were actually $4.99. So I went back and grabbed the $.99 penne. At checkout again, she informs me there is a $15 minmum with cards except debit. I pull out my debit and she said no because it has visa. I offered to pay in us cash which I saw I had and she said "yes but no exchange rate". After fumbling as this one lane checkout line builds, I remembered the heavy load in my left pocket was Canadian money actually worth a lot (they have $1 and $2 coins) and said upon realization, "oh shit!". Looking to my left, a little 4 year old girl is staring up at me and the dad is next to her starring down on me, waiting impatiently and now listening to me cussing over change. I quickly apologize, grab my pasta and leave as the American tourist I am.
Bus it, train it, walk it, pub it
When April, my friend from high school, came into Montreal we hit the public transit hardcore and saw the city. Or so we thought. We saw "le village" or montreal's gay district and found the club that we wanted to go to to see if it was nice; it was. Le villag more hype than reality but is still very nice to have everything on one street. April and I then subwayed it to Old Montreal where wet rat syndrome took full effect. It would have been so nice to walk down the street and see all the old buildings but we actually just got soaked and was supposed to meet someone in an hour. Arg
So we went all the way out to Concordia university loyola campus on the west side and met with a jounalism professor. My leadership instructor had heard I was dong this trip and new I enjoyed discussing city dynamics so he recommend his old friend, Brian, and I get in touch. April and I threw ourselves under the college bathroom hand-dryers, met up with Brian, and took a long bus ride over to the east side. We met Brian's friends, Dave and Michelle, to have a beer. April, Michelle and I shared one of their locally created bottles of wine(it had sediments in the bottom that we had to try not to pour out) while the two gentlemen ordered two home-made beers. We arrived at 4:40pm and did not leave until 8:20pm (dave lost his voice andy throat was sore from talking). We talked about: why Montreal is such a great place to live, contrasts and similarities between Quebec and the rest of Canada/USA, why public transit is so important, why we as humans are storytellers and why it holds us back from self-progress, why I don't feel comfortable in gay bars and why I feel like I'm too picky when it comes to dating, and just learning a lot from people we just met. I didn't necessarily get along with brian but April did and brian invited her to stay with him when she comes up again; Michelle seemed to be a gift from God and helped me more than many of my friends ever could. While I love my friends, ultimately their capacity to sympathize with the stories of my life only enabled me to be a victim. Michelle cut rght to the chase, told me when I was full of shit, helped me realize when I was jus telling a story and how that story is a past perspective that doesn't decide our future choices and perspectives. Thank you Michelle.
Pub crawl
April and I got on the train, yet again (thank god we got unlimited day passes) and booked it back to the hostel when we crossed past our hostel pub crawl group. When we got directions to where they were going, we got changed and took the train to Laurant la Rue. After getting warmed up at two dive bars, Miami and biftec, we went to a club with house music. Our hostel guide yells to us: "ok male cover is $2 and girls are free" and I quickly yelled back, "so then $1 for gay men?!". After everyone laughed and the guys tried acting gay to save a buck, The tour told me not to worry and paid my cover for me! Yay!
After dancing for a while, we went to their deck to smoke. April and I were talking to the tour guide again he offered to buy us shots as long as we tipped. We went up to the bar and he ordered 3 shots of jagermister, lord knows why. If he hadn't both paid my cover and bought me the shot, I would not have taken it. After taking the shot, the tour guide proceeds to look like he is going to vomit...which he then does right at the bar. We helped him to the bathroom and promised to keep it between us.
A group of us decided to move on to a top 40 music club and ditched the rest. Isabella from Switzerland, melissa from canada, Ellen from France, Sylvan from France, Steve from the uk, Liam from Aussie, Dave from Aussie, Griselda from Spain, April and myself became a very unforgettable group. The cover charge was too much for us to dance for another hour so we kept walking the 3 miles along main streets towords our hostel hoping to find another bar with cheaper cover and better music. We got lost and April and I had a huge map so we threw it on the ground, gathered around on the sidewalk on our knees and figured things out. We also signed someones petition for no more uranium. After almost an hour of walking, we decided to try the only thing we could find: a strip club! We watched the surprisingly pretty and talented women sang on their poles in ways no one knew a human could swing and each ordered a drink so they wouldn't hate us for not tipping ( the bachelor party in front of us was taking plenty of care of them). At 3am we started on our journey once again and stopped for pizza by the slice; we bought every slice they had. After finally arriving at the hostel we sat down and started chatting more intimately. By surprise, the English chap Steve offered to make us all real English tea! When I first met him, I thought he was gong to be very arrogant since he was so good looking; goes to show not to always judge a book by it's cover. WHAT A NIGHT!
The morning after
Isabella, Griselda, April and myself had agreed to meet for crepes and use aprils car to get there. April had ended up sleeping in her car because one of her roommates had puked all over the place. We had coffee and crepes for $3.50 each plus montreal's 15% tax plus tip. As we were leaving we saw a "parade" up ahead. It ended up being some kind of protest with a ton of school children covering a lot of issues...which were in French so I cannot tell you. We danced in the street for the entire protest with thousands.
After this we went to Mont Royal park where there is a mountain in the middle of the city with great views; the park was designed by the same man who created central park. I then spent the afternoon sleeping to get ready for tonight
Sky pub
We went to the gay district again to a bar that was recommended. We started off on their third floor terrace and ordered Canada infamously weak and expensive drinks. April and I ordered cosmos and got vodka crans in a plastic cup with one once of vodka for $7 each. After an hour we went to the first floor where a drag-show was happening. The performances were excellent with impersenations of the slum dog dance, Tina turner, and Madonna. I was surprised there was no way to tip them! Lastly, we went to the second floor to dance. Griselda and Isabella left earlier than April and myself. I tried getting over the whole "I don't belong in gay bars" and just started dancng by myself to see what happens. I ended up dancing with some guy who had had way too much with different intentions of my own but at least he was cute. I went home to a noisy hostel room, one more time.
