Montreal Part 1

So Montreal...here goes

The day before we left...
1) I bought my Allo Stop membership from Aurelie, who after selling the card to me, found out that the best option from Allo Stop is me going to Chicoutimi (1 hour away from Alma) and taking a car ride from there to Montreal...which meant I would arrive around 9-10 pm. Because that is way too late, I chose to wait for a better option from Allo Stop and if not, I would buy a bus ticket. Which kind of meant I wasted $6 (non-refundable). Oh well...
2) Last day of billeting - Went back to the billeting house, had spaghetti for dinner (a big plateful for me, and my appetite astonishes Billy each time..."Angel you eat like...fuck..."), and after a bit of last minute packing, I returned to Katima-house at 7:30. So I gave Billy/Sabrina/Noah-Kim a tour of the house, and bidded goodbyes. By then pretty much everyone was home except for Rebecca (Stephanie already left for her 72 hours with special permission). The rest of the night, most of the people went to Cafe Sofa to chill, while Cynthia/Mike/I went to the bus terminal to buy bus tickets (Cynthia`s credit card, which is an American Express, unfortunately was not accepted in the bus terminal so I lent her my card), and Cynthia joined them in Cafe Sofa later on...I had things to do.
3) Later in the night I realized I left my whole CD collection at Billy/Sabrina`s place...yikes! Next Day...at 8 am Maxime`s dad came and picked up Maxime. Rebecca/Charles/Cheryl/Stephen went along...at 9:20 am
Cynthia/Mike/me went to the bus terminal to catch the 9:40 am bus to Montreal. Here`s what everyone is doing for 72 hours

Mike - Woodstock (bus to Quebec, train)
Cynthia - Montreal (bus to Quebec, train)
Angel - Montreal (bus)
Cheryl - Montreal (Maxime, bus)
Stephen - Montreal (Maxime, bus)
Rebecca - Toronto (Maxime, train)
Charles - St. Celestin (Maxime, rent a car/bus?)
Stephanie - Malartic (bus, family pick-up)
Zach - family coming over, stay in Alma

So the bus ride was ok...at the beginning the bus was extremely crowded and Cynthia/Mike/me sat in different seats, but once a good number of people got off at Hebertville-Station, we all took our window seats, and then Cynthia decided to join me. We ended up talking for the whole trip to Quebec City, as the bus rolls through the Laurentian mountain range (both of our ears popped, fun)...it was nice talking to Cynthia about our jobs, the group, what she is going to do after Katimavik (she is not going to school and she is thinking of doing something like of like Katimavik but she isn`t sure yet). And before you know it we arrived at Quebec around 12:30 something. Cynthia and Mike and I parted ways, and I boarded on another bus to Montreal...slept quite a bit and at almost 4, I was in Montreal. By the way, as I was on the bus from Longueil (a part of Montreal), I saw the famous La Ronde and the roller coasters and rides they have...it`s really quite something, and I absolutely cannot imagine people riding on them, because they were so big and high up. La Ronde is really quite impressive from the bridge I was on.

So once I got off the bus, I walked to the hostel, which was around a 10-15 minute walk. My hostel is called Le Sous-Bois, and it`s a really good hostel...in fact named one of the top ten hostels by hostels.com. It`s right in Old Montreal, and the decorations and set-up gives it a lot of personality. Not to mention that they offer free wireless, computers (2), free breakfast, and free laundry...all for less than $20 bucks. However the place isn`t perfect...they have 1) slooooooow computers (windows 98, come on), 2) free breakfast pretty much consists of bagels and jam, 3) the laundry soap is nowhere to be found...even though maybe i am supposed to ask the people to work there for some but if the laundry is free, I don`t see why it isn`t by the machine 4) the showers took a while to heat up...imagine my surprise when cold water hit my body at 12:30 am when I wanted a hot shower...as well some stalls didn`t seem to work. 5) The location was a bit confusing...the hostel is right inside the Le Guillert (or something to that spelling) Hotel, but when I tried entering the hostel/hotel I couldn`t open the door because it was locked (perhaps upon security reasons, but that`s not very welcoming eh?)...after 5 minutes of wondering around I rang the buzzer, then a bit of waiting...a girl opened the door and checked me in, and gave me instructions in French on where my bed is, how I go to the actual hostel, etc. It`s pretty cool, actually....I had to enter a little alleyway at the side of the building, where there is a wooden door with one of those press number locks...314. But once you enter it`s like another world. Look at the pictures, they are worth a thousand words (and I already used hundreds, haha). 6) Oh yes, I had to make my own bed...first time ever to do that in a hostel, but this I don`t mind...7) Not the hostel, more like me...I lost my debit card.

On the first day. In the hostel. My stupidity, and it was never found...oh well
So anyways as soon as I got settled in the hostel, I decided to go venture out a little bit before I head to my friend`s house. Since I haven`t eaten ever since 9 in the morning, I was famished and thirsty for some famous Montreal smoked meat that people were talking about, plus a nice fruit smoothie. Plus I wanted to walk around the area I was in (Old Montreal) to get a feel of it. After a slight confusion (I got a bit lost trying to find the big underground mall, which I never found on my own) and 40 minutes later, I got the fruit smoothie and Montreal smoked meat that I wanted. The smoked meat (thin shaven beef in a sandwich with mustard) was all right...something tells me I didn`t get the best version of the smoked meat, so I will not judge whether I really like smoked meat or not. After I downed my food, I decided that it was high time to take the metro to find my friend...I was going to call my friend, but because the phone was free for US/Canada calls, naturally people would be hogging the phone. So I sent a quick message to my friend through msn, and left...and that`s when I realized I couldn`t take the metro because I didn`t have enough money (less than $1 in coins) to take the subway, and I lost my debit card. So I had to go back to the hostel and tell my friend to come find me instead...and we decided to meet at the Champs de Mars (the metro station closest to me) ticketing place instead.

After 30 minutes of waiting (yes I was actually not late this time, haha), Kyle and I finally met for the first time.It`s kind of something for me to meet my internet buddy for the first time, especially when Kyle and I knew each other for at least 6-7 years (I met him on ICQ when I was grade 9). The expectation was there but at the same time I wasn`t really expecting anything special, because I knew him for so long. It`s hard to describe...but overall our first meeting with each other was not at all awkward and if anything it was as if we were just old friends that haven`t seen each other in a long, long time. By then it was 8 pm, and we decided to go for dinner and I requested Vietnamese food, which Kyle never really had. So we went to Chinatown and just picked out a random vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown...on the way we chatted a whole bunch, but it was more with me complaining about my lost debit card and discovering that he was actually deaf on one ear (right if I am correct). Oh Vietnamese food, how I miss thee...we had a giant beef noodle soup with every beef something, plus salad rolls and vermecelli salad. Man I am already salivating as I write.So afterwards we wanted to catch an IMAX film (I forgot the name of the movie, but I will find out for Montreal Part 2), but since it was getting late (film starts at 10 pm, and we didn`t leave the restaurant until 9:40 pm...and the last metro runs at 12:30 pm), we decided to go back to the hostel for a little bit and then perhaps find a cafe to hang out for a little bit. So we went back to the hostel and I showed him around, and hung out a little bit there...Kyle found the place to be very cool, and then we left and began looking for a cafe in Old Montreal to chill. However it seems that only bars are open and nothing else on a Friday night (what a surprise, especially in Quebec), so after 40 minutes of searching around, we decided to go to a bar instead. The bar we went to was called 3 Brassauds (I will check if it`s correct), and it is this chain of bars that is famous for their choices of different house-brewed beers. We hung out there for around 1 hour or so, before Kyle has to catch the last metro. And yes, of course we drank...things ordered:

1) Peach Snapps (me, and let`s just say it tastes like gasoline laced with peach essence, to put it kindly...the name was totally misleading because I thought it would ressemble something like a Peach Snapple, haha), 2) Orgasm (Kyle, a mix of Baileys/vodka/something else that I can`t remember...not horrible but meh), 3) Bay Breeze (me, very nice, pineapple and cranberry juice with a bit of vodka), 4) B7 (Kyle, something that liked just like the Orgasm one...we both were like "what the heck did you do an re-order" when we saw it), 4) Apple Dessert with Rum Flambe...pretty yummy too. Overall, we had a good time, I tried speaking French (even though everyone spoke to me in English because I was an obvious anglophone), and there was lots of good luck French guys in the bar, hahaha...and no I was not drunk, not even tipsy! Anyways that`s about it...went back to the hostel, showered (my shower issues started then), and went to bed...

...To Be Continued...