Montreal! Bam! (Rski XIV)

All right, so two weeks after the big road trip, we decided we should go to Montreal. The original plan was to head back to Quebec City and meet up with Care (remember Care?). Then we realised, it might be further away, but overall, it'd be WAY cheaper and better to go to Montreal because a) no hostel/hotel b) cooking facilities c) Care lives in prime Montreal d) there is much more to do there.

Thursday, July 13
We were going to take the bus at 1:45 PM, but Alix couldn't make it out of work early, damn field work...so we decided to take the 6:00 pm bus. However, it was nearing the departure time and Alix wasn't home yet. Kollene and I opted to head to the bus stop and hoped that Alix would make it, her awesome new roommate, Marie-Noelle (Merry Christmas?) said that she'd drive down, worst case scenario...which is what happened and we all caught the bus.

The bus was thankfully pretty empty and we pretty much talked straight through to Quebec City.

Then at some point..

Alix started doing work! Garbage!


So Kollene and I invaded the Private Life of Plants. Entertainment provided by Ohms.

The bus arrived just before 1:30, some 20 minutes early. So when I called Carolyn from outside her door to open the door for us (she didn't hear the knock) she somehow didn't understand where we were and I decided that I should play a trick.
C: Where are you?
H: In the cab on the way over. We'll be there soon. Can you open your door?
C: Yeah when you get here, buzz me.
H: Can you just open your door now, humour me.
C: Are you serious? You want me to come down? I'm in my pajamas.
H: Yeah...c'mon, we've come all this way. Come down and help us with our bags.
So we're all standing there patiently. We hear Care go to the bathroom and put on her shoes. We hear the sound of keys jangling. Then she opens the door ...

And bam! Screams! And slams it in our faces. This is her slamming the door. Then opened it again and politely introduces herself to Kollene and Alix.

It was like 40C in Care's appartment...which was pretty sweet (the apartment, not the heat). It's a bachelor apartment but very homely. As you recall, Care at this point is about a month away from starting dental school at McGill.

After hanging out for a while, we all went to bed/passed out due to heat.

Friday, July 14

Care's street.
The next morning, Care went to work. She had a summer job equally as sweet as mine, she was helping put together interviews with dentists to post on the school website to entice students.
The rest of us went out to breakfast Chez Cora.


Expensive, but tasty.

After breakfast we headed to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Where we ran into Kit and Bowie, her twin sister, at the gift shop. Kit's sister had flown in from DC and Kit had left work early to meet up with her.

We saw the Brian Junger exhibit, which I saw in Vancouver in February. It was better there, but still good. This photo however is outside on the roof of the museum.


This made no sense to us, even when a tourguide explained to a bunch of children. Inside that room is a double bed and apparently it's comfortable and it's also sound proof. And I also wasn't allowed to take that photo. The next room had two bedrooms built in a similar fashion, but much bigger and they were rotating. It made me so nauseous, I had to sit down for a while.

Then we went to check out the music video exhibit.

Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes.


Leonard Cohen. It was just an exhibit of music videos that are unique, some were good, some were messed up and some were just annoying (i.e. Kylie Minogue).

After that we walked towards Care's place but decided to go on a more commericial street. She then called me to tell us she was done work, so we all met up and got some groceries and booze. Then dropped them off at her house and headed to the bookstore - I wanted to get my boss a Kurt Vonnegut book, but they didn't have Breakfast of Champions, so I got her Slaughterhouse Five. Then we got some coffee before dinner...

Carolyn had moved into her place just two weeks earlier and was missing some essential things, so we had to improvise italian salad dressing for oil.


yum!

After dinner we got the party started...



Carolyn, Alix, Kollene.

Then we headed to a bar to meet up with some of Carolyn's friends aka her old roommates who I was sure didn't exist.

So they're real. Me, Carolyn, Aviva, Jo, and some dude.

There were free drinks until midnight but we scored one good one and then another juice pretty much...it took like 20 minutes to get a drink.

Sober and happy.


I actually wish I hadn't ruined this one. Carolyn just grabbed some guy's tiara and then gave it back to him when he got back from the washroom.


Carolyn and Warren being tough! That guy was the most hyper person I've ever met. Ever. He was so excited about everything.


Me making a face at him.

Saturday, July 15
We woke up and it was pretty late by the time we got our shit together, so we went to the Musuem of Architecture, which was actually pretty awesome.

There was an exhibit about the senses and the city.

Then we went out for dinner to celebrate Alix's 20th birthday.

This is her being embarassed because they're singing to her.


The guy to the far left was our waiter. Damn did we luck out, he was quite cute.

It was a Greek restaurant that had a lamb-free vegetarian meal.


Alix and her dessert.

After dinner we went to see Phil Nichol perform.

It was party of Just For Laughs. He was ok, somewhat funny, but slightly offensive. He didn't pull it off that well. For once it was not me who offended everyone.

After that, we were kind of tired, but we thought we should make the most of the evening.

Carolyn quickly got on the phone with her connections and we decided to just go for coffee instead.

Sunday, July 16
We went to check out Old Montreal, which I kept affectionately calling Old Quebec.





And stuff.


Pretty standard scenery.


And then yikes! I feel like I should send this to Vice's Dos and Don'ts.


This is the last photo ever taken on my digital camera. We went out to dinner and when we got back I wanted to take a photo of something and found my camera had been on in its case and so the motor had burned out (or something). So from this point on, everything is from Alix's cam.

After dinner we went for ice cream/milkshakes and wandered around the city some more. Originally, we were going to take the bus at 3:00 PM but then decided we'd suck it up and take the 10:00 PM one. We got on the bus and somehow this bus was PACKED. I got stuck sitting next to some old woman who was kind of weird and talked a lot. When we arrived in Rimouski at 6:00 AM, she wished me good luck, as though I has just travelled three months by boat and arrived in America all alone. Although, I had made it pretty clear that I'd been living in Rimouski for about two months already. Cripes. Anyway...we all went to work that day. And it was horrible.