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My lovely friend Karoline has let me borrow her computer tonight - I haven't been online properly in a few days because the internet here (the hostel in Montreal) is really rubbish! So let me finish off Toronto - on Friday it was tipping it down with rain so I decided to use my bus tour pass and take a tour of the city under shelter. It was really interesting - the tour guide was quite young and did a good mixture of historic and modern info. After this, Sarah and I went to Jack Astor's for some food and realised we were massively late for the tour to the baseball game - I still had to get to the hostel and re-check in to a different room. I re-checked in and it was a mixed-sex room... not usually a problem except that I found out later it was just 5 men and me, which I really didn't feel comfortable with. It was supposed to be Sarah's last night so we decided we would go out after the game and she'd just sleep in my bed with me - who's going to care, right? But more on that later!!
We finally got to the baseball stadium and watched the game - it was such a good atmosphere! There were guys walking around selling pretzels and beer, and a big screen where they'd zoom in on members of the crowd. Also, every time a pitcher came out they had their own theme song and everyone would cheer. AND I bought a Toronto Blue Jay's hat! After the game though we were really tired and hungry so we got some food and sat downstairs in the TV room and watched So You Think You Can Dance for ages. And then when we got up to the room, there was a guy sleeping in my bed. I did not know what to do - I wouldn't have minded had it been a girl, and had it only been me there and not Sarah too, but nonetheless I went down to reception and asked the guy to get him out of my bed. It turns out he was in the right room but the wrong bed, but in the process of him moving I had annoyed him and managed to wake everyone else up in the room!! So we had a dilemma - Sarah could sleep in there with me with a greater chance of her being seen and of us being busted, as this guy was seriously pissed off. Plus I felt even less comfortable about sleeping in there now. So we decided not to risk it - I asked for a refund for that night and we drove all the way to Niagara so I could sleep at the place Sarah was staying. NIGHTMARE! It took us 3 hours to get back and we were so tired but were obviously fighting to stay awake. A couple of things cheered me up though - playing Drake - The Motto and screaming 'YOLO' out of the car, and a car stopping on the side of the road so a really drunk girl could *ahem* relieve herself - but she'd stopped all the other cars in the process so Sarah screamed at her from the car and they drove off pretty quickly after that! Unfortunately the next day mostly consisted of us driving back to Toronto, getting food and me demanding to go into a female dorm again, so I was pretty pleased to go to bed that night!
The next day Natalie, Sarah and I took a trip to the Toronto Islands; it was such a beautiful place, lovely nature, nice beaches, a farm, and the view from the ferry was fantastic, so it was a really nice way to round off my stay in Toronto. By Tuesday night I was in Montreal - one thing I would like to say about the journey though was that at one point the bus stopped to let people off, and I got off to get something to eat. I was at the counter and turned around and realised the bus was moving! I ran out of the place so fast, banged on the side and yelled 'STOP!!!' When the bus driver opened the door I just said... 'Very sorry...' and ran to my seat. Not a mistake I want to make again!
The first night I was in Montreal the hostel was organising a pub crawl which I thought I'd join. Whilst there I saw my friend Richard from the hostel in Toronto, and we went to a couple of bars. The second one was a 50's bar with a dancefloor and everyone doing 50's dancing so we decided to join in - so much fun! I was pretty tired from the journey though so I went back to the hostel early. The next day Richard and I went to see McGill University - my friend Xiao used to attend there so I wanted to see it. It reminded me so much of Switzerland because the buildings looked like castles and it was right on the side of a hill - it made me miss uni to see everyone walking around with their books! Afterwards we went up to Mont Royal Park or as Montrealians call it, 'The Mountain'. Really nice walk up there although really demanding, but it was so worth it at the top when you could see the whole of Montreal! The whole park was really pretty and it was nice to think we were up higher than everyone else, in such a peaceful place. Later on I decided to take a walk to Old Montreal and explore there, which looked a lot like Paris with its old streets and chic little cafes, and then we had a tour of the Islands St Helene and Notre Dame to watch the sun go down over Montreal.
On Wednesday there was a bike tour of Montreal that my friend Karoline and I decided to join, and it was by far the best day!! We rode over to a market where we got some lunch and just sat by the river. Karoline is Danish so me, her and a couple from Jersey got a sandwich and a drink. Gab the tour guide (from Montreal) and two French women had a proper french picnic! Gab bought olives, cheese, ham and pitta bread and it reminded me of the lunches my family used to have in the Dordogne on our summer holidays. Gab offered me some cheese and I just sort of said.... 'what do I do?' and he just laughed and said 'you put the cheese on the pitta... then you put it in your mouth and chew... and it should taste a little bit like paradise...' I could definitely tell the different between the French and the French Canadian as well, just by the way they act. French Canadians are a lot more sarcastic! We rode our bikes over the bridge to the islands, all round the islands and onto the formula 1 race track (!) and back to Old Montreal. Another pub crawl again that night, and the club at the end of the crawl had some really good tunes so it was a really good night.
Today we went on a tour of the urban city - the highlights were trying the infamous bagels of Montreal and dining at Schwartz, a diner near the Latin Quarter. Gab told us that people travel from all over the world to try the meat sandwiches; they marinade the meat for 8 days, smoke it for 2 and dry it for one. Apparently Celine Dion owns the place now and lots of famous people eat there. But if you walked past it the only reason you would know it was special was because of the massive queue - it looks like a normal diner inside! But the sandwich was delicious! This evening Richard, Karoline and I went to the Notre Dame Cathedral for a 'light show' which we weren't too sure what to expect - turns out it was a presentation of the history of the cathedral, and the were unveiling all the different parts of the architecture with the lights. Really interesting! After that we went to a place that apparently serves the best poutine in Montreal - poutine is cheese curds, chips and gravy. And it was delicious!! So I think that's it for now, it's Boston on Sunday, so all is fine and dandy!!
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