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Bonjour, parlez-vous Anglais?
After a 12 hr stint on the train including boarder control checks, we made it to the weird and wonderful city of Montreal, our first stop in Canada and part of the bilingual province of Quebec.
In the last four days we have seen and done so much that its hard to summarise this one but we'll try to give you a flavour of our experience.
There are a number of different festivals throughout the summer and we arrived during the 'Montreal Completement Cirque' (circus festival) which has been a colourful display of acrobatics day and night in the streets... free entertainment on tap. And in the city where Cirque du Soleil has its head quarters so no surprise that it was so entertaining.
Navigating the traffic lights and knowing when to cross the road is an art that S has not quite mastered yet. Initially we thought she just had issues with the red hand/white man in NYC. However, on arrival in Montreal S asked a stranger when is it appropriate to cross the road... He quite simply said 'when the lights go green' and walked off chuckling to himself.
The Accommodation - K's first hostel experience has been made easy by the very clean and well organised M-Montreal Hostel. Friendly staff that even come to the rescue when you lose your padlock key to a locker that has all your possessions including your passport!! Thanks Rob. Being on the winning team for the Trivia quiz was the cherry on the cake.... Such geniuses!
S reckons backpacking ain't what it used to be what with clean towels, en-suite bathrooms, wifi & breakfast included... but she's not complaining.
The People - a funky cocktail of personalities & characters. From the numerous down & outs in Downtown, the romantic strollers on the cobbled french streets in Old Montreal, the locals enjoying the lunch buffets in Chinatown, the free spirited Tam Tam players in Mount Royal Park, the relaxing families at the Plage Dore (beach) on Ile Notre-Dame island, to the happy gay couples in The Village. This is by no means an exhaustive list and has certainly not been the expected but its been visually stimulating and thought provoking nonetheless.
The Food - lets begin with the crisis we had on the train, our supply of Minstrels finished!!! So we are currently fulfilling our addiction with Almond M&M's. We found a GREAT veggie restaurant called Le Buffet Commensal, where they weigh your plate to work out the price of your meal... Really wholesome & amazingly tasty grub. We tried 'Poutine', a Quebec speciality of French frites with cheese and gravy... The verdict is still out.
And to top off our experience of French Montreal, we went to watch Hollywood blockbuster 'The Heat', in a huge commercial Imax cinema... Well worth a watch by the way.
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