Montreal

Montreal

Finally the rain has stopped, now we are in Montreal at the Jazz Festival, lots of free shows again, its really big many stages and many artists, lots of smokers and pot too, hard on the throat by the end of the night.

We met Tika in town and hung out with her for the night, for those of you who don’t know Tika lived with us for a year on SSI while going to school there. It was fun to see her and have her as our tour guide for the night, the next night we met up with Tika and Sarah (Proctor) too, had a nice evening and dinner at a Tibetan restaurant very fun too. They live in a very busy part of town and are really enjoying Montreal, they say its cheaper than living in Vancouver and if you live here a year or more you get your schooling at 1/3 of the price, I guess thats why there are so many young people here.

The artists at the Jazz fest are mixed some we loved and others not so much, they are not all Jazz but hey its free again so cant complain. We hotwired for the night here and got the Delta Hotel, it was fab and only $89.00 /night really nice hotel and right downtown, in hindsight we should have taken it all week as everywhere is booked up for the Jazz Festival, Canada day and American Independence too. We stayed at a terrible place last night so moved out today and got another B & B in Mont Royal a quieter district than where the Jazz festival is going on but still lots to do and see. Tomorrow we have booked back in town to head back to see more music.

The weather was really hot today we walked for miles, up to Mont Royal park etc. We had our clothes all washed last night and we are both convinced that they shrunk cause the only other explanation is that we have gained weight and we don’t want to believe that one!! I guess I have to hold off on the beer till at least Ireland!!

I must say Montreal is pretty dirty, I don’t know if its just because of the Jazz Festival or all the road works they are doing but it seems dirty. Right in front of Notre Dame Cathedral is all dug up and they are working on that area, Prince Rue Arthur I remember as being much bigger than it seems now but still cool, this is where you can take your own wine to dinner and they will uncork it and re cork it for free no problem which is kinda cool.

Montreal is great but it’s a bit too crazy and busy for me, Im not a city girl after all, shopping is amazing though, fun fashions everywhere and they definitely all show them off on the streets, great city to people watch in.

The weather has got hotter, today was over 30degrees with the humidity, we were hot! And we walked all over today as we don’t have the bike anymore, lots of water stops and diving into shops for the aircon. Discovered a great area in old town that has lots of crafty markets and stuff, lots of expensive galleries and some great restaurants too so that’s where we spent the evening, one more day and we fly to Ireland!

A nice surprise as we were walking back to our hotel tonight, the streets were lined with people awaiting a parade, it is the last day of the Jazz festival and it was like mardi gra, so colorful and lots of energy more jazz players and floats etc. really very fun, a nice way to end our stay here.

Off to Ireland tomorrow

Until then

chenty