Oh Canada....

The Wonderful Amtrack – “QR doesn’t have these issues” (Mike's bit)
Before we get to the actual trip, lets set the scene. We planned to spend a quiet night in New York for our last night since we had to be on the train at 7ish meaning leaving the hotel at around 5:30am. We decided to get on the free Staten Island ferry again for a view of the NY skyline and Lady Liberty at night. This went pretty well but we missed the return ferry by minutes. You see you need to get off the ferry and then get back on. The one going back wasn’t the same one that went across and the unfortunately they didn’t wait. Next ferry… 1 hours time! So we get on that at about 10:30pm. Rebecca is yelling cause she wanted to be asleep by now and the whole thing is obviously my fault. When we get back across, the Subway is closed for track work and we need to get a bus. Things are getting better!! Furthermore, NY is in the midst of a windstorm that is bordering on cyclonic (I mean hurricanic?!?!) and we are standing outside waiting for the bus. We got home ok and went to sleep at about 1am. The thing is, daylight saving also kicked that night so we actually went to bed at 2am. That’s a good 3 ½ hours, who needs more? We got to the subway, and no trains came for about 15 minutes, which is weird for NY. The one that did turn up went one station and then decided to stay stop since someone’s NY commute had got the better of them and they decided to pass out. Maybe they were on the Staten Island ferry last night? So we had to get the next one while the paramedics came down. Just kick the person off and keep moving people! We got to the station to find a massive line for customs, and no baggage check. Hence we were only able to secure a seat either side of the isle from one another which was better then most people could muster.

Now the train ride itself wasn’t that note worthy. The scenery was good, lots of snow covered fields and the like. A few hours in and we had to stop for an hour for the track ahead to be cleared of fallen trees or something. Looks like the hurricane winds were not only in New York. All I can recall is that the train stopped within sight of a Macca’s and a lot of the passengers where wondering if they would have enough time to make it there and back. Eventually we where on our way. A few more hours and another stop. With little to no communication on what was happening we sat there waiting. An hour later they informed us that the track could not be cleared and we would be swapping to buses which had been called about 1hour ago. Ok so they knew to call buses but not let the passengers know. Good customer service that! People being the impatient types that they are decided to go collect luggage and wait in the snow. Even though the staff told us the bus would still be another hour, and 6 where on the way, they thought they would miss out. Three hours later we got on a bus. Smooth sailing now, yes? NO!! The Canadian border crossing thought it would be a good idea to get everyone off the bus, unpack the luggage and get you to line up with your luggage to speak to a customs officer, at 11:30pm. Did I mention that it was about –10 outside the bus? Got to the customs officer, she asked about 5 questions and that’s it. So what did I need my bags for? Back on the bus. I felt so sorry for the poor bus driver who had to unload and reload the bus in the freezing cold. We eventually got into Montreal about 12.30am, a 17 hour journey that was supposed to be 9 hours.

Montreal (Bec's bit)
I have to say that being on the train and seeing all that snow….everwhere…was kinda a little freaky. I remember thinking, “what the hell have we gotton ourselves into?”. We arrive at the station, with like $5 CAD so after we frantically look around for an ATM we set of through the snow (it’s cold, like real cold, and there is snow all over the footpath) to find a taxi. Amazingly we found one, and it was only a 5 minute trip, if that. However, you know it’s bad when we has to stop about 5 meters away from the front door and tell you he can’t go any further because there is a big pile of snow that hasn’t been cleared. Hhhmmm. So after waking up our dorm mates at 1am, we finally got to bed!

Just a comment on the hostel – one of the best we have stayed at….warm, cosy, friendly, good brekky, and a cool dorm buddy from Germany. Anyways, what we first noticed was how “French” Montreal actually is. We knew it was bilingual, but it’s really more French than English. Anyway, it was a great novelty going around and saying “oi” and “bonjour”. HAHA – I speak french! So our first day was just spent wandering around and gawking at all the snow. The next day we headed up Mount Royal – and the weather was perfect! We walked up the mountain, on snow, surrounded by snow, and the views were amazing. This place was like a winter wonderland. Then we kinda got lost and ended up at an ice-skating rink – well, a pond really. We figured we might as well skate – badly mind you but we didn’t fall over once. However, I did learn that “watch out you old bat, you’re in my way” is “Attentione!!!” in French. He was a whimpy little kid anyway. Check out the photos – they do this place more justice than my descriptions.

That night we headed to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal. For $5 you went to this light show at night, which included a kind of educational video. However, it was the tackiest thing ever! It was professionally done technical-wise but the acting was terrible. However, the drama of when they drop the curtain and reveal the church is pretty impressive. The actual church itself, although amazing, was pretty tacky….lots and lots of gold. Again, check out the photos.

Our next day was spent at the Biodome, which was originally the velodrome for the 76 Olympics. This place has four ecosystems – a tropical forest (it was so nice to feel humidity again!), a Laurentian forest (? Think north American wilderness), a marine ecosystem and the Artic/Antarctic. It was pretty cool – the highlight being some monkeys running around the walkways changing cages and the penguins were hilarious. Right next to the Biodome was the Olympic Stadium, which has a tower thing – the weather wasn’t the best but it cleared up enough to see (we picked the worst day to go up!). Again, check out the photos.

Our final day was spent wandering around again and then checking out the Musee d’archeologie et d’histoire de Montreal – otherwise known as the Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History. This place was pretty cool because the basement is actually an archaeological dig, where you can see the remains of some of the first structures, like stone fortifications, and other stuff like a cemetery.

Well, that concluded our trip to Montreal. I was surprised how much I liked this city and would love to go back and see what it had to offer in the summer. Oh, one more thing to note, on about day 2/3 of like 4, we finally found how to get to most places through the underground tunnels – seriously, if you need underground tunnels to go somewhere in winter, is it really worth it?

Next…Quebec!!!!