From Big Mac...
0824, 6 minutes prior to meeting up for the days precisely remigented activities, we arrive. Everyone is already on the coach and has been waiting for 10 minutes. Queue dirty looks as we board and stride proudly to our (labelled) seats. After a night of amazing sushi and a culturaly enlightning McDonalds breakfast, we felt that our six minutes early was acceptable. Did anyone else on the coach know that the Golden Arches are baked into the breakfast muffins, prior to their impregnation with maple syrup? Had anyone else sampled Canadian salmon raw in a Japanese fashion with imported Corona? Valuable information, and we were it's sole owners.
From our ride around Montréal, I remember a large church with wooden steps (reserved for Pilgrims who ascend on their knees, saying a prayer on each step), laws about the collection of fallen wood (and how to get around them), the problems with the winter, the two seasons (Winter and Construction), the Olympic stadium and what became of the golf course, a lovely view, and a guide with a fixation with maps and a slightly unhinged glint in his eye. The architecture is reminiscent France in some parts, and Eastern Europe in others, and to counter the winter weather (where it can drop to -38°C) the twenty miles of passages beneath the city.
From my French GCSE I remember reading about these fabled underground worlds, the possibility of spending the entire winter in doors and not going without. And if you live in the right place, this is certainly true: major buildings are connected to the Montréal Below, and this to the Metro that is very reminiscient of the Parisian model, complete with tyres on the trains and a lack of compass points to aid foreigners. This Metro is on a much smaller scale, and journey times are indicated on the small tube maps making it fast and simple.
"Hey Tod, look at that big fish, ey!"
Montréal's third best attraction is it's biodome. Within, they've simulated an Amazon Rainforest (complete with assorted beasts, and parrots), a Canadian Forest, the Arctic, and a small section of the Sea. Oh, and a Bat Cave. The latter is the best feature, and I feel could be expanded to it's own huge building. You walk from the Amazon into this dark passage, glass on either side, dim blue lighting, and these dark objects darting through the air. Look more closely, and you see that they're bats. There are more bats having from the ceiling. Absolutely brilliant. In the Aquarium, birds dart from their habitat above into the water to eat the fish within, simulating an ecosystem. OK the fish they're eating are dead and added daily, but still great to watch them fly under water, then rocket back to the surface in a trail of shimmery bubbles.
Rivalling places for best attraction and second best are the weak Canadian Dollar (two of them makes a Loony, sad day when the Loony falls) and the mostly bilingual population. One of my varied talents is French, and despite the majority of the populace speaking both English and French fluently we (as a family) insist on speaking French. An example conversation at restaurant:
| Bonjour, qu'est que vous desirez? | Hi, what can I get you? |
| Une Panaché, un 7-Oop et une glace au fraise. [aside] You want strawberry, not vanilla or chocolate? Oui, la fraise, sil vous plait. |
One Panaché, one 7-up, and one strawberry ice cream. - - - - - Yes, the strawberry, please. |
Now, the waiter, or waitress understand perfectly both languages. And yet, we switch to French to speak to them. Confusing, entertaining, and slightly satisfying. At a local crèperie we were having our standard bilingual ordering session when the (beautiful) waitress piped up "Oh you guys speak English, what am I doing? I'm from Ontario, we all speak English there." It took all of us a couple of minutes to settle to sticking to English, and even then the languages got mixed up. Clearly hunger and duality do not mix.
...to B.Mac
The Canadian Mac Superstore. These guys get a mention for being happy, friendly, and supplying me with my second PowerBook battery. Eight hours of mains-less Mac fun are now at my disposal, and the Canadian Dollar make it sickeningly cheap. Hopefully waiting for me at their branch in Toronto is a 512mb RAM chip. Not even a second language and another country can stop my mobile brilliance.
Oh, tomorrow there is a wakeup call for 0600. Bags out of the room between 0630 and 0645. On coach by 0730 for drive to T. via Ottowa. Uncivilised lot.
All this on my birthday. Damn that sounds childish.
