Montreal, the self-proclaimed party/culture city of Canada

We are writing this from a crappy little Internet cafe in Vancouver, having spent a pretty jam-packed week in Montreal, a beautiful metropolis in the officially French-speaking province of Quebec. Shayne was, addmittedly, terrified, having no French. Eva was depressed by how rusty her French was, even though she has a Modern Languages diploma in the language.

It was a four-hour train ride from Toronto. We got upgraded to a first-class carriage, even though we'd only paid for "comfort" (i.e. pleb) class. We're still not entirely sure how that happened, but it was nice to have more leg room for once, and not to be in a row with one other person. Oh the joy!

It was an absolute nightmare finding the damn subway (or Metro, as they call it, after the Parisian underground rail system), but thankfully, we had a Good Samaritan help us. One of many who we have encountered in Canada so far. People here are very friendly, and seem to really respond to the Aussie accent. And, of course, they can't resist asking about Steve Irwin.

Oh my god! No pictures yet! Well, let's rectify that with:



This place we stayed at for the first two nights was part of the Hostels International chain, and had lots of social activities organised, as well as special packages. We got the "Museum Package", which, among other things, entitled us to three days entry to any of 32 museums and attractions. Obviously, you'd need to be a frigging Superman to do them all. We managed 5 (well, 4 and a bit. We shall explain).

First, the Point-à-Callière, which is a museum displaying the archaeological site upon which it was built. The digs exposed the development of the area from original settlement in the 1500s, when the French colonised and later made a treaty with the indigenous inhabitants of the area, to the fortified city of Montreal, through to the present day. The new building, which is loosely modelled on the customs building originally built on the site (~1800s [we think]):



is the entrance to an underground network of some of the orginal streets of the city from earlier eras. Included in this network is the old sewer, which still faintly smells of human waste:



(obviously the background is not real). They've found a wealth of atrefacts from the different eras of the city by digging around in fossilised excrement (oh, to be an archaeologist). This is exemplified by the artefacts from latrines displayed in glass cases in the museum toilets.



You could see the old fortification walls and structures in the original settlement, giving an idea of just how cramped everything was, although you can't really see it from this picture:



we can't remember if this is a chimney, but there is definitely a pipe which led to a fountain, whose wall is on the left. You could see where they'd torn down and rebuilt over the years.



Here are some of the many objects they've dug up:







The next attraction we used our pass for was the Biodome (http://www.biodome.qc.ca/). Now this was something really special. It's pretty much a living museum, which recreates four different ecosystems of the Americas, as displayed here by Eva:





First stop: the tropics (green on the globe above) i.e. The Amazon rainforest (and yes, they recreate the climate accurately. Think muggy. Shayne was in heaven. Eva, not so much).





And there were animals! All together in their habitat, not like a zoo where they're segregated.



Some of our favourites were:



Tamarinds





Red Devil fish (the bigger the fatty-tissue lump, the more dominant it is. We reckon this guy's pretty high up there).





Macaws.



...but no sloth, despite signs promising them. Apparently they're still for so long that algae grow on their fur which makes them green, camouflaging them from predators. And our camera. Shayne was unimpressed by the lack of sloth.



Next, a Laurentian forest, (red) which is a cooler-clime habitat around the Great Lakes area of Canada (close to where we were at the time, actually).





Eva thought the sleeping otter was very cute, but it didn't come out in the photos. Shayne would like to point out that enclosing wall had a big danger sign on it, therefore he suspects that they're not so cuddly, really. Eva remains unconvinced.



Among other animals, there were porcupines which hid themselves very effectively. Ignore me. I'm not a porcupine. Nooo. I'm a...pincusion. Yes. That's right.





Can you spot the lynx?





From there, we "travelled" to the St. Lawrence marine environment, which was basically a massive fishtank with very cool (yet ugly) dogfish:



among other marine life. In the shallower waters, you could see animals like sea urchins, crabs, and corals. We need Kate to tell us exactly what the hell these things are, and the specific name of environment they inhabit. Eva had to restrain herself from poking the massive anenomes.





Surfacing from this underwater walkway, you could walk around "the shore" and see the bird life, and their nesting areas.



Our favourite bird was a little guy called a black guillemot, who we saw diving quite deep in the fish tank in search of prey, using his wings to swim really fast. We thought it was a weird fish at first...no picture, too damn quick.



Finally (white), the arctic zones. Where we saw arctic puffins:





and penguins of several varieties. Including a ridiculous specimen called the Macaroni penguin, and his cousin (?) the Rodckhopper penguin. Can you detect the imposter among the stately King penguins?





Close to the Biodome was the Insectarium, in the middle of the botanic gardens. As many of you know, Shayne doesn't like insects and arachnids. No, really. He hates them. Especially arachnids. Eva is very proud that Shayne managed to visit this den of Satan without screaming and running from the place, and, what's more, take close-up photos. Like this scorpion:







...and worse, this GODDAMN BIG TARANTULA!





There wasa special exhibit on insect cooperation (hives, ant colonies, termite mounds, etc). We learnt that didgeredoos are actually made from branches that have been hollowed out by termites.

And of course, there's the old camouflage trick.



After the Insectarium, we took a walk around a small portion of the Botanical Gardens. The gardens was the "bit" in the "four and a bit" attractions. You have to pay to get in (our passes covered it). We thought paying to get in was a bit rich - until we saw just how impressive (size and lanscaping) the gardens actually were. They included a huge Chinese garden:

...and a mammoth exhibition greenhouse.


Last, we used our passes to see the Planetarium. Unfortunately, Shayne forgot the camera. But it was nice to sit back, relax and see a show on the huge Planetarium dome about our solar system, the various controversies of classifying planets, and what to look for in the Northern hemisphere night sky, which was beautifully recreated. Hopefully we can see the actual thing on our Rockies tour, but that's another post...

As we mentioned earlier, the hostel we stayed at organised social outings. This city (in summer, anyway) seems to have one festival after another. What's more, they're free. So the first night, our hungover tour guide Chris, seen here "minding" Eva's handbag:

took us to Les Franco Folies de Montreal (Montreal French Music Festival).


We saw a funky fusion band called Collectivo (reggae, ska, samba, salsa, funk...yeah, everything), with lyrics in Spanish, French, and English. With sexy lead singers and an acoustic guitarist on stilts, who even walked through the crowd at one stage. And we thought we'd seen everything...


The next night we went on a pub crawl, led by Chris, even though we weren't at the hostel anymore (yeah, we're that cool that he invited us...ahem).

You all know how these things work - go to various places, get drunker, end with dancing. But we met some awesome people from around the world (and some good contacts for the future!):

Jamie (London), Chris (Montreal), Helen (Glasgow)...
and...

Josie (Montreal, actually the bartender from the first place we went to), John (Vancouver), and Sylvain and William (Paris). Eva would like to point out that although it was the end of the night, she was not particularly drunk, despite the unfortunate facial expression. Shayne made her include it.

Eva wanted to record this for posterity, as it doesn't happen very often these days: SHAYNE DANCED!


...and DANCED!!


He blames the beer.

Once we'd used our passes, our last two days were spent just wandering and taking in the sights, particularly of the Old City (where the original settlement/fortifications were). It feels like you're in Europe when you walk these streets.


The old town hall at night:


The old port, which now hosts a market (at least on the weekends) :


Central to the old city is a square which was a focal meeting place in the city even centuries ago. The days we were there it was a hive of activity, with market stalls, strange wildlife (ok, a balloon seller):


and street performers. Our favourite was a street magician who did the normal things like ring tricks, pouring water into newspaper and having it disappear, etc. But then, he did something we've never seen: swallowing razor blades. Maybe it's an old trick, but we were still...transfixed? Disgusted? Amazed? Yeah, all of those.

...and then he pulled them out on a string. And we know they were real because he cut cards with them as they emerged from this gullet...

On our last day we walked through a street in Old Montreal called Rue Saint-Paul, which is chock full of little art galleries. Some of our favourite pieces were:

A Brazilian artist called Hamilton Aguiar, who uses a gold-leafing technique, which makes for eye-catching lanscapes:

Unfortunately, well out of our price range.

And, HAPPY FATTIES!

We can't remember the name of the artist...this piece was called "Chocolate Ecstacy".

Shayne got acquainted with some of these ladies:


Finally, we had to indulge in a Quebecian "speciality." They're very proud of this dish, for some reason. They call it "poutine." When we saw the comedy show in Toronto, Craig Ferguson was ribbing the Quebecers, mainly the Montreal residents, whose anitpathy towards Toronto is legend. In his words: "And just what the f*** is 'poutine', anyway??" Well, we found out.

Chips made soggy by gravy, with cheese. Yes, this is the dish they're so proud of. And we actually suspect that this version was more gourmet than most, considering that at the same place we also had a dish of warm brie covered in pistachios, served with cranberry toast:


We realise we haven't done justice to our stay here. It really is an amazing city, and we would have loved to stay longer. Another trip in the future? We'd like to think so.

Next post: Vancouver and the Rockies!