Montreal: Part Deux

DAY THREE:
Honestly, girls, we really need to learn to sleep in! But up we were along with the sun and down we went for breakfast in our little, personal breakfast nook. Though today we noticed a few more places set at other tables. Ahha, we DID hear some awkward noises from above the night before.

While the breakfast foods were quite nice and filling, the coffee was unsatisfactory to my or Lauren's taste so cue a quest! We ended up finding a great little coffee shop a block from City Hall called Les Chausseurs (maybe? And that translates as shoes! maybe...) that put a delicious chocolate star atop each of our creamy creations. Delicious! Heavily trumped Starbucks. Though that didn't stop our random drop-ins for coffee there either. :-D

Since we knew rain and cloudy skies were on the horizon for the weekend, we decided to hike the summit today! And a beautiful, albeit warm, day it was!

We metro'd near the summit's base and then stared up the...up the....and it's still going...up the road to where the entrance to the trail was. Let's just say, if I lived here I'd never have to go to the gym. I swear we were climbing vertical at one point. It's true. I swear.

Let's focus on the beads of sweat painting my forehead shimmery. Oh, and now we're walking 2+ miles uphill for a view of the city...oh, and this was my idea? Awesome.

Suffice it to say, I will let the pictures speak for themselves as it really was a very pretty walk!

Look at his tail! We (read: I) was so obsessed!

Made it to the top! On a clear day (there's some haze in the background) I can only imagine the view!

Some very nice Canadian girls took this for us. Here's how I know they were Canadian. Me: "Where are y'all visiting from?" Them: "Toronto." Me: "Oh, so you're Canadians." Thank goodness I've got my looks (pah!) 'cause I surely don't have my smarts! Really it's that I have zero filter on what I'm thinking coming out of my mouth.

Go UST Celts!

After our hefty trek up, we enjoyed the leaning back version of walking we had to do down that damn street. But at the bottom, we found a nice little Italian restaurant and enjoyed some terrace eating. Terraces everywhere! People are constantly outdoors here and it's amazing!

Metro'ing back I felt like we had become quite the pro's. I love the Metro. Have I mentioned this already? Well, I do.

We relaxed in the hotel room briefly (and also where I downed quite a few iBuprofen [which became my lower back's best friend on this trip]) before walking down to the plaza (reference: photo from Day One) and ordering some dessert and coffee.

Now, the dessert was normal, outside of the Quebecian specialty known as Sugar Pie (and my GOSH it was good!), but our coffee orders stumped our waiter. And ACTION.

Waiter: "Bonjour, what can I get for you this evening?"
Jess: "Well, we'd like the Chocolate Explosion, the Ice Cream cake and the Sugar Pie for dessert. I'd also like a coffee with Bailey's."
Lauren: "I'd like coffee with Creme de menthe, please."
Me: "Same for me."
At this point, the waiter looks at Lauren and I funnily, but walks off nonetheless. No less than a minute later he comes back out with a quizzical look on his face.
Waiter: "You want the creme de menthe in the coffee? Not beside it?"
Lauren and I: "Right, in the coffee."
Waiter: "You're sure? In the coffee."
We're all laughing at this point so we reply yes, please! He proceeds to tell us he has NEVER heard of this before, that he will have to try it later tonight, and we told him he should so he could then sell it. It's delicious!

And SCENE. Special thanks to: Starbucks, whose Creme de Menthe mocha got me hooked oh so long ago in my Senior year of High School; Katy Langley for introducing me to this concoction.

We polished our desserts and with warm bellies from the coffee, we made our way to the Ghost Hunt that I was most excitedly anticipating!  There were five large groups of people that went on this "hunt" and we were in the English speaking group. Surprisingly, there were several people in our group that were native French speakers choosing to instead converse in English for the night.  I swear the French explanation took far longer than the English one and with my brief knowledge of the language, I know that that's impossible because the French love words. Long ones. And ones that you ignore the final letter in. Always. Honestly, French...be an easier language!

Who you gonna call? Obviously the answer is three CPA's from Texas.

 We got a map and were on our way with 6+ young boys in tow who only had two chaperones. And who ultimately needed quite a few more to be kept in hand.  We found our first ghost who was murdered by her best friend and shows up every seven years where she was killed. The next time is July 2019 for anyone interested.

Please note the little $h*t$ in the background.

 And like all good Canadians, she wasn't a fan of guns and quickly snatched one kid's toy gun and placed it high atop the concrete wall behind her. We get it...Canada has fewer deaths and no gun rights...we GET IT!

We left the first ghost and found our next one tucked around a corner a few blocks away.  She had eerie eye makeup and jet black hair with garb befitting Salem witch trial era. She hummed her way around our group, never making eye contact before detailing her grizzly demise.

The short and lovely: she found herself possessed by the devil and cast hex upon hex on her former betrothed and his bride, cursed to not have children. She was caught and burned at the stake but her hexed former lover never was able to have children and died not long after she did. Spurned women...watch yo'self. The two ladies whose heads are in this photo were two gals in our group around our age that we ended up chatting with and getting the lowdown on where the hip spots in town were. Just as I'd hoped would happen!

Third ghost: Poor Jess kept being the culprit for either outting the ghost or causing their death or in this case, his lover. Awesome.

Sadly, I do not have a photo of the fourth ghost for several reasons.
1) At first I wasn't sure he wasn't just some bum (of which there were plenty around us).
2) He told us his story in a dark back alley. Yeah.
3) Partway through the introduction, the aforementioned kids started being disruptive and rude.
4) The ghost quit talking and walked away, still in character and all the adults looked at one another like, WTH?

We shut the kids up and told the ghost we wanted to hear his story. After that, the kids didn't say much and we made our way back to the meeting place to drop off our maps. I was moments away from slapping my hand on the shoulder of the worst offenders and squeezing should he open his mouth. Thankfully, I didn't cause an international incident and we concluded our night with a nice dinner.


DAY FOUR:

The gals and I finally slept in! Well, half an hour counts! We watched some Scooby Doo, classic, then had breakfast, noting even more plates than they day before.  Our hotel was filling up!

Today our goal was to thoroughly explore the Botanical Gardens, the Montrèal Tower and the Biodome. Lofty goal, my friends...but we accomplished it with flourish!

Cue music!

We played in the kiddie area of the Botanical Gardens:

No tin men were harmed in the taking of this photo. Don't judge me.

And after a botched attempt to take a group photo via an unstable bale of hay...

...a very nice, very pregnant lady offered to take our photo. Why, thank you for taking a moment to notice the ridiculous American tourists playing in the kiddie area and failing miserably.

Success!

We stopped in the Insectarium and I learned I weigh 4.5M ants. Awesome. When I stepped off, making some funny comment, a very large man goes, "Don't worry, I was off the charts."

Yes...I bet you were, sir. Thank you for sharing, Captain Obvious.

We wandered the expansive gardens, unfortunately missing out on all the beautiful flowers but instead getting to indulge in some tree love!

Maidenhair tree: aptly named considering the leaves were so plush I felt like I could lay down on a pile of them and sleep for hours. Oh, we still have more walking to do? Drat.

Conclusion: these gardens are HUGE! The dogs were barking but the Tower and Biodome were still calling. Onwards, my friends!

Up...

Up...

Up we go!

The view at the top was great! I sure can't figure out what all we were looking at but it was still great to see!

And on to the Biodome. If this phrase makes you want to start singing and dancing to Safety Dance, don't worry, you're not alone.

With four different environments ranging from Tropical to Antarctic, it was quite the experience.

Tropical! Talk about sweltering. I felt like we were back home!

Don't go chasin' waterfalls...

I was so fascinated by seeing the windows to the outside next to this amazing environment.

Grr, baby. We've now moved to a more tepid climate for this guy. Thank goodness, no more sweating!

Told you I was fascinated.

Well, hello there, Mr. Eel! Best part about the dome and each environment had to be all the jack'o'lanterns in each habitat. They treat Halloween like a proper holiday here and we LOVED it!

After an exhausting day we Metro'd home like the Old Hats that we were...

Success! Only took about 50K tries but that's me on the left and Jess on the right. YAY!

And quickly refreshed ourselves for the lights show at the Notre Dame Basilica and a night out, but this time where the cool kids go.

On our way! This picture only took 80K times.

Notre Dame! Hey, pretty lady!

Inside the basilica. The show turned out to be pretty kooky, but the lights were beautiful!

After the show, we went back to Rue Saint Catherine and ate at a restaurant next to where we lunched after the summit. We had the best service by FAR of the trip and it was from The Mask. Oh yes, green face and head paint, yellow zuit suit...the works. We walked around in search of Sugar Pie, thank you for agreeing to that girls, before returning to watch a live cover band. They turned out to be pretty good and so were the fru-fru drinks being served.

Before the clock struck midnight and the Metro stopped running, we bolted like Cinderella back to our hotel. The night was capped with a view of our terrace and a big snooze button that zapped us all before 1AM.

And still we were up with the sun...to be concluded next time! The police run-ins, the crepes, the Metro, oh my!

Montreal: Part Un

Prologue: The photos may or may not end up in the right order for descriptive purposes. I'm telling a story, people, bear with me...

What a trip! I and two of my friends have been talking about Montrèal for months (and I do mean several). We started this process in May with mere thoughts and ideas then booked our flights in August and finally, finally, it was time for vacation! October 24th, you're here!

We prepped an itenirary, we bought tickets where needed, and said, "let's just enjoy it,". And that we did!

I knew from the beginning that we'd all make great travel buddies because we were interested in similar things: history, fun, food, and picturesque scenery. And Montrèal has all of this, and then some.

DAY ONE:
I find it entertaining that on the eve of a 4:30AM pickup, I decided to stay up until 11. This makes sense, right? Needless to say, I was packed and waiting for my friend Jess who arrived quite promptly. We got to the airport very early, early enough to have a short security line and no open vendors. We decided to head towards our gate and at the turn towards our terminal, there's the Starbucks. That heavenly stop I always love to make whenever I fly IAH. The only Starbucks that hosts Cinnamon Chip Scones. What are those, you ask? Delicious concoctions that should be in every 'Bux across the land. Really.

I had my customary white mocha and scone in hand as we sat to wait for our other travelling companion, Lauren, to arrive. She lives in Kingwood which is really far away (in my opinion) but has one huge plus...whenever you're flying out of IAH you're merely twenty minutes away.

We knew that once we landed in Newark our layover was brief enough to warrant rushing from gate to gate and so we did. We walked fast, took the stairs, and hopped onto the bus to transfer us. It was beautiful scenery...who am I kidding...we saw the underbelly of Newark's airport and it ain't too pretty. But we made it to our gate in enough time to grab an Auntie Anne's pretzel snack before waiting patiently to hear "Now boarding flight...". But the words didn't come, the loudspeaker didn't announce and the scurrying back and forth by crew members had me thinking we were in for a...

"Sorry folks, we are experiencing maintenance issues. Please wait until further notice for more details."

...surprise. Well, drat. Ok, but surely they can fix it in no...

"Ok everyone, please be advised we are getting you a new plane. Please go to Terminal (can't recall, but I do know it was the one we had just come from) and Gate (it didn't matter at this point) and you will board there."

...time. Well, drat again. We lugged our goods back to our original terminal we landed in and proceeded to wait another thirty minutes before boarding. And thus we began our Canadian adventure...

My partners in crime for the week, Jess and Lauren.

We landed safely in Montrèal and with a brief jaunt through customs we were in Cananada! With some guidance from a very cheeky, flirtatious Information Guide we boarded our bus into town. Several days later when we left, I realized we should have made ourselves a mite more knowledgeable about the subway system to get us closer to our hotel, but no matter. The climb up the stairs at City Hall with my self-size suitcase was thrilling considering my heavily pumping heart at the top. No big deal.

The entrance to our hotel...this is not a joke.

Our navigational skills proved superb and before long we had arrived!

Success! ****Yes, this is not the first night we arrived. Please forgive the photographer in me.****

It was fairly late when we stumbled on our hotel. The first thing we noticed was the monstrous entrance to the Marche Bonsecours across the street...

Really intense dome! We couldn't make it up there, though. Rats!

And then we strolled down Rue Saint Paul, the main tourist thoroughfare. Night shots!

Plaza! To be referenced later...

City Hall.

DAY TWO:
I don't think any of the three of us was surprised when we all popped our heads up at 7:30AM (6:30AM our time). We are all early risers back home and in to work with the sun. But with a view like this, it was hard to want to leave the room...

Told you!

With a tasty breakfast under our belt (they are really big on sliced ham and cheese, no complaints!) we went in search of the Museum + Metro pass. Just a note to Tourist Information stops, maybe you shouldn't be cash only? Not all tourists come armed accordingly.

Failure count: 1

One block away was one of our impending historical stops, Chateau Ramezay, and we queried the lady behind the counter if she had any of these illusive passes.

Keep count now, because Failure count: 2

Not to be thwarted by circumstance we walked down the plaza (reference: above photo) to the Lychene Canal to the Science Museum. And with a quick walkie talkie conversation, magically three passes materialized! Thank you, Tanner looking Science man.

Our transactions concluded we began walking away from the counter before being stopped in our tracks by the map explanation of the museum and how best to view its entire length.

Sorry, Science man, we just totally used you for your pass.

The night before, the girls and I mapped out our historical circuit of Old Montrèal and began it with the Archaeological museum right across the street from where we got our passes. We were amongst many groups of small children speaking in French and I realized, oh right, it's a school day! I ended up learning quite a bit about the history of the city; that the area we were in, known as Old Montrèal is the site of the original fort and city when it was first established. We saw remnants of the stone wall underneath the museum as well as where they were continuing their ongoing archaeological dig. If only we valued the history of our own city like these folks do.

After gleaning what we could in French (and some in English) we headed back to the Chateau Ramezay.

Chateau Ramezay: Historical Society has been here since the late 1800's

 Quick history: Ramezay was Governor of Montrèal and when he was through with the house, a company moved in, then a teaching school, and during the Revolution of 1776, was occupied for about seven months by the US! Benjamin Franklin stayed here briefly before leaving in frustration basically saying it would be easier to buy Canada than to bring Canadians to our side. Funny!

The house has been well maintained and you can wander through both floors and nearly all the rooms.

Getting her knowledge on. In each room there were kiosk podiums with an audio and video collage of information and all you had to do was pick up one of these little remote controls with a speaker in them. I want this in my house...

Thankfully Lauren has a good sense of humor because I couldn't help but point out that she fits in this archway quite nicely.

And I do not. Rock star bump definitely didn't help, either.

There once were three CPA's who went on an adventure...

After enriching ourselves with some history of Montrèal, we moseyed down to the Metro and took our first spin on the mighty subway! Boy howdy, it's clean, it's fast, it goes everywhere! I love the Metro! We went in search of maps off the Tourist path and found our first non-English speakers. Which was a mighty challenge, I tell you what. While everyone approached you in French, they quickly transitioned to English when 1) asked or 2) you stared, wide-eyed at them.

The map adventure produced no goods, so we traversed back to the hotel to refresh ourselves before dinner and a night out on Rue Saint Catherine.  Another fantastic component of Montrèal visitation: all restaurants posted their menu's streetside. We ate at a Canadian micro-brewery chain called 3 Brasseures (translation and spelling, unknown) and wandered around, taking the night images in. Fascinating to see an Aldo store and a block down from it a strip club. For men AND women. Definitely a cultural eye-opener...oh, we prudish Americans.

We wandered without success so stopped in for a bottle of wine right before closing time and Metro'd home to chill on our terrace deck. Day two, success!

I bet you can't wait to see more! There's a mountain whose name became Montrèal's, hanging with ghosts and a Biodome, not to mention a Chocolate Star that made our day. Just you wait!