Oooh La La

They say that Paris is the city of Romance. Well...if that be true than Montreal is Canada's version. (don't give me that crap about Niagara Falls being more romantic...it's just not....it's crawling with tourists worse than flies on dung)

I had the wonderful fortune to be able to go to Montreal to attend my girlfriend Corina's wedding. The BEST part about it was the Ronan came with me!!! (The trip to Montreal is how my illness started...I'm convinced of it!).

It was touch and go there for a while if Ronan was able to come with me. He gave up a LOT to be able to go and I probably haven't properly thanked him for that.. He missed out on a huge project that he had been working on at work...though I still believe he gets most of the credit for it...he just wasn't there at crunch time. Instead...he was having beers with me at the Vancouver International Airport.

We took the Red-Eye from Vancouver to Montreal on Thurs 09JUN and arrived safe and sound if not a wee bit sleepy on Friday 10JUN. I always freeze on airplanes so I made sure to wear jeans and a t-shirt along with my fleece jacket. When we disembarked from the plane the heat hit me like a huge salmon in the face! WHAM. I began to wilt from the humidity nearly immediately.

Corina was there to greet us and I couldn't help myself...it had nearly been a year since I had seen her so I bolted on over and gave her huge squishy hugs! It was soo excited. After collected myself I went over to help Ronan collect our luggage. I was beaming with pride and joy when I introduced Ronan to Corina - who gave me the wink and nod of approval for my fabulous taste.

(side note - I still look at Ronan and get butterflies in my tummy. I think he's drop dead sexy).

Ahem.

Corina and Dean were really busy on Friday as it was the day before their wedding. We took them out for breakfast after a quick luggage drop and wardrobe change at their place. After breakfast they put us on a bus to downtown Montreal and let us explore.

This was by far the best day of touring! I think that we might have walked close to 30Kms. I am NOT exaggerating. For those of you who know Montreal I think you might agree. For those of you who don't...trust me.

Off the bus from Dorval (where Corina lives) we took he Metro to McGill station. From there we walked down St. Catherine to Old Montreal. Once there we took in such wonderful sights as miscellaneous historical buildings-turned hotels, Notre Dame Basilica (WOWZERS), Place D'Arms (neat-oh) and then all the way down to the Old Port. Once at the Old Port we walked the 8km stretch and looked in all the boutique shops before getting an ice-cream that melted before I could truly enjoy it. Oh yes...did I mention the temperature was 39 degrees C but with the humidity was closer to 43 degrees Celsius? (For my American friends...take 43, double it and add 16 and don't forget to remember what humidity is like...the air so thick you can barely breathe).

At the Old Port we thought it would be a great idea to head over to Olympic Stadium and take the venicular up as well as see what the Biodome is all about. Off we go to the nearest metro station which was 4kms away. We made it in time to see them locking the doors of the Olympic Stadium at 5:05PM on a Friday. Quelle Poopey! Over to the Biodome across the way only to be met with the same fate. TABERNAC!

We sat and watched some swimming at the Olympic Stadium and planned out the next stage. We have now been awake for close to 34 hours and it's 6PM. We are both fading and need to re-energize if we are going to take in Crescent St for the nightlife.

So back down to Old Montreal we go. Back at Place D'Arms and in time for a small but brief breeze to come off the water. We decided to take a horse drawn carriage ride through Old Montreal which was expensive but great fun and very romantic. Our driver received dirty looks from his fellow horsey-dudes and I overheard one of them yell something less than flattering in French. Funny how my 13 yrs of French had not really come in handy and the only French I could understand was all the bad stuff!

We went to a cute little restaurant on St. Paul's (restaurant road really) and then off we went to take in some bars. Did I mention that it was Formula One weekend and that the place was PACKED with people? 9PM and we could barely move through the crowds. Somehow we made it to Crescent St and I couldn't believe the number of people! There must have been close to 20 Thousand people in the downtown area!! The visible lack of law enforcement was also something new. Had that been Vancouver you wouldn't have been able to walk one block with out seeing 10 cops...in Montreal...we saw 3 cops in a 3 block area.

We ended up back at Corina's around 3AM after a disaster of me loosing her address and us walking around her neighbourhood for about an hour and a half. At that point I was so tired I was snappy and crying at Ronan. We had been up for 47 hours.

The wedding was beautiful! Pictures to follow soon.

Sunday Ronan and I went back down town Montreal and took in the Olympic Stadium and were stuck at the top for 45minutes as the venicular refused to work. When we were finally down on the ground once more we took a lightening fast walk through the Biodome. I was SUPER happy to see the monkeys there. (I have a thing for monkeys...don't ask...just accept.)

Those 4 days in Montreal with Ronan were wonderful! It is so rare that we have a day off together that to have 4 in a row with each other was like a gift! I loved it. I know I was tired and sharp with him sometimes and I did have a bit of a melt down on Saturday before the wedding...but I loved my time with him. There is something really lovely about exploring a city with your lover...it was amazing.

Also...after the wedding on Saturday night we took some rather interesting photos with the new digital camera. They have all been erased to be clear...but it was so much fun taking those photos!!!

Ok....I'll see if I can upload some photos now.