The Illegal Train Ride

Today was our first real day in Montréal. The morning was a bit of a rush because the second to last train of the morning left at 9:00am and the last one was an hour and a half later, so we all rushed into the car an barely made the train, which, as it turned out, left ten minutes before we thought it did. Dad ended up only getting a ticket for himself, so Mum and I rode the whole way to the Bell Centre illegally (Isaac was free). After we made it there we decided to walk through town to Vieux Montréal and check out the area over the there, after we went into the Habs gift shop of course. When we got down to the area we wanted to be, right near the waterfront. We hadn’t managed to find the cobblestoned walking path Dad was looking for, but we were walking past a lot of cafés, so we decided to stop for a snack. The first one we went to wasn’t what we were looking for, so we

walked down a bit further until we found one that looked quaint, with a shop attached to it that sold unique items. Afterwards we walked back uptown for a block and finally came across the cobblestone street, made solely for pedestrians, which is basically the centre of Vieux Montréal. We walked up and down the street for a while, looking in shops and such. I bought a fancy new iPad case for my fancy new iPad. It has piano keys on the cover and a built in wallet on the inside. I enjoy it. At around lunch time I think, we stopped at a poutine place on the corner of the cobblestone street and a big square filled with street performers and stalls and lined with more shops and restaurants. The poutine was really good, as expected as it is Quebec, as was the smoked meat sandwich Dad ordered. It was ridiculously hot at this point, even in the really cool courtyard the poutine place had. We walked down further, more towards the St. Laurence again, and came across an indoor market. It was full of very expensive boutiques, most of which had nice stuff of course. By then we were getting tired thanks to the magnificent heat, so we started back, stopping at a couple of places along the way. The first was this little cathedral named after a nun, I can’t remember which one, but the inside was quite nice. Then we went in the direction of the Notre Dame basilica, stopping in another shop along the way, which had really nice writing and drawing supplies, but it was very expensive, which was too bad otherwise I would have bought some. Apparently you have to pay for admission to the basilica, so we went across the street to the oldest BMO in Canada, which had free entry. It was a beautiful building, lots of columns and coloured marble. There was also a more modern addition with a mini museum, which we decided to check out. It had the history of the Bank of Montreal, along with some examples of counterfeit money and important events

in Canada’s history that involved the BMO in some way, like when the CEO of the company pounded in the last peg of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The we actually got on our way back to the station, and Dad and I decided to use the underground system so as to stay out of the heat. It went something like this; first we lost Dad in an underground mall, before realizing he was exactly where we left him when the three of us went to the washrooms. Second, we got lost in the tunnels. Third, we gave up completely and got back on the streets so we could find the Bell Centre from the outside. Good times. It actually turned out that we had really good timing, because we hopped on the train exactly five minutes before it left. Go us. By the time we got home it was around 6:00pm, so it was time for supper and some relaxation time. Peace out m8s.

#camping #montreal #quebec