Montreal '06

So I got a chance to go to Montreal with Mike, Hoenis, Kenneth, Kary, Hannah, Tracy and Erica for the first time in a long time this past holiday weekend. I've been pretty busy with school lately, so it was nice just to get away with a few friends and take my mind off some of the stresses of school. I've posted some rather oddball pics in my imagestation, but you can find some others through some of the other guys' websites or whatever.

Even before the trip went down, we had a bunch of problems getting things together. We had originally wanted to stay with a few friends, but that plan fell through as our group grew to about 8 people, which was more than any one place could hold. So, we got pointed to a website with listings of people who rent out their apartments. We found the perfect place, close to downtown, reasonably priced, internet, a/c, cable, etc., and emailed in to book it. For some reason, the guy never received our confirmation email, and we lost the place. He felt pretty bad about the whole situation, so he hooked us up with a friend of his that had a place. It was substantially... more ghetto, but whatever, it was a place to crash and we didn't really have the time to be picky. All this, coupled with some car issues, made the trip already way more stressful than it should've been. But we managed to iron it all out and off we went....

We left on Friday afternoon at about 2pm... well, Mike did anyway. We had originally planned to leave together, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, my car couldn't leave until about an hour later. Traffic was pretty stinking heavy leaving town, as expected, but we still made half-decent time getting there. The ride there was pretty cool as we drove through Ajax and Whitby. ...Yeah okay, not really. But after we got through that area, and were about an hour from Kingston, the weather was awesome. It was sunny in the stretch of highway where we were driving, but ahead of us, it was dark and we could tell it had been raining. The combination gave us a full view of two complete rainbows (check Erica's site for pics). It was the first time I had seen a rainbow in its entirety. Seeing two was just icing on the cake. Such a testament to God's creation. The other big 'highlight' was finding a Petro purely by chance with the gas as 95.9. The kick was that they were out of regular and extra, so we got premium at the same price. Sweet.

We got in at about 9:45pm, having stopped a few times along the way for food, gas and dropping bombs. We didn't really have a full dinner on the way, so what's the best way to sate our hunger? La Belle Province. Oh my fatty greasy poutine goodness. There's nothing like the real deal. We also checked out one of the main plateaus overlooking the downtown core. The vistas in Montreal are so sick. I really wish we had places like that here in Toronto. We got back at about 1am and let the itis take care of the rest....

Saturday morning, up at out the door by about 12pm and onto Schwartz's Bifteck. Damn, fresh Montreal smoked meat is the illin'. We each had about a pound of meat on rye with the trademark black cherry cola. We got outta there by about 1:30pm and headed to St. Catherine's st. to do some shopping and to check out jazzfest. Of course, we were idiots in not realizing that it was Canada Day and all the stores were closed. Jazzfest was pretty cool, but we didn't stick around too long as we knew we'd be back on Sunday. We checked out the other plateaus, as well as the blinged out areas of Montreal. Damn. The houses there were siiiiiccckkkk. I mean, it wasn't just the houses. It was the views they had too. Being on the mountain, a lot of the houses there had backyard views that were just breathtaking. We went out to St. Hubert's for dinner, then Casino Montreal where Gamblor totall pwned Kenneth at Casino War. You can ask him about what happened there. Gamblor got me too, but I got a little more entertainment outta my moneeeyy. Got home at about 2:30am, and totally crashed.

We had planned to get up for church service at 9:30am. LOL. Yeah, we woke up at about 12:30pm. We went to St. Viateur for a sweet breakfast, including some wicked Montreal bagels... then headed downtown to take advantage of whatever time we had left to do some shopping. It was Sunday, so stores were closing at 5pm, which kinda sucked, but all the guys got shorts for $7.50. Awesome. Went to Jazzfest again and took in a few acts. Pretty wicked stuff all around. There was one particular artist that was really good, doing a lot covers of classics, along with some original stuff too. Her name escapes me, but Mike picked up her cd and got and autograph, so you can talk to him for more details. Got outta there at around 9:30pm or so, and had dinner at Bag's (Mike's... just some restaurant there). We were going to check out The Upstairs, Mike's favourite jazz bar in Montreal, but it was pretty late by the time we finished dinner and we still had to have some pie from The Big Apple we had picked up on the way here. Passed out cold again by 2am.

Monday... up by around 10am, packed everything up, out the door by around 11:15am or so. We headed over to Santropol, a quant little sandwich shop pretty closeby to Schwartz's. Their sandwiches were frigging amazing. Fresh ingredients, with weird flavour combinations. I had Pepper Street (or City, Town, someting like that). Ham, cream cheese, fresh veggies and a jalapeno jelly. So damn good. Mike has some pretty cool shots on his blog. Over to Schwartz's again afterwards to pick up some take out for the ride home. The line was insane, but we waited around anyway. Picked up some bagels, and outta the city by 3pm. It was a little later than we originally wanted, but had to roll with the punches.

We stopped by in Kingston for some gas and dinner along the way at about 6pm. Greco's, as recommended by Gerrome and Connie among others, was pretty stinking good, especially since it was pretty cheap too. Most of us had the souvlaki or the gyros. Out of Kingston by about 7pm... hit traffic along the way, but managed to get ourselves home by around 10pm even with a stop along the way for some coffee and to work out the rest of the bills.

All in all, it was a much needed road trip with a bunch of great friends, especially after going through one of my toughest weeks of school ever. Maybe we'll do it again in August after school's done....