Montreal Day 3

June 29, 2010 Le Bar Mont Royal

Good day. I’m sitting here with the World Cup game between Paraguay and Japan on one TV, and Serena Williams’ match at Wimbledon on the other. The bicycle is back in the room ready to go on Thursday. Right now, it’s chained to the radiator. Had a little bit of a scare at the bicycle shop. No one could find the CamelBack backpack that was included in the bike box. It had my lock, my helmet, my gloves, my spare tubes in it. Nothing too important.

So, last night (make that yesterday afternoon) I went to the hostel to take a short rest at around 4:30. I think I rolled over and looked at my watch and saw that it was 7:30. I figured, “OK. Just a couple of more minutes.” Next time I looked at my watch (with the dial light…thank God I got a new watch before this trip), it was 1:30. I guess I needed the sleep a bit, huh?

Anyway…started stirring at about 4:30 and have been going since then. Checked e-mail for a couple of follow-ups to e-mails I sent yesterday. No bad news.

Read a bit more of Tony Horowitz’s Baghdad Without a Map. Pretty good stuff. I also figured out my route out of town and all the way to Ottawa. For those of you playing along at home, I’ll be following Rue St. Denis out of Montreal (only two streets over from where my hostel is); then I’ll pick up Route 344 heading west to Ottawa. Then, I’ll switch over to Route 148 where the two intersect. Route 148 takes me all the way along the north side of the River (not sure which one) and into the small town of Montebello where my motel is: Motel Bel-Eau. It’s right on the main street, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find.

Although cereal and toast is included with the price of the room at the hostel, I elected to wander out for a “real” breakfast this morning. I found a place where I got 2 eggs, bacon, sausage, AND ham, fried potatoes, “baked” beans (their quotation marks, not mine), fruit (melon and pineapple), and tea. Good stuff. Also because I had skipped dinner last night in favor of much needed rest. From there, I wandered down to the bike shop to pick up the bike. I rode it back to the hostel (a bit uncomfortably because the seat was too high). Almost as soon as I got back to the hostel, it began raining pretty good. (Oh, ya. It rained pretty good last night, too. A bit of thunder and lightning for good measure.) So, that put the kibosh on the ride around the city. Oh, well. Not to worry. I’ll have a good go tomorrow.

As I was walking down here from the hostel (in the rain), I just started looking around at all the stuff that is so different from Dubai…tree-lined streets, traffic lights that people actually obey, bicycles out the ying-yang, storefronts instead of malls. Pretty neat stuff. Certainly reminded me that I’m in a very different part of the world. The cashier at the Pharmacy (picked up toothpaste) was veiled. Other than that, I haven’t seen any veiled women and certainly no dishdashas or abeyas. VERY DIFFERENT. But pretty freakin’ expensive. I suppose it’s pretty logical for me to think that based on many of the places that I’m used to frequenting on my holidays. Oh, well.

Oh, yah. Probably the reason that I didn’t need dinner last night because I had a pretty late lunch of a three-cheese pizza at a pretty nice restaurant.