An awkward dorm moment...

Jade and I booked into a 4-bed dorm room last night which we had to ourselves. Until 2am when two German girls arrived as we were just getting off to sleep. We get up, chat to them for a bit - the usual hostel chat. We cover the usual names/nationalities where they've come from (Vancouver) and intended plans (working on a husky farm, leaving in the morning) whilst they get ready for bed. In the morning I speak to them as well for a bit as they get ready to leave.

Fast forward to this evening. I'm sitting on my bed, Facebooking and the door opens and in walk the two German girls, clearly not on aforementioned husky farm. I'm not entirely sure, but smile anyway and assume it's them, and get a recognising smile back, and then one of them starts explaining what they're doing back. Unfortunately their car was broken into, so they're being delayed a day whilst they get it fixed.

In walks Jade from reception. Says hi, and asks "where are you from". Catherina responds..."uhhhmmm...." and I jump in explaining story of the broken car, and how they've been delayed in their trip to the husky farm (complete with raised eyebrows and all manner of other efforts to subtly let Jade know that she has met these girls before). Jade looks at me, none the wiser. I repeat the story. Jade giggles, "oh that's funny". German girls are inclined to disagree. Jade then asks, "so, where are you from". At this point I resign. Fortunately for Jade, she manages a plausible story about it being dark at 2am, a lack of contact lenses and being asleep for most of the morning, which seems to do the trick, but possibly not because they leave the room pretty soon after.

We're giving our hostel a mixed review at the moment. On the plus side, it's big, has a big kitchen, bar and common room area, is centrally located, has lots of information and a friendly reception desk. On the down side, it's quite empty (technically not its fault), it's fairly expensive (rooms, food, drinks), doesn't do free breakfasts and you can't bring your own alcohol in and the kitchen has no oven, which we discovered one trip to the supermarket too late, returning with beers and pizza. Jade's beers were confiscated at reception and we had an interesting dinner of microwaved and pan-fried pizza. Would you like your crusts soggy or burnt, ladies? For the alcohol problem, we've arranged an overnight smuggling trip which involves J and M taking them out as M went home, and M bringing them back hidden in her bag tomorrow. I'm sorted as I have a bottle of Malibu in my bag that I'd completely forgotten was there!

Montreal, however, is beautiful! We walked for ages today, down and along the river St Laurent to Vieux Montreal and the Vieux Port, all quite French and European, visited Notre Dame (beautiful), up through Chinatown, to Parc Mont Royal, and up the mountain to look down on the lights of the city stretching out into the distance.

Montreal isn't completely French, but definitely not as American as Toronto. Maybe Canadian would be a good term! It's far more beautiful, sophisticated and chic than Toronto, and it feels like it knows it too. But the friendliness and helpfull attitudes I experienced in TO is still very much in evidence. I'm not sure why I was surprised by this. I suppose a few people had led me to believe that it was less so. Or perhaps I was unconsciously following traditional English stereotypes about the French (which I actually disagree with!!). Still have difficulty understanding them though! What is weird, though, is speaking French but having to put dollars on the end of sentences whenever discussing prices. I automatically want to say Euros.

Tomorrow...hmm, I've forgotten our plans for the morning. Oh yeah, exploring the indoor/underground city in the "morning" (ie, early afternoon) before I head off to Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau arrivals to meet a certain last-minute visitor. Tres exciting :-) Then we're all hitting the Montreal night scene good 'n' proper to mourn Jade's last evening in Canada and give her a good send-off! We might even invite les Allemandes in an attempt to offer an olive branch if they're still here...now, it was Catherina, and...