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Share your tales of travel in Canada with friends and family.
I was in Montréal twice in February of this year. I stop in Montréal fairly regularly, but seldom do I spend more than 24 hours there. Not that I don't want to, but circumstances beyond my control normally dictate this fact. And these two occasions in February were no different.
As difficult as it is to do very much in only a few hours, in a city like Montréal you can still find something fun to do anyway. I've got enough friends in the city that once I got there with no real plan, I started calling them with a good mind that SOMEONE would be available, but after about 20 phone calls, I learned that a Saturday afternoon in February was not a time to hang out with Paul, but rather, a time to enjoy time alone after working for 12 days straight or to write papers. It wasn't bad though as it too was a chance for me to enjoy time alone and catch up on some reading in Aux Vivres, one of my favorite Montréal restaurants. Another time, a friend of mine and I were staying over at a friend's before heading to NYC. This was cool too, we made pizza and watched movies, calling it an early night as we had to be at the airport in only a few hours. We woke up to the smell of some bizarre food our friend's roommate decided to make at 5:30am. I still can't figure out exactly what it was or what she was doing up at that hour preparing food.
One of my favorite images of Montréal is offered in Gabrielle Roy's Bonheur d'occasion (English title: The Tin Flute). This is a book a lot of us have to read in high school and pretty much, it's about a francophone family living in the poor area known as St. Henri, right by the train tracks. Roy is so careful and so accurate in her description, you can nearly hear the trains screeching on the rails as this only amplifies the family's personal agony caused by their own set of problems. Fast forward some years and the Montréal musical collective, all living near the tracks of St. Henri, Godspeed You Black Emperor would indirectly reply to Roy's technique but this time through music. They've made available nearly their entirely discography on their website.
Hip-Hop 4 Ever
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