Montreal and the Conference

We flew Porter Airlines from Halifax to Montreal. Very impressive little airline –the aircraft only had two propellers but they’re a lot of fun. Highlight was watching two young guys working their way through five beers each on a one hour forty minute flight – and then proceeded to turn around and chat up two young ladies in the seat behind. I’m sure they appeared irresistible to these girls.

                               Maurs and Patty with "The Gossips" - street art Montreal style

Montreal was warm and we walked and walked all over the old town in the morning and because it was going to be even hotter the next day, we walked up through Mont Royal in the afternoon. I came back nursing two blisters – a penalty for inappropriate footwear – but a small price to pay. It’s staggering to walk among houses that were built before Cook discovered Australia, although after listening to our tour guide who showed us around Vieux Montreal every building burned down at some stage and got rebuilt. You might have heard about the student riots in Montreal? Well you’ll have to fill us in when we get back because we saw no sign of them in spite of walking all over the city for a whole weekend.

                                      Gus and Patty outside the Basilica in Vieux Montreal

One thing we did notice was the number of young guys begging on the street (panhandlers as Jim calls them), just sitting on the sidewalk rattling paper cups. We overheard one panhandler telling a passer-by that if he thought he had a bad day it wasn’t as bad a day as the one that he had. Very loudly, he was outraged that “some (expletive) person spat in my (expletive) face, man!” I thought, it’s almost enough to make you want to give up begging! Another guy placed his cup right in the centre of the sidewalk and Maurs nearly kicked a field goal with it (she only just missed it). Maybe you have to put extra coins in the cup if you do kick it – I’m not sure what the penalties are in this town.

We reunited with our friend Jim and drove up to this conference at Mont Gabriel – a ski resort (now snowless) about 60 km outside of Montreal. It was good to catch up with colleagues that we had met over the years and we spent a number of nights crammed into Jim’s room drinking scotch and acquainting the younger students with the perils of extratropical transition. The conference was rather isolated but Jim and Maurs and I skipped class (we’re old enough to do this now) and visited a couple of the local towns for shopping (mostly scotch and beer) and meals. A highlight was Mont Tremblant which is a quaint little town whose income resolves around skiing and a casino. Must be fabulous in winter-time.

Gus and Jim explore Mont Tremblant

                                    Beer's here! Let the conference begin! (Jim, Pat and Liz)

The hotel may be isolated but it does have its own groundhog and Maurs has photographic evidence of course. I’ve got to check our bag to ensure she doesn’t smuggle one back.

                         Could be the next cane toad plague for Aus! The hotel Woodchuck

NYC Part1 and Halifax

Gotta say I was not looking forward to going through Tom Bradley Terminal in LA but we were pleasantly surprised by the efficiency and lack of hassle this time around. Onwards to JFK New York and a taxi ride into the Wall Street area. Driver was originally from the Punjab who had been in NYC for 22 years but we still had trouble understanding him at times. Our hotel was good and a welcome sight after the trip. We found a pub on Wall Street for dinner and we didn’t need rocking to get to sleep.

Next day we got out early and walked to nearby Battery Park – the first photo Maurs took in the Big Apple? Statue of Liberty? Skyscrapers? Any NYC icons? No. A squirrel in the park. We walked the south end up to Greenwich Village and back down Broadway on a really pleasant day with lots of the locals grabbing some rays after a few days of rain previously (so we were told).

                                                        One NYC squirrel over easy

Sunday meant a car ride to Newark Airport in New Jersey to catch a flight to Halifax Canada to meet our friends Jim and Andra. NJ is highly industrial – the airport also fairly efficient - and the trip to Nova Scotia very pleasant. One small incident occurred upon meeting Jim at the airport. It was Mother’s Day and there was a lady there handing out little chocolate treats (and not just to mothers – Jim and I got one too!) We were so excited that when we got to the car I noticed one item of baggage –our cabin bag - was not with us. “I must have left it in the airport while we were taking chocolate onboard. If this was Australia it would now be on the tarmac with a robot tank blowing it up”, I said. “This is Nova Scotia” said Jim and sure enough our bag was happily sitting out in the middle of nowhere waiting for us.

                                              Jim, Andra and Maurs at Peggys Cove, NS

Halifax is a beautiful little town. Jim and Andra drove us out to Peggy’s Cove which is an iconic piece of Nova Scotia, made all the more famous by our friend Barry Hanstrum years before when he chose to show his fluency in the French language, resulting in a large eruption of laughter from Jim’s French buddies. On the way home we picked up several HUGE local lobsters (still alive but tethered) and a mess of mussels. I started calling them “Lefty” and “One-armed Pete” and Andra said “Don’t name them! We’re going to throw them in a pot of boiling water in an hour!” She was right. It was sad saying goodbye to Lefty. (They were spectacularly good by the way).

                                                             Sorry about this Lefty

After dinner (or supper as they have in Canada) we went down to a local pub called the Lower Deck and drank some beer and watched a cover band called Signal Hill who were excellent. Someone flashed us and asked if he could use the photo on their website. Consequently we found ourselves on their website, looking like stunned halibut. One might assume it was alcohol but it was jet lag making us look like that, honestly. It was a big day.

Jim had some time off and took us to see the sights including Lunenburg and Mahone Bay and a tour of Nova Scotian vineyards. Interesting cold country wines were had.

                                                              Lunenburg scene

We had a great time with the Abrahams but it all turned sour when they discovered we had been to Tim Hortons for coffee and they made us leave. Tim Hortons is something of a national institution – stores on every corner and hugely popular, but the coffee is ordinary and distained in Abraham-land. We had to go once though.

Next stop – Montreal!