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.
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.
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
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.
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