Poutine, and other rad food in Montreal

I have really embraced a bit of the local stuff when I have been here in Canada. The food over in Quebec was also better than what I found in other parts of Canada so far.

Poutine has been my favourite so far. Best half past three in the morning food ever.



It is a delightful mess of chips, covered in cheese curds and gravy. There are also some variations on the main recipe. The one I had the other Thursday at half past three in the morning had a creamy pepper gravy on it instead of your standard brown gravy.

I also found Chocky milk for sale as well in Montreal and I went crazy for it. I didn't really see any out west.



There were also markets with fantastic butchers in them. It was a pity that I only really found the awesome butchers until I was about to leave.



This cabinet had all kinds of weird and wonderful meats in it. Goose, duck, rabbit, hare, beef, chicken, lamb, moose and oma's favourite horse.

I got some very nice chicken there for cheap as well, and in the same market some brilliant Bananas, Apples and Oranges.

I was definitely feeling better when I left Montreal.

Montreal Part 1

After I had an epic sleep in after my nightmare day I dragged myself out of bed and went walking round Montreal.

I was a little weirded out at first as it was about minus seven degrees and there was snow ever where, and all the signage was in French. How ever minor, I was getting my first taste of culture shock, and a little climate shock as I have never been in a city covered in snow.



It was even snowing a little which was nice. I walked up the main drag of Montreal, Rue Sainte Catherine to look around. I then randomly wandered into the RESO, otherwise known as "The Underground City".

It is unreal, in the middle of the city pretty much all of the office buildings and malls are all underground and connected together. It is air conditioned so it's heated in winter when the streets are covered in snow, and cooled in summer when it reaches extreme temperatures of like 20 degrees.

It covers something like 12 square kilometres, connecting 60 buildings with 32 kilometres of tunnels connecting everything. You can also access seven of the metro stations from the underground city as well.

I also love the fact that they have a functioning metro system in the middle of the city, it makes getting round so quick and easy, as trains come every few minutes.

I then went into the tourism office where I got a rather handy map and the French Canadian woman circled a whole bunch of rad stuff to do round town. I got some groceries and went back to the hostel for dinner and a quiet one.

There I met a swiss german girl, Michaela who listened to my story about the nightmare day I had before, and we ended up catching a gig that night, up on the Plateau (plateau of Mont Royal) which is the arty part of town.

It was some random indy band from Florida called "Clock Hands Strangle" who were playing a small gig on a Monday night in Montreal for a $5 cover. I liked their set and I went to have a chat with the singer at the merch stand after their set. When the bloke heard I was an Aussie he gave me a free CD which was pretty rad.

The next morning there were blue sky's and awesome visibility, so I met Michaela and we decided to do the tourist thing and go up to the Olympic Stadium. It was very handy that I met her as well, as being Swiss they can speak German, French and English so that helped me get over the language barrier quickly.



The Olympic stadium was built for the 1976 Olympics, and I think is an awesome structure. It is also the largest inclined tower in the world, although it was a bit of an easy one because the only other inclined tower in the world is the leaning tower of Pisa.



We had unreal views of the city as well, it was about the first clear day for a while which was nice. The tour of the stadium was interesting as well. We also checked out the Quay and Old Montreal.

There were some awesome buildings down in Old Montreal, and a lot of history there.



I went and got some more food and that night made up some epic mash, which was good to get into me after having to eat out in Vancouver for a week.

Wednesday Michaela went off to Mont Tremblant for a few days to snowboard and I was off on my own again. It was rather quiet in the hostel I was staying in, I had my four bunk room to myself for three nights in a row which was nice. The only problem was that there was not that many people hanging round in the common area that you could team up with and go do things with.

I decided to go off on an epic walk around the Plateau and Mont Royal park it's self. I caught the Metro and then walked up Rue Mont Royal. There was ice and snow covering everything, and we were even getting some fresh snow. It was a little windy but I was warm enough.



There were mad people jogging on the snow and ice.



There were squirrels and stuff there as well.



There was some stairs to get to the top.



And when I got to the top I had an awesome view of the city.





The next day I went off on a big trip up to the markets where they had all kinds of good stuff. A bloke gave me some Oranges for half price because I was an Aussie who was able to spit out a very dodgy "Parle vouz Anglais" instead of just speaking English.

I also got some very nice corn fed chicken thighs for cheap, even if I had to bone and skin it.

It was Thursday night, so it was the Hostel pub crawl night. All of a sudden all these people who had been hiding in their rooms all came out and met so we could get our trashbag on. I think something like 15 people including my new Belgian room mate turned up.

We took the metro up to Sherbrooke station and then walk a few blocks over to the main pub and club strip, Boul Saint-Laurent. We went to a few awesome little bars above shops where they had all kinds of cheap booze, much cheaper than anywhere else I have been in Canada so far.

I after a while I ended up in a group with a Brazilian girl from , a Dutch girl, a girl from Vancouver and a bloke from Toronto. Most of them were uni students on a break.

After getting into some wonderfully cheap Sambuca shots and pints of beer. Eventually we ended up in some random club that was full to capacity, that was playing 50's rock 'n roll. The people in there were going mental, there was even some bloke swinging off the fire sprinklers. The dance floor was overflowing as well.

We ended up leaving there at about three in the morning and squeezing the five of us in a taxi to get back to the hostel. Thing is we were hungry so we went out looking for late night feed.

I wanted some of that glorious Montreal poutine so we went off and got some. I will dedicate a post to Poutine and how awesome it is.

We got home from getting Poutine at half past four in the morning, it was good.

What a prick of a day (15 Feb 09)

I didn't really sleep on the Saturday night, although I did get get up at half past four as i had to get a 0700 flight to Toronto, followed by a train trip to Montreal.

I quickly packed the rest of my things and jumped in the shower. I spent too long on the so wonderfully warm shower, then because the sink didn't have a plug it took me a while to shave because I was always turning the tap on and off (should have done it the night before.... or improvsed a plug made from some paper towel like I do now).

I just missed the 0528 bus to the airport by like a minute and had to wait half an hour for the next one, in Vancouver before sun up, it was cold and lame. Once I was on the bus though I was there in about 15 minutes.

The bus drops you about a kay or so from the airport at a little terminal where a few busses drop people off to get the shuttle, which runs every 15 minutes or so. I jumped on the second bus and I was quickly off. When the bus stopped at Vancouver International I stayed on, as I was catching a domestic flight. I made the rookie error of not asking if it drops people at the domestic terminal.

It dosen't.


So I went round in a loop and ended up back where I started. And the next bus wasn't for another 15 minutes... epic fail.

I eventually got into the airport around 0610, so I should have had plenty of time. I eventually got through the line at around quarter past and when I went to check in it turned out Air Canada hadn't listed me properly when I rang reservations the day before. The operator confused the E in my sirname with an A (aussie accent) and because of that I could not check in. I had to ring up reservations again and re-list, as they couldn't do it there at the airport.

By the time I had done that and gotten to bag check it was 0630 and the flight had closed, although Air Canada staff were able to check my bags and possibly get me on if I can get through security in time.

I couldn't. The security line was about 40 minutes long. And then when I was in the line I went to pull out my toletries bag from my carry on, as in this "age of terror" that we live in we have to pull all liquids and pastes out of your carry on for inspection.

I eventually got through the security line and got to the gate, where I had missed my flight. The gate staff were helpful and listed me on the next flight, in an hour.

I then went to look in my bag for my tickets wallet. It is slighty larger than an airline ticket, but thicker. It has all handy things like spare VISA cards, something like CAD$200, my insurance details, a mobile phone SIM and other handy things. I normally keep my passport in there as well but I had that in my pocket for boarding.

I opened up my bag and I couldn't find the bloody thing. I started to stress a bit and I ran around like a headless chook around the airport trying to find the bloody thing, which I thought was dropped in the security line when I went to get the toothpaste out, as that was the last time I had seen it.

Failing to find anything I got on the 0815 flight enroute to Toronto. It was a three and a half hour flight but we arrived at 1600 due to crossing a few time zones and delays at Van.

It then took 45 minutes for my bag to come out and I still had to get into the train station in the middle of Toronto. I got on the bus, then took the metro into Union Station.

I was supposed to be on the half past four train to Montreal but there was no way I was going to make that one. I got into Union Station in the middle of Toronto at at half past six, and I quickly made my way over to the VIA Rail counter to see if I could get on a train that night.

I gave the bloke at the ticket office my booking reference and he said the next train was leaving in two minutes, and if I hurried I could make it. He printed off my tickets and I then got my Amazing Racer on and dashed through the train station with my pack on my back searching for the platform.

I quickly found the platform and ran up the stairs and jumped into my assigned carriage. And even before I had my pack off they had closed the doors and we were on our way.

I then had a rather uneventful five and a half hour trip to Montreal. This train stopped everywhere so it took longer than normal, an express will get you between the two citys in four and a half hours.

I basicall sat back and chilled, and listened to some slow happy female singer-songwriter music to relax myself at the end of a rather long and tiring day.

I did however loose my shit when I saw the snacks cart with a bottle of chocky milk on it! I love the stuff and I could not find any in western Canada so that made me happy.

I eventually got into Montreal, just after midnight and instead of walking the few blocks to my hostel I decided to get a taxi for like $6 and save walking through the snow in a city I didn't know looking for a place to stay.

I got in to the hostel at about half past 12 and I collapsed into bed.

At least I had an adventure eh! ..... Oh dear, I am stating to talk like the locals

Epicness

I have had a few awesome days, followed by a day where nothing went right.

On Friday last week I went back down to Stanly park with a few of the people I have picked up along the way. Most of us hired bikes and some of us went to play pitch and putt golf in the park there.

As expected we all sucked at golf, but we were only mucking round any way so it didn't really matter that much. I think I ended up something like 34 over par after 18 holes that were 100m at the most.

Myself golfing in my trackie daks, note the ball in the air.


There was also a raccoon hanging round on the golf course, they are kinda like possums.


After that I jumped on my dodgy $12 a day road pushbike and went for an epic ride with Mark. I was happy enough explore the trails but Mark had other ideas. We ended up riding from Stanly Park, through Gastown and East Hastings (the ghetto, junkies everywhere) over to the Pacific Coliseum that I saw the Giants at the other day and over the Iron Workers bridge.

This is the view from the Iron Workers bridge over to down town Vancouver, that big green thing on the right is Stanley Park and you might be able to make out the Lions Gate bridge that runs into Stanley Park.


Marks back



From there we rode all through North Vancouver and back over the Lions Gate bridge and into Stanly Park again to hit some trails up on my dodgy bike. It took us about four hours and I think we covered something like 15 or so kilometers, possibly more.

The next morning was Saturday, which was of course Rugby morning, where a crew of us would pack into a nearby pub that was showing the 6 nations at 8 in the morning and serving beer. We had even picked up some new members of our rugby crew in the past week as well.

After a big day watching rugby I wanted to have an early night as I had to be up early to catch a flight to Toronto then a train to Montreal.

I was ironing my pants and shirt in the laundry when I met some top girls from Vancouver Island who were over for a trashy weekend. I had my walkman phone on and I was singing and dancing to Sarah Blasko while kinda ironing in the laundry, which was near their rooms.

They ended up dragging me kicking and screaming out on the town (ok maybe not kicking and screaming). Canadian girls are awesome, I just met them and they were buying me drinks and doing my ironing for me.

After a top night out though the wheels fell off....

Stay tuned for my Montreal trip special.

City of Glass, City of Bums

I have been in Vancouver for a few days where I have been getting my trashbag out with a multinational crew of backpackers that I have quickly met and fallen in with.

I had a good bus ride down the Sea to Sky highway that links Vancouver and Whistler, there is a crazy amount of construction going on there at the moment in the lead up to the Winter Olympics in one year.



The first night i got into Vancouver I randomly decided to go on a ghost tour of Gastown, which is the oldest part of Vancouver, and infested with bums. When we left there was four of us in the tour, until we got to the statue of the fallen soldier being carried away by an angel out the front of the old train station.

After a few minutes a few other backpackers came running up to us, including Joey from Jersey, Ross the wild looking Englishman with a huge beard and wearing only a t-shirt, and an aussie girl.

Allegedly they missed the start of the tour and ran all the way down Granville St past all the roadworks and bums to catch up with us and join the circle where our tour guide was having a talk. Ross had a beer in his hand wrapped in a plastic bag and was about 1/3rd of the way through when the local constabulary tapped him on the shoulder and wanted a word.

Turns out you can't drink on the streets here and they probably thought he was a bum hassling some poor tourists.

And then we ran into "The Captain". He is a bum that has a big beard and wares a pirate hat and yarrs at people. He was trying to get people to pay him a dollar so we could get a photo with the captain. It was just such a random bum, and kept calling himself the captain.

The other bum's were not as entertaining. We had one have a go at us for not giving him some change, and when we were walking past a bottle-o he stormed in the door walking through our group and saying "It takes an old lady to give someone change".

We later also got taken into "Blood Alley" by out guide, where alot of bums and drug addict prostitutes hang out and there are rats on the street. I was getting a funny feeling about the place, it could maybe have been a ghost, but was more likely me just getting nervous about hanging round in a dodgy alley.

The tour was kinda interesting and the guide had some good stories as well as a lot of knowledge of the history of the area which was mainly why i went there in first place.

After that was over we went on the first of many trashy nights out in van.

The next day I went down to Stanly Park with some of the people I met and we checked out the aquarium which was pretty cool. The people who where not from near the coast were amazed. The Sea Otters were really cool and the dolphins here don't suck so much.



And then it turned into a trashy night.

The next night a just went wandering round Vancouver. It was pub/club night on friday night and we went out and I met some seppo's that were actually pretty cool.

The next few days I went off and checked out Downtown Vancouver. On the Sunday morning a few of us went off to watch wales vs scotland six nations rugby games in a pub at 7 in the morning in Gastown. It was opening early for a Manchester United game but they had the rugby channel.

Only thing was that the pub didn't open until 8 and the rugby was delayed, so we got to watch the games from the day before and drink beer before breakfast time.We also found out that the other game would be on later that afternoon so we went and checked that out.

The next few days most of my regular crew went up to whistler so I had time off to check out Van, get a few things worked out and to let my liver recover.

I went into Stanly park for another walk and was looking at the Stanly park van which had their services written on it, which included "Coyote Awareness". I took no more than ten steps and there on the tarmac road was a coyote with half a rabbit in it's mouth was staring back at me not more than 10 meters away.

I froze and we stared at each other for a while and I was thinking about how I should take a photo, but before I could grab my camera it trotted off into the bush.



That is a photo I took of the coyote's arse, the white thing is the rabbit.

I also found the Hotel Vancouver, which is where we stayed here about 10 years ago.



Stay tuned for a new special post, Architecture in Vancouver.

I also went to a comedy club with the hostel group, and yesterday I went on a brewery tour and tasting before heading off to see the Vancouver Giant's play hockey. They are the local under 20's team and it was an experience. I wanted to see the NHL game but tickets sold out months ago and it was $40 for a ticket up in the nosebleeds. A ticket to the giants was $20 and only a short bus ride away.

I didn't really understand what was going on but it was pretty interesting and I definitely rate it. It kinda looks like it is rugby on ice.

Have a go at these pictures I snapped.







And then of course we went to the pub. Here is a picture of some of the crew I have been hanging round with.



And now I am having a nothing day and working out when I am off next on my travels, I will be flying to Toronto and then immediately taking a train over to Montreal, which should be fun.

More from whistler

People in wistler don't realise that it isn't 2004 any more, with me randomly encountering this Flashmob in the middle of town last thursday at quarter past 5, where someone blew a whistle and a heap of people rushed into the town square and had a massive pillow fight for a minute then ran off when the next whistle blew.



And I saw a funny thing in the supermarket as well, goats milk. Maybe Lucky could do with some.



After the last blog post I went into the GLC in whister and saw two awesome Vancouver indy pop acts, Adeline who is a solo singer songwriter and Hey Ocean! who are a four piece band.

While I was in there I met this lovely young couple from over near Margaret river in WA. They were on their honeymoon and wanted to catch a band they could do some dancing to, and we got our dance on to Adeline.

They left after the support and I continued to dance like an idiot for Hey Ocean's set.

I also had a quiet one on Sunday, as the mountain fills up with weekend skiiers.

I did however head into town on Sunday afternoon, as the Superbowl is on. Being unfamiliar with gridiron I was rather confused with the rather lenghty going ons of American football.

By the time I got into the pub it was the start of the second half of the 60 minute game. Well the second half took two hours! I bumped into an aussie bloke who was staying in my lodge a few nights before and I hung round with him and tried to figure out how the game worked.

I was going for Arizona, who in a nail biter clawed their way back into the lead, but lost in the last 30 seconds of the game, which sucked. The pub also gave away some t-shirts for various NFL teams, so I grabbed one, a medium, which is like an XL back home. No idea what teams logo was on the front either, but it made a good layering shirt for skiing. I will try and shrink in a dryer later on.

When Monday rolled round I was keen to get up on the mountain again as there had been some more snow, and I skied all day, even if it was a little overcast.

I got straight up to the mountain on Tuesday morning as well, where portie hooked me up with a cheap lift ticket. He was working on the top of the "Magic" chair, which is at the base of Blackcomb on their beginner slope. I hung round with him and chatted randomy for about and hour, and played with the glovedog which randomly turned up.



This dog had a pink childs glove in it's mouth. We were not sure if there was a girl trapped in a well or under and avalance somewhere, or if the dog had eaten the said child. We were just throwing this glove round for the dog to fetch, which was pretty good.

And here is a pic of porte hard at work on the lift's.



I went back up the mountain, where it was lovely and sunny above the low clowd that was about one third of the way up the hill. It was an unreal day skiing up there, and I started smashing the blue runs on Blackcomb. I had some of these runs to myself on Blackcomb which was tops.

Have a go at "Merlins" here on Blackcomb, as seen from the Wizard chair



I later went on the peak2peak gondola, connecting the top stations of Whistler and Blackcomb. It streatches over 4km's between the mountains, with an unsupported span some something like 3km's! It is amazing that they were able to put the thing up there.

Here is the view from one side of the gondola



Passing another gondola



The view down to the village



In the middle of the span looking at the creek running between the mountains.



And here is a pic of town from whistler when the cloud cleared.



And here are my ski's for the time I was here, my blue planks of radness, Carnage and Destruction.



After I returned my gear to Spicy I met up with Lori and some of her friends for dinner and a few drinks in the GLC, in my opinion one of the better pubs in Whistler.

Here is a picture of us, possibly auditioning for the Wiggles.



And a proper photo so our mums know we actually met up.



Tonight I am heading into another local pub where I am catching up with everyone, and I am staying one night in Lori's share house before heading back to Vancouver

Hey peeps, it's been a while since updates because I have not had much access to the interwebs here.

The flight to San Fran was a rather uneventful 14 hours in a half empty 747. I was flying in business class that was pretty much empty. Out of my row of seven seats, only two seats were occupied.

I made sure to take my QANTAS pj's off the plane with me as I had not packed any. I also made sure to order and eat everything on the brekky menu to try and hold me over till dinner, which was toast, smoked salmon, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomato and potato cake, washed down with juice and coffee. I also ordered the fruit but was way too full to eat it.

When I got into San Fran around half past ten in the morning, I had to make my way over to the United counter and try to get myself onto a flight to Vancouver. I found out that I just missed the 1100 flight to vancouver and the next one on either United or Air Canada was at quarter to seven that night :( the dangers of standby roulette I guess.

I checked my bags and then killed a few hours in the non secure zone, until I realised that I still had my duty free grog in my carry on. Now because of this age of terror we live in you cant take liquids through screening in your carry on any more.

When I realised this I had a talk to Perry, the manager at the United domestic check in. I wanted to get my bag back but he instead offered to check it in in a box for free, which was awesome because checking in extra bags later on costs about $US 125. I just had to get a $16 box from some other dudes.

After waiting round at SFO all day I finally got onto my two and a half hour flight up to Vancouver I was put onto the flight ten minutes before take off. I found myself in the premium economy section, with a whole extra five inches of foot room.

Two hours into an uneventful flight the bloke next to me asked to borrow a pen. He had a bit of a funny accent which I couldn't pick, turned out it was Australian mixed with Canadian. He turned out to be a bloke who had moved to Canada when he was about my age after he had come here backpacking and found himself a girlfriend.

Dr Rob soon warned me off Canadian girls, saying I could quite easily find myself moving over here. He gave me a good idea of what to expect here in Canada, particulary weather wise, and he was even good enough to give me a lift into my hostel in downtown Vancouver, which was on his way home.

Canadian customs and immigration were also very easy to deal with, with the bloke chatting to me about how he stayed in the hostel just up the road in Cronulla and quickly waving me through, I had also collected my bags within 15 minutes of getting off the plane.

I got into my hostel around 11 at night and grabbed a kebab from next door, and like a nanna got to bed, mainly because I was wiped out from over 28 hours of traveling.

The next day I went up Granville St looking for some cold weather gear and found myself some bargains. I went into the Bay department store and got myself a pretty good parka for half price, which was about CAD$130 and some boots for about CAD$40.

Then I was up to whistler on the 3pm bus. I got in round about half past five and met up with portie and renee, after a quick gidday I was off to my lodge, about two kay's south of the village. The bus system runs pretty close to my lodge and I got in there around seven.

I had a shower and got to sleep as tommorow was one of the biggest days of the year in Whistler, 'strayla day.

Most of the work force in Whistler is Australian and on aussie day they all go off. I got into town around 10 in the morning and the pubs were overflowing with aussies. I bumped into the 'stralian bobsled team and got a photo in their sled.



I also met up with Lori for a quick hello.

The next few days I bummed around Whistler and I later got some ski's from Lori who sorted my hire out of the best price, so that was awesome.

I went up the mountain a few days but yesterday was pretty much a write off. When I went up in the morning the weather wasn't too bad, but the snow was rather Icy. After midday the weather really turned sour, and I went up the top of the mountain to ride the peak to peak gondola. It was blowing a gale and the gondola was closed, so I skied down to the bottom of the mountain.

There was some fresh snow, but it was very windy and the cloud was sitting about halfway down the mountain. By the time I got to the bottom it was raining and horrible, and half the lifts were closed so I just went into the pub and had a beer, and got a ticket to the indy pop act "Hey ocean" that is playing there tonight.

I hung round the hostel and did my washing, then met portie and renee for a late lunch today and now I am about to head off to the gig, and that's my first week.