Montreal...

Well, my first week away from home...was very much like being at home - with some unfamiliar and spectacular new scenery. This was due mainly to the fantastic hospitality afforded me by Ollie Lyttleton and his friends. Ollie's a big lad (6'7") so having his bed to sleep in was a real luxury anyway...the fact that he turfed himself out of his entire apartment for the week to make me comfortable was above and beyond the call of duty...so thank you very much! I should also take the opportunity to thank my surrogate girlfriend for the week - Lauren. Fortunately for her, she and Ollie are an item, but she babysat me with patience all week when Ollie was ill or busy and made me feel as welcome in her apartment as Ollie had in is...so thank you too!

My overwhelming impression of Canada is that it is a very friendly place. Cynicism is not as rife as it is in Blighty and yet the Canucks demonstrate a very dry sense of humour when their patience is tested. Montreal and Toronto are about as different as two cities could get - and yet both seem to be quintessentially Canadian. Montreal - 'The Village City' - has a distinctly laid-back, cosmopolitan atmosphere. French is the main language, but no rancour is displayed at the use of English....something French frogs could learn from methinks! Eating is an important part of the city's culture. It's cheap to eat out over here and there is a lot of choice. Having been defeated by breakfast on my first morning, I can testify that the portions are far from meagre. With The Mountain, Montreal is always going to seem like a green city - sitting, as it does, slap in the middle of the island and making a more scenic and interesting version of London's Hyde Park. Everywhere, with the onset of autumn, trees were firing shades of red and golden brown in the non-stop sunshine. Apart from a brief cold snap on Tuesday, the weather was glorious...hard to believe that in less than two months -40C won't be a surprise.

I must fess up to having seen little of Montreal's celebrated tourist spots - I didn't even make it down to the Old Port. Having arrived late Monday afternoon (and after the weekend I'd had in the UK!) I was pretty knackered. Breakfast at L'avenue (wow!) was a fantastic way to kick off my first full day in Canada. One four-egg omelette (chicken, bacon and cheese) with fried potatoes, toast, coffee and a pint of banana & orange smoothie = one sadly-defeated Englishman. Owing to my tiredness and Ollie's coming down with a virus we conserved energy for the evening rugby training session (the space age version of Risk and flirting with Lauren's stunning roommate - Hi Chase! ;0) - kept me occupied for much of the afternoon and evening!). The McGill University rugby squad were a very friendly and welcoming bunch of lads...a great sense of camaraderie and team-spirit abounds and I'm sure they will go a long way in the post-season after their no-nonsense dismissal of Concordia on Wednesday evening...must say it was very weird watching rugby played on an American Foootball pitch...and sitting in a University stadium that could hold 30,000!
Old habits die hard and an opportunity to get ratted with the lads after the game was seized with both paws. Two pieces of advice: Firstly, if you're going to play 'Quarters' (for the uninitiated, a game that involves bouncing a 25c piece into beer cups), remember to use your teeth to stop yourself from swallowing the damn thing! Secondly, don't get wasted in unfamiliar cities and try to walk home without a map...okay, I knew the address and could have taken a cab...but you know when you just have to prove something to yourself? It only took me an hour-and-a-half to get home - a walk which took me 15mins the next day armed with a Rough Guide...

Thursday evening was Sight-Seeing time...after stumbling out of bed (minging!!!) at 3.30pm and missing breakfast at L'avenue by 5 mins, I was forced to settle for a half-cow hamburger with side-portion of a few kilos of fries (don't worry, mum - healthy Montreal-style with the skins still on ;-)
I found Ollie and Paddy nursing similar-sized hangovers over at Lauren's and was a little aghast at Ollie's suggestion of climbing Le Mont Royal as a post-prandial constitutional. True to (hungover) form, I bitched and moaned (and sweated - see photo) all the way up...but the views and the sunset were spectacular and definitely the thing I would have most wanted to see in Montreal.

Friday was to be the day of our legendary road trip to Toronto, so I'll post up some more pics and grab a bit of breakfast...back in a bit...