Beautiful Montreal

Our next stop was Montréal, and we arrived hungry. I suggested that we get some dim sum in Chinatown before exploring. Dim sum is not something that we can find here in Jena (or in most of Germany, I'd guess), so it was on our list of things to eat when we were back in Canada. Luckily Calin and Susanne loved it too, and we all ate far too much, as it should be. (Alas, we don't have any photos of the actual food. Due to a computer-related disaster with lack of back-up, we lost all our photos from our trip, and we're relying entirely on those from Calin and Susanne's camera.)

From there we walked up St-Laurent, in search of both smoked meat at Schwarz's and fries and poutine at Mondofritz. Alas, in the years since I left Montréal, Mondofritz seems to have disappeared. The smoked meat (and pickles) were as reliable as ever, though!

It had rained like crazy on the drive from Québec to Montréal, but it seemed to have cleared up once we reached the city. This didn't last all day however, as we saw watched some seriously dark cumulonimbus developing above us.
The rain came hard and strong, and we opted to wait it out under the awning of a green grocer before continuing...

...but then it just kept raining...

We could have waited a bit longer, but we decided to just make a run for it to Frites alors!, which would have to sub in for Mondofritz in a pinch. We were a bit wet when we made it there, but the poutine and beer warmed us up in no time.While we were eating the weather cleared up, and night began to fall. We continued our walk across town, crossing the McGill campus and heading toward the Cock 'n Bull, my former regular in the neighbourhood where I used to live, and where I'd arranged to meet up with a couple of former roommates, Nathan and Kristen, who were still (or back) in Montréal.
Ah, the old Cock 'n Bull. I wasn't sure if I'd know anyone there after so long, but Jen, the bartender, recognized me right away. I was lucky to catch her - she was leaving for Toronto to start a Masters in September. Sue, the barmaid who had worked there for years, had retired the year before and moved back to Nova Scotia, and Rhoda, who managed the place while we were living there, had also retired. As such, some of the old rules had changed - the bar was now open until 3:00 rather than 2:30, which was apparently at Rhoda's insistence, and we made full use of the extra time. Then we stopped at Soup and Noodles (open until 4:00) for some greasy late night munchies, and went with Nathan to the statue park just south of there to chow down before heading home. Ah, how I love that city. I can't wait until the next visit...

Ville de Québec

Now we're jumping ahead in time a little, to the Monday after the wedding, when we drove to Quebec City with Calin and Susanne, as part of their eastern Canada adventure. (They also visited PEI while we were preparing for the wedding.) I insisted that we leave at an ungodly hour in the morning so that we could get the 7 hour drive out of the way in time for a late lunch, and so we could actually spend more time in Quebec. Though no one was pleased when we first got up, in the end it made for a great day.

On our way, we passed through a village in New Brunswick called Little Denmark, which had apparently been settled by Danish immigrants. We stopped there for gas and some snacks, at Hansen's Meat Shop, which was also a gas station. Check out the flags on the sign!
There was also a giant Danish flag on the floor of the meat shop, which Susanne is pointing to here with her foot, though it looks for all the world as if she's about to start highland dancing on it.
Finally, after a day of marathon driving by me (Julia), we made it to Quebec. We went first to Jeremi's friend Pat's place, where we were staying. We hadn't planned this much in advance, but Pat, along with some of his other friends from RMC, was able to make it to the wedding, and offered to let us crash at his place, which was great. He also drove us downtown and gave us a little tour of the citadel. We then did some sight-seeing while he caught up with laundry and other things at home, after being on vacation for a while.

Here was an old stone public building of some sort near a tourist information centre (alas, I don't remember what it was) which had been recently damaged in a fire.
Though most of the stone buildings in the old city still held all their charm, even after living in Europe for a while. It really is a beautiful city.

Here we were checking out a charming cafe-filled street, where we stopped for some food and sangria.
Near the Chateau Frontenac, a crowd was gathered on the boardwalk to watch a busker...
Eventually we made it along the Promenade along the riverfront, where it was a bit windy!

We hiked up all the stairs, but the view over the city was worth it.

Wow, I certainly don't feel that much shorter than those two!From there we were able to walk across the Plains of Abraham, and the location of the Paul McCartney concert the evening before. In general, the city was packed due to both the concert and the 400th anniversary celebrations in general. We were lucky to be able to stay at Pat's place, as we'd have been hard pressed to find a hotel in our price range, I think.
After walking around all day, we took a much-needed rest at a pub selling beers from all around the world. They even had Köstritzer Schwarzbier, a black beer made in a town near Jena!


From there we made it toward the commercial centre, where I was able to run into Simon's to quickly buy a pair of jeans and a sweater. I needed them anyhow, but it was getting much cooler as the evening fell, and I really wasn't dressed for it. (I didn't pack many clothes when coming to Canada, as I needed a bunch of new clothes that would fit me, and in general it's cheaper to buy them in Canada, and I still find it a bit easier as I know the shops and the sizing better.)
Calin also bought a nice hoodie at Roots, partly to stay warm, and partly as a nice souvenir. It was on sale too, which helped! We also wanted to bundle up a bit because we'd planned on meeting Pat for supper, after which we'd go down by the harbour to watch a projected musical show of some sort about the history of Quebec. It was playing every night during the 400th anniversary celebrations, but he'd been away and hadn't been able to see it yet.

In the end it proved impossible to find a restaurant near the port that had room for five without reservations, so we had to scrap the plan, and we headed back to the area where we'd been earlier in the day and had supper at a nice restaurant there. Afterward Pat brought us to a brew pub that he liked, where we sampled some of the wares before heading back to his place rather early (and very tired).The next day we didn't get up too early, as we only had a relatively short drive to Montreal ahead of us. It even left us time to stop and see the Mont Morencey Falls on the way out of the city.

It was quite a hike up to the bridge over the falls, but worth it for the view. Calin walked across to the viewing platform on the other side and took this picture of the three of us. We're the ones in the middle of the picture - I'm the short one in between Susanne and Jeremi wearing black. I still don't get why I look so short in all these pictures...
The vertigo-inducing view down the falls...

Look at all those stairs we climbed! We sure deserved all the beer and poutine and smoked meat awaiting us in Montreal.
The view of the cusp of the falls from the foot bridge.
It was a long hike up, but a much quicker walk back down. Here Jeremi and I are looking back up at them en route to the foot of the falls.
Then at the bottom we couldn't quite resist the urge to go to the observation platform that was entirely engulfed in mist. Well, Calin mostly resisted the urge. Jeremi, Susanne and I got completely soaked to the skin. But it was so much fun!

I was also wearing my newly-bought dark blue jeans, which were then dripping dye all over as we had to immodestly change in the parking lot before getting into the car. Still, it was worth it, and we felt so refreshed before heading back on the highway toward Montreal.

Mostly a bachelorette party

These are pictures from the bachelor/bachelorette party that was organised by Rishad and Marie the Monday before the Wedding. Julia drove in from Cape Breton that day with Calin and Susanne. I drove down from NB with Crystal, Joey and Marlene. It started at 4ish at Rishad's place with an awesome barbeque of several different marinated meats and coordenating dipping sauces; and of course tons of beer, wine and booze.

Rishad (with help from Ian, Rhiannon et al.) truly outdid himself with the variety and deliciousness of the food. This was no frozen burger and hotdog shindig - we had lamb, chicken, and pork skewers, all with their own delicious marinades, with tzatziki, peanut sauce, and a spicy tomato dip served alongside.

It was truly amazing, though I wasn't convinced when he first fired up the grill and had to burn off some of the residue...

Here Ian and Rishad are hard at work with the grilling on the back deck.
And there were lots of people there, many of whom we hadn't seen in months or years. It was sort of surreal, with people we knew from Victoria (Shannon and Robyn) being in Halifax along with a bunch of people we knew from Halifax (too numerous to name) plus all the people we know from New Brunswick. It was sort of like a strange dream where you see people from different places and times, who have never actually met in real life.
Of course there were some games organized, but for some reason only for Julia. First she had to put out a candle with a cork that was dangling from her hips. Quite dangerous in fact, but in the end she was successful. And then she wore the cork all evening, swinging it around while dancing at the bar later.

Then she had to pick me out of a lineup containing several other guys only by touching our bare legs while blind-folded, as seen here. To keep it challenging, we stealthily switched positions on her as she went back and forth. Of course she was successful, despite the similarity of mine and Nick's legs. (She correctly noticed that his were slightly hairier.)

Feeling badly that they hadn't thought of any games for me, they decided to dress me up in Rishad's regular clothes after making me striptease for Julia. A perfect fit.
At this point we were supposed to go for a booze cruise in the harbour but that got rained out, much to the disappointment of party-planning Marie. We didn't let it get us down - we sent some newly-arrived sober guests for a beer run instead. Past this, I'm at a loss for commentary since I don't remember anything but waking up the next day with a bad hangover. I would love to blame it on the tequila...

Okay, so it's Julia now - I'm taking this over as Jeremi has no idea what happened beyond this point. After drinking one or two far too strong Caesars, he thought it would be a good idea to have a few tequila shots with Laffy, Joey, and Susanne (shown above), as well as his brother Nick and Calin. Alas, neither he nor his brother (shown below with his lovely wife Cathy) know when to say no...
But he was having so much fun!
There was a tablecloth with a marker so that people could write us their good wishes - unfortunately Jeremi didn't read this one until it was too late (likely while looking at these pictures days later).

Obviously not heeding this advice, Jeremi ended up in here (in Rishad's bathroom)...

... at around 9:30 pm. Unfortunately he wasn't the only one. His brother was quick to follow suit. Joey was nice enough to tuck him in.

These are a few more pics from later that night where the fun continued at the Lower Deck.

Marie conspired to have the band call me up on stage to sing and dance along with one of the songs, which was great fun.
Here we were trying to cajole the bouncer into letting us dance in front of the stage, as it used to be allowed (Robyn most convincingly of all, I'd say). They'd banned this practice after some drunk woman fell into the band and injured herself, and was currently trying to sue the bar, or something like this. Still, we had fun trying to get them to let us do it...
Me dancing with the band...
All the happy revellers, mostly ladies at this point, which is only fitting for a party that ended up being a bachelorette party after all.
Still, it wasn't all ladies - here's Joey, Jeremi's cousin Crystal's husband.

And Jer's sister Marlene was still going strong, and his cousin Crystal. In fact, the whole New Brunswick crew was still doing great except for Jeremi and his brother, so in the end they did managed to salvage the reputation of the family and the region. (Who knew that so much was at stake?!)

I'm sure Calin is singing me some sort of Dutch drinking song in this one (or so I'd like to believe).


Ian and Rhiannon were able to make use of the luxury hotel room that Marie had arranged for us at the Delta downtown - Jeremi was much too much of a disaster. Afterward we headed home, and ordered some pizzas to Rishad and Anjulee's places, which greatly helped with the recovery the next morning.

And so the next morning wasn't actually all that bad for Calin, Susanne, Marlene, and I. When I woke up around 9:00, I arranged to drive out to pick up the cases of Nova Scotia cider that we'd ordered (in place of champagne), and since the guy lived west of the city anyhow, I thought it would be fun to bring those three along to visit Peggy's Cove. I tried to drag Jeremi's sorry ass out of bed, but he was still suffering quite a bit. And so we headed out, picked up the cider, and took in the misty scene out on the rocks.
With the most photographed of Canadian light houses...
The fresh sea air was certainly restorative for me, and I was having a great time scrambling over the rocks. It was Marlene's first time there too, which was great.
All in all, a nice little detour, and it gave Jeremi some much-needed recovery time.
When we made it back to Halifax, we found out that Joey and Crystal had already left (with a mostly empty van), leaving us to drive back both Marlene and Jeremi (who had neglected to send back anything with them, or to take a ride with them to free up some space in our car). We had a lot of stuff with us, all of our luggage and camping equipment, Calin and Susanne's rather sizable luggage, a few cases of cider, and now five people to drive. I was pretty pissed off at Jeremi, but he was in such a pathetic state, that I had to eventually forgive him. Probably around when we had to pull over around the toll booths on highway 2 for him to throw up - again. Well, I married him anyways, so it couldn't have been that bad...

And finally, by popular request (okay, really just Jeremi's insistence), here's the video that Susanne took of me dancing with the band. It's sideways, and we're too lazy to figure out how to fix that, so if you really want to watch me dancing, you'll have to tilt your head. Enjoy!