Day 52: 63.67 km

June 28, 2012

Calumet- Montreal

Today was such an amazing day! It was so good to see people I knew because I was really starting to miss my family!!! Let's start at the beginning.

This morning I woke up and had no motivation to move. I pressed snooze probably 4 times even though I was awake. Then I got up, made breakfast and left by 9am.

It was sunny and beautiful in the morning. It was quite a curvy highway, but I had about 20 km winds at my back (for the majority) and it was cool, which was perfect for the ride. I have to say that it's quite stinky in the outskirts area of Montreal. Maybe it's because I was allergic to Ontario, and it's finally starting to clear up and I could finally smell things! First time I had ever taken allergy medication for anything!!! So now that I can smell again the smells hit me hard! And all I smelt for a while was cows! Haha it was pretty stinky!

I only biked until about 12:30pm and then I made it to Saint Antoine, where I was leaving my bike for the night so I could escape to Montreal! I left it at le source de sport for a quick spoke tightening to make my tire turn straight instead of wobble. It was kind of my excuse to leave it there more than anything, so tomorrow I'll see how much it costs to have my bike taken care of for the night. I really wanted to avoid biking in a big city. Cars on the highway are bad enough, but cars in a city of 1.8 million? Um, no.

Then while I waited for Alain, my parents friend, to come and bring me to Montreal for the day, I went to grab lunch. Just to make sure everyone is on the same page, my French is terrible. Like shoot me now terrible. I completely butcher the language and I really want to try and improve. I feel like people would be like "oh she's trying, I'll give her that!" but it's bad. People would like me more if I just pointed instead of wrecking a beautiful language. Anyway, I wanted a sweet onion chicken teriyaki sub for dinner, but just thinking of trying to describe that, the veggies, sauces, combo, and everything terrified me. I walked into subway, and turned around. I walked across the street to McDonald's. I have not been to McDonald's since Brooks Alberta!! But I figured a big Mac is a big Mac in any language. And I even struggled ordering that!!

Then Alain came and we were off to Montreal! It was amazing of him to pick me up from there and let me stay with his daughter! 

Such a nice family, but I feel terrible because I hardly saw them tonight!

After I showered I went and saw my friend Parker from Cranbrook. I had been craving so badly to watch a movie on a couch for over 52 days that he treated me to a movie (about Paris!) on a couch, with a blanket! Too perfect! I think he fell asleep but I had the best time ever! And then we went out for dinner at the restaurant his girlfriend works at. It was so fancy and I was dressed in long underwear, moccasins, and a grey hoody from Walmart. 

 

Me and my "indian rocket" tan, and my moccasins for dinner. 

I had the best plate of risotto! And a free dessert! Too delicious! I had such a good time meeting Erin and her co-workers! They are so nice!

Erin got off work early so Parker, Erin and I went to hike up to the lookout up Mount Royal hill. There were so many stairs! How is it that I can bike 100+ km a day but still be out of breath on a hike like that!?!? But when we got to the top the look out was beautiful!!!! 

 

Then Parker went to play soccer and Erin and I walked around town and chatted all night. I had such a great time!!!! We walked through downtown Montreal all the way to the river to Old Port, and got a beaver tail (which is a pastry with whatever you want pretty much), I had skor bites on mine. It was delicious!!! Then we went and ate it outside in a beautiful square and chatted for so long! 

 

Sightseeing - Old Port and a replica of Notre Dame

 

 

 Where John Lennon and Yoko Ono stayed

Then we went to a bar her friend manages and had a beer there. I had completely let time slip by, it was so exciting and amazing in this town, with such great people! It really reminded me of Paris with all of the churches and buildings and Spain because of the apartments and the streets all mixed into one. Quite urban but beautiful.

It got late quite fast! Erin and Parker showed me which route to take on the metro, and Alain had described it quite well as well, so I said bye to Erin and Parker and I headed back to the place I was staying the night. Perfect day!! I wish I could have had dessert and chatted more with Steph and Alain as well! Looks like I will have to come back!

I hear that the winds are terrible in Saskatoon!! I know how you feel, only kind of. The winds that I fought to fix my flat were 65km winds! I can't imagine 70-90 km with hail!!! I hope all is ok! Everyone stay safe!!!