So Montreal, if anyone still cares...

The Thurs night before I was gonna leave, there was such BIG RIDICULOUS drama that you would not believe. Like the kind that I can't even put into words. You know when you're in such shock and the magnitude of the situation doesn't even let you capture it in a length shorter than a book? Yeah, that. Let's just say I was so pissed that night, I couldn't sleep. Does anyone know what what I'm talkin about when I say I was so mad that tears were comin outta my eyes? It was so upsetting. And offensive. And appalling. Un-FREAKIN-believable.

Anyway, that's enough of that. I just had to lay out the jump-off to the trip :P So, I hardly slept and the mood for the trip was almost totally ruined but at least I was goin.

Fri
Dar came to pick me up at 9 am and we got dropped off at STC for the bus at 9:55. It was spitting. This set the tone for the entire weekend. The bus ride was about 6-7 hrs, I don't remember. We had a lunch break in Kingston and me and Dar's first meal of the day was breakfast food on the bus. We watched bootlegs of Four Brothers and Star Wars III on his laptop. I tried sleepin but only got about a 20 min nap.

We got to Montreal in the afternoon and set about lookin for a place to buy Natalie (Dar's friend whose place we were stayin at) a bottle of wine. This is what I love about Montreal - they have liquor in convenience stores which means it's everywhere. And the legal age is 18, which isn't relevant to me but I'm just sayin it's no wonder why it's a party city.

So in the days leadin up to the trip, me and Dar had checked the weather forecast and it was supposed to be better than Toronto that weekend. Wrong. It was still rainin and we took a cab to Nat's apartment which was downtown.

Her place is on a really quiet street and it doesn't look like much from the building outside but it's got a cool French movie vibe to it cuz of the curved wood staircases goin up. Anyway, it's a pretty sweet location cuz it's a short walk to everythin. Nat was nice. I couldn't believe she was so cool with someone she's never met stay at her place for 3 days.

We went out for dinner and had Korean. I ordered somethin safe, haha. It was good tho. I think it was a kind of family business and the mom or whoever was so cute! She was this big round-faced woman and she was just the sweetest thing ever.

Nat felt like stayin in and I didn't blame her cuz the weather was just shitty. But me and Dar went out anyway cuz there's no point of goin to Montreal if you don't hit the bars. We went to Brutopia around 8:30 (how awesome of a name is that?). Neither of us had brought rain gear of any sort, I didn't even bring a real jacket at all. We borrowed an umbrella from Nat but sharin it wasn't workin out too well. Dar had his Roots jacket which is just a fleece hoodie. He gave that to me to wear cuz he's gentlemanly like that but it honestly didn't do a thing :P We still both got wet. We got to the bar and the bathroom didn't have blowdryers. So I was wearin a light blue zip-up and the rain had soaked thru the jacket but only in certain places so I had dark wet patches on my shoulders and MY BOOBS. Nowhere else! That was just...great.

They had some promo for 5 shots for $15 so obviously we were all over it. We did vodka shots and lemme just say that was not a good idea for me, haha. I wasn't feelin too good after those. I went to the bathroom and had to throw up some of dinner :S But it was just a bit and it wasn't bad so I was good to go. We had some more drinks there after then we bounced. Comin out of the bar, you hafta go down these metal steps. Rounded metal edges on steps + rain = me almost takin a flip. I didn't even see it comin, my legs just flew out from under me and in that split-second that I was airborne, I was already expectin to come down hard and bracing for the impact. But Dar had his arm around me cuz we were tryin to huddle under the umbrella together and he caught me. I also somehow ripped the nail off my middle finger in the process. I don't know. I just noticed it was gone :P

Then we walked down Crescent Street and went into Karina's to chill for a bit and drink. I was not in the mood for clubbin, plus I was just in my jeans and Skechers. Then we left cuz we were just so tired from lack of sleep and the miserable weather wasn't helpin matters. I think we went to bed around 1:30.

Sat
Slept in til about 1 in the afternoon. That was so nice. Dar and Nat were up way earlier than me and eatin breakfast and lookin at Dar's pictures. We took our sweet time gettin movin after we were up. Nat had her own plans that day so she left before we did. Took a shower then headed out. Rainin AGAIN. Even worse this time. I just wanted to be warm and dry for like, an hr. Freakin impossible. And there were all these ppl on motorcycles blastin their horns. We figured it was some kinda bike parade or somethin. There were so many of them comin from all directions, all honkin, non-stop. Needless to say it got really annoying really fast. It was ridiculous, like fuckin relax with the horns. Nat later told us it was to protest the rise of the price of gas or somethin. Which is retarded, cuz there they were out ridin their motorcycles and usin up gas.

Anyway, we thought we'd ride out the rain but it wasn't lettin up at all so we dashed into Nickels for lunch. It's a '50s style diner, and I love that kinda thing. And they had blowdryers in the bathroom :P Soaked socks, shoes, and jeans. I should've just worn my open-toe sandals cuz my feet might've been cold but at least they'd dry quickly. So I had the biggest lunch ever cuz it was 3:30 and we hadn't eaten yet, haha. Dar had his first Philly Cheesesteak sandwich.

We thought we'd walk around and shop or at least browse the Eaton Centre (yeah they have one too!). Too bad they closed at 5. Yes. We pretty much walked most of it in that time tho.

Seemed everythin was closed at 5...on a Sat...downtown. What the? We had no idea what to do. We walked some more and explored some streets, saw the Notre Dame church, I bought hair clips and bands at Shopper's cuz this rain was just insane on my hair and I didn't have anythin to use, got a souvenir shot glass, stopped in a Second Cup, took pictures in front of...I believe it was Congress? cuz that's what it said on the building but it was this big glass place with bright coloured panes all over. It looks like a crazy club more than anythin else :P Walked the busy main street which we always take but I don't remember what it's called, with a whole buncha restaurants, cafes, arcades, and stores. Oh and Montreal sure loves their girly bars. There's sex shops and strip clubs everywhere! There's like 2 on each block, on every block. My favourite was the one with "Sexe Contact" in neon, hahaha...it means lap dance ;) I also find that very cool (not the lap dance part) but I mean, the French thing. I know I'm Canadian and I'm in Canada and we're supposed to be bilingual and I took French in school but it still impresses me. It's just not common to hear fluent French, esp as much as in Montreal where EVERYTHIN is in French, in Toronto. So I felt like I was in another world...very European to me.

Went back to the apartment. Listened to music, showered, got ready to go out, drank Absolut Vanilla & Pepsis. We talked to Nat about what to do that night. She was possibly comin with us to the club with her friends but it ended up bein her stayin in with a friend comin over so we were outty.

We hadn't eaten dinner yet and it was gettin to be past 9 so we went lookin for somewhere to eat. The funny thing was neither of us were really hungry so we were on the hunt for somethin light. We went the Winston Churchill pub (with a huge blow-up of him on the roof :P) for food but the kitchen was closed. I think we walked past and read menus for 5 places before we settled on California Pizza...where we had pasta. We only had half-orders and it was really good but then I had to go throw up some of that later on too :S What is my problem! Haha.

We went to Club Vatican cuz we had no idea what any of the clubs played. Nat had mentioned earlier of maybe goin to this club called Electric Avenue where they play nothing but '80s music. We were like, uh...not so much! I mean, I don't wanna be rude...I'm stayin at her place for free after all...I guess I'll go where the host goes. '80s stuff isn't that bad, I like some of it but not all night and not to dance to in a club. But that turned out not to be an issue anyway. Vatican said they were hip hop/dance mix so in we went. I was still drinkin outta my vodka Pepsi bottle in line, haha.

It was fun. Had drinks, danced, watched the crazy ppl. Too bad I couldn't pick up tho, cuz it's just not possible when you're there with just one other guy who is a friend but other ppl don't know he's not your bf :P Oh well. We stayed til they closed at 3. They also don't have that no-smokin law so it was memories all over again when smokin used to be allowed in clubs here. It's not that I miss it (god did my clothes reek), it just takes me back.

Then it was the walk home. Of course THAT'S WHEN IT STOPPED RAININ. Bastards!! When I was wearin my sandals and had my hair up. Nat gave us the key so we let ourselves in cuz she was sleepin by the time we got back. Went to bed around 4, that's more like it ;)

Sun
Got up about 9. All of us were goin to brunch with Dar's cousin who lives in Montreal that he rarely sees. His cousin's a middle-aged man with adolescent kids tho. So it was the 7 of us at a crazy busy Chinese restaurant for dim sum. We were gonna catch the 3:00 bus so we couldn't really do anythin else that afternoon. After brunch, we said goodbye to Nat, got a ride to the bus terminal from Dar's cousin, said bye to them, then waited an hr for our departure. I had my Discman with me this time instead of in my bag that they stowaway under the bus so Dar got introduced to Yellowcard ;)

Listened to music, got dinner from the same Kingston bus stop cafe, watched Matrix Revolutions.

I dunno who it was comin from but someone smelled of male sweat on the bus. I figured it was the guy in front of me. It's not a particularily awful smell but it wasn't good either. Fine, some ppl haven't heard of deodorant, whatever. I can deal with it. Not sure where it was from exactly but it was someone sittin near us. Then...OMG, I smelled somethin nasty. I looked around and thought, "WHAT is THAT??" It was that bad. It was someone's FEET. I'm like, no way it's comin from the same person who smells of sweat. Like, does this person have no sense of hygiene at all?? When was the last time they took a shower! And why the HELL can't they tell that their own feet smell?? It was kinda already chilly in the bus but I had to turn the air knob thing in the ceiling to get some air in the area and try to dissapate the smell. I made my thighs chilly cuz somebody decided to take off their shoes and let me smell their stank ass feet.

OK, I honestly thought there was a woman sittin behind Darien (diagonally behind me) cuz I only got a glimpse of a ponytail. Maybe there was a man beside her and behind me. But I couldn't look without
obviously turnin my head around 180 degrees. During the ride, someone was exhalin thru their mouth very loudly. But they were doin it in such a way that it sounded like a horse...and they were doin it like, 3 times in succession so it sounded even more like a horse. I dunno why this person was doin this. It was a man. It was a man behind us. Yup, it was the man by himself behind us who was responsible for the horse noises, the nasty feet, and the sweat smell. I saw him when we stopped for dinner cuz I wanted to see the face of all this odor. I turned around and he was just puttin his shoes on. Ugh. He had long hair and was wearin red pants and a red and orange shirt with flames on it. Yeah.

We had just gotten back on the bus from the dinner break and Dar was standin in the aisle, lookin at his bus schedule to see what time we were supposed to get in at STC. Smelly Man looked over and was readin it too and I'm like, Dar don't let him get too close, haha. At this point, he knew who he was too cuz we both smelled the feet at the beginning and had wide eyes like, wtf? and I whispered it was that guy behind us. He said to Dar, "Is that the time we get in?" with some accent, I think it was Russian. So if I did do the whole 'what is that smell!' out loud on the bus thing, it wouldn't necessary work cuz he might not have understood...or he just wouldn't have gotten the hint, period :P So I had to deal with that smell burned into my nostrils for the rest of the trip home. And that's a long fuckin time. Sometimes I'd even turn my head all the way to the left cuz I had a window seat and there's just a bit of air that gets thru the crack and I just needed the fresh air! Fuckin hell.

So we apparently skipped Ottawa and Whitby on the way back so we got there earlier than we thought. Got to STC around 9 and got home a bit after that. Good times...even tho it rained all fuckin weekend except the day that we left.

Then Dar left for LA/San Diego/Atlantic City/Mexico 2 days after that and is comin back next week. The end.