Montreal street sounds… people moving all around. They are repairing the water main and they come by with this loud alarm truck to tell you they are turning off the water. There is a broken water main a few houses down from Louise’s. People speaking French and laughing in to all hours of the night. Cats drinking water from the bathroom sink. I put on my eye mask and earplugs and slept hard last night. Up this morning about 6am running through the streets of Montreal to the park where I watched a gray squirrel and several large pigeons eating something in the grass, thinking how much Louise hates both very much. I have made a good friend that I had to trust completely today.
After breakfast we took the bus to the metro (subway) and then the metro down to China town where she left me with specific instructions about how to get back. Yes, I trusted her and I was very nervous to be in a city where I did not speak or read the language but…I had a blast. I walked the streets in China Town, ate Lunch at a Buffet and went into several shops and talked to many people from all over. Things in China Town are very inexpensive and I bought some really cool stuff even though I had to keep in mind I have limited funds and very little room to pack stuff but it was fun. Then I made my way to old Montreal and it started raining. I ducked in and out of shops and shelter of churches. I bought a heavy waterproof bag so my stuff didn’t get wet and a cheep umbrella and continued to walk the streets. I finely found the museum that Louise circled on my map and went inside because I was tired of walking in the rain. The exhibit was about Wine and the Gaul and how wine was made and I found it pretty interesting but I also had a headache and reading all the stuff in a museum with a headache wasn’t enjoyable. I made my way into the theater and the movie was in eight languages and they got around that with headphones dialed into your language and you were set. It was all about the founding of Montreal and the museum is build on top of the foundation site of the city and I too found the history interesting. When wee left the theater we went down stairs actually to the underground city and archeological site, now that was cool but also a little stressful for me and may have been why I had a headache. After winding my way around through the site and back out on the street my headache was gone and it had stopped raining. I made my way down to Saint Paul, the main tourist drag. It reminded me of walking St. George in St. Augustine full of little shops and then I went through the art galleries and was thinking of how much Noah would have just loved that part of the city. Besides there being horse drawn carriages everywhere. I would have taken one but it just seemed stupid for me to do that. But I found the Amber Gallery, the owner was from Poland and I just drooled over a piece of cherry red amber. I have wanted one for a very long time and looked for just the one, this one was $138 and I just had to walk away from it, but it was pretty! I wandered around for a while and decided I had been out long enough and my challenge was coming. I was so proud of myself, yet very nervous, I caught the metero at a different stop, remembered which way to go back in French, had my map in hand and found the right stop, found the bus going east and got off at my stop (in French) and found my way back to Louise’s just in time for dinner. My feet were tired, she was a little worried about me but I feel great that I had such and adventurous day. I have only been on a subway once and that was in DC with people I knew and I have only ridden a city bus maybe 3 times in my life and that was in Tallahassee. So this was a big things for me.
Louise fixed a nice salad from the vegetables she bought in China Town and added real chicken!!! To show my appreciation to my host I did a reading for her and her friend Nathan. It was a good day, but she has plans for me tomorrow too. We are going to the farmers market and then she is going to test me again by having me switch busses to go to the Botanical Gardens, I just assume they are inside.
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