One of my close friends at work is from Canada and we had been talking of doing a road trip over the summer and finally decided that a trip to her home town would be fun and still within both of our bugets. So we made our way up north the last weekend of August. I had started a really wacky shift at work the month before, which gave me four days off every weekend (the down part is I work 40 hours in three days). My friend, Sophie and I decided that it would probably be best to leave after I got off work on Friday at 12:00 a.m. so that we didn't spend our first day of our trip driving. I hadn't planned that week all to well, and had to get up at 7:30 that morning to finishing packing before going into work at 10:30 a.m. Then I worked the 13 hours, drove home, and Sophie picked me, coffee in hand, up. She had thrown together mixed CDs to listen too and I had created some playlists so we were set for the long drive ahead to her Aunt's. For the most of the drive we did fairly well. Until hour 24 of being awake rolled around for me and I just couldn't keep my eyes open. I finally fell asleep for two hours before we arrived in Montreal. Sophie was a trooper and even though I offered to drive part of the way, she drove the whole way with no complaints.
Of course when we got there we crashed for about three hours. I was still groggy when we woke up from our nap, but I was excited to go into town and explore the old section. We went with her aunt's friend and aunt and I got my first real taste of the bad driving, haha. It was like Europe all over again. Everyone speaking another language and crazy driving. I took French in high school and just recently have tried picking it up again (I've done a lousy job at it thus far though). However, I could pick up a word or two and I was able to notice the slight difference between French and French-Canadian, which is a little more laid back. The capital is fairly artsy and we were able to check out a few of the art galleries that lined the street which was pretty cool. We even stopped to have some awesome Sangria and appetizers as a restaurant Sophie recommended. It had a courtyard with outdoor seating and a live jazz band that played. I new then I was going to love this town.
After our snack we did a little more window shopping and somehow managed to lose Sophie's aunt and friend. We waited for them as long as we could and eventually called Sophie's uncle. He just instructed us to come back to the house and that her aunt would be fine. We went out to a great Tapas restaurant that night and planned what we would do the next day.
The next day we met up with Sophie's cousin and her friend for some breakfast and shopping. Now I like shopping just as much as the next girl and I did find some stuff that I liked, however, I have never shopped like how these girls shop! They were on a mission. We eventually went out separate ways for a while and met back up before we left. It was really interesting to ask Sophie and her cousin about life in Montreal and the similarities and differences between the US and Canada. That night Sophie and I too the metro into the city and walked around the town. Riding the metro there reminded me a lot of the metro here in DC, but I was still glad Sophie was there to help guide us into the city. When we got downtown we walked around and stopped at a neat little bar where we got more sangria. The funny part was both of us just wanted a glass, but at this place they didn't serve it by the glass. So our waitress arrived instead with a pitcher and we both agreed then to order a couple appetizers since it looked like we would be there for some time.
Here we are on the metro. Sophie is showing the equivalent to our smart metro pass we have here in DC.
When we left Montreal we took a slightly different way home so that we could stay in Boston. That took us through Vermont, which I have never been before and now would love to go back to sometime. It was so pretty. Plus when we were in Boston I got to meet up with some friends and Laura, which was really cool. Overall I had a great time on the trip and would definitely go back to Montreal. There is so much to see and do there. Maybe Sophie and I will have to take another road trip up soon . . .
This is on our way home. Sophie got an umbrella in Montreal that says in French "Shit it's raining," haha.
And this is the beauty of Vermont :)
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