Well, it only took me all week to get to this, but here it is!
Sunday we woke up kinda late (10:00 ish) and decided that the order of the day would be to see the Basilica, hit the Musee des Beaux-Art and if we had time, swing by the Biodome.
You know what they say about the best laid plans right?
Leaving the hotel, we decided to take the desk person's advice and walk down a few blocks where we could find "cheap good food" for lunch. Oh, he was right! We stubbled across this little pasta place (wish I could remember the name) where they cooked right in front of you. For the price we would have paid at Fazoli's we got to watch them toss the pasta in the air and catch it in their frying pan! And it tasted great to boot! We decided to eat on the terrace, which actually turned out to be a big mistake. 5 Minutes into our meal a woman yells at us in french. She repeats herself 3 or 4 times before she figures out she needs to speak to us in English. I couldn't understand her, but Josh told me she was asking if we could buy her breakfast. I felt really bad, but just shook my head. Then she asked if I was going to finish my "macaroni". I nodded and she snorted. Josh offered her his french bread, but she just looked disgusted and yelled, "Non!" I honestly though she was going to spit at us or something! Hmph. I still felt bad for her, even though she was such a bitch.
Speaking of bitches... After lunch, we found the metro station, thinking we would take the subway into Vieux Montréal to the Basilica. After consulting a map, we realized that we would have to transfer trains and needed to ask how to do that. Obviously, the most logical thing to do in that situation would be to ask the lady at the ticket counter, but as we approached her she waved us away and seemed fully insistant upon ignoring us. Josh spoke to her "Parlez-vous l'anglais?" "NON!" she yelled and made some very unsavory hand gestures. We made a hasty exit, deciding the metro was not for us.
On the street we consulted our map and set out on foot for Vieux Montréal. It was about a mile and a half away though the walk was actually enjoyable. We stopped along the way at a shop that had a giant Gandalf, Frodo, and Ring of Power over it's doorway. I wish I'd had a camera, I would have taken a picture of it!
Finally, we made it to the Basilica with only minimal arguing (Are we going the right way? I think we should go that way, no this way!) It was even more beautiful than I imagined. Stunning, is a more acurate term to describe it. We sat in one of the pews and tried to imagine what all the figures meant, then joined an english speaking tour that explained them to us. It was neat because the Basilica was only the second church Josh had ever stepped foot in.
Looking at the map outside we realized we would never make it to the other places. It was already after 3:00 p.m. and the Fine Art Museum closed at 4:00. Not to mention it was 2 miles away and we were on foot. Giving up, we decided to just walk and see where it took us. We ended up in the old port region, were we frivolously spent $10 Canadian dollars on a half hour in a paddle boat. Oh, it was worth it though, the cool air from the St.Lawrence Seaway made my head feel better as it was aching from the heat.
After that we slowly made our way back to our hotel, where we watched strange Canadian television (you wouldn't believe what they get away with on their network stations!) and went to bed.
That's it! Whew! Two long posts in one week? What is the world coming to?
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