Mercredi en Montreal

I awoke Wednesday to find the person on the bunk across from me staring right at me. Oh God. I rolled over and rocked myself gently until I mustered the courage to go take a shower. Oh wait - the bathrooms weren't free. Who the hell is ALWAYS showering? I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and drummed my fingers until the person exited and I jumped in the shower immediately. Sable and I were going shopping today.

I was so excited that I left my shampoo and conditioner in the shower. I hopped out, dressed, and we headed out for McGill. McGill is easy to enter from Rue Sherbrooke and is just a few stops from Berri-Uqam. We took pictures, hunted down the bookstore, bought a few paraphernalia items, then headed for the malls. I needed a TD, so we hunted for one of those as well. Note to self and others: TD has virtually no locations in Montreal. We had to hunt down an obscure street down Sherbrooke and interstecting at Parc, which eventually turned into Bleury where a TD Canada Trust lay on the intersection of Bleury and St. Catherine's.

Oh my. The north side of St. Catherine's was beautiful. New York-like. Tall, grand stores with long, colourful banners and wide, glassy storefronts. Bustling with life and people. Notably free of sex shops. We did everything. Guys - I LOVE Simons. It's an amazing department store with beautiful clothing that gives you slight aneurysms from all of the colour and the sheer quantity of good stuff you can buy. I over spent by buying a trench, a basic cream V-neck cardigan, and a plaid zip-up mockneck sweater, but it was so worth it. They are beautiful. I wanted to buy a pair of pink jelly shoes, but they were $20, and I needed dinner too, so I waited.

Now, I had been on the hunt for a good handbag. Since we were in Montreal, we looked for Mat and Nat and found a really cool green sporty one that had pockets on the front and cute little buckles and a nice sized strap. But I wanted to save myself to look for Coach stuff instead, so I left it. OH! I left it! Bad Julia! Good things always happen when you give in to impulse!

We went to Ogilvy to look for a feather headband for Sable's mom. Ogilvy is a very upscale store, like the stores you see on movies where the sales associate won't let you touch anything and looks at you suspiciously until you buy something. Sort of fun to look through, though.

Lunch at Reuben's, where their specialty is smoked meat. I had half of a gigantic burger and I packed the rest away. Back to the hostel.

We decided that we would go to the main boutique for mat & nat because that would be where the most unique bags would be, right? Since they are manufactured in Montreal, it would make sense that they would have an exclusive boutique. We looked it up online and found a location at Rue Chabanel, north of the end of St. Laurent. If anyone is familiar with the east, they would know that St. Laurent is rather long. They would also know that the Trans-Canada Highway intersects at the end of St. Laurent and that we were going north of that. Sable suggested it was their warehouse. I said there were still shops around. It could happen.

No it couldn't. We walked to the office building where we found their corporate headquarters on the fourth floor. Oh. We're so done. We took a picture with their metallic philosophy, then ran for the bus, which was just heading back parallel to St. Laurent. We got off at Sherbooke and headed for the Gogo-Lounge on St. Laurent, picking up pastries at a bakery on St. Laurent for tomorrow's breakfast.

So cool! The seats are shaped like palms of hands. The feeling is psychedelic and the lighting is red. The bartender looks like Buddy Holly and sports a tight black t-shirt proclaiming J'adore GoGo. I order a Twister, which is a grapefruit juice, peach schnapps, and cointreau concoction. He serves us Bits and Bites in a martini glass. The menus are on old LPs. 6pm on a Wednesday. The bar is empty. We are so cool.

A guy does a mime act to make us smile outside the window. I pray to God that he doesn't come in. He doesn't, he waves and walks off when he gets his unamused look from Sable and my ever-obliging laugh. Two old men enter and order drinks. We leave before they figure out that we are not francophones.

We head back to the hostel by streetcar where we find kindred spirits from Vancouver. They felt alienated by the French. We also met Americans who were surprised that the lunar eclipse takes "several hours!". Sable and I were happy to discover that the showers were free. 12am sleep for a 5:30am rise.