Don’t Forget Your Luggage

Montreal, June 13, 2004

Well, I believe I told everyone I was leaving for Montreal on Thursday night?  It didn’t quite happen.  I arrived at the bus terminal with 30 min to spare, but had to pick up my tickets and so only arrived in line at 8:15pm (leaving at 8:30).  Well, with about 8 people left in front of me, and a few people left behind me, the driver announced the bus was full!!!  The next bus wasn’t for 4 ½ hrs, so I decided to just go back to Melody’s and spend an extra day in Boston.  We lugged all my bags back to her place, and just crashed, we were completely exhausted.  In the morning I dropped off my bags at the library where Melody works and went to visit the MIT Museum.  It was very cool, with lots of interesting technology stuff to see and a lot of interactive stuff, which I love.  Went through it quickly as I didn’t have much time, but I probably could have spent the whole day, there was so much to see and learn.  Especially a really cool exhibit that was a floor with a hologram of one of those mazes with the holes that you have to drop the ball into (I hope you know what I’m talking about) and you could step on the floor and it would make the maze tilt, and you had to try to get the ball from one end of the other, by walking around the floor, it was so much fun.  I met Melody after work and we went to a sketchy pub, and then to a Thai place for supper, yummy.  Then we trekked back to the bus terminal, arriving 90 min early and were the second people in line, so there was no way I was missing this bus again!

I was sad to leave Boston and to leave Melody.  Boston is such a cool city, so much to do and see and learn, and Melody was awesome!  We got along so well, and had so much fun together; I’m totally indebted to her!  Before I leave Boston behind, I need to mention some stuff I learned while I was there.  First, Bostonians love to jaywalk, it’s crazy!  People just cross wherever, however and whenever they feel like it.  It’s fun though!  Second, I don’t know if anyone’s heard of it (except Brendan), but Boston is nearing the completion of the Big Dig.  It’s a major roadwork project which has been going on for the past 20 years (although it was supposed to take 5) and is a couple of years away from being completely finished.  The goal: to build an 8-10 lane highway below a 6 lane one without disrupting the nearly 200 000 cars that use the highway daily, and without disrupting the miles of underground utility lines that handle 17 million calls a day.  Basically, they’re taking the main freeway that divides the city and putting it underground, and then building a park over it.  It will be really beautiful once it’s finished, if it ever happens!

Back to my trip!  Caught the bus and made it through customs and to Montreal, and managed to sleep maybe 2 hours.  Anyone who’s taken the greyhound will understand (you stop just about every 1-2 hours).  I did manage to catch the sunrise however, and that was really beautiful.  Arrived at Montreal at 6am, where I completely forgot about my luggage (left them on the bus) and then the bus nearly drove away with them!  Luckily, I remembered and stopped the bus just in time!  Those who know me well will not be surprised.  Don’t ask me how I managed to forget about my 2 giant pieces of luggage (sadly, it’s actually not the first time and probably won’t be the last) until I saw other people from my bus passing by with theirs!  Anyway, had breakfast at a diner and then waited until 8am to call my friend Jason to come pick me up.  Woke him up of course (sorry Jay) but he was nice enough to come get me anyway.  He arrived around 10am and we went to La Ronde, an amusement park, and spent the entire day there.  And I mean entire day!  We left at 10:30pm.  But we went on all the major rides and all the roller coasters, including the wooden one, the hanging one and the standing one.  Had a poutine (fries with cheese and gravy) and a queue de castor (a beaver tail, which is a fried dough pastry stretched to look like a…wait for it….beaver tail!) and then at 10, they had the most spectacular fireworks and dancers and all kinds of really cool things.  It was amazing.  We went on another ride after that and then decided to leave.  It took forever to get out of the parking lot since it was the opening day of the fireworks (they have them every Saturday) and a large amount of Montreal was there and the bridge had been shut down so people could watch from it.  We attempted to find the place where I was supposed to be staying, but couldn’t find it, and finally around 2am called it quits and headed back to Cornwall, Ontario where Jason is staying while he takes an air traffic controller course.  Spent the night here and we’ll be leaving shortly for Montreal, which is about an hour away.  Hopefully we can find the place where I am staying, wish me luck!