One last thing in Montreal

I forgot to mention one last thing. The entire weekend we were in Montreal there was dandelion fluff constantly blowing in the streets. It was everywhere! I thought that was really strange.

Next updates should come from France hopefully...

Montreal Weekend Wrap Up

There were a few creperies near our hotel, but none of them wear open at 10ish when we set out for breakfast, so we ended up eating at a small cafe just down the street. I had a croissant sandwich, but the croissant was grilled on a panini press, which was different and delicious.

Next, we headed towards Saint Catherine's street, the other major walking street that was recommended by the HP folks in Toronto and Montreal.  There was an underground mall that was recommended to wander around in, but it wasn't all that special.  The area was more touristy and had a McDonald's, Dairy Queen, and other American fast food chains, but we found a nice Mediterranean place and I had a gyro. There was not a lot of things that interested us on Saint Catherine's, but we did pop into the Canadian contemporary art museum. There were 5 or so exhibits, but I only liked Robert Polidori's photographs. The other exhibits were just weird and not what I would consider "art". I guess that's where the contemporary part comes in. 

Afterwards, we had an adventure trying to get to Little Italy, where there was an open air market. We got there eventually after a few wrong turns and not going far enough down streets, and I'm glad we did. The market was cool, kind of similar to the Howth weekend market, but much larger. Dan asked that I make special note that the Lebanese cucumbers were amazing. There were some cool shops surrounding the area, and we popped into a fromagerie just to have a look around after resting our feet and having a drink at a sidewalk cafe. Dan bought some cheese and I spotted 3 new drinks to add to my root beer collection; spruce beer, maple beer, and birch beer. Not exactly root beer, but I figure I'll never see spruce or maple beer again, so I saved a bottle of each.  I tried the maple immediately and it was ok, but I wish I tried the spruce before I got back to Houston. It is far and away the greatest soft drink I have ever tasted, and I really wish I bought more than two bottles.  Dan also picked up a bottle of wine somewhere along the way to go with his cheese.

After awhile, we made our way back to the hotel to regroup and figure out dinner plans. It seems that every weekend in Montreal there is some sort of festival. We were a week too early for jazz fest, but it turned out that we were at the right place at the right time for a science festival, which we had seem some tents set up along the port the day before, and more importantly, lobster festival!

We decided to head to the walking district off Saint Laurent after reading some good reviews that a different Portuguese restaurant, under the same management as the one we had eaten at before. Dan and I each had the lobster dish, which turned out to be two lobster tails, and James went the adventurous route and tried the rabbit.  Everything was really delicious. (see picture above)

After dinner we walked around some more and stopped at a bar. Montreal must be a good place to party, because we saw 4 different bachorette parties roaming the streets. I had some more red beer, it's really grown on me but I had been drinking a local Montreal brew most of the time that I suspect will be difficult to find elsewhere.

It was pretty late at this point and I just wanted to go back to the hotel and take it easy, but James and Dan had other plans and eventually I succumbed to peer pressure and we went back out to try to find some nice bars.

Turns out I had the right idea staying in, all the bars had either ridiculous cover charge or even more ridiculous bottle service, where you can't get in unless you order a $130+ bottle...The one bar we did get into had bottle service, but it turned out to be a pretty antisocial place because of the set up. Groups just stayed at their own table and everyone who was having a good time had come in a group anyway.  We tried the bar scene for 2 hours maybe, but then called it quits.

That was about it for this trip. Sunday I led everybody the wrong direction so instead of getting to a recommended bagel place for breakfast we ate at another small cafe, which was fine with everyone.  We walked to the bus station to get to the airport, but it turned out that a taxi would be cheaper for 3 people. 

At the airport, I noticed both coming into Montreal from Toronto and flying back to Toronto that you don't have to take your shoes off at the security checkpoint, but that you did flying from Toronto back into America.

I bought some French vodka made from distilled grapes at the duty free and some other gifts at the airport, then hopped on the 4 seats per row back to Toronto and 3 seats per row back to Houston.

All in all, it was a good trip, and I really enjoyed the spontaneity of not having a set itinerary. I'm also glad Dan came up and James decided to stay as well.

Montreal Day 3- Downtown Day 1

Today was jammed packed, with tons of walking (comparable to Copenhagen). Dan and I met James in the lobby of our 4 star hotel and started the journey into downtown Montreal to find our 2 star hotel. We took the bus to a subway stop, then road the subway for a bit, got off, and wandered around looking for our hotel. We found it without too much trouble, but had to call the front desk when we were only less than a block away.

Hotel Castel Saint Denis is in an awesome location, and is prety good for a 2 star hotel. The concierge was very helpful and pretty funny, and the rooms are big enough for a short stay. They are similar in size to a dorm room.

After getting settled, we all set out for lunch at a Portuguese restaurant that Dan had stumbled upon the day before while I was working the event. It was a good 20 min or so walk from the hotel, but it ended up being worth it. I had one of the best lunches I've ever had, a Portugeuse sausage sandwich. It was simple and pretty affordable, but really really good. Dan ordered the chef's choice, which was just a load of meat, and James ordered the chicken on Dan's recommendation, since that is what he ordered for lunch the day before.

After lunch we wandered aimlessly around and found Saint Laurent, which a recommended street to walk around on. There was also a pedestrian traffic only section, similar to some streets in Copenhagen. 

At around 2 or 2:30, we decided to take the subway a little out of downtown to see the botanical gardens. We ended up only going to the Biodome for time constraints, which was a huge complex that walked you through 4 different climates and the wildlife that lived in them. It started with rainforest and moved through another forest, a marine environment, and then ended with a penguin exhibit as we reached Antarctica. James got hit my a bird load, which made us all laugh, and there was this cool bird just walking around on the pathway.  I took a load of pictures and a cool video of a bird flying underwater, but the journey didn't take us as long as we thought and we were on our way back to the subway into downtown before 4.

This time, we took the train down to the harbor, and wandered around without a specific plan.We stopped at an outdoor cafe for drinks and did a litle people watching before heading down the harbor. There's some pretty cool architecture downtown, but it was hard to get a good view for the camera.

After the harbor we found the museum district, but by this time things were nearing closing time. We did find a cool church built like Notre Dame in Paris, but they were charging entrance so we passed. Doesn't seem right to have to pay to get into a church. We wandered around some more, and then found China Town!

We went in and out of a few boutiques, then rested our feet at a tapioca tea house for a bit. We stopped at a Vietnamese place for pho, which was excellent, but not quite as good as the pho place in Houston i frequent.  We did some more wandering on the "seedy" side of Saint Laurent and walked past some prostitutes on our way back to the hotel, and stopped at a club that was absolutely dead. We got a free hand stamp to skirt the cover charge and were told to come back in a few hours

Usually, my night would end around here, but we headed to the hotel only to dump off our souvenirs and such before hitting the Montreal night life.

First, we headed to a cafe for some drinks and ended up watching the Penguins beat the Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup. The local red beer here is actually really good, and I don't even like beer. After the game we decided to head back to the club we stopped at earlier.

It was really crowded and loud, which means it's a good place to be I guess. I did dance a little, but for the most part I was a wallflower with James. Dan danced more than I, but we spent more tme not dancing than dancing. It was a fun time, I enjoyed the people watching, but clubs just aren't my scene.

We left the club and got back to the hotel around 1.

It's kind of fun not having a plan or itinerary on vacation, you just walk around the popular pedrestian streets and have a good time.

Montreal Day 2- Event Day

A few other cultural things have caught my eye. There are blinking green lights instead of green arrows, but then they also have blinking green arrows...I haven't seen a solid green arrow yet, and I wonder what the difference between the blinking solid green and the blinking arrow is. Also, Christin ordered an iced coffee in Toronto from Tim Horton's, which is a chain that you see everywhere up here, like Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks. What she got back was basically a coffee flavored smoothie. In Montreal, Dan ordered an iced coffee, and got a regular cup of coffee with 2 or 3 ice cubes in it, not nearly enough to make it iced.  Finally, Dan noticed that the tap water in the hotel has a slight spicy meat aftertaste.  How weird is that!!

The event went well. I facilitated the same session that I did in Toronto, but I think the Toronto portion went a little better.  I managed to research and book a hotel closer to downtown Montreal with the help of Laurie sometime during the event.  The lunch provided at both venues was awful, so I was very excited to learn that Angelo, the manager of the presales force here, was providing us with a cookout for dinner!

I ate way to much, but I couldn't pass up the chicken, pork, and salmon kabobs. I also had a local beer brewed in Montreal that was pretty good, and I don't even like beer all that much.  

Desert rolled around and we were introduced to a new type of cheese, Types de Moins, I think is what it was called. It was really interesting to prepare because he had a special cutting machine just for this type of cheese. A scraper went around the surface of the circle of cheese and made a sort of funnel or cone shaped slice of cheese, then Angelo dumped some mint jelly into the center of the cheese  cone. It was quite excellent.  After that, the canolis were brought out, which were also delicious. The night was topped off with some port. It was a very French like atmosphere with tons of chatting and a lot of wait time for the food. James, an engineer also staying the weekend in Montreal, Dan, and I were also able to get a few pointers on some streets to wander and where to go that wasn't too touristy in Montreal.  I can say for certain now that my French is just about gone, I could not understand anything the Montreal team was saying, but Dan dived right in and was able to hold his own in a conversation. It made me a little sad to realize that my French is not only really bad now, but practically nonexistant. My accent is still very good though...

Work's over, now it's time to have some fun!

Montreal Day 1

Today I woke up in a startled and slightly paranoid state of mind. It was 7:45 and we were meeting at 8 to leave to the airport! I had left my phone on vibrate and slept right through the alarm, but in the end I was able to dash to lobby. I was still the driver, so I was in good shape.

The flight to Montreal was a quick 52 minutes, but the plane was enormous. It was 6 seats-per-row as opposed to the 3 per row that we flew into Toronto from Houston on. It was Air Canada instead of Continental, and they had an entertainment system built into the seat. Unfortunately, the Games function was unavailable, so I just spent most of the flight drifting in and out of a nap. One really interesting thing that I remember was my ginger ale. I ordered a giner ale and the flight attendant emptied a can into a cup, then added two small ice cubes. I preferred it this way, but thought it was strange since everywhere in the states they load you up on ice first then fill up the cup.

After checking into the hotel we headed out to Scores for lunch before set up. I think it is a chain restaurant in Canada and reminded me a lot of a Chiles type restaurant. They appeared to be known for their chicken and ribs, so I could not pass up an opportunity to partake in some baby backs. They tasted alright, and if you ignore the fact that they were ribs they were pretty good, but they just didn't taste like ribs. The sauce was very good though, it was sort of a tangy sweet bbq. The ribs came with fries and half of a toasted hamburger bun, which I thought was a little odd.  The lunch special was topped off with some ridiculously rich chocolate cake.

Set up in Montreal had a few a few hitches, but for the most part everything went smoothly. Once again, our van got there way before the other van because it took a wrong turn. I seem to have been blessed by being put into a group with good directionally minded people (and a GPS).

After fixing up all the rooms for tomorrow's event, we headed back to the hotel, met up with Daniel and the rest of the engineers who did not have anything to set up, and headed out to downtownish Montreal for a later than usual dinner. We chose Moe's Bar and Grill, one of the restaurants suggested by Norm in Toronto, and I had the the smoked meat sandwich, just like he suggested. Calling it a sandwich is pretty generous, in reality it was more like a pile of meat with two pieces of bread thrown in as a joke. I was not disappointed. I also tried snails for the first time and stole one of Dan's ribs, which were much better than the ribs I tried at lunch. Dan and I also split La Dulce Vita choclate cake, which was practically fudge instead of cake. Very delicious and heavy meal.

2009 Canada Trip- Toronto wrap up

Blogging a little behind on my schedule, I had hoped to wrap up blogging about the first two Toronto days last night after dinner, but I experienced some internet problems in the hotel and eventually just crashed. 

I find myself back in Canada this week working the same event I worked last year for HP, a two city, two day event. Just like last year, it's Toronto and Montreal again.

The flight from Houston to Toronto wasn't that bad, but it was on a tiny 3 seat-per-row express jet. One member of the team got bumped from the flight, so another took the $500 travel voucher and gave his seat up too. This would come back to haunt them, however, as the luggage made the trip on our Continental flight while they waited for Air Canada hours later. Needless to say the baggage got lost in the airport when we landed Monday afternoon, and wasn't brought to the hotel until Tuesday, after the Toronto portion of the event. We had a clothes collection for Miles and James as a joke.

Back to Monday: I was one of the lucky ones picked to be a driver, and overcame a slight fear/discomfort of mine of having to drive in a foreign city. I escaped the ordeal with only 1 slightly illegal right turn coming out of the airport, and 1 u-turn, which really should be blamed on Christin, as I was following her to the office to set up and started to turn down the correct street only to see her speed through it in front of me.

Set up Monday went more of less smoothly, and we had pizza delivered to the Toronto campus, which is absolutely stunning btw. Lots of windows, very open, and a good size. It is one of the few campuses that HP owns outright and is not paying anything on it.  We were spoiled in Toronto; Montreal's office is much much smaller.

Tuesday I worked the event. I had the same session throughout the whole day, and ended up driving the slides,which is something I hadn't done in past events. The slide deck was a mess and I had to keep switching between 4 separate presentations, but as the day went on I got pretty good at it. From my standpoint, the event went very well.

After the event we had did a team dinner with some of the Toronto folks at Milestones, the same restaurant that we wrapped up last year's Toronto event with.  I had the salmon last year and it was delicious, but i decided to branch out and try their Italian black pepper steak and shrimp meal. It also came with garlic mashed potatos and asparagus. Very delcious. The night was topped off with pleasant conversation with Norm from the Toronto office, and he gave me some restaurant suggestions and a few things to experience while in Montreal. The Montreal event wraps up Thursday, but I am staying until Sunday to experience the city. Dan is also flying in today (Wed), so the weekend should be a blast!

Montreal side of things to come next post.