Montreal

The thing with cities is - just a couple of blocks can make a huge difference to what you think of the place.

Today I started in Ottawa. As I wasn't rolling out until the middle of the day, I made a lightening trip out to the museum of Civilisation. The Ottawa public transport site is excellent and gave me great directions about how to get a bus there. The only thing they didn't think to mention when they gave directions on how to walk from my hotel to the bus stop (which, to give them credit, they did), was that the bus stop was on the top floor of a shopping mall - I still don't quite understand how that works because the buses don't fly... anyway, that took me a bit of a while to find.

The museum was great - the Canada Hall - where you effectively walk through the history of Canada from the first visits of the vikings on was really interesting. Unfortunately - I spent too long there and had to rush the first people's hall - which also seemed really great.

The picture above is of the foyer area.

Then, I couldn't get out of the building without setting off an alarm - it is an interesting structure with no right angles - and I went to the wrong bus stop and missed the bus -

But I managed to catch my train to Montreal in the end - so all's well that ends well.

The hotel in Montreal is a little more out of the way - but the nice young man at the desk explained how I could catch the Metro into town to see the old quarter. I ended up in Chinatown - which looks just like Chinatown in any other city. Then I wandered in the wrong direction (maps don't work all that well when you start with a wrong assumption about where you are) and was just walking through anonymous skyscraper canyons. I was feeling very let down - as Ottawa had been such a positive experience.

I even found something that LOOKED like a tourist attraction - but couldn't find my way to the front door to find out what it was!



Of course - it all feels much more foreign here. As soon as you cross the border into Quebec on the train, the conducter makes all the announcements in French first and then English rather than the other way around as in Ontario. Everyone greets you with "Bonjour" then speaks to you in English (with various degrees of reluctance) when you answer "Hello".

Then I retraced my steps and actually found the old town and the waterfront and my whole perception of the place changed. The waterfront in particular has a great feel to it. I found a lovely place to have dinner out of doors in the summer sunshine, sipping on Sangria and watching the people walk by.