Montreal, Day 1

I'll keep this short and sweet, because the day's not over yet.

Montreal is stunning. I really wasn't expecting much. Thought it'd be similar to St. Louis, Denver, Chicago...any other bustling American metropolis. Little did I know that Montreal was actually in Canada, and therefore infinitely superior to all American cities. It kind of felt like I was in England again...and then in Germany...and then it Italy...and usually in France, since most of Old Montreal is totally styled in Neoclassical Architecture. I wasn't expecting to see that.

We ladies started off having breakfast in our hotel. They served beans because their eggs ran out. I was displeased. Breakfastless, we headed out to the metro station, where Maria realized she forgot her sunglasses. So we went back to the hotel. We went back to the metro station. Then we got a message that someone was meeting us at our hotel. So we went back to the hotel. She wasn't there. So we went back to the metro station. I had a minor freakout trying to figure out the demon ATM machine, which didn't like my card.

We got on the metro and headed to downtown Montreal. Located another SAS kid, whose adorable grandpa was kind enough to take us to lunch, where we tried "poutine", a disgusting Canadian montrosity composed of french fries, cheese, and gravy. Ugh. Needless to say, I had the salmon.

Next we went on a carriage ride through Montreal. Oh my God, best decision ever. We saw everything! And our tour guide was seemingly in a relationship in his horse. I learned so much history about the architecture of the buildings and the cobblestone streets. So many pictures, so little time.

Of course, that wasn't enough history for me, so I dragged my friends to go see the Archaeology Museum, where we were treated to an 18 minute, ultra-corny presentation on the history of Montreal from the big bang to now. It was weird. Probably was weirder for Gabriela, who forgot to change the language to English on her headphones, and was doomed to try to interpret the music and sound effects. Poor girl. Museum itself was pretty average, but I liked it.

We wanted to go home, but kept getting distracted. I found maple wine. It was like taking a shot of pure maple syrup. Which I've done before. So yeah, it was EXACTLY like that.

We finally got home, and I collapsed and fell asleep. Now the girls are forcing me to go out again. When in Rome, I guess. Oh, wait, I'm in Montreal. Damn.