... Still on our overnight bus journey it must have been about 4:00am and our driver had stopped. It might have been because he needed a break. But he said if anyone wants to come out and check out the stars then we could. I was awake at this point and me and Chris went and checked it out. It was pitch black, so dark. The stars looked stunning, your could see millions. All clear and you could see all the constellations. It looked just like a planetarium. I am so glad that I went and checked it out. Once back onboard I as able to sleep all the way to Ottawa. We had a 50 minute stop before boarding our next bus to Montreal. It was another couple of hours I managed to get some more sleep before arriving. I am sure the bus driver was lost on arrival into Montreal as he was driving around and around. I guess it could have been something to do with the Montreal Marathon going on today.
Once we finally arrive at the bus terminal we walked to the Metro and made our way to the Hostel. Quebec is a French speaking province of Canada. (The only one!) It was only a couple of stops on the Metro to the Hostel. We dropped out bag off, managed to get showered had a cooked breakfast and then ventured out to explore Montreal. (We are only here for 24 hours!). We decided to head to Mont Royal, it was at the top of this massive hill- I would call it a mountain. We started by taking the stairs, and then joined the footpath. It's Sunday today and there were so many people on bikes, running and hiking around this country park. When we arrived at the top, there was a very French looking buildings and increadable views over the entire city. I was really worth getting sweaty on the walk to the top. We decided we would keep going until the summit. There was something else there but we didn't know exactly what as it was in French. It turned out to be a massive cross. I looked like it had lights all around it. I am sure it can be seen from all over he city. We decided to walk down a different way, instead of walk - it was more of a climb. We must have gone down the steepest part, and it was pretty much rock climbing! I think I caused a couple of land slides and slipped a few times. But no injuries. It was off the main track if you hadn't have guessed, and when we got to the bottoms a couple of hobo's were pitching up a tent! All their washing laid out on a rock.
Thankfully we managed to find the footpath again; and then we started to see people and cars! The first thing both of us wanted to do was find a pub.. Do you think we could find one... No chance. We must have walked 30 minutes before arriving at a metro station. Putting off the beer for a short while we headed to the Ottawa 1976 Olympic Park. If you didn't know Ottawa held the summer Olympics of that year. Lets just say that the stadium has seen better days. My honest option knock the lot down... It was old, rundown and like a ghost town. They could do a lot more with this space; (in 2042 the London Olympic park might be the same I guess).
Still really wanting beer we got the metro back to the Montreal old town. It looked very European. Down the old streets there was a lot of bars and restaurants. We had s few beers in. 2 different pubs - one was a microbrewery- that made its own beer on sight. The beer we had was an amber beer, 6.2% and very cheeky! I was feeling the effects when left! A shop we walked past on route back to the metro had stuffed animals, a moose head and a polar bear! Managed to get some picture with the owners permission, even though the signs said NO photos! We had already planned to cook our own dinner to help with our pennies (More beer money!) plus the kitchen was really nice at the hostel. The reception staff pointed is in the right direction. There were loads of police cars on the street, and the staff said they have had a "shooting".... I won't repeat what when through my mind... But they they rephrased it to "Film shooting!" Few.
Chilli with rice was the meal we decided to cook; and it was really tasty considering it was out of a tin! We also got stuff to cook for breakfast tomorrow.
We had a chilled night, listening to some music before crashing out. Although we were in a 10 sleeper dorm there was only 4 people sleeping in it. The room was split into two parts. Some guy came in crashing around in the room about 2 o'clock in the morning. I don't know what the hell he was doing... But I managed to get back to sleep quite quickly.... Until the snoring started... Oh my bloody god. Lisa Jane - he was worse than you. I ended up getting out my bed twice once to just shake his bunk and try and stop him snoring... It worked for about 5 minutes but I was to worked up to get to sleep in that time. The second was to get my headphones cos I couldn't keep listening to it. As soon as my music was drowning out he beast, I went straight to sleep! I guess that is the only down side to hostel dorm living!