Ummm, I dont think I can possibly explain the beauty of montreal at this moment as I only left yesterdaya nd was there for a mere 24 hours and have way too many things to say about it. I am smitten. I want to go back there asap, and me and nina will do so in a couple of weeks that is fer sherrrr.

So cathey and I arrived there on the 30th after catching the plane to ottawa the night before and then driving up to montreal the morning after. It was a great trip despite some rainy times, and it was so lame I got so excited as we entered quebec and all the signs were suddenly only in french, not both english and french like before. My lack of exposure to this language even though I have studied it for 4 years became very apparent during our 24 hour stint in the wonder of montreal (there is a pun in there but it will not make sense till a little later...kill me now). I could sit and listen to the ever attractive montrealais talk in their beautiful frenchy way and drink coffee and do nothing else. because i would be in montreal. and that is enough. but seriously, even though we were there for so little I really took a nice big fat bite out of the city and thouroughly enjoyed it. Walking around the cobblestone streets of vieux montreal was lovely, so many old cool buildings and beautiful apartments with huge windows with blue curtains and red doors and those cool fire escape stairs running up the side which i am so oddly obsessed with. People were so beautiful and wore pretty things and it was a joy to just be there and witness it all in a day. Cathey and I were fortunate in being reccommended to eat at this place called 'modavie' which looked like quite pricey and really nice, little jazz bar as well as a restaurant too, but we got there in tmie for an early bird din dins! 3 course meal for 15.95 thankyou very much plus really good local beer except i cannot remember the name... i even tried some of the tirimasu just to be a badass. :O shock horror.

Then it was time to rush back to our hotel, the 'hilton bonaventure' which we got a discounted price on, it was actually so nice and not slutty. Stevie Wonder (theres the belated pun clue) was opening the montreal international jazz festival so we wanted to be as early as we could possibly make it. there were about 100,000 people there, so i have to say, thanks to cathey's genius walking-through/over/between-angry-people skills, we did extremely well in getting our spot which we could see everythying perfectly except for a few tall people (grrrr) and not too far away either. After waiting for about 3 hours, 1 of them in the rain, breathing in a s***load of smoke from the many smokers in montreal (surprise surprise) and befreinding a really nice mexican guy called pedro (he looked like a mexican version of chuck from gossip girl), darling stevie arrived on stage. there was an immediate roar of praise and amazement and happiness and excitement from the crowd, and the sea of umbrellas instantly went down. we had to be able to see him. he came out with his daugher, iesha, and he said his hellos and then went on to give a really nice simple speech about remembering micheal jackson and the importance of ignoring the gossip and scandal and negativity surrounding his life and persona, and to focus on remembering and celebrating his music. He spoke in a really lovely way and i really liked what he said actually. but more importantly, the music, wow. he played for almost 3 hours straight. and this was FREE concert! such a generous, giving, amazing performer and man. i was so impressed, and the whole stage and massive band and dancers and lights and musicians and everything were great, almost as much as mr. wonder himself. I feel so lucky to have seen such an icon, and for free, in montreal, felt like a dream or something. the rain magically stopped until his last song, which was kind of nice actually to watch him in the light rain. the concert ended with a little medley of micheal jackson songs while everyone got up and swayed to the music on stage, and stevie was visibly on the berge of crying he looked so sad. After stevie left the stage, an awesome fireworks display lit up the cloudy night.

The next day was July the first aka Canada Day! We watched the parade which was cool, and admired the giant free canada day cake, surrounded by cake fans and camera crews alike. i took photos, so fear not. After the festivities we checked out Mon Royal park, which is huge and very lovely, and walked up to the lookout point to see a beautiful view of the city form above. Next to this was a really cool old convent building which was like epic ballroom inside, sooooo cool. Then it was time to say au revior to this pretty pretty city and drive back to ottawa and the dear cottage, where I am now, with a view of the river Rideau and the sound of the rain. Until next time, Montreal, I miss you already xoxox