Montreal - The land of the French

We arrived in Montreal on the eve of the new year, and thanks to Fabio's brilliant navigation, found the hostel with little or no effort. In fact, we pulled over after finding the street and looked up the number for the Hostel only to find it 10m ahead. Well done!

That evening, after setting ourselves up as comfortably as possible in the Hostel, (you'll se pictures below) we found out that the destination for the evening was chosen by someone in our group, although, we are not quite sure who. Anyway, the name of the club was "Foufounes Electriques" and after realising that it was actually in my Lonely planet guide, I remembered the translation. Electric Buttocks...

Above: Matthias out the front of the club pondering, Right: Some of the artwork lining the walls.

Above: HAPPY NEW YEAR, on the dance floor. Right: Thomas and Bea, Thomas was caught in an off moment. :)

Above: Allison, Sven, Vanessa and Amy. Right: Myself, Fabio and Jutta.

After the night of New Years, we made a trip up the Hill overlooking Montreal, Mont Real. The path the entire way up was rather icy, and the stairway above is somewhat an example. Up the 5km path up the hill, we saw lots of squirrels. Some were more tame than others. I even have a short video of them crawling up Chris's legs.

Above: The mod squad... Right: A distant squirrel.



Above: A not so distant squirrel. Right: Me at the top of Mont Real. (Sounds similar to Montreal doesn't it...)



More shots of us over looking the big French City.



Mont Real Panoramic.



That evening, we took a wonder through China Town and Old Quebec, some of the lights were very beautiful. You had to be careful though, there was Ice everywhere.



Above: Allison over looking parliament house in Montreal. Above: A statue in the middle of Montreal.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, the hostel was somewhat interesting. It was very small and there were barely enough beds for the lot of us. Fortunetly, I was in one of the earlier cars and got a reasonable bed unlike the English Crew who got rather lost finding the joint. But I am sure they enjoyed their sleep on the couch.

Above: Comfortably asleep. Right: The Montreal Metro.

On the way out of the city, our car made a visit to the Olympic park. They have a few records under their belt, including the tallest slanted tower. (above) They have a small tower exhibit inside and they even mention our two great towers, the Sydney tower and the Telstra Tower. Meanwhile, I was privately freezing to death, having dressed more for the long drive ahead and not the period we spent outside.

Well, the weather was perfect in Montreal however, just as we were leaving the big city, it began to snow. Well, we were greatful that we were on the way when we did. However... it did get worse, it began to Rain, and the temp was only -8... go figure. Soon enough the rain was literally freezing onto the windchild. Quite a fun ride home...

We made it home though in one piece...