Montreal day 3
2011/09/07
Today is my last full day in Montreal.
I started off with one more short outing with Claudette and Gaëtan. We went up the funicular that rides the back of the tower above the Olympic pool I mentioned yesterday. Turns out there is a much better view of the city from there than from Mount Royal:
My attention was also directed to the so-called Pyramids, which were athletic housing for the 1976 Olympics and are now high-priced condos.
We also went to the adjacent Biodome, which is a small zoo/conservatory inside a large domed building. By far the best part of that was the very tame and curious puffins and penguins who were watching us as much as we them:
After that, I went downtown alone to have lunch with my cousin Angela Rose. She’s the mother of my second cousin Ayla, whom I met for the first time on my recent arrival in Toronto. It’s kind of weird – the last time I saw Angela, she was less than half Ayla’s present age. Time flies.
We caught up over burgers and poutine – first time I’ve ever had that. It was all right but I prefer ketchup to gravy, and the cheese probably would not go well with that.
It was good to see Angie again and find out what’s up in her life these days. Between her, Tanya and Claudette I’ve learned more than I ever previously knew about my father’s family history.
I spent the afternoon relocating my stuff to a hotel, then went downtown again to have supper with the Shaws – my former co-worker Stephen, who now works at Ubisoft in Montreal, and his wife Lisa, who is now working for a famous designer here. We had a great chat over pub fare, and then it was time to call it a night since I was tired.
(Aside: The island of Montreal has by far the most complex traffic regulations I’ve encountered on this trip. If you’re going to be driving here, you might want to look them up first to avoid accidentally breaking a bunch of laws. For example, there are lots of places where you’re not allowed to turn, but there’s no sign saying so – that information comes from the stoplight and is time-dependent. No parking zones move depending on the day of the week ( I had to learn the French day-names to deal with that). Green stoplights have a couple of phases not seen elsewhere in the country. Et cetera.)
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