After spending all of our time so far in America it was time for our adventure in Canada. For this part we was going to be missing one Goonie in the form of kev who had Customs and Immirgration issues when initially entering into America. Therefore, it was understandable that Kev did not want to risk leaving America to enter Canada then to have problems again trying to re-enter America to get to Chicago. Therefore, only myself (Mike), John and Chris will ventured the moose lands of Canada.

The journey to Montreal was our first real experience of a long Greyhound bus journey. It took approximately 7 hours to get from Boston to Montreal and trying to use our time wisely, we had arranged to have an overnight journey where we had the intention to sleep during the journey that would save us on a night’s accommodation and no time wasted during the day. This of course did not work quite as planned as all 3 of us found it almost impossible to sleep on the coach and at the end of the journey we felt extremely grubby from the stuffiness of the coach.

After our 7 hour journey we arrive at Montreal and successfully walked to our hostel which took about 15 minutes after we got our bearing correct. We stayed at the Le Julliet hostel which had an excellent location as it was located right in the heart of Old Montreal. The hostel itself had bags of characher; it was very rustic using random / reclaimed material in the construction of the hostel, vibrant colours throughout, a french renaissance feel and a quirkiness that can only be experienced first hand. However, the most impressive feature of this hostel was that it only cost us 18 CAD per night.

Day 1

On the first day in Montreal we decided to do a walking tour of Old Montreal to get a good introduction to the city. On the walking tour its took us through all the financial district including numerous old historic banks, Montreal’s World Trade Centre, La Basilica Notre-Dame (church), a random music library, Place D Armes Clock Tower, Old Port, various Art museums and Pointe-à-Callière (Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History). Our visit to the Pointe-à-Callière museum included a 20 minute multimedia presentation of the history of Montreal, which I thought was one of the most modern and impressive presentation I have seem so far from a museum. It was multi-dimensional displaying video imaginary from many angles and even the set / display itself moved throughout the presentation.

After getting a brief history of Montreal we pressed on to explore Parc Jean-Darpeau which consist of two man made islands that are located right in the middle of the St Lawrance River. The two islands are called Ile Notre-Dame and Sainte-Helene. The first island that we explored was Sainte-Helene that we accessed via a small ferry taking approximately 30 minutes. On Sainte-Helene is “La Ronde” which is a theme park from the Six Flag group, a large public swimming pool and the BioSphere which is an impressive looking museum addressing environmental related issues such as climate change. Of all the attractions in Sainte Helene we had only time for the BioSphere as it was already mid afternoon and we had another island to explore.

Next was Ile Notre-Damn which was only a walk across a bridge from the other island. On this Island we explored the Montreal Casino (no gambling until Las Vegas) and miles and miles of smooth tarmac which we only later discovered is the Grand Prix track for Montreal.

After a feature packed day it was time for dinner so we need to headed back to the mainlands of Old Montreal. On your ferry ride back to the mainland it rained heavily. Me and John was prepared and had our macs to keep up dry, but unfortunately Chris opted not to take a mac to got completed soaked in the signature shorts and shirt outfit that all Goonies have been sporting as it was suitable attire of any occassion, whether it is a night out in town or a walk in the park.

Come dinner time the 3 of us were extremely hungury but we are always on a budget to ensure we dont run out of funds before the end of out world tour. As a results we scoured the town and found a diner that looked reasonable in price and the fact it looked pretty cheap from the outside we assumed it was well within budget at around 20 CAD per head. The diner we had chose turnt out to be a Slovakian restaurant meaning we had no idea what to expect. As a group we shared a large salad, had individual main courses and dessert and gulped down 2 beers each. To our amazement and deceptive look of this cheap looking diner we still managed to clock up a bill that was just shy of 100 CAD, totally blowing our daily budget.

After finishing Slovakia’s finest we decide to have an early night to ensure we would wake up early. As soon as we opened the doors to get to our bed I was almost knocked out by a herendous smell of cheese. The smell was so ridicously potent that is required further investigation from the team to see if we could remedy the problem. On inspection we discovered that the smell came from a pair of shoes belonging to a frenchmen sleeping in the bunk above me. I can now understand why the french won the award for the smelliest homes in Europe in a survey, however this was boarder line criminal.

Day 2

On the second day the 3 of us wake up bright and early to ensure we make the most out of the day as we need to leave by 3PM to catch a flight totoronto. The plan for the day was to visit the Olympic stadium and Mount Royal park. As we had  approximately 7 hours to cover 2 attractions we decided to walk to the Olympic stadium which we had approximated to be around 4 miles away from the hostel. From this lession we learnt that we are terrible at estimating distances from a map as the Olympic stadium is alot more that 4 miles away and to make it worst be had walked alot further than we needed due to wrong directions from the chief navigator.

After taking pictures of the stadium we proceed to walk back to the hostel via Monte Royal Park. On the way back be stumbled across a few more attactions including Jardin Botanique Garden and Fontin Park which we rushed explored rapidly snapping pictures like a Japanese tourist in a desperate attempt to make up lost time. Despite our vein efforts we did not have time to fully explore Mount Royal Park and only managed to see 2 of the 7 points of interest we wanted to see in Mount Royal Park.

In true Goonies fashion we only just arrive back to the hostel to catch our taxi to the airport with quite literally minutes to spare which also included yet another detour due to poor map reading skills.

Next stop Toronto and hopefully a lesson in time management and map reading.