Canada : Montreal

We decided that the best way and of course the cheapest way to travel to Montreal was by bus!
So a couple of days before hand we booked our tickets with Coach Canada, which cost us a total of $156 return for both Mary and I and then booked the HI hostel in Montreal for the 3 nights which cost $75 each.

Friday morning at half 7, we left Toronto bus terminal and faced into our 7 bus hour long journey! Must admit didn't find it too long as I slept most of the way. We stop off in a area called Kingston for about 20 minutes or so that def broke up the journey.

Anyways we arrived at about half 2 that day and headed straight for our hostel. We were sharing a 10 female dorm, and it was perfect, plenty of room etc and we had our own bathroom so all was good!! We soon then realised that our hostel was within walking distance to downtown Montreal so it was happy days!!

That evening we went for something to eat and later that night we hit rue d cresent for a taste of Montreal's night life! As canadians would describe, AKA 'PARTY TOWN". We initially ventured into a pub called Hurleys and got a taste of back home..and it turned out one of the band members, knew all about Dunworly and spent many summers there when he was younger! So its a small world I tells ya!! we then moved from pub to pub and finished up in a club called Thursdays..which had a revoling dance floor might I add!! All in all it was a good nights craic!!

Next morning, when we finally got ourselves out of bed,we headed for Old montreal! Oh its def worth a visit! Lovely old cobble streets, def has a european taste to it! Then walking along the harbour and in and out of all shops. It has a lovely atmosphere there, its like a completely different city in comparison to the hustle and bustle of downtown Montreal!! Of course the main attration in Old Montreal is the Notre Dame Basillca. Saturday night we went and saw a luminating light show coveying the history of the basillca! Turns out it was an Irish Man you designed it!! Anyways it is def worth seeing thats for sure!

Sunday then we ventured up to Mount Royal..another aspect to the city that it is totally different to everything else. Mount Royal over looks the city and when we reached the top, it was like the city was no where to be seen. Lots of people were walking, sunbathing, having picnics, cyclying etc. I really enjoyed it and the view is def worth a look.

Everyone in Montreal in bi-lingual..french and english not a bother! It's like they look at you and decide what language they should use! As you can prob guess, it wasn't hard to guess we were english speaking!

We were lucky we got such good weather the first 3 days we were there but however on Monday, it lashed rain all day! So alot of our time was spent in the pathways underground, looking about the shops etc. We left Montreal that night at 8 o clock and arrived back in Toronto in the early hours of Tuesday, needless to say longing for the bed!