What We Did on Our Summer Holiday

Here are some photos, as promised, of us in Montreal. As Alison took and chose them all, there are none with her in them. But I'm sure there's at least one of her, and I'm determined to find it.

This is, I believe, the first day of clothing shopping, before our feet and wallets became flat and useless. I was still optimistic at this point that I would find a pair of shorts in my size for under fifty dollars.

The lovely Krista at a bar we visited after the second day of shopping. We wondered why the staff was so rude about our very polite but very English style of communication, until we noticed that the place seemed to have a separatist theme, with photos of René Lévesque and nationalist demonstrations covering the walls. Nice photos, mind you.

This is the island where we saw Radiohead. No pictures from the show because cameras were not allowed. Nor were umbrellas, but that didn't stop some people from bringing them in. We were worried that our already distant view of the stage would be blocked, but then the crowd around us started chanting, "En bas, les parapluies!" until, one by one and to great applause, they were all brought down. Some very civilized anarchy I thought, which continued after the show when everyone had to get into the same Metro station. It took us over an hour to inch our way to the doors, completely surrounded by legions of damp Radiohead fans, but no one was trampled or even jostled. I don't even think any arguments broke out. A woman behind us coughed politely when Krista lit up a cigarette, and Krista quickly stubbed it out. I tell ya, that city knows how to organize themselves in large groups. Mind you, a riot broke out the day we left, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

The best bagel shop in the world. I bought a "bozo" — a giant, twisted bagel covered in both sesame and poppy seeds — fresh out of the oven. Yum.

Krista left that day, and afterward we went with Meg to Old Montreal and the Old Port. By this time I was quite exhausted and had had just about enough sightseeing.

But then, the next day, we went back up St. Laurent so that Meg could buy some smoked meat for her boss and my ex-boss at Schwartz's, the de facto smoked meat Mecca. We managed to get there early enough that there wasn't a line of people out the door and down the block, and then it started to teem with rain. Luckily, there was a nice little coffee shop nearby, with a chess theme. Here's Meg about to beat me slowly and painfully. "I have hardly ever played. Please don't laugh at my lack of strategy and poor knowledge of the rules."

And on the last day we were there, since both of us were so completely worn out from all the walking around we'd done all week, Alison and I decided to take a relaxing stroll UP THE MOUNTAIN. I think our feet had stolen all the oxygen from our brains at that point. It was a lovely view, though, once we found the lookoff.


A great vacation, all in all, but we're glad to be home. We spent yesterday in Wolfville and found a place to live there. I'll have to tell you about it in the next post, though, because I'm off to meet Alison and Johanna for lunch now. How's that for suspense?

- Andrew