We both woke up relatively early, but Claire woke up before me because I could hear her on a call to David (who’s in the UK right now) downstairs. She made some food and we each got ready for our day. While Claire was packing her things, I figured out what she needs to renew her passport, as she accidentally put her existing one in the washing machine a while ago and it’s no longer valid for travel, oops. That’s important since David and Claire are going to come back to BC with me for a bit to visit, but we’ll be driving through the US, so obviously a valid passport is needed.
I folded the laundry I’d washed last night, and finished getting ready, and after confirming everything was set at home and everything we needed was packed, we headed out towards Montreal. Our goal was to get to Montreal by early evening so we had time for dinner and then to find somewhere to camp afterward. It was about a 7 hour drive, and we were leaving at around noon, so it was definitely an achievable goal.
The first part of the drive was extremely painful though. We got stuck in the parking lot known as Highway 401, and crawled our way through Toronto while boiling in the sun beaming down on us. There were brief moments of respite where we thought we’d finally made it through only to run into a whole other set of traffic a little bit further along. It was brutal, but we eventually did break free onto mostly open highway beyond Toronto, and it was pretty much smooth sailing from there.
We stopped along the way at a Real Canadian Superstore to pick up some snacks and some lunch food, and ended up getting a tray of sushi. It was $18 but was more than enough for both of us, and while not the best sushi I’ve ever had, it wasn’t bad for $18.
Later on, we stopped at an OnRoute to use the bathroom and I saw this guy:
Our original plan was to camp overnight just before Montreal, then meet up with one of Claire’s friends the next day and spend the whole day in the city. Unfortunately, it turned out they wouldn’t be available for long enough for it to be worth it, so we switched gears and are now going to visit them on the way back towards Toronto at the end of the trip. Claire also found a hotel for $60 which looked nice and had good reviews in Old Montreal, so we decided to stay there rather than finding a place to camp.
We arrived and parked temporarily out front, though it was a no parking area so we would have to find a new spot once checked in. We got ourselves checked in and asked the staff member if she knew of a good place to park, to which she responded that there was a good parking garage a couple of streets away and gave me the address. While Claire had a call with David, I went and found a place to park the car.
The parking garage that had been suggested looked good, but when I arrived I couldn’t find a way to open it. It wasn’t motion activated, and the button on the machine did nothing and just rang endlessly. No worries, I thought, I’ll just find street parking. Well let me tell you street parking is not easy to find in Old Montreal. After driving around a few blocks I finally found a spot right on the end of a parking zone and took it. I couldn’t figure out how the parking worked because it was all in French, but from the limited amount I could understand it seemed I couldn’t park there on Tuesday mornings, but other than that it’s fine, I just have to pay.
I walked to the closest parking meter which was next to what looked like a very fancy restaurant, and entered my plate number. Unfortunately it turns out this was not a pay by plate area, and I needed to get the number of the parking stall I was in, which despite seeing it, I completely disregarded and forgot to remember or take a photo of. So, I walked back to the car (it’s only about 100 meters but feels longer) and remembered the parking stall number, 778. Back at the stall I entered that number in, and it was still invalid! So I went back to the car and realized it also wanted the letter below the numbers, 778L. I took a photo this time, and instead of going back to the same meter and looking stupid, I walked to another one that I realized was much closer the other way down the street.
At that machine I was able to pay $10 for parking from 8pm - 11pm, after which it was free until 8am. Because I couldn’t pay for parking for tomorrow ahead of time, it would mean we’d need to move the car before 8am tomorrow, but that’s okay. Finally having completed the goal, I walked back to the hotel and went up to the room. Upon entering, I found it was extremely small. For two people sharing a bed, this wouldn’t really be an issue, but since Claire and I are not sharing a bed, it would be a bit cramped. Claire had volunteered to use her blow up camping mattress and let me have the bed, which was nice. The bathrooms were also separate and shared between the whole floor (we knew this before we booked). So rather than a hotel, it’s more like a hostel with private rooms.
After dropping our stuff off, we searched for a place to eat. We looked for a while but could only find things that were either way too far away (now that I’d paid for parking we didn’t want to drive) or wayyyy too expensive, like $100+ per person. We eventually found a pizza place about 15 minutes away that was cheap, and started walking there. At first we walked along the river, but Claire quickly got too cold and so we walked the rest of the way between the buildings.
Claire is pretty short, and I’m pretty tall, so we were running into an issue where my normal walking speed was a little too fast for her, and in an effort to keep and and also to stay warm, she started to jog ahead of me. Unfortunately, something caused that to make her feel pretty sick, and so we had to slow down the rest of the way.
Along the way, we kept seeing restaurants we hadn’t seen on the map, and we’d look them up only to find they were ridiculously expensive and we’d move on. Though, right when we arrived at the pizza place, Claire noticed a Polish restaurant across the road that had their menu on a sign outside, and so we decided to take a look. The prices actually seemed really reasonable, and the place was nice, so we decided to head in.
We waited at the front for a little bit before someone looked at me, and I swear they said “you can find a seat”. So we went and found a spot to sit. A short bit later someone came and asked if someone had seated us, to which I replied no, and I had thought someone told us to find a seat. It turns out I was hearing things and was completely wrong, but they weren’t upset about it and said it happens quite often since some European cultures involve seating yourself, so visitors will often do it.
We ordered our food, a casserole for Claire and beef pirogies for me, and enjoyed the atmosphere while we waited. We got our food pretty quickly, and it was excellent. We ate relatively quickly since we arrived at 9:20 and they closed at 10, and even though they don’t kick you out at 10, I know the staff will want to be cleaning up to go home, so we didn’t hang around too long.
My four pirogies came to $12, which for Old Montreal doesn’t seem too bad. We both left larger tips because we felt bad about the seating mishap, but also they were just really nice as well. After that we walked back to the hostel since we wanted to get an early night in preparation for our early start in the morning. We got back to the hotel, Claire finished setting up her sleeping mat, and we went to bed.
