Monday
Caught the wrong bus this afternoon but we saw sights of Montreal we otherwise would not have known existed; very rich houses, a Jewish hospital, and Jewish schoolboys dressed in black with forelocks and tall hats. There is an etiquette on the buses we don’t see in Brisbane: drivers letting on passengers when there’s a red light, and most stops being near intersections – avoiding dual stops. We got on board not knowing you had to have a prepaid ticket. The driver asked if we were tourists and printed two all-day passes for us. I asked, “Are they free for visitors?”. No, she replied.
Downtown is all in French and the people certainly look French. We bought a panini to share and were asked if we wanted salad or soup. Not knowing either was included in the price we got very confused when they kept insisting we had to choose.
Tuesday
Walked downtown from our hotel and then along never-ending Ave St Catherine looking for a non-franchise coffee shop; we didn’t find one. Once Montreal must have been very religious for there are elaborate churches and cathedrals everywhere and all the streets seem to be named after saints. It’s a busy city. We walked past the Apple store and were surprised to see a fenced off area outside where customers had to queue and wait their turn to enter.
Hannah met us mid-afternoon and took us to the art gallery. Napoleon was the subject of one of the exhibitions. Later I got to ride Hannah’s bike part of the way back to her place. Quite a hair-raising experience because pedestrians and cyclists share the same path and there seems to be no set side to use. Often I looked up to see driverless cars heading straight for me. Of course they were just sitting on the LHS and invisible behind the smoky windscreens. We have walked heaps today and my feet are not yet adjusted to these new shoes.
Last night Hannah made pizzas with ingredients bought from the untidiest and most congested supermarket you’ll ever see; but great prices and produce from all over the world. We loved it last time we were here and it’s not changed. Tomorrow we are supposed to move to our airbnb unit which is just around the corner from Hannah’s, and go for that drive into the country with Justin and Hannah’s business partner, Shayl.
In My Life 
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