Montreal Revisited

Montreal-Hostelling International

I'll tell you a story since recently someone reappeared that I never thought I would speak to again.

Over winter break I was still pretty upset about things with my ex, we were officially broken up for about a month, and also both being home for break made things miserable and just plain awkward. I've wanted to go up to Montreal for the hell of it for a while, and my friend and I decided that we would finally do it. It was only a two day trip, but it was fun. We drove six hours up to Montreal, alternating driving and eventually things switched to French and the metric system. Two things I am absolutely terrible at comprehending.

We stayed at a hostel, which was pretty fun. I've stayed in hostels before, but in India. This one I thought was pretty cute. It was located a quick walk from the action downtown. There were 8-10 beds per room. The coolest thing I thought was that there was a bar/restaurant in the basement. There was also some tables, a kitchen, and sitting area with couches, books and a tv. There were photos on the walls of lots of other people who had stayed at the hostels. It seemed like a fun place to me.

The first night my friend and I went to a pirate-themed bar, drank and played some strange games the people at the bar made up. It was pretty deserted on a Tuesday night. We picked a strange couple days to go up there.

Night two was the interesting one, for me at least. My friend and I got sort of separated near the end. The hostel was hosting a pub crawl which we decided to go on. It was a fun opportunity to meet the other people at the hostel and see some good bars downtown. I met people from Australia, Hungary, Spain, Canada (obviously) and there were probably others I just don't remember. We went to four bars that night.

Bar 1: The thing I remember about the first bar was the fact that they had the authentic Mario game playing in the corner. I sat with my friend, a girl from Hungary and a boy from Australia. It was awkward at first, like doing speed dating or something. But once we got a couple pitchers of beer things got more interesting and we got to know each other. It was there that I first met this guy Mike. The strange thing about him was the fact that he had the same exact name, first and last as a good friend of mine back home. It'll get stranger, trust me.

Bar 2: The second bar was located conveniently right next to the first. I thought this bar was boring. It was overcrowded, crappy set up, and the music was 80s but crappy 80s music. I talked with different people from the hostel, had some Canadian beer. I stuck with the cheaper beer, though I really wanted some Guinness or something dark. I drank Borealis or something instead, though. It had a polar bear on it, I remember. 

Bar 3: I can't say I exactly remember the location or name of this bar, but it wasn't so bad. It was located on the upstairs of a restaurant. It seemed pretty dingy and woody. There was the classic set up of pool tables, tables, and a bar. This one was busy too. Those Canadians like to drink on weekdays I guess. Hey I do too, so it's alright. This bar is when I really started talking to Mike more, and started remembering a little less. I had beer, split shots with the Hungarian girl, went out to talk with Mike as he smoked his pack away. I got a chance to talk with the Australians and our pub guide as well. I have to say, these were all really interesting and fun people. One positive thing about hostels is how they bring together people who otherwise would never even know the other existed. That movie Hostel scared the **** out of me when I was younger though... Anyway.

Mike and I took whiskey shots. And at some point I had sambuca shots. I still don't even know what the hell that is but the name stood out to me. There was a chunk of broken glass in one of my shots which luckily I didn't swallow but I found a nice gash on my tongue the next morning.

Bar 4: Mike is from Winnipeg and the same age as me I learned over the course of the night, among lots of other things. The last bar was called the Copacabana and it was swing dancing night. I thought it was fun. I dragged Mike out to dance with me to avoid him pulling me outside to smoke. I hate smoking and being around it, honestly. It was pretty obvious at that point that I was going back with Mike, and I did. I had a fun night.

My friend and I drove home the next morning, well more like early afternoon...

I won't go into details but last night at 2:30am I got a text from a random number that said 'hey it's been awhile, just thought I'd say hi lol'

In the morning I looked up the area code and found it was a Winnipeg area code. Huh. So I asked if it was him and it turned out it was. I hadn't expected to ever hear from him again. I always seem to be surprised. So we texted a bit yesterday which was very strange, but kind of fun. :)