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July 14, 2008
Montreal Road Trip
As planned, I spent America's Independence Day in Montreal with some friends (Matt, Kabrina and Kristin). What follows is a brief and long delayed report on our trip. I'm finally posting it today in honor of France's Bastille Day.
We woke up early on Thursday (July 3rd) and took a Metro North train up to the Hertz rental location in White Plains. Renting in the city is very expensive so we opted to take a train to the northern suburb and begin our journey from there instead. The drive north was largely uneventful. We encountered a few spatters of rain but it cleared up by the time we crossed into Canada. I was a bit concerned about the border crossing because my passport had expired, but I had my driver's license and birth certificate on hand so we made it into Canada after waiting in line for about ten minutes.
Our trip coincided with the conclusion of the International Jazz Festival so the city was a bit more crowded than usual, but it was certainly more pleasant than our last trip in February of 2007. Montreal is beautiful in the summer and we all ended up with an even more favorable impression of the city than we had last time.
Beyond a doubt, the most surprising experience of the trip occurred at La Sala Rossa, a Spanish social club on St. Laurent Boulevard. The club serves as a venue for rock concerts by night and Matt and I had checked their schedule in advance and listened to sound clips of several bands playing on Friday night. The bands were playing at the launch party of a local self-described "smut 'zine" called Lickety Split (this link is Not Safe For Work). We thought we were in for a concert but it ended up being much more. The show included some provocative dancing by a local dance group called the Dead Doll Dancers (another NSFW link) and the bathrooms were "gender neutral" meaning it was common to see members of both genders in the same bathroom. We had no idea that it was that type of concert but it ended up being pretty harmless. Oh, and the bands (The Hot Springs, On Bodies, Call me Poupee and Hollerado) were quite good.
Saturday we visited Pointe-A-Calliere, the Montreal Museum of Archeology and History. The museum building itself evokes the old Customs House which stood on the site, and is actually built over its ruins. They have a tremendous multimedia program which gives an overview of the city's history and then visitors go under the building to view the ruins of Old Montreal. It was a unique way to preserve an archeological site and it made for an interesting way to learn about the history of the city.
On Saturday evening we saw a few acts at the Jazz Festival. Rupa & the April Fishes put on a great show on Saturday night. Rupa is a beautiful singer who speaks three or four languages. The show was electric and both the band and the crowd had a great time. The next act, several crowded blocks away, was Beast. The crowd for them was much larger, but we didn't care for the music at all so we left the festival and had some drinks elsewhere.
Sunday morning we went to St. Joseph's Oratory for morning mass. The church is located on top of Mount Royal. It faces the boring side of the city but the church itself is interesting. It's actually several churches built on top of one another. The church at the top of the whole complex is built in a very modern style and involves lots of concrete. In other words, it's big but stark. We went to the English mass in the lower crypt church instead.
After mass we checked out of our hotel and headed back to New York. The return trip did not go as smoothly as the trip up. At some point before the border, as we were driving down the highway, the engine stopped. The fuel gauge indicated that we had about a quarter tank left but this was obviously not the case. We figured the fuel gauge was faulty and resolved not to trust it for the remainder of the trip. Luckily, we were only about a quarter mile from an exit which happened to have a gas station so I walked to it and brought back some gas.
With the car filled up we got back on the road and resumed our trip, thankful that the car didn't have any serious problems. However, we were foiled again when we joined a long line of cars waiting to cross the border into the United States. The U.S. Customs Officers must have been looking for some bad guys because the wait was ridiculous. We ended up spending nearly SIX HOURS in line. There was no way to pull off the road and there was no food or water to be found. Someone with bottled water walking along the highway could have made a fortune. Of course the four of us found various ways to amuse ourselves in the car and at one point I took a walk along the road out of sheer boredom.
After the interminable wait and a successful border crossing, we stopped for food at McDonald's, picked up some snacks at the wackiest convenience store I've ever seen in my life, and hopped on the interstate, thinking we'd be back in New York by 2:00 AM.
Half an hour later, in the middle of nowhere, the engine stopped and we were on the side of the road again. As it turned out, the fuel gauge had been correct all along and we had a much more serious problem than we thought. Basically, the engine was just stopping as we were driving and none of us had any idea why. Thankfully, after about ten minutes, Matt was able to start the car and we made it to the edge of Plattsburgh, NY. We stopped there and Kristin called Hertz who informed us that a new car would be sent out from Burlington, VT. Burlington is not very far from Plattsburgh. As the crow flies, it's only about 20 miles. However, because the trip involved a ferry boat ride across Lake Champlain on a Sunday night, it took THREE HOURS for the replacement car to be delivered. By this time we were feeling just plain goofy. We looked at the stars, killed mosquitoes, sat in the middle of the road and talked to a few locals (luckily for Matt, one even offered to let us use his bathroom).
At midnight, we had the new car and were back on the interstate. I let my three friends, who had to work in the morning, sleep and I drove the rest of the way back to New York City, arriving as the sun was coming up around 5:30 AM.
And that, my friends, is the story of an awesome weekend in Montreal and the arduous journey home. What did we learn from trip? Never, ever, under any circumstances, should you purchase, rent or even ride in a Chevrolet Malibu.
Posted on July 14, 2008 at 10:25 PM
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Comments
well this is a surprise ,finding our little dance troupe mentioned in a travellers' blog.
hoe you had enjoyed the soiree!
come back to the city if you can!
Posted by: dead dolls at October 26, 2008 11:10 PM