Wednesday, Oui?

Aaron is home with his family.
We leave on Sunday for a two week vacation.
I just got home from an amazing trip to Montreal with one of my besties.
That is Oui. Oiu?

Montreal Finale... Burlington, Vt. too!

We woke up fairly late, as Aaron was still recovering from his nasty bug. We ventured, for the last time, down to St. Dennis Street for some breakfast. We found another little 'crepery', and both ordered the most delicious crepe. In the picture below, I wonder exactly what Aaron was thinking about during breakfast ;)Then we walked back to the hotel, got the car from the Valet, and drove back in the direction we came from only 3 days earlier, when we were so full of hope and expectation. All in all, I was not disappointed with Montreal.

As we headed out of the country (don't you love the sound of that?) we stopped at a gas station because we were parched! Now, let me set the scene. I HATE carbonated water, seltzer water, water that fizzes or has bubbles. It's just not natural, in my opinion tastes like gasoline, and freaks me out. Further, Aaron and I have this long running joke about Pellegrio water, specifically the bottle it comes in. I will not get into it here as it is one of the many, many things I keep for Aaron and I (come on, you didn't think I shared everything did you?) So, as I come out of the bathroom of the gas station, what is he buying with our last Canadian Dollar? Yep, Pellegrino, and he is hysterically laughing because he just thinks he is so clever and funny. Funny? Yes. Clever, no because that was our last Canadian dollar, and now the only thing we had to drink was "gasoline." When he cracked it open to take a swig his face was priceless. We kept making each other drink it as we headed back to the States. So now, we have decided, this bottle is going to be like the "traveling gnome", it is going to go with us on all of our trips and we are going to take random pictures of it; sort of like, "Where's Waldo?"

Notice the speed limit sign in the background. Sometimes, the metric system is a cool idea.

On my way out of Canada, I must report, I was asked for my passport (yay!) but, I still didn't get a stamp :( Oh, well... Aaron and I are throwing around ideas for February vacation, and France and Italy came up, perhaps then I will get my stamp. We'll see, we haven't decided yet, that's for another blog day:)

We drove straight to Burlington, Vt. what a beautiful little city!!! I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed my short time there. We went to the park where we had a beautiful view of Lake Champlain (but didn't see "Champy" and yes, I do believe in sea monsters ;) We both sat on an actual cannon (you can read about it if you click on my picture), we went to the Burlington mall, and then explored Church Street, which reminded me of Faniel Hall in Boston. They had a Banana Republic and an Urban Outfitters (my two favorites) so I loaded up on all the things I saw in Canada, at U.S prices! Yay! I loved Burlington. I could totally live there.

That was that. We headed back to our beautiful little apartment in Concord, NH. U.S.A. We had an amazing trip despite a few hiccups. We are going to Quebec for the winter carnival in February, so you can expect the scoop about that.

But I do have to tell you, while we were gone, we had one of our best friends stay at our house to take care of the kitties. Now, I love Ryan. If I were to ever get married, he would be my brides-man-maid- seriously. But come on. How much food does he need to leave the cats? No wonder they love Uncle Ryan so much.

The suspect

Montreal Day 3

We woke up late the next day and I was really hoping that Aaron was feeling better. He had slept through the night, but had been sick since about 2pm, so I was concerned that he would still be feeling badly. But my Aaron was up and ready to go. Now that I've had the same thing, and was sick for days, I am certain he still felt awful but didn't want to disappoint me, so he pushed through the pain :(

We left the hotel and went to find a place for breakfast. We found an amazing little haunt that served, of course, crepes. I had a cheese and apple crepe. Aaron; ham egg and cheese. It was so good, so much different than ones I make- these were authentic French crepes. In observing the others in this tiny restaurant we realized, as Americans, just how fast we eat. There was another set of Americans in there and the four of us finished our meals in what seemed like nano-seconds. I don't think our culture values meal times like we should (hence our New Year's resolution to eat more slowly.)

We left the restaurant, got the car, and drove to Olympic Park where the Bio-dome is located and previous Olympics have been held. It was enormous! We went back to the hotel, dropped off the car, and walked straight to St. Catherine's Street. I love this street. The shopping is amazing and unlike anywhere else I have been. There is an underground mall, AND the streets are lined with stores like Banana Republic (my favorite), Guess, Urban Outfitters (my other favorite) and many, many, many others. We spent the entire day going in and out of the stores, but didn't really buy anything. We are both cheap, and our dollar was worth so little.

Inside of the underground mall.

They do it up right in Canada, I tell you. The Christmas decorations put America to shame!

There is one thing I have to say about Montreal. There are many, many, homeless people there. One homeless man particularly struck me because he had 2 dogs with him. For the longest time that day I couldn't get him out of my mind. How does one live, in such a cold climate, with two puppies? I had to keep reminding myself that it's quite possible that he is a "professional homeless person." But the dogs, man, that killed me. They did look very happy and well cared for but boy oh boy, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

After exploring what St. Catherine's Street and the underground malls had to offer, we continued to walk around (and use the Metro.) We eventually became hungry and stopped in at a Quizno's, then headed back to the hotel.

This picture was taken outside of our hotel.

And in the elevator :)

After regrouping, we walked to St. Dennis Street to find some grub. It seems all we did was eat, eat, eat; but then again, we walked, walked, walked! We found a perfect French Bistro with amazing pastries. I got a grilled veggie sandwich with a salad and a chocolate pastry- YUM! Aaron got a sandwich and salad as well.

We decided to go back to get the car and drive down to Old Montreal to see the Hotel De Ville at night. It was well worth the trip. We also wanted to venture to Mount Royal.

On the way from Old Montreal, we drove through a part of town we had not yet been in. It was a residential part of the city. What was interesting was that we found ourselves in the middle of some religious event. The streets were filled with hundreds of Hasidic Jewish people. They were wearing their traditional clothing; all black suits with large hats. I don't know what they were celebrating and I checked a Jewish calender, but there wasn't anything listed at that time. Perhaps it was a wedding or Bah Mitzvah. It was beautiful, humbling, and made me feel so ignorant about other cultures/religions.

We had to take a picture of the stop signs. Everything and everyone was French speaking. This was a challenge for me as I am fairly rusty and much better in Spanish. Luckily, I was able to navigate us pretty well in terms of the language barrier.

While we had the car we wanted to go to Mount Royal (get it, "Mont-real.") As you know, Montreal is an island. Well, smack dab in the middle of Montreal, is a mountain: Mount Royal. It overlooks the entire city and you can see it from pretty much everywhere. Seeing it at night was absolutely breathtaking. It reminded me, a lot, of Las Vegas.

The views were breathtaking. The air was so fresh, and this cross could be seen from most anywhere at night. Religion seems to be a huge part of the culture in Montreal. I consider myself so privileged to be able to experience and get a glimpse of another country.

That concluded Day 3. We knew we had a long drive ahead of us in the morning so we made our way back to the hotel to get some rest after a beautiful, eventful, and busy day. What a perfect ending to our 3rd day in Montreal.

Montreal- Day 2

So, we woke up early and decided to go get a bite to eat and see what Montreal had to offer. We walked many miles, but started off downtown on St. Catherine's street (the most popular street in Montreal.) St. Catherine's Street is lined with architecturally beautiful buildings, churches, couture stores (like Louis Vuitton), and strip clubs.

Our morning began at Van Houtte, a sweet French Cafe, where I got a raspberry chocolate bread and Aaron got a croissant. One thing I loved about Montreal was most of the buildings were brick/cobblestone inside and out. Outside the window of the cafe, as you can see, was quite the view :)

After eating, we ventured down to the "old down town" of Montreal. We visited the Notre Dame Church and The Palace De Armes, which are both rich with history. They offered us horse drawn buggy to explore, but I would have rather been able to move around freely to inspect my surroundings.

Notre Dame

Hotel DeVille

I took this picture to illustrate some of the beautiful architecture of Montreal.

By this time we were getting hungry because in Montreal you either walk or take the metro. We did both but it seems more walking than Metro because it was about $5 (CAD) to take the metro. As we headed back in the direction of our hotel, we ran into a cute little diner called McGill's. We stopped in for a bite to eat. Our waitress was HORRIBLE. She was on old hag that seemed annoyed that we didn't speak French. I ordered a burger club and Aaron, poor thing, thought that the Mexican burger sounded good. When our meals came out mine was great Aaron's, however, looked more like a piece of beef with Chef Boyardee slapped all over it. Unfortunately the service was poor so we ate and left promptly.

We continued down to our part of the city, via China Town. It was a very cute part of Montreal with little Asian shops filled floor to ceiling. It seemed like a completely different "city" within the city.

Aaron took me down to China Town.

Once we got home Aaron said he wanted to rest. We had been up since a pretty early hour and done quite a bit of walking. He laid his head on the pillow and then immediately darted to the bathroom, where he stayed for the rest of the night not able to keep a drop of liquid down.

**As an aside: We, at first, suspected he had food poisoning from McGill's. However now that I came down, days later, with what he got we know it was just a bug. He was such a trooper. When I am sick, I like to be at home in MY bed. I can't imagine being as sick as he was in a hotel room, in a new city, in another country!**

Aaron stayed in the hotel room for the rest of the night, but I took the opportunity to go out on the town to visit some of the shops. I ate in the hotel restaurant having the best french onion soup of my life. I had to dine alone, so the Maitradee sat down with me and spoke of Montreal and all it's offerings. He told me about it's history, the best time to visit (summer), the must-see's, and that Montreal is actually an island (surrounded by the St. Lawrence River). Who knew? He was such a sweet old gentleman and I much enjoyed his conversation, knowledge, and company. Once I returned, (the Maitradee packed up a meal for Aaron free of charge), I laid in bed and watched TV until I fell asleep.

So concluded Montreal Day 2.

Stay tuned for Montreal Day 3! It does get better ;)

Montreal- Part I (Getting there!)

Okay, so we are back! Did you miss us? We missed you. It's funny how many times we said "oh we have to be sure to blog about this" or, "that is sooooo bloggable."

There are so many parts to our vacation that are blog worthy, so I am going to split it up in several different posts so I can be thorough, yet, not spend HOURS on the computer.

Day 1 Getting there:

We were predicted to leave at about 10:00am on Thurs Dec. 27, but true to Molloy fashion we ran a little behind because I wanted to get to the gym one last time before I went and ate everything in sight in Montreal. So, all said and done, we left at 1:00. First BIG mistake. We were met, about 20 miles outside of Concord, with a blizzard. The roads were greasy, there seemed to be a person snowbound every mile or so, there were crazy plow truckers monopolizing the road, and irate holiday travelers.

In Lebanon we decided to get off the interstate to get a bite to eat. Second Mistake. Have y'all been to Lebanon? Yikes! I wanted Taco Bell/KFC so we pulled in and went into their establishment.

Let me explain the Lebanon Taco Bell/KFC. We went to the counter where the cashier was using Lumberg Language. You know Office Space? The boss? How he spoke? This dude (whose pants exposed more than just a snazzy pair of boxers also sported a red hairnet [didn't know they came in red]) took all the orders using Lumberg's voice "Yeah, I'm going to go on ahead and add some coleslaw to your order to make that a value meal, great." He was waiting on a woman, who I swear was experiencing Delirium Tremens (DT'S) (Subtance withdrawal "shakes") who profusely insisted her KFC "bowl of goodness" be garnished with the "brown gravy" and she stressed "brown" several times as if there were a variety of color options.

Now, this wasn't bad enough to make us leave. There are other extraneous variables.

• The bathroom: Aaron had to use the bathroom. Mind you, Aaron is a bike racer who is accustomed to disgusting porta-potties used by nervous cyclists prior to a race. He came out of this bathroom while I was still waiting to order, completely white and frightened, warning me to "hold it at all costs." Perhaps it was the brown gravy the woman in front of us was requesting?
  


• Roller-girl: Behind the counter (in the section where the food is) was a young child, maybe 10 or 11, roller-skating around. Yes, I did say roller-skating. She had greasy blond hair and was scratching her scalp as though she was digging a hole to China. Lice? Perhaps. She didn't skate for long because some Mullet-sporting woman (and I will capitalize Mullet to show it proper respect ) with, being generous, probably 2 teeth promptly came out of the "office" to yell at her. I assume this woman was her mother, and the KFC/Taco Bell was this child's make shift day care (or it was bring your child to work day in Lebanon). The child retreated (roller-skated) into the kitchen area. Our eyes followed her as she skated back to complain to the cook about being yelled at by her mother.


• The cook: This gentleman, who was a very large man, was preparing the food. His mullet put the toothless mother to shame as his extended out of his KFC visor, cascading down his bare shoulders. Yes, bare shoulders. Did I forget to mention he was wearing a tank top? He stopped briefly to listen to roller- girl complain and while listening intently, he must have forgotten the rules of proper hygiene because he scratched his bare armpit with the same hand he was using to prepare DT woman's bowl of goodness with "brown" gravy.

This was enough for us. We turned to leave but were crowded in an abundance of Lebanonians licking their lips in utter anticipation for their turn to order, completely oblivious to their blatant invasion of our personal space. We weaved out of the building between the locals, miscellaneous trash and a variety of gumball and temporary tattoo machines.

Once outside and breathing in the deep cold air of Lebanon, we walked past mullet woman (presumably on break) yelling into her cell-phone that "the check is in the mail and the rest will come out of next week's check" as she sucked down the last of her cigarette.

So, Wendy's it was.

After leaving Lebanon (goodbye and good riddens) we proceeded up 89 and hit the Vermont border. I was psyched as it was my first visit to the Green Mountain State. Just as we approached Barre (about 50 miles south of Burlington) my car broke down. Yep, (sigh). Ahhh! We barely made it (stalling every 1/2 mile or so) into a Honda dealership. We requested service but were told to go to the VW dealership right down the road. Both Aaron and I were worried our car would not make it. We made our way to Walker Volkswagen (arriving at 4:30 on a snowy night) with little expectation of being helped. The slick service writer told informed us bleakly of what he suspected was wrong with our Jetta, and that it would probably cost around $350. I was devastated and pretty much ready to leave the car there and drive off with a brand new car, but you know how economical I am. Thankfully, a "who" in "who-ville" (aka a trustworthy, honest technician) was eavesdropping, gave his diagnosis based on his experience with my type of vehicle and stated that he thought it was the ignition coil and that it would cost about $160. I told him to pull the car in to see if that was it, and if it was, to do it. He promptly came out, said it was the coil, he could have it done before 5:00, and it would cost $160. Yes, Virgina there is a Santa Claus.

I think the weasel behind the counter was pissed about being contradicted and perhaps losing his chance to cash in on the road-weary tourists just trying to get to Canada to spend American Dollars on strippers an go-carts- because he proceeded to give us dirty looks the entire time we waited for our car.

Within the hour we were back on the road, my car running like the day it was born, but $170 poorer. Luckily we happened upon Barre Vt., Walker VW, this saint technician and it didn't happen an hour later as everything would have been closed and we would not have made it to Canada; likely calling our friend Charlie who lives in Waitsfield Vt. to come collect us from a snowdrift, console us, and put us up for the weekend.

Welcome (just barely) to Vermont!

We arrived at the U.S/Canadian border at approximately 7:00pm. We made it through customs without our passports even being glanced at or requested (good thing we weren't terrorists and even better that I spent $200 on my passport).

It was immediately evident that we were in a different country. I was mesmerised by every sight. Too many to name, but the minute we left Vermont, the landscape flattened out, and every sign was in French. Also, there is the metric system; mileage and speed limits were listed in Kilometers! Ahhh, not a fan. At one point, Aaron was melting (I like the car at a cozy temperature, Aaron refers to to as the 'climate of Hell') so he wanted me to take the wheel as he removed his coat. Apparently, I was too mesmerized with what Canada had to offer, and I almost drove us off the road because I moved the wheel in the direction I was looking, not realizing that my hand was on the wheel for a purpose, and not just resting there.

We arrived in Montreal at 8:30 (after 7 1/2 hours in the car- mind you it was a 4 hour drive, but due to weather and car trouble we were set back a lot).

Montreal. Beautiful.

We checked in and made ourselves at home. Then ventured down to Saint Denis Street for some food and to look at the action.

What do you expect? We were in the car for over 7 hours and thrilled to be in Canada!

Once on St. Denis Street, we explored the various shops, restaurants, and even saw a variety of strip clubs, condom stores, and cannabis shops. Very different culture in Montreal. We found an amazing eatery called Zyng, a noodlery, where we split a dish (the portions are huge!)

St. Denis Street

More about the rest of our trip at a later date.

Happy New Year!

Don't forget the sequence of your words tonight:

1. Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit!

2. Happy New Year!

Oh Canada!

Now, I'm not a betting woman, but it looks like I better apply for a passport and pay the extra $60 so it will be ready by the time we leave for vacation.
There are still 3 days left to vote!
Montreal at Christmas, I hear, is lovely :)