Well I'm back. I'm safe. I can't believe I wasted a weekend. Not on Montreal, that was freakin' amazing. I wasted many other weekends NOT being in Montreal. We didn't board, I'll get that out right off the start. It was -37 C today in Montreal. So we stayed inside, makes sense. I'll take you through it. We got into Montreal late Friday night, stopped by Samad's place and were quickly off looking for some clubs. On the way we made a detour to look at some of the super rich homes on top of the hill. (Montreal is a huge island in the St. Lawrence) Very cool homes. Most look like miniature castles or hobbit homes or something. All done in stone and wood. The first club was a four story awesome place by McGill, but the line up was very long, and did I mention it was cold. Next we went to Lulu Lounge, very dark place with black people and lots of smoke. Not bad but no place to sit. We struck gold with our next place. I can't remember the name correctly, I'll ask Samad sometime and post it, but I think it was Saint Sepice or something like that. This had three stories rocking to music, playing pool and other things. It was a good night.

The next day we started out with a tour of St. Joseph's Cathedral. Man, this place was soooo huge. I walked down the main hall and had to sit down so I didn't faint. The organ...I just can't describe it. I think they had to build it first and THEN the rest of the cathedral around it. I'll get Samads digital pictures soon and put them up on a site where you can see them. My camera was frozen half the trip so I didn't get a single picture taken. Next time. We did some more driving, ate Persian food, went to Old Port (couple of massive ships in the harbour), and hung out at Nina's appartment for a while. After supper we took off to the Comedy Zone for a good stand-up show. These guys are way better than the foul-mouthed pricks we have at Yuk Yuk's back in Edmonton. Way better. The show there ended early enough to catch a jazz show near by at 'Le Swimming'. And this is your funky, go nutz on the piano jazz. There was an electric guitar, bass guitar, and wicked drummer. It was as much rock and roll as it was jazz. Duncan went crazy on the dance floor. Dropped his coat, chucked his glasses, and he was gone. Didn't come back until the end of the show. Le Swimming I think was such a great place. If I lived in Montreal I think many of my Friday and Saturday nights would be spent there. Hell, any day of the week. That was it for Saturday though.

Today we went for dim sum for lunch, excellent food here in Montreal. Duncan and I explored some of downtown and the Eatons Center. I had left my wallet back in the car so unfortunately it was only window shopping for me. We took the Metro back to Nina's where she and Samad were stressing out about their exchange papers to Australia, or Singapore, or Australia, or Singapore, the battle continues. Samad and Nina were very up tight the whole weekend. We kept telling Samad to calm down, but he wouldn't have it. He just went psyco most of the time and Nina felt it was her mission to ruin the whole weekend for us. :) (inside joke) They were both excellent hosts and we enjoyed our time there very much. I can't wait to go back. I think we're going in two weeks but if I had my way, it would be next weekend. I'm beat though. Slept most of the way home, much to Samad's annoyance. (I think I promised to stay awake)

But in closing: I love Montreal. It is beautiful, interesting, there is always something to do...and this weekend...it was very cold. Colder than it is usual, lucky us I guess. Later peeps. The Trials of Dmitri begin in jsut a few hours. Wish me luck!