DIARY: Canada Trip 1

Well, I've returned from Canada, and now I have also recovered from St. Paddy's weekend! Even though I stayed true to my "max three beverages" rule, Friday was still late (very late!), so I feel slightly below optimal today.

Not too tired to talk about Canada, though. Overall it was a great trip (thanks Mathilde!), here's my day-by-day tale:

DAY 1 - Endless Atlantic Miles and Arrival
I decided to go to bed at 02:00 in the morning, to make it easier to sleep the first night and overcome the -5 hour time difference.

I flew over Amsterdam directly to Montreal, and while the flatlands of Amsterdam always have depressing effect on my mountain-loving soul, everything went great in Schiphol Airport, and the transatlantic flight (my first in a 747) was very pleasant and we were well-fed!

On arrival (around 17:00 local time), I quickly got a bus and then a taxi to Mathilde's apartment close to downtown (that's "city centre" in English) Montreal.

After much hugs and kisses (actually it was more like "a look who's arrived, ready to eat?"), we went for a walkabout and I got reminded was real cold was!!! (temperatures were around -13 degrees Celsius on the first day).

Well you don't mind it too much when you can snuggle into a warm sleeping bag afterwards and have a long exciting week to look forward too!

DAY 2 - Mount Royal & Mathilde's Office

On day 2, we had a long stroll, and our first destination was Mt. Royal (a mighty cliff of 211 metres, the name reminded me of our own Danish "The Sky Mountain" which also stands at a staggering 151m). The mountain has given the name to the city, though, and is actually quite impressive (its much broader than its high!), and offers a spectacular panoramic view over the island of Montreal and the rest of the Monteregian Mountains.

The lowlight was that my camera started malfunctioning because of the low temperature, so I'm gonna have a serious talk with Dell about that! Fuji Cameras surely must tolerate below zero temperatures!

After that we went back "downtown" (YEAH), and Mathilde took me to her office located on the gazzilionth floor in one of those fancy skyscrabers (known as "glasscages" by older Irishmen). I was very impressed, especially with the offices with a view, they don't let you forget that you've reached the top in those places. I wonder how far into the basement you can be demoted....

After that we had lunch with one of her colleagues and I inspected some local outdoor shops (this is part of a "little plan" of mine, but I shall not speak more of that here, shhh...).

The evening introduced me to a little tradition called 5-7 (in French!) where you get two beers for the price of one (a ritual that translates well into all languages). I got a good taste of the local brew (which isn't too bad at all!), and met our designated driver for the weekend trip to the mountains, an Austrian friend of Mathilde's called Christian.

Day 3 - THE BIG DAY

This was the day were would leave for the mountain and forest region North of Montreal. But before that we had another (for me critical!) visit to a huge Canadian Outdoor Shop called Mountain Co-Op.

The centre was just as impressive as I had hoped, and I was blitzing away and recording notes like a madman of the make of this shopping centre while indulging in (WARNING SEXIST REMARK) a shopping spree worthy of any woman (WARNING OFF). All in all I got: 2 trail running socks (one winter, one summer), 1 Sleeping Bag, 1 Compression Bag, 1 Toughskin madras, a bunkload of energy bars (for the trip!), and a balaclava (renamed to "balaclalavala" after lengthy discussion with Mathilde. In Denmark we call it "elephant hood" which is weird since it doesn't feature a snout...).

On our return to Montreal city centre (sorry, downtown, and no, I won't let it go!), we packed up our stuff and got picked up by Christian in a nice big American style convertible.

We then went on to pick up the girls from Ottawa and drove up North through great sceneries of frozen pine forests and densely vegetated hills between which small Christmassy villages were scattered in what seemed like idyllic semi-isolation.

As you can see, the night finished with a nice dinner, a well-lit fireplace and general coziness in a magnificent cabin (I'll put one of those on my "to-buy-when-I-get-rich" list. And before you ask, no plastic surgery is not on that list!!!).

To be continued...