Montreal - Urban Hiking - Day 2

I am not a morning person. Though I think that may only be when I'm working because when I recreate, I do tend to wake up earlier than usual. Today was no different. I set my alarm for 8:15am to be sure I got my free breakfast by 9:30am. Hey... I'm on a budget. Give me a break! I woke up about 7:00am and got up by 7:30am. So I started my whole day ahead of schedule. This is a good feeling! The two things I had planned for today were the Leonard Cohen Artworks exhibit and an Edgy Women performance. And so I started walking. I walked from rue Saint-Jean-Baptiste to rue Notre-Dame to rue Saint-Laurent to rue Saint-Catherine where the Cohen exhibit was. I got my first real glimpse of Basilique Notre-Dame of Montreal on that walk. Wow! I am not Catholic and the Catholics don't like me. But that structure is amazing! The minimalist side of me sees the disgusting excess but the artistic side can see how amazing it is. On Saint-Laurent I walked through Quartier Chinois (Chinatown). A colorful and dirty surprise. I hadn't looked at the details of the maps so that I would have this exact experience. Surprise! The foods on the sidewalks were varied and beautiful. The graffiti was creative. There was no particular smell. I get the feeling I was there too early for the sweet scents of food cooking. Saint-Catherine is known as Gay Village. But that wasn't on my map for some reason. What's cool about Canada is that even a Gay Village looks just like everything else. Gay people don't stand out there. Two men holding hands is no big deal. But I suppose it's still nice to have "a safe place" where one can say her community congregates. What I saw was mainly working people and students getting where they needed to go. Most of what I heard was French. There was very little English. It enveloped me in my own bubble and I loved hearing the singsong of their accents. Even the homeless people asking me for change sounded beautiful. I usually like to urban hike with my iPod on. I think of it as my soundtrack to the place and moment. But here, the soundtrack coming from the streets and the people was so much better than anything I could have created in a playlist. I also noticed that there weren't as many others on their phones or with headphones on as I have seen in other major cities.

I like the city sounds
Rhythmic
Cacophonic at the same time
It's soothing to move with it
To be part of it
Maybe I'll cause a honk!

The highlight of my early morning was happening upon a place that served bubble tea. I don't know why. But I love bubble tea! I used to drink it as a treat when I lived in LA. But I haven't found a place in Minneapolis or St. Paul that serves it. It's been a few years. So I went in and ordered myself a Watermelon Bubble Tea. The bubbles weren't fresh, they were a tiny bit hard on the inside. But since it's been a few years, I still ate them. Or do you drink them? As I sat there, I looked over my map to see where I was and where I might like to go before Cohen. I was close to University of McGill so I headed up rue Guy to Boul de Maisonneuve and then up McGill College to the main entrance. I visited Musee Redpath where they were exhibiting dinosaur artifacts and a monstrous Japanese crab.

Then it was time to make my way toward the Cohen exhibit. I worked my way through the city streets to find the Galerie Lounge TD. I spent a little over an hour looking at his works. They also had his music playing. Good combination! His work is sarcastic and funny. Sometimes a little serious... usually when it comes to women.  I enjoyed it immensely. I also thought that this artwork would never have been shown or been ranked so highly if it had not come from him. Does that make sense? Because of his music and poetry, he is sort of a shoe-in in the art world. But still... I'm glad. Because, like I said, it was enjoyable. I bought the exhibit poster as well. That's not significant. Except that the woman minding the exhibit spend a good deal of time trying to find something workable to hold the poster so that it would not be ruined in my flight home. I realized quickly I was dealing with a perfectionist. Which was charming in French. Yeah, everything seems charming in French when you don't know the language. She could have been calling me a selfish rude American for all I knew. lol But I don't think so. She finally figured out a box situation that seemed suitable to her. I took a few more moments in another part of the galerie to look at some photographs mainly regarding breast cancer and mastectomies. There were some other photos too... mainly nudes. But the most poignant were women who'd had single or double mastectomies. Clearly still women with intact "womanhoods." It was beautiful! And then... I headed back to the hotel. I meandered mostly but did make sure to go down a side street within Chinatown. A funny thing happened on my way. I stopped to take a photo of a fire escape dragon painting and a woman pulled over and asked me directions in French. I didn't know how to say I didn't know. lol But I heard "Notre-Dame" so I put up 2 fingers and pointed left... it is two blocks to the left. She nodded, said "Merci" and was on her way. I had given directions in French on my first full day in Montreal. A proud moment! heheh I walked 5 hours this morning.

Back in the hotel I took a short nap, showered, and got ready for my theatre outing. But more importantly, I had to get ready for my first subway ride! I'm not sure which I was more excited about! lol The subway was SO easy. My only problem was I couldn't read the ticketing machine. These kind of experiences are good for me. I have a Ph.D. so I don't have much trouble getting around in my world. What must it be like not to be able to read or find things easily. Now I know. Though I understand I still have privilege even when I don't speak the language. Anyway, I had to get help from an attendant. He was very nice. I explained myself way too much! But I got my ticket. And off I went. I didn't have to change trains at all so that was good. The theatre was very close to the station so I got there very early. Which was good because I hadn't purchased a ticket yet. I didn't want to charge it because I didn't want to give Wells Fargo the satisfaction of their idiotic surcharge. (= Then I walked around the neighborhood, which was more residential than anything. Across the street from the theatre... a bike shop! I knew I would find one at some point. I went in and Rocky Mountain mountain bikes were the main attraction there. Makes sense to support the local bike maker. It was tiny and crowded. I loved it! They didn't speak much English and were very busy so I just browsed. I kept trying to find something.... ANYTHING... that I need or might ever need. But I couldn't. So I left empty-handed. I am questioning the truth of my bike addiction if I truly couldn't find anything. lol Afterwards I walked down to rue Saint-Denis, which is supposedly a beautiful street with lots of shops etc. I found a nice enough looking park that was not well kept. Though it is spring and the melting snow may be revealing this dinge. Garbage day is clearly tomorrow so there were lots of garbage bags along the curb. I left the area pretty quickly.

En On was the performance I was seeing. It was 3 women doing different individual performances. The first was Yumiko Yoshioka who did what I interpreted as a birth, life, illness, death, and spirit performance while wrapped in saran wrap and Halloween webbing. I found it frustrating! All that trying to release herself from the webbing and saran wrap. Arrgh! Just cut it off already! But that is part of the struggle of life, right? The next was Karen Sherman who is actually from Minneapolis. She did a performance about awkwardness that I think I need to bring to my college for students to watch. It was quite funny! Finally was Lise Vigneault whose performance I'm not sure I can explain or describe. Basically, it was about her boyfriend having a lot of stereotypical gay characteristics and her denial of his true sexual orientation... and possibly her own. That's the best I can do. Ya just had to be there! (=

And then I went home. At night. Alone. On the subway. And it was fine. I felt pretty safe. It was about 10pm or so on a weeknight. So there were not many people out and about. The walk from the station to my hotel also felt pretty safe. I feel like my American city living has tainted me for trusting urban areas. LA, Houston, and Denver did me no favors in that regard. But I lightened up a little... whilst keeping my wallet tucked away. I stopped at Starbucks (boooo) on my way in because I couldn't find a local cafe that was open. And that is where my first full day of urban hiking in Montreal ends.

You can find more photos at my Flickr.