Motorbike to Montreal!

22.05.2008

So, it's off to Montreal again to hang out with my favourite travel blogger, Mike Richard from vagabondish.com. Initially, I wanted to get there on my new motorcycle, but this was not to be. I didn't get enough practice in, and wasn't confident enough to take on the four hour drive by myself.

I asked Derek, my volunteer motorcycle instructor if he would be interested in taking me on the back of his bike and he said yes. I thought that would be an awesome idea, so I jumped at the chance. Derek is a speedy kinda guy (don't tell mom) so he was all excited to drive there (safely) and then speed all the way back home to Ottawa in the middle of the night. I don't really get it, but don't worry when he was driving with me, he was sane.

Riding on Derek's race-type bike is not that comfortable, these things weren't designed for driving long distance. It's also not very quiet. I learned that when you are driving at 100 km/h, you can't listen to CBC podcasts so well. All you can listen to is music, so that's what I did. I cranked up the Morcheeba and R3-30 and I was good to go.

Later, we stopped, in rural Quebec, at a Tim Hortons and I ordered an (extra large) heavenly mint hot smoothie. If you don't know what a hot smoothie is, think of it as a regular smoothie, but take out the ice and replace it with deliciousness (Mike R. knows all about it, just ask him, nyom nyom nyom)

Anyway, when I was ordering, I didn't think that I wouldn't be able to sip this delicious treat on the motorcycle, so we had to hang out for a while, at the Tim Hortons while I finished my drink. After thoroughly wasting a bunch of time, and filling up on gas, we were off again. Predictably, we hit some traffic on the way into the city and I was at least an hour late to meet Mike at Dieu du Ciel, a place that I picked, solely because the beer snob would feel at home there.

Luckily, he hadn't gotten bored and left me. Derek went and parked the motocyclette, and I went inside, looked around and didn't see anybody remotely familiar looking. Most people speak French in that bar, so I had a bunch of confused conversations with some Quebecers. I came out, kind of sad and confused, then started to call Denis to ask what time we had to be at his place and also if he had seen Mike yet. Just as Denis answered the phone, Mike sorta came out of nowhere with this smirk on his face, like he was thinking of course Louise is late.

We said thank you and goodbye to Derek, and headed off to Denis' house, we only had an hour left to get there. We only got a little bit lost on the way there, thanks to the magic of GPS and Kate's soothing British accent, coaxing us along the right path.

Denis is an early riser, so we had a little bit of a curfew. We had to be at his house and in bed by 11 p.m.! On the dot! Hehehe, and we just about were!

As we were walking up to Denis' door, I heard a voice yell "ARE YOU LOOKING FOR DENIS?" It was a smiley young lady from Newark, with energy to spare. She had also traveled to Montreal to stay with Denis for Memorial Day weekend. After seeing her, I knew I was in for some interesting adventures once again in Montreal.

We all went inside and announced our presence loudly. I hadn't seen Denis since November, and I forgot how much of an enthusiasiasm this guy has for life. Denis had just gotten back from a month-long trip in China, and told us about the interesting people he met, and also about the insular Chinese culture. It was incredibly engrossing. Denis is simply fascinated with the East, and he's planning on going back again. On top of this, he informed us that we would all be interviewed on CTV on Sunday to talk about Couchsurfing. Awesome!

Mike gave Denis a bottle of Grey Goose vodka, (I forgot to bring something, shame on me) But anyway, the entire bottle later smashed on the floor of the kitchen, so it didn't end up benefiting anybody in the end.

Kokeshi doll from Jo