Thanks also, to Canada, for creating Onion Ring and Ketchup flavored Doritos. While I never actually tried them, the very thought of such a culinary feat kept me occupied (and a little queasy) for much of our trip.
Observations about Montreal:
--The food is sort of questionable. I was really excited about poutine (French fries covered in gravy and cheese curds), but we never really found the good stuff. Granted, we first tried poutine at the A&W right across the border. And, honestly, it wasn't even that much worse than the poutine we had at a restaurant that night. Both used frozen fries and powdered gravy. Ah, well.
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| Supposed to look like this |
--People are really fashionable. I noticed a lot of trendy, fashion-forward (or just plain kooky) outfits, which surprised me, because my ignorant mind pictured a lot of flannel and hats with earflaps. We did, however, see a true Canadian tuxedo (denim on denim!) within 10 minutes of walking around the city.
--Really pretty ladies. This was an odd observation, but I felt like every waitress we had or woman we encountered was weirdly pretty and fashionable and fit. It was kind of intimidating -- plus the fact that they all spoke beautiful French. I'm remembering Montreal ladies looking like this:
and this:
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| I may be romanticizing them just a bit, though. |
--Lots of happy couples and lots of PDA. People seemed to be extra affectionate.
--The architecture downtown is really cool/old.
--The nightlife was surprisingly Euro-Techno-Club-ish, with a tinge of Jersey Shore, dare I say? Not our scene, really, and didn't seem very "Canada." But, then again, most of my assumptions weren't quite right about Canada anyway.
We did, however, discover a piece of heaven on Earth in Burlington, Vermont, where we stopped for The World's Best Flatbread Pizza on the way home. Definitely going to plan a weekend there -- seriously, it was Eden.
In other news, even though the rapture didn't happen (SHOCK!), the disconcerting string of natural disasters seems to be continuing in western Mass. I wrote most of this post several hours ago, and in that time, a lot of shit went down. Severe tornado warning now, plus severe thunderstorm warning all night. A tornado touched down in Springfield (maybe 40 minutes from us?) and really did some damage -- roofs taken off, buildings destroyed, etc.
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| Thar she blows. :( |
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| Springfield, MA |
Needless to say I'm pretty anxious, but hopefully it'll all be over soon, with no one hurt too badly. Cross your fingers. :(
