South by Northeast: That's What It's All ... Aboot!

Thanks, Robin Sparkles, for the glorious piece of music that inspired this blog's title.

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.

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:

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.