Postscript: Montreal

1. Try a Schwartz's smoked meat sandwich. CHECK.
2. Buy some Fairmount bagels. CHECK.
3. Do a self-guided tour of Old Montreal (CHECK**) and check out The Sir George-Étienne Cartier National Historic Site.
4. Ride a Bixi Bike. CHECK
5. Maybe visit the Montreal Botanical Garden. 
6. Have a poutine at La Banquise. Supposedly the BEST poutine in Montreal.

Somewhere along the trip, the terms were nullified and negotiations broke down.

Instead of having most of the two days to myself, I got two and a half hours. I didn't get a poutine at La Banquise, visit the Cartier House, see the Botanical Garden, or do an in-depth self-tour of Old Montreal (**). Instead, I became the unofficial photographer/navigator, made smalltalk, ate in Chinatown, and had brunch at Tutti-Frutti, listening to my dad and his friends talk about their youths and reminisce about their school days.

And I'm okay with that... I think.

Not being able to have the poutine at La Banquise still stings a bit.

Next time.

Montreal - You're Alright, Bixi Bike

Dear Bixi Bike,

At the beginning, I hated your guts.

$7 for 24 hours is pretty awesome, but what's the deal with the 30-minute stipulation?

Thirty minutes and the rider has to re-dock the bike to a station, wait two minutes before re-releasing the bike to continue on or otherwise prepare to pay dearly ($1.75 for the first 30 min, $3.50 for the next and then $7 for each subsequent 30 min.)

So basically, you ride around for fifteen minutes, then use the remainder of your thirty minutes looking for a docking station? Who thought up of this?

My dislike of you could also have stemmed from the fact that you dropped my bag onto the street within minutes of riding. In retribution, I may or may not have purposefully let go causing you to fall to the pavement. Of course, I realized afterwards that it was my bad. I picked a faulty bike, one missing the bungee cord that would have held my bag in place. Sorry about that. 

Riding around Montreal with you was a ton of fun. I love that fact that the city has dedicated bike lanes and that drivers and cyclists have learned to co-exist. The thirty-minute limit was still a pain, especially when there's no docking station in sight. And some of the uphills were insanely beyond the physical limit of the average human.

We fought a good fight - getting lost, almost getting on a highway, getting lost again. In the end, you got me where I needed to go (an hour and three docking stations later.) I got my bagels and all was right with world once again.

I was wrong. I think I really do like you Bixi Bike. I like you very much.