Montreal turned out to be a really great place to visit. We had a chance to do some Salsa dancing, and also to meet up with our friend Isabelle. It was also the weekend of Montreal's International Jazz Festival, as well as the Cari-Fiesta (Caribbean parade).
So here is the story of the weekend as it unfolded...
As some of you know, I left Mariposas (in Long Beach)on Thursday night around 10 pm, and drove straight to Lot C, the long term parking at LAX, in a hurry to catch my flight scheduled to leave at midnight. Everything went just as it should, and by 11 pm I was sitting at the waiting area right outside my assigned gate. A whole red-eye flight later, I arrived in Connecticut, Friday July 4th. David was already waiting for me and ready to begin our drive up to Montreal, which is about 5 hours away, pretty much like what a drive to San Francisco would be to us here in Los Angeles. The drive was beautiful as it goes through the green mountains of Vermont. It's just a seemingly endless gorgeous sight of green trees and mountains.
We made a stop at Quechee Gorge in Vermont, did a bit of sight-seeing and walking around, checked out a couple of stores full of maple syrup and candy, and tons of nicknacks that just made me think of Shelley once and again... (pictures of Mooses all over the place).
David had an elk hamburger here... poor little deer.. I still haven't gotten over it. (heh)
After eating the poor dear deer, we got back on our way to Montreal, arriving finally at 5 pm or so (not without first getting pulled over by the law of Vermont, which accussed David of driving too fast, hehe... but we probably looked so distressed that the officer only gave us a warning).
Although late in the afternoon, the temperature in Montreal was still high up there on the 80s... and the humidity way up as well! While we waited in traffic on our way to find our hotel, I thought I was going to have a heat stroke. I think Montreal is one of those few places were I actually love cold showers.. the only way to feel comfortable.
Fortunately, David had done a great job finding us a hotel, with a great a/c system that kept our room COLD at all times!...the only escape from the sauna outside!
I have to tell you about dinner. We walked away from the hotel looking for a place to eat, until we found a restaurant with a big chicken picture outside it, which we assumed to be Montreal's version of Kentucky Fried Chicken. We went in through the door we believed to say 'Enter'.. (remember, Montreal is French speaking), and were received by this waiter who said something like "blah, blah, blah" and who, after seeing our 'huh?' look switched rapidly over to English. The place turned out to be NOT Montreal's KFC... we ended up having a meal with soup, tomato juice, dessert, and beer, totally overeating and forcing me to dress up for the evening activities in my 'fat clothes'.
'Fat clothed' but happy, we headed that evening to a club called 'Cubanos' in downtown Montreal. Out of the hotel we simply walked to the corner, to the closest metro stop. I LOVE CITIES WITH SUBWAYS! I wish we had one here in L.A. There's something about just sitting there, relaxing, not worrying about traffic, other drivers, gas, car problems or anything else. Just sit there and wait until you're delivered. Awesome!
We found the streets of downtown Montreal packed. As we got out of the metro station, we could hear the sounds of samba coming from the closest stage set up as part of the Jazz festival. Hundreds of people were gathered around the stage moving their bodies to the beat of samba. It was a hassle to find our way through the crowd as you can imagine, but it was also really fun to be in the middle of it.
'Cubanos' turned out to be a small club on the second floor of a building. We had to go up some steep steps to get to the entrance, where a guy charged us $8 to get in (Canadian dollars), and another guy actually walked us and sat us at a table for two (which never happens in L.A. so I took notice). Eventually a band called, I believe, The Cohiba Project, came out to play, in all honesty, some songs better than others. Their mambos and cha-chas were ok, while their slow Salsas... not really.
Dancers were ok. One man in particular really seemed to be dancing to the music with the flavor that I like to see people show, and in another corner, a couple full of flash, turns and pronounced styling, was entertaining the crowd while looking to me displaced in Montreal while actually truly belonging to L.A. somehow. (heh)
David and I danced a bit, looked around a lot, were annoyed (well at least I was!) by a woman who kept on asking me to watch over her purse while she went to dance (why do people do that?), and.. once again I was reminded of how wonderful it is when people are not allowed to smoke indoors! (yikes my poor itchy eyes).
Overall it was a fun experience. I give 'Cubanos' a 6 in my scale of 10 (haha).
And by now our first day of fun in Montreal was over.
Saturday during the day we headed to see the Cari-Fiesta. This is a Caribbean parade that goes through downtown Montreal. Several streets were closed up so that thousands of people could safely walk up and down following the parade. Big trucks carried groups of people dancing, singing, and some of them even playing live music, including soca, reggaee, and other Caribbean beats. 
It was colorful and loud. The only thing similar to it I'd ever seen before, and on TV, were Brazil's Rio parades. 
There were lots of country flags, some of them I didn't even recognize, and a great feeling of excitement. 
Look at this outfit! isn't it awesome? 
And here I am, at the first chance I got of taking a picture with one of the parade's dancers.. I know you can't tell, but we were reggae-ing! 
It was a great time watching the parade, and walking along the length of it was the exercise of the week for sure, in that sticky heat of Montreal!
After following the parade, it was the perfect time to check out the 'underground city', a enormous complex under the surface, walkways, restaurants and stores, all air conditioned, supposedly built to help people cope with the winter, but boy, definitely appreciated in the summer time as well!
We finally surfaced from the 'underground city' to go visit the Notre Dame Basilica. I had read on the travel guides that it was a 'must see'. The Basilica is Montreal's oldest Catholic church. Its construction began in 1824, its plans drawn by Irish architect James O'Donnell, a presbyterian who eventually converted to Catholicism, according to the Church's flyer, impressed by the grandeur of this building.
We had to see it from the entrance though, since at the time we arrived a wedding was about to begin, and people were not allowed in unless they were invited guests. I read that people book their weddings 18 months in advance at this Church. Amazing!
The Church is located in an area full of shops and restaurants, quite geared to tourism. Around it, there were lots of horse carriages waiting to give people rides around the city, some of them decorated beautifully with flowers, intended for picture taking for brides and grooms coming out of the Church.
We spent the whole afternoon walking around downtown Montreal, until it was time for us to go back to the hotel and get ready for our second night of dancing. This time we had plans to meet up with Isabelle, our French-Canadian friend, at a club called 'Cactus', also in the downtown area. 'Cactus' is basically a two level apartment converted into a dance club, with two dance floors, one downtairs and one upstairs, and mirrored walls. I know this place would make a fantastic location for a dance school. Although the club is DJ only, the music was much better than the one at 'Cubanos' the night before, and the cover was only $4. Dancers were ok, only one guy really made you look his way, and no crazy flashy dancers this time. I liked 'Cactus'. I give it an 8! (haha, I crack myself up). And as you can see by this picture, which was taken outside 'Cactus', David and I look as if we got our money's worth of dances don't we?
And this was the end of our second fun day in Montreal.
Sunday morning we got up early to visit the Olympic Park. The Park was built in 1976 for the Olympic games. We went up a cable car to the Observatory of the Montreal Tower, where one can overlook the city. It is just a beautiful view out of the tower. And I just love this picture! (Look at the view!) 
After our visit to the Park we headed to Isabelle's house for lunch, as Isabelle and Rejean were so kind to invite us over. 
It was great to talk to them and to learn so much about Montreal and its pride of its language and culture. We finally learned what "Je me souviens" meant, the phrase on most of Montreal's car license plates. "Je me souviens" means "I remember", that is, Montreal-ites remember their history, their language, and their culture and strive to preserve it.
After lunch we stopped by their Karaoke cafe. Looks like such a cool business, open five nights per week for people to go sing and play music, or play pool. 
After the cafe we headed to one of the Piers for an outdoor Salsa event that Salsafolie.com sets up every Sunday afternoon, from 3 to 7 pm.
I know everyone in L.A. would have loved that place. I was actually imagining them there! Outdoor dancing, right next to the water, with a gorgeous view of the bridges, and tons of space to dance. 
One of the neatest things of the day: these people on a boat who drove it really close to the pier attracted by the music, and then started dancing themselves right on the boat.
I took a few pictures of the ‘scenery’ thinking you guys may like it.. nice huh? (heh)
Montreal’ Salsa reminded me of the L.A.’ Salsa scene of four years ago or so.
‘On-one’ is definitely still the King in Montreal, there are many beginner dancers, and not very many advanced (at least based on what I saw). Those who are advanced dancers therefore attract the attention of all the people around them.
By 7 pm on Sunday I was exhausted. The heat, the humidity, the nights of partying and the dancing on concrete had beat me up. But we had definitely squeezed the juice out of every minute we spent in Montreal, and it was now time to start our drive back south to Connecticut. We said good bye to Isabelle and got on our way.
We finally made it to David’s apartment at 3 am or so. Talk about exhaustion!
Monday at noon we had plans for lunch with David’s family. 
I was so flattered that they were willing to meet up with us for lunch. And here they are… lovely people, very friendly, interested in our stories from Montreal, and I think very curious about our shared love for Salsa.
If you made it this far into my story, I guess it must mean that I didn’t totally bore you to death with it. Thanks for letting me tell you about it.
This is the last picture of my trip, 
at the airport, just minutes before I had to go through security and walk to my gate. It was taken by a nice man who offered to take it after seeing me try to do it by myself.
I truly had an awesome time last weekend. Montreal was great and David was a fantastic host and showed me a great time.
Thank you very much sweetie! I owe you one!
