Day 26 - Montreal

Thursday May 29, 2008

Well... I finally found a battery cover for my phone. At $24, it was possibly the most expensive wafer thin, 5 gram piece of plastic I’ve ever had the pleasure of purchasing.

The day started out by going out for lunch with Isabelle, Riley’s friend. Afterwards, we roamed around the city and checked out Old Montreal. We visited the Basilica, a word which I unfortunately have no idea how to spell (go go spell check!). It’s gorgeous, and makes me somewhat sad that majestic architecture’s not really a Western Canada thing. I was amused that they had a full blown light and sound show, and that they were selling small vials of Basilica holy water in the gift shop. I’m sure the Vatican has gone part tourist trap, right?

Dinner was a smoked meat sandwich, which Riley had wanted to try since we got here. It was beyond ridiculously large – so big that even *I* had the good sense to leave the fries on the plate. The after dinner entertainment was... different. We went to the House of Jazz for, you guessed it, Jazz! The singer was amazing and I enjoyed the music (and I’m not really a Jazz-esque person). The night was kind of ruined by our waitress though.

We were sitting at the bar, so we didn’t really get waited on (we ended up getting up and getting all our drinks etc.). When the bill came, we paid what was owed with exact change. When the waitress picked it up, she saw that there wasn’t a tip sitting there already and flipped out. She proceeded to ‘teach us’ that 15% service is not included with the bill, and that it was mandatory. She thought we didn’t know that because we must be American. Kim rectified that by telling her that we were from Alberta, and that where we’re from, we usually only tip when service is actually delivered (ZING!). Awwwwkward. My friend Nick later pointed out that tipping isn’t required in Montreal, but I think he was referring to the lap dance girls...

On our way home, we stopped at this neat fountain. It starts letting out fog in the surrounding park at the top of the hour, and then lights up a ring of fire in the water. There’s no sign or anything indicating what the fountain’s there for, or why it’s there, but it was pretty fantastic nonetheless.

The Burning Ring 'o Fire