Montreal...Sometimes the Best Trips Are Unplanned
Last weekend I had an unforgettable experience visiting Montreal!
In the picture below, I am drinking a Bloody Caesar, a Canadian drink similar to the Bloody Mary on Saint Patrick's day, March 17, 2019.
I had always wanted to visit, and when a handsome, intelligent, athletic, french-man, who I met in December, while he was visiting South Florida invited me, I wasted no time, found a cheap ticket, and accepted the invitation in January to visit in March.
In the weeks following, Frenchy sent me almost daily notes of how excited he was to see me. Then, the messages got less frequent, & suddenly one day, I received a message that said that he was going to be on a "low budget" when I visited, and that his daughter had a drug episode, which I later learned could be quite expensive.
I asked him if he was going to have enough money to pay for us while I visited. He started to then make it ugly, and asked if I always expected men to pay for me when I go on vacation. I told him that I had considered this a date weekend, and he had invited me, so yes, I was expecting that, but if he was going to have a hard time, I completely understood, and thanked him for letting me know in advance, while I had time to change my plans.
Also, I reminded him that I was out the money I had paid for the ticket, and I wasn't going to make him feel bad about that, but asked him to keep his rude comments to himself, as he was starting to make me the bad guy in this.
I have been invited to all expenses paid trips to Spain & Israel, etc, but never had accepted because I wasn't sure how familiar I wanted to get with the men who invited me, but felt this guy was nice and different...anyway, lesson learned. Now I had these tickets. I paid $334 for them, and it was going to cost $200 to change them to something else. So, I started thinking...it was unusual for me to accept and purchase tickets so quickly. I must be MEANT to see Montreal.
I checked to see about getting a good hotel room in the old city, with my frequent flyer miles, and found the Intercontinental in Montreal quite affordable. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it had 5 stars! So, I thought worst case scenario, I hang out in the hotel!
A friend of mine, (a Toronto native) shared his frequent flyer miles with me, so my flight to and fro Montreal was completely upgraded to Business Class!!
WOW!! This was a great start!! They have the life up there!! Very interesting people I met and sat next to on both flights. I got in at 11:30pm Thursday night after the week working extra hours to make up for my absence. The first part of my vacation had been a long weekend the week before to Turks and Caicos with girlfriends, that my best girlfriend gifted me with last minute, so after a 4 day work week, I was now going to complete my week's vacation with another long weekend to Montreal with no confirmed meetings or plans.
The hotel upgraded me to a suite, which was amazing, with a Keurig coffee maker, which is really the only coffee maker that I know how to work. So I was in business!! The bed was SUPER comfortable and the curtains made the room SUPER DARK!! YAY!! I slept like a baby!!
It was so fun to get to do a trip like this all by myself, actually!
1st day, I woke up and got myself on a bus tour of Montreal, which honestly, I wouldn't do again, but it got me out of the hotel room, and seeing things and meeting people. The tour guide was the best thing about that trip because he was hilarious, and I saw Notre Dame, which was beautiful and full of history, but beyond that, the traffic was so bad, I thought the tour would never end.
The bus ended up dropping us off in the center of town, which for me was WAY better. Now, I was at home with WAZE on my phone and asking people for guidance and direction. I took nearly 20,000 steps that day...just walking around like crazy. There was a lot to see, and I found the people of Montreal so kind. I also understood that it was a very SAFE city! Picture below is at the top of the mountain with the funny tour guide.
I met a handsome guy on the dating app that night who invited me out to dinner, so I accepted. Then when he mentioned taking me "up the mountain," I assured him I'd been there most of the day with the tour, so he ended up taking me outside of Montreal for dinner, which was nice, and the food was great, but after dinner he didn't seem to be able to find anything that we could do closer to my hotel in the "Old City," so I just let him bring me back to the hotel, so I could get an early night's sleep.
The next day, I met a nice local guy who offered to take me on a walking tour. This was amazing, as he showed me all of the delicacies in Montreal from Poutine to Meat Sandwiches to frozen honey on a stick to the UNDERGROUND world the exists in Montreal to keep everyone warm in the cold!! There are theaters, art, performances, stores...all that you can imagine in the underworld of Montreal. The first day that I was there, it was like 30 degrees, so very nice outside that I really was enjoying the outside. You can see more pictures on my facebook page at www.facebook.com/BeingTracy/ After my day walking around with this guy, and my day and tour the day before, I was figuring I had seen most of the high points of Old Montreal.
That night another handsome man on the dating app offered to take me out in Old Montreal for a drink and a bite. This is what I wanted!! He showed me the best night in Montreal. We walked thru the Ritz...checked it out, and then found Bar George, which is a beautiful old mansion that has been updated and made into a bar. It was amazing!
I had kind of felt like I had seen what Montreal had to offer, and though there was a Saint Patrick's Day Parade my final day there, I'd also received an invitation from an old friend who had offered to drive over an hour to pick me up, and drive me to Mont Tremblant to go snowmobiling! He said he would show me the area, and then drive me to the airport at 3am to catch my flight back to Miami!!
We went snowmobiling for a bit, but then because the snow wasn't as abundant as it needs to be for really good snowmobiling, we decided to drive the short drive up to the top of the mountain to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day Eve before my flight back.
My friend was a total gentleman. He changed the sheets, and let me rest in his room from 9pm til 2:45am, while he rested in his son's room. Then we both got up, and made our way to the airport, and he dropped me off, for my 6am flight, and then said he was going to go start his work early for the day.
Sometimes the best moments are those unplanned.
I really loved Montreal, and everything about it...especially the generous good people.
GREAT VISIT!!
Thank you, Montreal, for everything!! I would love to return!
In the picture below, I am drinking a Bloody Caesar, a Canadian drink similar to the Bloody Mary on Saint Patrick's day, March 17, 2019.
I had always wanted to visit, and when a handsome, intelligent, athletic, french-man, who I met in December, while he was visiting South Florida invited me, I wasted no time, found a cheap ticket, and accepted the invitation in January to visit in March.
In the weeks following, Frenchy sent me almost daily notes of how excited he was to see me. Then, the messages got less frequent, & suddenly one day, I received a message that said that he was going to be on a "low budget" when I visited, and that his daughter had a drug episode, which I later learned could be quite expensive.
I asked him if he was going to have enough money to pay for us while I visited. He started to then make it ugly, and asked if I always expected men to pay for me when I go on vacation. I told him that I had considered this a date weekend, and he had invited me, so yes, I was expecting that, but if he was going to have a hard time, I completely understood, and thanked him for letting me know in advance, while I had time to change my plans.
Also, I reminded him that I was out the money I had paid for the ticket, and I wasn't going to make him feel bad about that, but asked him to keep his rude comments to himself, as he was starting to make me the bad guy in this.
I have been invited to all expenses paid trips to Spain & Israel, etc, but never had accepted because I wasn't sure how familiar I wanted to get with the men who invited me, but felt this guy was nice and different...anyway, lesson learned. Now I had these tickets. I paid $334 for them, and it was going to cost $200 to change them to something else. So, I started thinking...it was unusual for me to accept and purchase tickets so quickly. I must be MEANT to see Montreal.
I checked to see about getting a good hotel room in the old city, with my frequent flyer miles, and found the Intercontinental in Montreal quite affordable. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it had 5 stars! So, I thought worst case scenario, I hang out in the hotel!
A friend of mine, (a Toronto native) shared his frequent flyer miles with me, so my flight to and fro Montreal was completely upgraded to Business Class!!
WOW!! This was a great start!! They have the life up there!! Very interesting people I met and sat next to on both flights. I got in at 11:30pm Thursday night after the week working extra hours to make up for my absence. The first part of my vacation had been a long weekend the week before to Turks and Caicos with girlfriends, that my best girlfriend gifted me with last minute, so after a 4 day work week, I was now going to complete my week's vacation with another long weekend to Montreal with no confirmed meetings or plans.
The hotel upgraded me to a suite, which was amazing, with a Keurig coffee maker, which is really the only coffee maker that I know how to work. So I was in business!! The bed was SUPER comfortable and the curtains made the room SUPER DARK!! YAY!! I slept like a baby!!
It was so fun to get to do a trip like this all by myself, actually!
1st day, I woke up and got myself on a bus tour of Montreal, which honestly, I wouldn't do again, but it got me out of the hotel room, and seeing things and meeting people. The tour guide was the best thing about that trip because he was hilarious, and I saw Notre Dame, which was beautiful and full of history, but beyond that, the traffic was so bad, I thought the tour would never end.
The bus ended up dropping us off in the center of town, which for me was WAY better. Now, I was at home with WAZE on my phone and asking people for guidance and direction. I took nearly 20,000 steps that day...just walking around like crazy. There was a lot to see, and I found the people of Montreal so kind. I also understood that it was a very SAFE city! Picture below is at the top of the mountain with the funny tour guide.
The next day, I met a nice local guy who offered to take me on a walking tour. This was amazing, as he showed me all of the delicacies in Montreal from Poutine to Meat Sandwiches to frozen honey on a stick to the UNDERGROUND world the exists in Montreal to keep everyone warm in the cold!! There are theaters, art, performances, stores...all that you can imagine in the underworld of Montreal. The first day that I was there, it was like 30 degrees, so very nice outside that I really was enjoying the outside. You can see more pictures on my facebook page at www.facebook.com/BeingTracy/ After my day walking around with this guy, and my day and tour the day before, I was figuring I had seen most of the high points of Old Montreal.
That night another handsome man on the dating app offered to take me out in Old Montreal for a drink and a bite. This is what I wanted!! He showed me the best night in Montreal. We walked thru the Ritz...checked it out, and then found Bar George, which is a beautiful old mansion that has been updated and made into a bar. It was amazing!
I had kind of felt like I had seen what Montreal had to offer, and though there was a Saint Patrick's Day Parade my final day there, I'd also received an invitation from an old friend who had offered to drive over an hour to pick me up, and drive me to Mont Tremblant to go snowmobiling! He said he would show me the area, and then drive me to the airport at 3am to catch my flight back to Miami!!
We went snowmobiling for a bit, but then because the snow wasn't as abundant as it needs to be for really good snowmobiling, we decided to drive the short drive up to the top of the mountain to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day Eve before my flight back.
My friend was a total gentleman. He changed the sheets, and let me rest in his room from 9pm til 2:45am, while he rested in his son's room. Then we both got up, and made our way to the airport, and he dropped me off, for my 6am flight, and then said he was going to go start his work early for the day.
Sometimes the best moments are those unplanned.
I really loved Montreal, and everything about it...especially the generous good people.
GREAT VISIT!!
Thank you, Montreal, for everything!! I would love to return!
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