Friday, November 16, 2012

Toronto Trip June 2012 Day 7 Monday June 11: Montreal Sidetrip

UPDATED: February 2, 2021

This is the seventh of a series of posts dealing with my second and most recent trip to Toronto. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports.  Due to how recent the trip was, there are no updates to note below.

I got up early and took a bus from Dufferin to Dundas and then a streetcar to Bay, when I arrived at the Coach Terminal.  I grabbed a hot dog and pop from the vendor outside and then took the Megabus to Montreal (only stop being Kingston; nearly six hours). I phoned my friend Teresa and I think I misplaced my itinerary there; I have another back in Toronto though.  One of the Metro accesses was closed off but found another from Station Berri-UQAM to Sherbourne, where I met up with Teresa. We dropped off my stuff at her place and then we wandered around with her acting as a tour guide. We visited Odyssey Books on St Catherine, then I grabbed lunch at McDonald’s and we sat at a church before buying a bunch of DVDs at Movieland. I got a lot more but she was impressive too.  We wandered to the Old Montreal and explored a bit before taking a couple of metro trains to the Biosphere.  The outside wasn’t what we had expected (it was her first time there too).  The building was not actually spherical. That’s actually an illusion from the monkey bars like frames.  The building itself is oddly structured; hard to describe. We considered going in because it cheap, but we both wanted to cool off at nearby water jets we saw earlier instead. At first we tried to keep our clothes dry, but then I got a bit when and decision to let myself get soaked, and Teresa did the same. 
[NOW: The transportation before Megabus was TTC/Toronto Transit Commission. All transportation  in Montreal STM/Société de transport de Montréal. That year Megabus stopped at Gare d'autocars de Montréal but moved soon after. The Biosphere is on St. Helen's Island (Île Sainte-Hélène), Parc Jean-Drapeau. Odyssey Books, and Movieland have closed. The trains were Orange Line except to Parc Jean-Drapeau. I think to get to that park we got on at Station Champ-de-Mars and transferred to the Yellow at Station Berri-UQAM Station Parc-Jean-Drapeau.]

We sat down to let our clothes dry a little, then we took a couple more Metros back to her place. We grabbed my stuff and went to the nearby hostel where she and I parted company, having been an excellent tour guide. The building looked amazing... but my room was in a run down building across the street. I dropped off my stuff and wandered down a ways, checked the bus terminal for my missing itinerary; no luck.  I had dinner at another St Catherine McDonald’s, in an area with rows of pink “bulbs” hanging from a car-less area. Like another friend recently, I had stumbled upon the gay district. Even the straight types can resist the lure of those rows of pink bulbs hanging from the sky!
[NOW: We took the Yellow Line from Station Parc-Jean-Drapeau to Station Berri-UQAM, then the Orange Line from there to Station Sherborne.]

I walked east from a while, then went north, then went west, getting DVDs at Video Revue and DVDO on Ontario St. I took a metro then a bus to Le Parc du Mont Royal, getting some nice aerial shots of the city from above. A raccoon got within touching distance of me (no I did not touch it but the photos were great).
[NOW: The hostel was part of Hotel de Paris. Video Revue and DVDO are closed. I can't recall where I got on the Orange Line but I took it to Station Mont-Royal. The bus was the 11.]

One bus trip down the hill then I took a couple Metros south to near the Old Montreal, getting some pics there as the sun started to go down. I took a couple of Metros trying to get to the west side and work my way back but after getting off I started walking the wrong way. Luckily there was a bus that took me east to near my hostel.
[NOW: I took the 11 again. I might have referred to a couple stops because the Orange Line will take you from Station Mont-Royal to Station Champ-de-Mars and thus to Old Montreal.]

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