My Perfect Montreal Day

Saturday, I decided was to be a day for me, where I allowed myself to do no housework, and had the entire day to myself to spend as I pleased. So I skipped yoga class and left the bike in the garage. It was supposed to thundershower (*yet* again) so I opted for an umbrella and good walking shoes instead.

Coffee and short conversation with a friend, then into the new Apple flagship store on Ste. Catherine (it’s very nice, very pretty, although I thought the t-shirts of the staff could have been a little more snug), then into the metro where I purchased the new Opus card. It’s $3.50 for the card until June 2009 where it will go up to $7, and then the usual $12 to get the equivalent of a packet of six tickets. Good for seven years and rechargeable, it’s great except for one thing: there is no way to tell how many virtual tickets you have left on the card unless you keep impeccable count or you get on a bus and realize you’re all out. I suppose you might be able to go up to a reader to check, if there is such a service.

I metroed over to Place des Arts, slapped my Opus card down on the magnetic reader on the bus which appropriately accepted my transfer, took the 80 all the way up to Laurier and headed eastward to my prime target: a tiny little fabulous shoe store that I knew was in the midst of a sale.

Half an hour later I walked out with two most excellent pairs of shoes along with an excellent day bag and red leather clutch. The rain had started by this point, and I made my way over to Parc, stopping in at a friperie and new clothes store Kabotine I had spotted while biking past it the other day. Twenty minutes later, I walked out with a gorgeous yellow-and black Montreal designed (flashy-heavy site irritatingly only works in IE) summer dress and a pretty new black top (naturally, all on sale).

The rain was coming down in earnest now so I decided to duck into a cute little Argentinian cafe called Volver, where I had two freshly made empanadas (one beef, one spinach) and a glass of decent Argentinian wine, all for $9.50. A steal! Sheltered from the storm, I engrossed myself in an embarrassingly geeky book while I sipped my wine.

When the rain abated, I left to go and loiter in the travel section at the neighbourhood Renaud-Bray to read all I could on Andalucia and the rest of Spain as I think I might be planning my next vacation there. (I had toyed between the idea of Italy (going back to my roots again type trip), but Spain has always been my dream so perhaps the time for Spain is now).

After my browsing was completed, I met up with a couple of friends at their apartment where we planned the rest of the evening. We downed pizza and chilled glasses of rosé and made our way over to the exciting event of the evening which began at 7:30pm: The Montreal Roller Derby Championships! A fun-filled, vicious sporting event involving women clad in jerseys, short skirts, padding, mouthguards, helmets and a healthy amount of fishnet, racing around a hockey arena scoring strategic points. That, and cheap-ass beer. It was great. Read here for more exciting details on the event.

Out by 10pm, we moved onto getting some food and then having the last beverage of the evening at The Green Room on St. Laurent, which is a good enough spot as any, but MUST they play the music so ear-deafeningly loud? It really was unbearable, and if you didn’t have a voice that carried, forget having an actual conversation with anyone.

Still, fun was had, highlights of the game were discussed (by those with voices that carried), and by 2am, I hailed a cab, and fifteen minutes later, I and my shopping flopped into a restful, dreamless sleep. It had been a good day.