Saint-Jérôme

I've left the lovely Lisanne and Jerome who've randomly looked after me since bumping into Lis in the national park. They've both done some awesome traveling, and Jerome has crossed Canada too (the right way round) so it was great to get more thoughts and tweaks about the route. They'd kindly offered me a second night (city=rest/exploration day), but I was keen to get into the centre and soak up the essence, or at least try, despite no callbacks on the WS hotline.

According to Jerome, Montreal has terrible bike crime rates and so there was no way I was leaving the bike anywhere even slightly risky... a tricky requirement in a massive city offering mostly apartments & hotels.

Checked into the Hostel International (with the help of a phone call from Jerome) after they'd assured him they had somewhere secure for my bike. And so it is, after 20 years since those hazy Australian dorm days, I was back again on a top bunk in a (thankfully) small 4 bed room.

I don't know why but Montreal comes across as a big big city. Google says it's about a third is the size of London, but perhaps it's just the high-rises and huge grid layout twisting the perspective.

Either way it's brought me back down to city life with a bump. I hadn't realised how nicely distant the thought of big cities had become in my head. Don't get me wrong, Montreal's got a great vibe and I bet it's a really fun city but it's rudely mentally wrenching me out of my zen-like travel state.

Still, it didn't stop me immediately signing up for the pub crawl the hostel had organised that night....which turned out to be pretty hilarious - I'd forgotten how much hostel life is a mixed bag of randomers all just bursting with lovely excitable energy.

The pub crawl disclaimer/sign-up sheet included an age column.

The average was about 24.

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