Project 365 Canada Mon 10 Aug 09

SHOPPING IN TOWN
The first thing we tried on our own was shopping in town ... that way we got to experience the transport, and get an idea of how things work.

The transport is much the same as at home except everything runs on the wrong side of the road (of course!) ... and the trains run on wheels instead of tracks. That was strange when I first realised that.

The interesting thing about the public transport was the pricing structure. They had only one zone with a ticket costing $2.75. That doesn't sound much but when it applies to a five minute trip on a bus or a trip from bus to train to bus that might take more than an hour it's a strange system. And yes, I did say you can transfer between different types of transportation as long as you're travelling in one direction only. In the end we purchased blocks of six tickets for the three of us because that took care of one day and it included a discount.

This is the only picture of a train I can find ... and I'm sure I took more.

Plus it rained on two separate days ... this was the first day when we were downtown. Check out how heavy it was ... it is so like the tropics here. The rain is really heavy and dries up quickly, leaving you hotter and damper than before.

Diane kept telling us to buy an umbrella ... we bought one in the end and I guess it'll come in handy in London as well.

And you wouldn't believe how many stores there are in Montreal that you can find at home: the world really is owned by the multinationals!

I don't even know what Oakley sells; I just know I've seen it in Melbourne.

My favourite store ... we just had to go in so I could see whether there was anything I liked.

The funniest thing happened to us in Esprit ... where we eventually took shelter from the rain. One of the shop assistants approached us to help ... and it turned out he'd been to Australia, including Melbourne, more than once and was really glad to talk to us, especially to practice his Australian slang.

He went through a whole bunch of words and he was so funny the way he said all these Australian colloquialisms in his Canadian accent that we couldn't help laughing and ended up chatting for quite a while. But the funniest thing was the last thing he said ... I'm cracked on that guy. I had to stop and think for a while what he meant--and in the end I realised it was I want to "crack on" to that guy ... and I wish I was quick enough to have remembered a few other 'new' bits of lingo to leave him with.

This shoe store really is everywhere.

And the same with Footlocker ... you can't turn around and not see another one.