(Day 8) Tree Porcupines are Dangerous.

Another morning, another breakfast. Tony’s food is really good though, and he always has a bunch of stories to tell us and advice to give us about what we should be doing in Montreal. He even liked to tell us about events that were happening in about a month, just in case we decided to fly back or something. I’m not quite sure, but it was nice he was so enthusiastic.



Our stops for today were the highly-recommended Biodome and not-so-highly recommended Olympic Stadium, but since they were so close, we decided to check out both. We hopped on the metro and prepared ourselves for a non-stop crazy time. The Biodome was up first.






A Capybara.




These little guys were, as low-germans would say, “Vindt treasel”.




As bad as this might sound, I think this fish reminds me of my Dad. He looks like a Harder for sure.


The batcave. This looks nothing like Wayne Manor.




Pretty bird. Can you say, “Pretty bird”? Pretty bird.


Is this a porcupine in a tree?!? I’m so confused. I don’t remember this, but that seems highly dangerous, doesn’t it? What is that thing? I could find out, but I’m lazy. I’ll just assume it’s a porcupine.




I especially the South Park shirt in the reflection of this picture. I’m not the one wearing it, just so you know, but I wish I was.



So that was the Biodome. I just kept thinking about the movie with Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin from back in, like, 1993. The place would have been better if it wasn’t filled with little children screeching for their parents in French and pointing to the animals, as if their parents can’t see it without the children pointing.

Next, we had bought tickets to ride the Olympic Tower at the stadium so up we went!











It was cool to see the whole city and the St. Lawrence river from that vantage, but I always feel these lift-type attractions are overpriced. Man, I deserve a big poop-sandwich for being so critical of poor Montreal! I can’t help it. I really did enjoy myself.

Next up, we rode the metro back to the downtown area and thought we’d check out the Atwater marche. Getting off at the Atwater stop which was still crazy-far from the market, we set out on foot. Funnily enough, we were heading down the street when these guys drove up beside us in a white Chrysler 300 and asked us where we were headed. I lied, “We don’t know yet.” They asked us to join them for lunch to which I responded that we already ate (lie). They then invited us out to tea with them and I said no thanks. They then realized that they were holding up traffic and pulled ahead and over to the curb in the next block. Janelle and I were creeped as they stood on the sidewalk waiting for us talking to each other and finally went inside a restaurant there before we got to them. We bolted right by and never heard from them again. Phew! I just can’t handle those types of situations, flattering as they are, I guess. I’m sure they were after Janelle though, which is perfectly fine with me. We finally made it to the market.







Frankly, there was a whole lot of nothing to see here as well, unless we wanted to buy antipasto, plants, or meat. Getting hungry, we decided to wander the streets near the market for a legit restaurant. We found a real gem about a block away.


Oh yeah, a “Welcome” placemat and a 1998 Nagano Olympics glass.

The place was called “Green Spot” and it was stuck in a time warp straight from the ‘70’s. Our waitress was some middle-aged lady in a white, see-through shirt and apron-y thing who seemed irritated yet friendly that she was serving us.




Oh, here we see it’s been in service over 70 years. Yes, this makes sense.

Everyone also told me I had to try real Montreal poutine, so I figured this was as good of a time as any.




Hot dogs here come heaped with that sour coleslaw again.

The restaurant also had a crew of guys come in, one of which was a black guy with a pick in his hair!! They really do that in real life, not just the movies!



The place also had some cutting-edge tunes on the jukeboxes.


Hmmm. ‘Angel’ by Shaggy, or ‘MmmBop’ by Hanson?

Since we are an eating bunch, after leaving, we started our long journey towards our home and our last stop for day, a proper dessert place. We found these weird puffy things in a tree in a park on the way…does anyone know what purpose they serve, other than looking strange?




A place called ‘Calories’ – it couldn’t be more perfect.


These were perfect and exquisitely delicious. And with those, Quebec has redeemed itself completely.

We headed home earlier that night to pack and relax for our early morning over to the airport and long flight home. Oui, merci, fun vacation! Au revoir!