“Finally made it to the final stage of this journey and into a beautiful 3 bedroom apartment owned by a lovely software engineer Achim who greeted us this afternoon. Its way better than the price we paid and the photos we saw on the net. It’s right next to the St Lawrence River and close to cafes restaurants, grocery stores and the subway. Can’t believe our luck. We basically dropped our bags and headed to the subway which took us 15 mins to get into the city and the hub of the Just for Laughs Festival. Our first show that we have booked was “The Ethnic Show” and featured 6 acts and all were excellent. There were 3 in particular I will get the names of and compile a list for follow-up if you’re interested as they may come to Melbourne for our festival. The Metropolis Theatre is stunning and they have the Pixies and Angus and Julia Stone performing there next month.
I’ve been a bit taken aback by how French it is here. Literally, everything is written in French and everyone speaks it. Fortunately for us, the Canadians speak English as well which is really just showing off because I personally struggle with the one language. Everyone is just so nice. One lady overheard us talking about where to go for breakfast tomorrow on the train. She grabbed us on the street and suggested 3 or 4 great eateries close by. Another old lady we first bumped into and asked directions ended up offering to pick us up and take us around. The customer service overall has been brilliant and its only day 1.
The day started terribly at O’Hare Airport. It was going swimmingly because the train goes under the airport and access is perfect. Melbourne you need to wake up! The plans apparently have been there for a train line for 20 years! Anyway, we go to check in and they ask us for our ETA. We replied, “about 3.30pm I think”. They then told us we won’t be going anywhere unless we get on line and submit an ETA and pay the $7 to do it. The ETA is like a final bit of security paperwork that should have been completed well in advance. There was another guy next to us who was in the same boat. They kindly let us use their desktop and we got it done. All up the whole process including the email confirmation took an hour. The staff could see we were frustrated and as we finally checked in the wonderful staff member upgraded us to business class! It was a first for both of us and we had access to the United lounge to boot! Time was of the essence so we jogged to the lounge, shoved free food in our mouths for 20 mins and lined up in the priority line! Seats 1A and 1B were ours and we were given some orange juice before the rabble turned up. Finally the great unwashed appeared and were thinking as they moved past us, the same thing we always do, “smug bastards.”
Our last day in Chicago yesterday consisted of a relaxing cruise down the Chicago River on an architectural tour. It was good to get some insights into what we’ve been marveling at for the past 5 days. Sad to see Chicago go but I think if this afternoon and tonight was anything to go by, we are in for a grand finale in Montreal.
