I had been pondering why I wasn’t that excited by Montreal. Today it made sense. After arriving in the totally fabulous city of Toronto, I decided Montreal is just plain exhausted. It had a really tired air about it. But, there is nothing tired about Tronto as the locals call it. We arrived in late from Halifax and were picked up by a totally gorgeous Singaporean cabbie. It was a flat rate from the airport so we were more than happy to take him up on his offer of a bit of a tour around the city. The lights were fantastic. It is quite a modern city and in some ways reminds me a little of a much more relaxed New York. Yonge Street is just around the corner from where we are staying and has the reputation, as the longest street in the world – around 1800km – would be weird if your address was 10000 Yonge Street. I was reading that the city is described as a brash, rag tag place – I would think edgy and interesting. Modern buildings, rub shoulders with old red brick areas with cobbled stone streets, and gorgeous Victorian triple storied townhouses. We are holed up in one of them, and the whole Ghost and Mrs Muir theme is continuing – although this time on Toronto’s great lake, rather than the wind swept sea cliffs. I am typing on the third floor of the most fantastic house. Great furniture, fantastic art and an eclectic decorating style that our host Scott has put together. It is so comfortable. My room has the most gorgeous nautical lamps and up in the attic I do expect to find a ghost of a sea captain sitting at the end of my bed. The house is a few minutes walk from downtown and we wandered the colourful streets between today’s meetings. I just loved the energy of the place – saxophones being played in the squares, a really interesting character playing a sort of didgeridoo outside the massive shopping area. Couldn’t describe it as a Mall – much classier. Tonight, we had what is probably the highlight of the trip – yes of course food. The gorgeous Zoe often says, if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Well the great Mexican restaurant we went to tonight’s version was ‘When life hands you tequila, make margaritas’. The food was totally fantastic but the atmosphere in the old distillery was worth flying around the world for. The massive metal screens, with laser cut skeletons, the huge murals and of course the margaritas. Donna, you would have loved the light fittings – the photos are especially for you!
Sleeping under the stars 