Two cents' worth: Destination: Montreal

It was a trip initiated by an old friendship, controlled by our wallets, and guided by our stomachs!

We were trying to save money. That’s really where the whole story begins. (Alright, fine. If you want to be technical, it begins when the two of us decided to take a trip down to Montreal, made plans, made bookings, etc etc – but the fun part of the story starts with us trying to cut costs). With one of us flying down from Kuwait to Toronto, and the other from Calgary, I think we could safely say that we were low on funds and wanted Montreal to be a cheap holiday.

In our desperation, we decided to cut costs on the only flexible part of our trip – the accommodation. Following vague recommendations, we booked a three-night stay at…a hotel? Motel? Hostel? Not entirely sure what it was, but definitely closer to the last option. After dragging our luggage across the city, we arrived at a 3-story townhouse filled with beds peeking out from behind curtains. Our request for a private room was initially met with blank stares, but thankfully, a few seconds later, we were shown into a room with two queen-sized beds – and asked to choose one bed and stick to it (I should mention here that one of the beds already had luggage on it, so we weren’t exactly left with that much to choose from). The bathroom was across the room, and was shared between at least 10 other people living on that floor. And while our first night was relatively peaceful and solitary, we didn’t realize at that time that we would soon be joined by a third person (the owner of the luggage) – someone who makes it very difficult for light sleepers such as my friend to, well, sleep.

For the next two days, we explored as much of the city as we could. Our roles were clearly designated – one was the researcher and the other the navigator. Equipped with maps and walking tours, we walked through as many of the streets as our legs allowed, and ate as much as our stomachs allowed (and possibly a bit more).

But this was all well into the future. That first evening, as we dumped our luggage on our bed, I remember there was a moment when we looked at each other, suppressing incredulous stares and the urge to laugh uncontrollably at our situation. I think it was decided at that particular moment – Montreal was going to be a trip to remember!

*****

Enroute to Montreal.

The door-knob of our room. If you pulled it too hard from outside, it would come off. But if you yanked it back in too hard, the one on the inside would fall off!

Realizing (a little late) that we were staying at a place that would obviously not be providing us with toiletries, we decided to go shopping. But being the cheapskates that we were, we were only willing to spend on hand towels (because a full-length one would have been so expensive), and the cheapest most outrageous shampoo we could find: outrageous.