hello, montreal

i'ts past 2 in the morning and i can't sleep yet. my mind's in west coast time, so it's still 11 pm. and i usually sleep around 2. which means i might be able to go to sleep around 5 am here? ouch. not good.

so my connecting flight from chicago to montreal went well. it was a small plane. the same planes that philippine airlines uses for its flight to tuguegarao, cagayan or mindoro or laoag. maybe even smaller. 18 rows. 1 seat + aisle + 2 seats. that's it. so 54 passengers per flight. and only one poor over-worked flight attendant.

montreal's airport is nice and clean. their customs area is huge, like the one in hong kong. the people manning the counters seemed courteous, especially the one i had (or the one who had me. hah!) very friendly.

i am staying at the 4-diamond (according to their website) marriott montreal chateau champlain and the nice lady at the reception desk gave me a huge and nice room with a view of the mount royal. factoid: the name montreal evolved from this hill in this island, which natives call mount royal. through the years, the name evolved into montreal.

first meal of the day: i checked all the touristy websites and they all recommended this place called schwartz. it's a hole-in-the-wall steakhouse (maison du bifteck) where the original world-famous smoked meat is served. i took the metro and a connecting bus along st. laurent and voila, i had one of the yummiest sanwiches i've had in recent years. it was uhm, uhm, good. it was around 8ish already and the place was still packed with people and it was a good mix of locals and tourists, which was good. i also had their cott's dark cherry soda to go with my smoked meat. glorious!

had some adventures finding my way around the metro and the stops. it was fun finding my way around in a very foreign place. it's nice that i had no idea what to expect during this trip so everything that's happening so far is above par, especially since i had no expectations whatsoever.

gotta learn the map so i won't be wasting time tomorrow. ciao!