Monday 26 October 2009 - A bus from Ottawa to Toronto

For all of those people back home who have said that they are jealous of what Lisa and I are doing on this trip, take comfort from Exhibit A: Friday 16 October 2009. We awoke in the town of Augusta, Maine having driven down from Bar Harbour the previous evening. Our itinerary for the day was as follows:

• Drive from Augusta to Portland Airport to switch one rental car for another (because of some complications with our original booking);
• Drive from Portland to Burlington, Vermont to drop off the car at the airport;
• Take a taxi from the airport to the bus station to meet the 3:00pm bus to Montreal;
• Arrive in Montreal and check in to the apartment we had reserved for the week.

The day started badly when, as we were leaving Augusta, we realised that the drive to Burlington was more like four a half hours rather than the three we had allotted. This meant that our times were very tight. I drove to the airport where we switched over the cars (at speed) and drove on to Burlington. The drive was very stressful as we knew that making or missing the bus was going to be decided by only a few minutes either way. We dropped off our second car of the day at Burlington airport and hastily got a taxi. "How long is the drive to the bus station?" we hurriedly asked. "20 to 25 minutes came the response" - we had only 15 minutes until the bus departed. I felt like Jack Bauer in a particularly dull and stressful episode of 24. The taxi driver using all of his years of experience took us on a labyrinthine route and somehow delivered us to the bus station in all of 12 minutes. Inevitably after all of that stress, the bus was half an hour late, but at least we were on our way to Montreal.

Unfortunately as the journey had been progressing towards Burlington, our accommodation situation had been deteriorating. During our time in Winston-Salem I had found an advert online for a perfect looking Montreal apartment and had contacted the owners about renting it for the week. We had confirmed that we wanted to stay and spoken to them numerous times on the telephone. We agreed to send them a deposit of $115 to secure the reservation. As the date approached for our rental the contact with the owners went dead. They were not responding to our emails and the phone number which we had previously been able to contact them on came back unavailable. As I continued to try the number during the drive to Burlington it became increasingly apparent that the owner of apartment (if indeed any real apartment existed), one Akko van Aelst, had conned us into parting with our money. Despite our growing unease at our accommodation situation we both agreed that we could not be certain that this had been a fraud until we stood on the doorstep of the address we had been given (4321 Christophe Colomb).

Our bus arrived in Montreal and we took the metro to the address where we found no lights on and no-one home. After an hour or so of waiting (and some valiant attempts at detective work by Lisa, knocking doors and interviewing neighbours) it became clear that we had been diddled. We were stood on a dark suburban street in Montreal at 8 at night having driven for more than 6 hours (plus a two hour bus journey) and we now had nowhere to sleep. The pressure and calamity of the situation got to both of us - Lisa had a bit of a sob and I was upset and frustrated. Although we were dejected, we were not beaten. I used my cell phone to get the number of a hostel in Montreal and within 20 minutes we had secured a bed for the night. We arrived at the hostel and I was ready to eat something and turn in for the night, putting off any planning until the next day. Lisa was having none of this and instead suggested we got on the internet to identify another apartment for us to stay in for the week. We had planned Montreal as a special week for the two of us, where I would show Lisa some of my old haunts from my time there in 2002, and she wasn't giving up on that idea easily.

We went online and within the hour Lisa had identified an apartment, contacted the owner and secured us a place to stay for the coming week. It felt like a football team finding themselves 3-0 down with ten minutes to go and coming back to earn a hard fought 3-3 draw. When we arrived at the apartment the next morning, the 3-3 draw became a stunning 4-3 victory. It was owned by a designer who had renovated it himself and was huge with wooden floors throughout, a huge walk-in closet in the bedroom, a study and dining room (in addition to a very generous kitchen and living room) and a wet room shower. There was even an internet ready computer, a movie projector and satellite television. It was awesome.

With our accommodation finally sorted for the week (and how!) we were free to enjoy Montreal, and enjoy it we did. Highlights included:

• Attending a storytelling evening on the theme of love and sex as part of the Quebec-wide international storytelling festival;
• Visiting the botanical gardens' stunning Chinese lantern festival including hundreds of incredibly intricate illuminations;
• Eating the Montreal classics - poutine (chips with cheese and gravy) and Schwarz's smoked meat (unbelievable as ever);
• Watching the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team batter the New York Islanders 5-1;
• Seeing some seriously huge bugs at the Insectarium;
• Watching two movies - Where the Wild Things Are (Lisa loved, I was luke warm) and A Serious Man (both of us enjoyed but found a little slow and very odd);
• Visiting Old Montreal and our second pirate museum of the trip so far.

More than anything though, we relaxed in our apartment made lots of plans (and some delicious meals) and recharged our batteries for the push west across Canada. Montreal was fantastic - it remains one of my favourite cities in the world - so it was with a heavy heart that we left our beautiful apartment and boarded a bus for Ottawa on the the afternoon of Saturday 24 October.

I think that Ottawa exceeded both of our expectations. It was a compact handsome city that reminded both of us of Edinburgh. As part of making plans for the next stage of our trip I called my friend Mac to make arrangements to stay with him in November when we arrive in Alberta. I knew that he was travelling but was shocked and delighted to that when I called he told me that he too was in Ottawa. So, after another visit to the cinema (Cairo Time - a distinctly average Canadian movie) Lisa and I met up with him for a few beers. Having not seen him for close to a year, it was great to catch up, plan our trip to see him and, most importantly, begin to plan our joint best man's speech for the upcoming and much anticipated Godwin-Simms wedding. Beware Mr Godwin, beware. Really looking forward to seeing Mac again in a few weeks time.

Next morning it was time to pack our bags and hit the road again, which is where you find me now - on a 5 hour bus journey to Toronto next to a sleeping Lisa Richardson (hence this epic journal entry).