First day in Montreal! July 25, 2017

Last week, I was in Montreal for the Just For Laughs Comedy Fest! My Aunt Jill invited me out, and we met up in French Canada. I flew out on my 27th birthday, and I’ve definitely never done something so different and cool on my birthday before. I normally trip around Austin with my boyfriend and get dinner with friends. Fretting about hailing a cab and making my way through customs in a foreign country where I don’t speak the language was certainly a big change!

In honor of my birthday, I got a half-caff white chocolate mocha from Austin Java, and bought a new book in the airport!

Did you watch Big Little Lies? I totally loved it. And the book was even better! The HBO series was so well directed and acted that I thought this would be one of those rare exceptions where the screen adaption is better than the original novel, but nope. I was so impressed with Liane Moriarty’s writing, and I finished this book ON MY FLIGHT! Talk about a page turner.

I flew from Austin to Philly, and ate lunch at an Au Bon Pain in the Philadelphia airport. I got a veggie soup and some birthday fro yo.

Then I landed in Montreal. I hadn’t filled out the customs form they gave me on the plane, because I didn’t know I had to… So I filled it out in a rush in the bathroom lol. Then I made my way through customs and that was confusing, overwhelming, and had way longer lines than I was expecting at 9 PM.

After customs, I struggled to drag my bag around and find the taxi stand. Eventually I was in a cab with my linguistics-obsessed cabbie, heading to downtown Montreal to my hotel. This cab driver was trying to teach me new languages in the 30 minute ride, explaining how all of English is basically French and holding up newspapers in Russian and having me guess the letters. I was sooo tired I was only capable of responding, ‘Oh wow!’ Lol. He must think Americans are really freaking stupid.

Then I got to my hotel!

My aunt and I met up real quick, but then she was off to bed and I was off to my own room, which had been upgraded!! Best birthday surprise ever!! I was so overstimulated from my day of travel that it took me HOURS to calm down. Plus I was hungry!

I ordered room service for the first time!

I ordered off the late night menu, so I just got a burger with fries and a side salad. I also got a pastry plate with macarons, cookies, lemon meringue tart, and other little things! It was all so good. This was one of those hotels with REALLY great food. I was so happy!

I noticed right away that my Netflix had all different things since I was in Canada, and watched some programs I normally don’t get. I had good TV, good food, and was finally done traveling. It was the perfect end to my birthday! Luckily I’m an introvert and didn’t mind partying by myself, haha. I actually might prefer it, at least some times… And I didn’t have to share my plate of desserts with anyone 😈.

It took me about three hours to fall asleep once I finally went to bed at midnight. That wasn’t so great with all the stuff we had planned the next day, starting early. My aunt is one of those people who effortlessly wakes up at 7 AM every day. When I used to travel to Costa Rica to visit her and her husband, he would say good night to me around 8:30 so he could get up at 5 AM and go fishing. BY CHOICE!! I knew I’d have to do a better job getting to bed early this trip to keep up with my early-bird aunt. No more waking up at 11 when I’m with her!!

I’ll post all about my second day in Montreal tomorrow!

💖❤️💖

-Taylor