Montréal, Québec - Day 1 - Monday 22nd April 2024 - Arrival Canada Trip

Waiting to depart

Stanislav arrived, and it looked like his visa didn't come through, and every time I tired to check him in on the KLM app he got another e-mail from Canadian immigration. With much stress, I managed to arrange his visa, standing in the train on the way to Schiphol.

Just before arriving at the airport his visa for Canada was approved, phew! We checked in at the airport and I attempted to use the posh lounge as a privilege of holding an AMEX card but it was full. So we ended uo going to a regular place where Stanislav haad a cappuccino and I had a large Pino Grigio and both of us had a vegetable panino.

In flight meal

Our gate was right at the end of the airport at E24 and as a consequence of checking in late, we got split up and I didn't get a window seat. The seemingly overfull airbus felt like it had difficultly getting off the ground. During the flight I had a lovelt veggie meal which was pre-ordered while watching "Pot-au-feu".

I was sitting next to an older French speaking couple and had a small conversation with them. The entire flight was insterspersed with the above movie, 3 wines, several games of "who wants to be a millonaire" and a documentary called "Road Runner" about Anthony Bourdain.

Arrival in Montréal

The flight arrived in Montréal after 7 hours and 30 minutes, and anticipating cold weather I put on extra layers but ended up sweating.

The immigration part had changed, I was used to getting passport stamps, but we were sent back by an angry guard. Apparently we needed to fill in a series of questions on a computer terminal, it took your picture and you got a piece of paper with your details and your mugshot which you need to hand over to the border police.

A Canadian shot

Next, we bought two tickets for bus 747 for the city centre but for some reason we were only allowed on the second bus. We got off at Berri, and Goran from Sarajevo picked us up and dropped me at my rentale place right in the Gay Village. I dropped my bags and headed straight for "Le Date" and started talking to the locals in French ending in drinking shots. I left at around 21:00 and bought some snacks and water.

#Montréal #GayVillage #Canada #Québec #KLM

In word #aeroplane