it's not the journey...it's the destination

sometimes the most fulfilling and rewarding things in life are the ones that you work hardest for...the ones that might cause pain and suffering but end in that blissful feeling you get when you know you've arrived somewhere amazing and you deserve the end result. today we climbed a mountain. not something that our fitness levels suggest we do every day and, yes, the last 250 steps almost killed me (the people jogging up them with hardly a grunt made me sick...)...but the result was an amazing view of the city of montreal, made all the more special by the hard work it took to get there. it is a beautiful time of year in canada. the trees are changing colour and we walked up mountain paths with a rainfall of red and orange drifting down around us. the air was crisp and, since we've spent so much of our time in dense, urban cities these past couple of weeks, it really was a breath of fresh air.

we followed our little stroll with a crepe and chardonnay in the old part of the city - vieux montreal...think little cobbled streets leading up from the river, tiny french bistros, art galleries, stone cathedrals with hundreds of years of history....as i closed my eyes and listened to the french being spoken around me i could imagine i was strolling through st germain des pres - one of my favorite districts in paris...it made me miss my favourite city but montreal has its own charms. a touch of retail therapy later (everything is so cheap here if you're on the good old british pound!) night drew in and we settled in for a cocktail or three in a dimly lit bar full of atmosphere. Perhaps it was the romance in the air...or more likely the alcohol in our systems...but we decided to wrap up our day with a horse and carriage ride through vieux montreal...totally corny i know...but so lovely to trot through the windy streets and watch the lights on the old buildings (and save our hardworking, mountain-climbing legs!)

so you see, a backpacker's life is tough... ;-) tomorrow we move briskly on to quebec city for more french-canadian charm. stay tuned.

xx