Time for a change. 1. Leave the US 2. Go to a place where they speak another language. So off to Montreal we went. Montreal is located in Quebec which is the predominantly French speaking province of Canada. First off the hostel (Auberge Alternative) we were at was great and I don't normally bother to mention hostels but thisone was excellent. It was bright, neatly decorated. It had wooden floors and exposed brick inside. It was also right in the heart ofOld Montreal (Vieux Montreal). Just across from us was a delightful boulangerie which served various croissants and teas (a little bit of a change from breakfast at Dunkin Donuts).

Being in Montreal reminded me of the style of travel that I sometimes engaed in on my Round The World trip. That being that when a place is sufficiently different from what you are used to simply being there is enough. I don't know whether it was the fact that it was that different to the US or not I can't be sure. When we left we had been in the US for six weeks. That's a long time to be in any country travelling around.

It was much colder in Canada as well. I suppose that's obvious but I was still surprised to see snow and ice on the lakes even in the middle of April. In fact the winters can be so brutal in Montreal (regularly getting to -25C and occasionally -35C) that they have what they call an underground city. This is basically a system of walkways and their excellent metro. However in addition to this there are shops and restaurants underground as well. While it's not so necessary in spring it's still interesting to see. It ranges from the old fashioned tile to a very futuristic looking environment (where when there's absolutely no one around you can pretend you are in some kind of post apocalyptic sci-fi world).

Montreal has a chic feeling about it that you just don't get anywhere else in North America. The American way is to be obvious and clear about things - products and services especially (the size of some of the Golden Arches that I've seen you just wouldn't believe). However, there's something about a lot of places in Montreal that are just really understated - for one Neon lights don't seem to feature heavily. It's a place where you can stumble into a cafe / bar even though you weren't really sure if it was a cafe from the outside or even open for that matter.

Ottawa, Ontario

A lot of people say that Ottawa (the capital of Canada) doesn't really have much going for it and so skip it between Montreal and Toronto. I liked it a lot. It was small and easily manageable and it was sunny...so that helps. One day we went to Parliament and saw a pretty interesting and lively debate in progress. Even though I did Politics at University I'd never been to a national parliament before.

The hostel we were at was another good one being very small and homey (Ottawa Backpackers Inn). By our second night there we felt like we knew everyone there. It is basically a big old house so it's all very communal. We got mixed up with a few crazy characters as well. One was a somehat paranoid and possibly slightly schizophrenic guy who gave us lifts between cities in his car which he was renting. We also went off to help a guy who was setting up an adventure/ecotourism camp. Given that it wasn't properly set up it was a pretty interesting experience. The accommodations weren't up and running so we stayed in the guy's log cabin. We had a campfire and went for a night hike as well.

Toronto, Ontario

Here we stayed with one of Howard's friends who took us out to a different type of restaurant every night. I have never eaten such diverse foods. We had Ethiopian, Lebanese, Chinese, Turkish (Kurdish) and more. I got a real picture of how much ethnic variety there is Toronto. We also went to the baseball and saw the BlueJays totally suck (they lost 7-1).

Next step Driveaway - Driving an '89 Honda Accord from Chicago to San Diego.

Richard, 2nd May, Santa Fe, New Mexico