Kiss the Wall

Six-thirty came way too quickly for some people I know, followed by a succession of doors opening and closing all down the hallway, and giddy girls running around (I feel sorry for anyone else who was on the same floor as our group).  Getting 30 people (ok 29 humans and one bear) down the elevator at breakfast time in a huge hotel is quite the feat.  Once the stair system was figured out, the early morning breakfast runs became a little quicker. 

Kiss the wall!

By 9am we were gathered outside the hotel, backpacks on and ready to go for the day.  The first stop was the Metro (Subway/Tube for my friends from around the world).  If you've ever been on a subway before, you know how quickly those doors open and close, so you can imagine the challenge of getting all 30 of us on and off of them efficiently.  I have to hand it to the leaders though, they came up with a plan, and not once did we lose a girl (or leader).  My favourite part was the joking expression that came out of necessity... to get the girls off quickly, they were told to "kiss the wall" (in other words, don't worry about your buddy or group, just get off and go straight to the wall and wait).  This soon expanded to "kiss the wall... but not literally!" and by the end of the day, Janice would shout "kiss the wall" and the kids would reply, in unison, "but not literally!" and then get off the train and go put their noses to the wall.  Once again, I can only imagine the stories that people shared around Montreal that day, after encountering this strange group's practises.

Our first stop was for fresh bagels made in a wood oven (from a place open 24/7).  Seriously, you can go buy fresh bagels at 3am if you wanted!  It wasn't even 10am yet, and there was a line-up out the door.  I gather Janice (our fearless leader and tour guide, who used to live in Montreal) had wanted the girls to see the bagels being made, but that wasn't going to happen.  Instead, the girls sat around the gardens and waited.  At one point, a few of them were singing, and an elderly lady with a cane stopped, and was tapping and bouncing along to their young voices with a giant grin on her face.  We may have been a big group, and occasionally got in people's way, but we also left a lot of people smiling after they encountered us!

Once the bagels were acquired, we were back on the metro to St. Helen's Island, which meant our trains took us under the Saint Lawrence River.  Very cool.  We checked out the Biosphere (a remnant from Expo 67) and got the obligatory group photo (although I have noticed that none of the adults are even in these group photos... there were seven of them, and I don't think they ALL needed to be taking photos.  Just sayin').

Half of the island was blocked off for some kind of music festival happening later in the day, so we had to walk the long way around the island to reach the Stewart Museum, where we found some picnic tables (and washrooms) and ate the bagels and other lunch items the leaders had picked up.  Clare says the bagels were amazing.  I wouldn't know.

The Stewart Museum was fascinating, exploring the history of the area from the aboriginals, to the Fort that was built originally as an arsenal, and then became an internment camp during WWII.  I didn't know what WWII was as I hadn't been given the privilege of travelling anywhere it had effected, but now I'm curious to learn more.  Clare says it was a big deal though, and all who read this will not be as oblivious as I was, so I'll just trust her on that and not explain.

Don't let the guard catch you!

The younger girls and a few leaders went with one guide and got to try out the escape room first, while our group got a tour of the Fort.  Our guide claimed his English wasn't good, but lets just say he is way more fluent in English than Clare is in French, so it was all good.  He was clearly very passionate about the history, and he shared that enthusiasm with the girls, and it wasn't long before their shyness washed away and they were asking really good questions.  Much of the focus was on the internment camp as the museum had a diary from one of the inmates at the time, giving them great insight into how it was run, and what it felt like to live there.

The highlight of the tour though, was the escape room "Prisoners of Camp S/43".  Our guide suddenly became a stern guard, making the girls stand against the wall in the small room, and yelling at them if they giggled (which seemed to only make them giggle more).  He informed them that they were now prisoners, and they had 30 minutes while the other guards were searching bunks, or they would be stuck there forever.  The girls scrambled to find clues, occasionally being told off by the guard (more giggles).  When they weren't very successful the guard would give vague clues (the the leaders often had to interpret).  My personal favourite was when he claimed his flask had been taken by the captain that morning, and he really wanted a drink.  He knew the inmates were making toilet wine, and demanded that they get it (he also explained how the original inmates actually made wine by fermenting food in the toilets - ewww!).  Eventually, the girls found a flask behind the toilet, and he proceeded to "get drunk" and reveal other secrets of the room.  He was a really good drunk, and Clare wished she had taken a picture of when he purposely fell off his chair, knocking it over, so they could find the clue on the bottom!  He really was fantastic, and we had a blast, even if the girls didn't actually escape - so close - keys in hand, at the door, lights came on.  Aww (side note; apparently the younger group DID escape, but just barely).

What do you mean, we don't have a reservation?

To end the tour, our two guides got special permission to show the girls a real musket, and demonstrate loading, and firing one.  Dang those things are loud!

Our tour finished, we thanked our guides and hiked back around the music festival (now really getting going) to the Metro.  A few more "kiss the wall"s and we were at our dinner destination, or so we thought.  Who knew there was another "Reuben's" on the same street, only two blocks away!  You should have seen the panicked looks on the staff when the lot of us walked into the first restaurant.  I bet they were glad to see the back of us!

Finally at the correct restaurant the girls were all encouraged to try Montreal Smoked Meat.  They ordered the small sandwich for everyone (and a few "regular" sized ones for the smaller girls to share).  These things are massive!  I couldn't believe the thing put in front of Clare was considered a small!  I looked across the table at one of the girls and wondered how she was going to even get it in her mouth.  She gave it a good go though, before following most people's example of pulling some of the meat out to eat separately.

Most of the girls really enjoyed the meat; Clare not so much.  you win some, you lose some.  She seemed to enjoy her fries and quite a few of the girls' coleslaw however, so she didn't go hungry.

By this point the group had walked over 10km and were exhausted.  The rather short walk back to the hotel felt like an eternity to some, but it was a good type of exhaustion so nobody was complaining (much).  Once again the girls were given a few minutes to unload, and then meet back in MY room for the day's debrief.  They shared their favourite moments of the day, and the leaders were surprised to hear how many of them said "riding the Metro."  Jokes were made about how much money could have been saved if we'd just ridden the Metro back and forth all day.  As fun as it was, I think I would have been bored by that.

Lights out was once again set at 10pm, and once again I did not see any lights go out at 10.  Can someone explain this to me please?

Whatever!