Montreal

We do love this city, but the eastern heat is becoming pretty oppressive. How does anyone live like this??? We walked all over the place yesterday. The financial district is as blah as any other, but we found neighborhoods of stone houses with winding iron staircases, neighborhood gardens where folks gather, fountains everywhere. Very picturewque. I am wondering where the street musicians and performers we saw everywhere years ago are... hiding out from the heat perhaps?

We made our way to a community celebration on Mt. Royal. People gather in large numbers every Sunday to drum, dance and have a fine time. This originated several decades ago in response to racism in Montreal... I am forgetting the exact incident that sparked this, but will try to look it up. It was beautifully colorful, creative, great drumming... and hot! I did get some good shots that I will post later.

We were melting away last evening and needed an airconditioned movie. We located a place that shows films for $2.50. We took a short metro ride and walked along a busy road to the shopping center where the theatre is. The center was practically deserted, with empty stores except for an immigration office, an employment office and a nail salon ( all closed.) We found the theatre after some searching and saw a very interesting Swedish film called "A Better World". Afterwards, the mall was especially eerie, we thought we'd get locked inside... but made it out into the rain, which felt wonderful. We made it home a little damp but cooled off.

Forgot to mention, we had an interesting discussion with our Toronto Air B&B host Sarah before we left. She is becoming a counselor and wants to work with homeless and immigrant communities in Toronto. She put a lot of things in perspective about the city - yes, there are rough and troubled areas, although we didn't see them. I can share details another time.
Onto a Montreal bird sanctuary if it doesn't rain.