“You didn’t miss much, It’s just a mini-Westminster” she said, referring to the Canadian parliament… For the Australians in the audience however, it’s a far cry from the hole in the hill.

*Apologies to Sarah

Sunday left me with no doubt that autumn leaves (fall for those north of the equator) are deserved of all the praise. Montréal once again turned on the good weather. We were treated to some spectacular colours as we wandered through both the Gault Nature Reserve and Île Sainte-Hélène.

Whilst North American viewers might find my preoccupation with squirrels somewhat disconcerting, they (the squirrels) are everywhere! squirrelling away nuts to the tops of the trees and approaching passers by, as if to check they aren’t just a moving tree full of nuts.

McGill University is nestled between downtown Montréal, the cosmo-chic shopping district and Mount Royal, the namesake of Montréal (Think in French: mont-real) to say it is well positioned is an understatement.

Our first day in Montréal took form as a quiet stroll around the Old section of town. The greatest challenge of the day was the search for a ‘good’ espresso to appease the various mid morning ailments suffered by the travelling party. On the way to a decent coffee at lunch we wandered around Old Montréal,

After finding a decent Espresso for Sarah, and baguettes for the hunger we visited the Basalisque Notre Dame,

Finally, as the sun drifted low over the city I walked through McGill university campus and up Mount Royal to visit the squirrels,

Click on each of the photos to see more!!!

Being one to never take the easy way out coupled with a certain stubbornness often leads to easy things becoming inexplicably hard. Take my current predicament, it involves a large quantity of gear and a backpack. More correctly, a large amount of gear strewn across my floor and no backpack.

Rewind…

I am, as many of you are aware, off to Canada for a week. Formally for the Universitas 21 Undergraduate Research Conference. Informally described as ‘The greatest university funded student rort ever’. To put the record straight, It is a week long conference and cultural experience in Montreal, Canada. Cultural experience implies that anything is legit.

Back to the gear strewn across the floor, any normal person would most likely leave some of it at home, I do however *need it all, hence the conundrum. There is a solution, it is just in the shop, on the rack, waiting for me.