The Atwater market was in a really cool looking old building, it looks like it has been a market for the whole history of Montreal. Outside of the market were hundreds of stalls selling flowers, potted plants and other things that you would find in your garden. Inside it was completely different, it was pure fruit and vegetables. Most of the produce looked natural, unlike the produce I had come to recognise in the states. The peppers were strange shapes, the carrots were bent, the courgettes were of all shapes and sizes. None of the produce looked perfect but it looked real, it was much more enticing, I couldn't resist in buying some for the remainder of my stay. I got a couple of yellow courgettes, a couple of green ones, a couple of small artichokes as they were only $1, some onions, garlic and tomatoes. I bought enough to fill my bag. Not only did I have some bread and really pungent smoked herring, I now had a bag full of fresh vegetables. I was so thirsty from the saltiness and smokiness, I bought a litre of freshly pressed apple juice. It was so tasty, it tasted like I was eating apples, it was thick, full of flavour and not too sweet, only the natural sweetness of the apples used. I was happy, I had finally got my hands on some healthy ingredients for me to make what I chose.

I had no time to waste, I was hungry and wanted to head towards the Atwater place. I still had no idea what it was yet. As soon as I got to the main road that leads to the bridge to cross the river, I saw a sign for the Atwater market, it must have been an indoor market of some kind. I saw a supermarket on the way there so stopped off to get some food. I went inside and had a look around, I still had no idea what I wanted to eat. In the end I settled for something that wasn't healthy at all and in the long run was probably a bad idea. I got some smoked herring, some hot dog rolls and some hot dog relish. I have no idea why I got what I did, it tasted nice, but my goodness was it smoky. I had a sandwich or two as near to the river, but far enough away from bloody cargo shit. After my belly was full I went for the market. The saltiness of the fish left me feeling parched, I really needed a drink.

Firstly I had to find my way back to the main bit of the city, I had no idea where I was. I followed this road all the way down, still going down a hill. When I got to flat ground I could see the down town area in the distance and the river front several blocks away. I headed toward the river as I hadn't been there yet, I hoped that I would find some sort of food place on the way but I had no luck. All that was around here were kebab shops and Chinese restaurants or the odd Tim Hortons on every corner. I wanted something healthy, I had done this walk and spent a while thinking about how badly I had been eating recently. I kept on going. I couldn't see anything, by the way of healthy food. I went in a coffee shop, took a long look at some sandwiches but decided against it. I had a coffee and went on my way. When I got to the river side my appetite subsided, I was more interested in what was around me other than eating food. I saw this big building in the distance, it ha Atwater written on the side. I didn't have a clue what it was but knew that it looked very interesting, was across the river right down the other end of the city. I went for it. On the way I went through some really pretty areas, with some massive houses, I was jealous. I could easily live in Montreal, its such a perfect city, it had everything I look for. Near a bridge to get to the other side of the river was a museum of Canadian architecture. It was about half a house filled with bits and bobs showing how the Canadian architecture has progressed over the years, and all the different styles.

The way down was quite a bit nicer, instead of steps through tress, it was through parks. The parks had these big indigenous sculptures all over the place, some were good and some I thought looked pretty crap but they looked good where they were. At the bottom was a big park, the park had a huge pond and a silly amount of picnic benches. I walked through it looking for an exit until I found one and left. It was slowly approaching lunch time and I was getting hungry now.

The next morning I actually managed to wake up early, have a shower and some cereal. I planned to go for a big walk around Montreal today, there was so much to check out and I had barely seen any of it yet. I walked towards the down town area, then changed my mind when I saw Mount Royal in the background. I had my notepad, I had my bottle of water, I was ready for a trek. Walking up the so called mountain was the biggest walk I had done since Macchu Pichu. I say so called because it was more of a big hill, not a mountain. About a quarter of the way up I got a stitch, I was getting very worn out, very quickly. I put this down to my time in the US, all I was doing was eating fast food and drinking beer, doing minimal amounts of exercise. It felt good to be out in the fresh air doing something relatively healthy. When I got to the top I saw this grand building, I didn't even have a look to see what it was, it just looked pretty on the top of this hill. The view overlooking the Montreal skyline and river was stunning. Of course it is not the most beautiful of skylines architecture or landscape wise but was still good enough to spend an hour or so looking at. I took my time, checking all the plaques which told you what was in each direction. There was something written about the history of Montreal and Mount Royal. I sat down, took a big swig of water, refilled my bottle at the water fountain, then headed off down the other side of the hill.

I was getting so pissed off with this guy now. I don't know how or why it happened, but the conversation moved towards Michael Jackson. I think a Michael Jackson song must have come on or something. Well I'm dwelling too much on the fact that this guy was really annoying me. Basically I spent the next hour or two arguing against Michael Jackson (MJ). It may be controversial to most people, and hard for some to understand but I really don't like MJ. I wont get into it because its pretty much a whole essays worth of debate. All I can say is that I changed whoever was in the rooms views on what MJ means.

The same person that turned the TV off started very quickly getting on my nerves. What started off as just being annoying soon turned into me seriously disliking the person. We all started to listen to music on my laptop. I don't have any music on it as it takes up a lot of memory but there are plenty of websites and software that allow you to stream music. We listened to some pop, some classical, my choice and some other stuff. The same fucker that turned the TV off questioned my choice in classical music saying it was 'too poppy'. What the fuck gave him the right to say that when the stuff he selected was about as poppy as you can get.

I think some people in the hostel were going to go out tonight but we all ended up staying in the common room, drinking shit loads of beer, watching TV and chatting. I got some 24oz cans of 'Molson dry 6%'. It was strong stuff but tasted awful. I got my laptop out and spoke to some mates on Skype. One of my mates spotted this girl in the room with us and wanted to speak to her on Skype. I handed her the computer and she went on chatting. The TV got turned off, I hadn't quite noticed but the English guy had turned it off without consulting anybody. It really pisses me off when people do that, its a communal area, they should ask what others want to watch or do before acting. Its rude I say, very rude.

I spent the rest of the day casually walking around the city, I had no idea what to do or where to go, in fact I pretty much knew nothing about Montreal. The Montreal skyline is nothing like that of NYC but it is still pretty impressive. The architecture ain't to bad either, very European looking. I'm finding Montreal very bizarre, I can't quite get my head around it still. I ate another A & W burger, I just couldn't help myself. I had to get some laundry done so I went back to the hostel, picked my smelly pants, socks and other items of clothing up, then went to find a launderette. I looked online to see where there was one, it was down the road from the hostel but far down the road. Off I went. After walking for about twenty minutes I found it. I put my things in the washing machine, bought some detergent and set it to wash. I sat their reading a book for the duration until it was time to get them out and into the dryer. I couldn't untie the knot on the bag so I had to rip it open, because of this I needed to ask for a bag. The person at the counter was a lovely old lady and she gave me a new bag. When I was done I went back to the hostel. I had to change rooms, my comfy bed in a big room was no longer available. My new bed was really shit, top bunk in a room tightly packed with beds. I went from heaven to hell in one night. The stupid fuckers in the room turned off the air conditioning so at night the bedroom would become unbearably hot, far too hot to sleep.

I had a lay in, for some reason I was still really tired, I must have gone to bed about 2.00 but was still really tired. 2 am is not late at all, seeing as I have had a few all nighters, and several nights were I have gone to bed after the sun has come up. I took the morning easy, went out for a walk, and had a McDonalds breakfast, again. I started to notice that I was getting a belly. I had lost a lot of weight in Bolivia due to drinking some of the water and having the shits for over a month. Now I was in North America I was so overwhelmed by the amount of fast, fatty food that I just couldn't resist it any more. I had found it a lot easier and cheaper to eat fast food rather than buying ingredients and making my own food. Another thing I just couldn't resist was the cheap alcohol, something that is very different here, alcohol costs a fortune in Canada.

I was going to have a quick nap but couldn't sleep or anything so just sat in the common area watching some TV. It seems that I have done a lot of nothing and spent a lot of time sitting around watching TV. When I first started my travels, I would try and make the most of the time, see as much as I could see in each place. Over time I have started getting more and more complacent and have less and less interest in each place. Not the actual cities or towns or whatever, but more for sightseeing, I simply can't be bothered to do it any more. That night we went out to a bar on St Denis and had a few pitchers of beer. We were joined by an English guy also staying at the hostel. After the bar we went to a jazz bar down the road and watched a live band play jazz covers, or any other covers as it turned out. We had to pay a $10 cover charge which was quite a lot, the last jazz bar I went in didn't have a cover charge and had a local band playing their own amazing jazz, in New Orleans. The band were actually okay, they all seemed to be having a good time, the singer especially as he kept wandering through the audience, talking to people during his performance and shouting random things for the audience to sing along to. I was getting really tired and bored, so I said to the other guys that I was going back to the hostel to bed. I went back to the hostel with the Irish guy, the other English guy with us stayed in the bar. I went straight to bed.

I was going to have a quick nap but couldn't sleep or anything so just sat in the common area watching some TV. It seems that I have done a lot of nothing and spent a lot of time sitting around watching TV. When I first started my travels, I would try and make the most of the time, see as much as I could see in each place. Over time I have started getting more and more complacent and have less and less interest in each place. Not the actual cities or towns or whatever, but more for sightseeing, I simply can't be bothered to do it any more. That night we went out to a bar on St Denis and had a few pitchers of beer. We were joined by an English guy also staying at the hostel. After the bar we went to a jazz bar down the road and watched a live band play jazz covers, or any other covers as it turned out. We had to pay a $10 cover charge which was quite a lot, the last jazz bar I went in didn't have a cover charge and had a local band playing their own amazing jazz, in New Orleans. The band were actually okay, they all seemed to be having a good time, the singer especially as he kept wandering through the audience, talking to people during his performance and shouting random things for the audience to sing along to. I was getting really tired and bored, so I said to the other guys that I was going back to the hostel to bed. I went back to the hostel with the Irish guy, the other English guy with us stayed in the bar. I went straight to bed.

After we ate, we headed back via the festival sites so we could have a look to see what was going on. Quite a lot it turned out but nothing that I really cared about. There was some circus type act happening on the stage with people acrobatically dancing. They weren't just dancing though, they were jumping all over the place an each other. It was really good but got boring rather abruptly so we left. I fancied a beer but first needed to rest and recover from my meat overdose.

It might sound silly, but the main reason I went out for a walk was to try and track down a chain of restaurants called A & W. I remember from the last time that I was in Canada I had some of their burgers and they were really tasty, they also make famous and possibly the best tasting root beer I have ever had. I had no idea if there were any around, there must be as its a Canadian company and I was after all, in Canada. We must have walked all over the area where there should be an A & W, I had asked some people on the street if they, knew, I even asked a policeman. They all told me the rough location but no matter how hard we looked, we couldn't find it. I was so hungry now, it must have been around 16/17.00 and I hadn't had a bite since early in the morning. We both decided to give it one last go and if we couldn't find it to just get a Burger King or McDonalds or something like that. No such luck, I would have to search online to get the exact location then try another time. There was a Burger King right next to us so we went in. I already knew what I was going to get, a nice fat and juicy quadruple whopper burger. As soon as I bit into the burger I began to regret it, there was just too much meat in it, a triple whopper would have been enough. I was a man and being a man I had too much pride to just get a triple whopper. I finally managed to finish it. I was slightly disappointed that we hadn't found A & W but I had only arrived in the morning and had just under a week left to stay in Montreal.

I checked in, put my things in my room, my valuables in a locker and had a little nap. When I came to I saw a guy sitting on the bed opposite me. We introduced ourselves, he was Irish, he was about to head out for a walk, I asked if I could tag along and joined him. We went for a walk along the Rue StDenis then headed off towards the museum area. It was festival season here in Montreal, there must have been at least four festivals all going on at the same time, the main one visible was the 'just for laughs' festival which had a huge inflatable house for people to walk through, and a cannon, where at some points of the day some poor bastard would be fired out and hopefully survive.

The door was closed, and I had nothing to do until the reception opened so I went across the road and sat on a bench to wait it out. The bench was wet so I got a wet bum and I wasn't in the mood for reading, I was far too tired to even consider reading a book. I was on the verge of falling asleep so I listened to some music until my ipod battery ran out, then I literally had nothing to so but wait. Well I could have done maybe something slightly productive, like write so I did a bit. Unfortunately I had a lot of catching up to do. I kept an eye on my watch and the door. I really wanted to get inside, put my shit away and sleep. I saw somebody leaving so I got off the bench as fast as I could so I would beat the door closing. I made it in, but there wasn't anybody at the reception yet. Finally after about three hours of waiting, somebody working there appeared, I put my bags in the reception and went to the common area, people were eating breakfast. I sat on a deceptively comfortable chair, it had completely fallen apart and you sank in it but it was really comfy. I ended up spending the next few hours in the same seat drifting in and out of sleep until it got to 14.00 when I could check in and have a real bed.

It felt so strange to be in a French province in an English speaking country, all the signs were mainly in French but with English translations on. I had heard a lot of good things about Montreal, with it being a very lively city with lots to do. The main thing I had on my mind to do was to get a 'grandpa burger' at A&W restaurants, I hadn't eaten one since the last time I was in Canada about seven years ago. I couldn't see any A&W yet though and I was really hungry, the bus had arrived earlier than scheduled and I couldn’t check in until gone 14.00 so I had so much time to do nothing. I couldn't find my way around, I kept going the wrong way, I finally went in the right direction and found the hostel. It was closed, they don't have a twenty four hour reception, it was open from 11.00-20.00. the bloody door was shut, I had my things and it was only about 8.30 so I had ages to wait. I went for a walk down Rue St denis to have a look what there was around the hostel, I found a McDonalds and went in for some breakfast to help kill the time. When I was done, I went back to have a look if the hostel had opened yet, it was only about 9.30 now so I still had a while, I just thought I would have another go. Just in case the door was open, I could go in and sit down and relax, maybe even get some sleep.

I had some time to wait around so I read some of my book, I would have watched a film but I couldn't be bothered to get my laptop out and sort it out.
When the bus arrived and it was time to board, there were some problems, obviously we going from USA to Canada so everybody needed passports, I had mine and the driver checked it and said it was fine. This woman with a child had a problem, the woman had a passport but the child didn't, she had said that somebody told her she didn't need a passport but a birth certificate or something like that, but the driver said she wasn't allowed on if she couldn't show a passport for the child. Unfortunately for her she didn't have anything else so she wasn't allowed on the bus. She was losing her mind, crying and all sorts, I sort of felt sorry for her and I knew what she must have felt like after my Barbados incident. We were all on the bus now, apart from the woman and child so the driver set off, I went to sleep and when I woke up I would be in Canada at the border having to go through customs. Customs didn't take long at all and after I fell asleep again and didn't wake up until we had pulled up to the bus terminal in Montreal.

I met a couple of people on the bus going to the brewery so we walked together, it wasn't hard to find though, it was right in front of us. We went inside and it wasn't what I was expecting, there wasn't a tour, it was just a tasting session at a bar in the middle of a gift shop. They had quite a few beers too and I was excited to try some, I haven't had any harpoon beers...yet. The tasting was under way and consisted of s getting little tasting glasses, it being filled with some beer, the bar maid explaining the beer and talking about the brewery. The beers were actually quite nice, I couldn't help myself having more and more, it was free and the bar maid kept on offering it. The session went on for an hour, I managed to try all but one of the beers they had on their assortment. They were all pretty nice, a million times better than Sam Adams but still miles off what I would expect or get at home in England. I met some guy who was their because his wife was at a nearby conference, he was going to the restaurant too so we went together. He is a web based financial advisor or something, he gave me his business card. He was a pretty cool guy, told me a lot about his past travels and things like that, he bought the beers too which was a plus. After the food, he went his way, I went mine which was in the rough direction of the hostel, I had some time to kill before we went to the museum. I went for a long walk on the way back to the hostel via a one of the main roads with shops and bars on it, I saw a bar that had 25c chicken wings, maybe I could go there for dinner. I got to the hostel, put my stuff away in the room then went off with the rest of the people to the museum. It turns out that it was free any ways tonight, it is free every Wednesday. It was an okay museum but not in any way spectacular, I walked around all of it and took my time, there was no point in rushing when I had hours left for my bus. When I was done I went back to the hostel, got my things from a locker. I stupidly lost my code for the locker but luckily for me the receptionist had a key, I got my things and left. I got the train to the bus terminal as I could not be bothered to walk at all, I was tired and had been walking all over the place for two whole days now.

I had to get up early today as I was checking out, it was my last day in Boston and I had to wait till about 1.30am for my bus to Montreal so I had the whole day to kill. In the evening, I signed myself up for going to the museum for free, the hostel was having another special night, they have something organised for every night of the week. Today was going to be a day of beer, I looked up what time the breweries have tours or tastings and I went to them accordingly. I could only find information on the Samuel Adams and the Harpoon brewery so I just went to them. I went to Sam Adams first, it is a way away from the hostel, I had to get a couple of trains to get there, then walk a fair bit. The brewery is in a really run down neighbourhood with some art school in the middle of it. When I got there I had to wait a bit so I sat down and waited. As it got closer to time, the tour group started to get bigger and bigger, then it was time. I didn't learn anything new as I already have all the knowledge about beer and brewing, to be honest I was only going to sample the beers and I wasn't the biggest fan of Samuel Adams beers. The only reason I went was because it was free. When we had the tasting session, all it did was confirm my suspicions, I really don't like Samuel Adams beers, there's something wrong with them. They can't just be normal, they have to have a little too much hops, or too much flavour when all they have ended up doing is making beer that tastes really awful far too specific. I would love to like them but I can't, I really like their philosophy about beer and how their run, I just hate the beer. I left and headed straight for the Harpoon brewery on the docks, it was far but I could get a near enough direct bus from one of the train stations on the way. The brewery was literally across the road from the bus stop so I didn't have to walk far. I noticed a lobster restaurant right next to it so I thought I might try some lobster, I had never had any before and Boston is probably one of the best places to try it as it is famous for its lobster.

I waited around until it was time to go bowling, then we all went, some guy who works at the hostel and some other people staying there, there was quite a lot of us all together. Like usual I played really shit and near enough lost, in fact I would have lost if it wasn't for somebody else in my group being a lot worse than me. The drinks were so expensive I only had one, and it was Samual Adams 'summer ale' which I don't particularly like. Most of the people were planning to go to another bar that supposedly had porn films in a grabbing claw machine. It was true, the place did indeed have porn in a machine. I was so tired from my walk that I decided I wouldn't waste money in having more beer unnecessarily so I went back to the hostel and went to bed, well, I watched a film in bed then went to sleep.

After nearly an hours walk I made it across Boston to the down town area, I didn't really have any idea of what to do so I carried on walking, I wasn't going to waste my time and money going to the bar where they filmed 'Cheers'. I sat in a park and let my feet get some rest and check on my plasters. I was still so far from my hostel and had a long up hill walk to go if I wanted to see some of the old parts of Boston. Of course I wanted to see some old Bostonian architecture. The old part is full of cafés and antique shops, every other shop in fact. I had my days really mixed up and thought I had to be at the hostel to go to the museum so I went straight back to the hostel. It took time and I had to keep stopping to check and sort out my plasters. When I got to the hostel I had got the days mixed up and tonight’s special event was free bowling at a local bowling lane/bar. I signed up for it, I had nothing better to do and it was free. I went to a pizza place around the corner because I saw that they had pitchers of beer, I asked for one but to buy one it meant that you had to purchase some food first. It wasn't that bad, I was a little bit hungry so I bought a slice of pizza and it all came to $7, the pitcher was only $4.50 which was stupidly cheap, cheaper than a pint and you get about three pints worth in it.

Wendy's appeared and my dreams were answered, I munched on some lovely healthy burgers, sat and chilled for a bit then left in the rough direction of where I though Harvard should be according to the maps. The area looks pretty cool, there are lots of bars and restaurants and boutique style shops. It does have a feel that there is a university somewhere. Last night I read a local magazine with venues, bars and that sort of thing in it and it and most of the places recommended were in Cambridge so I was in a good place for beer. I finally made it to Harvard and saw some of the campus buildings, took some photographs and sat on a bench taking in the sights. It is obviously not as busy as it would be during term time but I think some people to attend some courses in the summer, just not too many. After a few minutes I moved on, there's only so much you can do by looking at a building. I had more important things to do like looking for some of these pubs I read recommendations of. I saw some and there were a little too pricey so I kept walking trying to find one that was run by some English people, I thought English people equals good beer so why not give it a go. I couldn't find the place, I had the address but the place didn't seem to exist, there was only Portuguese restaurants and shops everywhere, I gave up and went in a bar called the Bukowski Tavern, named after the infamous poet and novelist Charles Bukowski. It had a large selection of beer but at $6 a pint I only had one then headed off on a walk to down town Boston, some parks and wherever else my mind may take me. My feet were killing, I had these new shoes that hadn't been worn in yet and the bits by the heel were giving my the most hideous of blisters, I could barely walk it was that bad. I was too far away form my hostel to have a chance of changing my shoes so I stopped in the first chemist I saw, bought some blister plasters and pretty much went through the whole pack walking around in one day.

I had to change rooms in the morning, so I moved my stuff, changed rooms and then headed out after having a cup of tea and filling my bottle up with water. I went for a walk in the direction of Cambridge, I wanted to check out the MIT campus and see what Harvard is all about. The hostel wasn't too far from Cambridge, but on the way I thought I would take a detour to check out Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. It was literally two blocks from the hostel so it made perfect sense in me doing so. The stadium looks very old fashioned from the outside, it looks how you would imagine a baseball stadium should look with stands and an open end. I didn't really stick around long, just admired from a distance and passed it. When I got to the bridge to cross over to Cambridge, I noticed that the floor had paintings all over it, it seemed to give a distance to something. From what I gathered as I got further across it must have been the distance across the bridge, one of the markings read 'halfway to hell'. I don't have a clue what that is supposed to mean but it doesn't matter whatever it is. On the right hand side was MIT, I could see the dome of one of the blocks but it was only just visible over the tops of trees. Again I didn't really care enough to stick around for a longer look. I was getting hungry now so kept an eye out for some places to get food.

When I got to the hostel I just had to check in, I had already booked myself in for the nights that I was going to stay. It was a shame really that I could only stay in Boston for three nights, I had to be in New Jersey for my aunt and uncles wedding anniversary and hadn't been told the exact date of when it was. This meant I was there for longer than I had planned to be and completely encroached on my time in Boston. As soon as I checked in I went to the room and put my things away. When I put my bag in the locker I realised that I had obviously left my padlock on the locker I was using in the hostel in New York. It had taken my this long to realise, I wonder what had happened to the locker if they had to break in so somebody else could use it. The receptionist at the hostel was a little cutie, a petite young lass from around the Pennsylvania area, with bleached blonde hair and several pearcings and a beautiful smile. I went to get some food and a padlock so I could safely stow away my valuables in the locker. Luckily there was a shop on the corner that had some padlocks so I bought the cheapest one, food on the other hand, I didn't have too many choices, it was either pizza, pizza or more pizza. I settled with some pizza, I chose the restaurant that looked the best, I think I chose well as the pizza I got tasted fantastic, I opted for the spinach and ricotta calzone, yum! After my belly was full I went back to the hostel and went to my room, read a little then watched a film on my laptop and went to sleep, it wasn't too late but I didn't have much time to do things so I wanted to get up as early as possible to get as much done as I could.

Like always I fell asleep and when I woke up I was in Connecticut, and there was a horrendous storm going on, then I fell asleep again and when I woke up I was in Boston where it was raining too but no way as bad. I checked on google maps a route to get to the hostel and had planned to walk but when I found that it was raining and I had no idea of what the transportation was like my only option left was to take a taxi. I really hate having to take taxis, the are very convenient and take you door to door but they can cost an arm and a leg sometimes, this one wasn't too bad but it was still over $15.