Arriving in Montreal and enjoying my first Canadiens game!

My flight left Calgary at 1:08am and in just under 4 hours I was in Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport located approximately 30 minutes outside the mainstreets of Montreal. After grabbing my bags, I headed to the bus section of the airport to catch the next Aero Bus into Montreal. Luckily I found the bus just seconds before it left and soon I was standing in Berri Terminal(Central Station) where my friend Bene was picking my up. I met Bene while travelling in Europe with my best friend Ronnie last spring. She travelled to Calgary during the Stampede this summer and soon after I deceided it would be a good idea to see Quebec and visit her and her bestfriend Fannie(who I also met in Europe). Anyways, Fannie offered for me to stay at her place since Hotels would drive the cost of my trip up and she had an extra room in her apartment, it would also make it easier for me to see them since we wouldn't have to commute back and forth from my hotel.

We arrived at Fannies apartment and got a little bit of shuteye since I hadn't really slept in close to 30 hours. By 3pm we were up and ready to head to St. Catherines street to do a little shopping and get some eats before going to Centre Bell for the Canadiens hockey game at 7:30pm. We decided to grab some food at a Mexican restaurant called the "3 Amigos" on St.Catherines. The food was alright but then again I'm picky about Mexican food since my trip to Mexico a year ago last Christmas.

So on we went to Centre Bell, we wanted to get there a little early since there was going to be some kind of presentation for it being an "Original Six" matchup between the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Blackhawks. It seriously took me almost 2 months to find tickets to this game so I was excited as hell to see it! I even managed to get tickets in the "Desjardins le Club" which was like a private section with bigger seats and free food and non-alcoholic drinks.

The funny thing was that when I got the tickets I thought the free food meant like chips and dip and maybe fries or something like they do in Calgary so we decided to eat before going to the game. Well that sucked cus when we got to the game, there was Pizza, Fries, Nachos, Hot Dogs, Ice Cream and a bunch of other free food items for the taking! Unfortunately we were still so full from dinner that we never even got to have any of the free food which really sucked cus that's my favorite types of food to have at hockey games. It ended up being an amazing game with the Montreal Canadiens winning in overtime 4-3! Oh and one thing to watch out for at these games is the beer! Like the Flames games in Calgary, the beer is very potent and only a few beers will get you feeling like a rockstar so make sure to take it slow or you'll be screaming and yelling during every play of the game haha

After the hockey game we were feeling good and decided to grab some beer from the convience store before heading back to Fannies Apartment.

Note that in Montreal the liquor stores (SAQ) mostly close by 10-10:30pm and the only place to get beer after that is convenience stores that only sell the 11pm! We rushed over to the store and grabbed a box of beer before they closed at 11pm but we paid the price for not buying from the liquor store. The total for 12 Heinekens came to just under $28 so I suggest either going early to a liquor store or prepare to break your wallet!

The night ended with the Bene, Fannie and I going through our pictures of Europe together and recounting all the memories we had while travelling abroad, to this day, I don't know if I'll ever be able to top the fun I had while backpacking Europe, I guess I will have to wait and see!