Montréal-Lachine Bixi Ride
Finally a sunny day again. Joel and I were getting ready for a ride along the Lachine canal. I first wanted to rent a real bike, but with prices of 25$ a day, I opted for a Bixi bike instead, the rental bike system in Montreal. 15$ get you a 3-day-pass, with all rides under 30 […] Read More
Juste pour rire
And another festival has just started in Montreal. This time, its about laughter. Juste pour rire is an international comedy festival that brings brings together hundreds of acts in Montreal for a two-week run. I had a bit of a lazy and slow day, as I caught some stomach bug or had eaten something bad, […] Read More
Blond Ambition
Totally unrelated, but today, 24 years ago, I was in the Olympic Equestrian Stadium in Munich, to attend my first ever Madonna concert, on 15 July 1990. She was on tour with her legendary Blond Ambition Tour, with the cone bras, corsets, crosses, priests, and a full on masturbation scene on a red bed. It was […] Read More
Chinese visa hassle
For a long time I wasn’t even sure I’d visit China on this trip. I could not make up my mind, but leaving it out of my itinerary seems like the trip would not be complete, after all it’s such an important country, one of the oldest civilizations on the planet. So in the end […] Read More
On and on and on
Yesterday I saw the first rainy day in over two months if I remember correctly (not: it rained last week), since that rainy weekend in Istanbul. I had totally forgotten about that phenomenon, and especially that it makes me (want to) stay at home. In those moments, I miss my place a little. You get distracted […] Read More
Fireworks over Saint-Laurent
Another event, twice a week, over the Saint-Laurent river: The Montreal fireworks competition, L’International des Feux Loto-Québec. I finally made it to the river and watched it from the Village Éphémère again. Until the start of August, six teams from around the world compete for the Jupiter trophy with a 30-minute show. Founded in 1985, the Montreal Fireworks […] Read More
Village Éphémère
I went to Village Éphémère again, with Joel and his friend Max, and ran into a number of his friends there. It’s really a cool place, and this time I brought my camera, so here are some proper pics of this place. There’s always a DJ playing cool tunes, you can sit in the sand or in one […] Read More
Lachine
Lachine is a little suburb of Montréal, earlier its own city but of course long been swallowed by the spreading city. It sits along the Lac Saint-Louis, where the St. Laurence river widens to form this lake, and along the Canal that was dug to circumvent the rapids in the river. It got its name, Lachine, in […] Read More
Montréal Murals
Montréal has an alternative feel to it, and many parts of the cities are covered in smaller graffiti. There are not many of my beloved street art stencils, but the murals are impressive. So impressive, Montréal actually now has a Festival for them – but then, they seem to have a festival for everything! The Mural […] Read More
Meet the HugTrain
I ran into the HugTrain the other day. Well, not the train itself, but the guy who runs the HugTrain across North America. You might have seen it before, people who give out free hugs in public, at festivals, at train stations, in the street. Arié went on his first hug tour across the US […] Read More