Our 6-day visit to Montréal is almost over...Sascha isn't a big fan at all of this place - especially since I made him have dinner in "Junky Central"...I thought it was a good idea to have a little picnic - but all of the sudden we were surrounded by homeless people, one of them - I kid you not - sharpening a blade whilst watching us. Funny was also the guy next to us with his fistful of 20 Dollar notes that kept on falling to the ground since he couldn't hold them all whilst he was using his other hand to sell more drugs...So that pretty much destroyed our romantic picture of Montréal. Nonetheless, I've enjoyed every day here. What I loved was the city's diversity and strong festival culture. The day we arrived we went to a gay parade and a couple of days later we had a look at the 10th anniversary of the festival of mode&design. It also rained enough to give as an excuse to spend half a day in a really cozy book store - something both Sascha and I love doing. Although we didn't enjoy the rain as much during our 25km cycling tour...we got utterly drenched three times - not cool! One of my personal highlights was an exhibition about the Cirque du Soleil. After seeing the show in Québec I was so intrigued by it - especially the love to detail that was visible in every costume and the stage design. Truly fascinating&I was glad to get a glimpse of what it looks like behind the scenes. Other than that we made good friends with the staff from the hostel. Chris (aka "Don't be shy - take a fry") who has been working for the Hostelling International for the past 6 years, has been amazing fun to hang out with. Very sociable and so easy to be and laugh with. He took us on three full day trips which involved cycling, climbing, shopping, wild life spotting and most of all lots of eating and drinking. He showed us how horrible Candadian brewed beer tastes (sorry, Chris) and how many different toppings can be put on top of cheesy fries in gravy (thanks, Chris)! Hanging out with him made Montréal a better place - even in Sascha's eyes ; )