Montréal QC 9/7/26: The charter bus pulled into the bus terminal around 5:30pm. And from there, I lugged a heavy duffel bag and my camera backpack to my hotel. Conveniently, it was the same hotel as my first night in town, nearly a week before. (Hilariously, I was on the same floor, a couple of doors down.)
After a much-needed shower, I powered up my MacBook and figured out how to get from my hotel to the Underground City. It turned out to be about a stop away on the Métro and I needed to re-up my transit card for the express bus back to the airport. Killing two birds with one perfectly placed stone works for me!
The previous two times I had been in town, I was there to cover M for Montréal. I’d land on a Wednesday afternoon, check into my room and then I’d run around town for the next five days, living off coffee, beer, smoked meat sandwiches and poutine. If I had a few free hours I’d see some of the tourist sites, but I was mostly in town as a journalist covering a festival. So this particular evening would be partially dedicated to seeing something I hadn’t seen before.
But . . . I had somehow forgotten that Monday was a holiday. And by the time I had arrived back in town, a lot of things had been closed. I was a little disappointed. The Underground City has a section of the Berlin Wall that Berlin gifted to the city to commemorate its 350th anniversary in 1992. And I really wanted to see it with my own eyes.
Sure, you may have a plan. But things on the road go awry. Something completely unplanned comes up. Travel teaches you to constantly readjust, to improvise on the fly. I was already out with my Canon R6 Mark II, so instead of the Underground City, a photo walk through Downtown Montréal and the Old Port. That works, too.
Montréal is a photographer’s dream y’all.
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