111: OLIVE ET GOURMANDO

Olive et Gormando is a popular cafe near the condo in Old Montreal where we were staying. It was our third attempt to eat here, and this time we were finally successful. According to Steph and E-talk daily, Jake Gyllenhaal was seen here last week. Today, we sat at a table beside Frida Pinto.

110: "I LIKE JEWISH FOOD"

Rae and I were walking around downtown with Remy, and we turned around to look for him and found him talking to a Jewish man. Remy was asking what the celebration was for, and the man told him it was their Jewish Independence Day. Remy said, "I like Jewish food. I like to eat smoked meat." The man looked at us girls and replied, "I like Asian food."

109: LOST TIME

It was not a very productive day. We managed to walk the wrong direction on Mont Royal for half an hour, and as we were finding our way back, we got a call from Air Canada asking us if we wanted to fly to Rome that night. We spent the next few hours taking the metro to the library, finding out the library was closed, buying a calling card, figuring out how to use said calling card to call Cat in Paris, taking the metro back to Mont Royal and finding an internet cafe just across the street, skyping with Cat, and trying to find train tickets from Rome to Paris. All this was a big waste of time, since we ended up not going for the Rome flight because the train tickets were all sold out anyway. At least we got to go to Rockaberry to have delicious pies, where we met up with Steph, an old friend from high school.

108: I FEEL IT IN MY FINGERS...

This is our new friend Remy, who is from a small town in Quebec called Trois Rivieres. We think he is the funniest person in Quebec because he says the most hilarious things. We decided to take funny pictures one day. During his turn for a picture with Rae, he said, "Let's stick our tongues out!" and so they did. For my turn for a picture with him, he said, "Let's put our finger into each other's noses!" He tried to put his finger up my nose, but I was NOT cool with it. Rae said, "Why don't you pretend to put your fingers in each other's noses, but not actually put it in your nose!" He said, "I don't mind. Here, you can do my nose." He then took my wrist and led my finger to his nostril and said, "Doesn't this look believable?" And I replied with, "That's because my finger IS up your nose!" And that is when Rae burst out laughing.

Don't you love how Remy looks totally fine with my finger up his nose?

PS. I washed my hands right after this picture was taken.

107: MAPLE SYRUP ON A STICK

Maple syrup poured over ice and rolled onto a popsicle stick. The lady told us to watch out for our hair, and sure enough, the wind blew Rae's hair onto the maple syrup, turning it into a big sticky hairy mess.

106: DECISIONS, DECISIONS

We had two hours to wander around Toronto, and we spent it at the CN Tower and in a restaurant eating really really good food!

We woke up early to give Air Canada a call to see what was going to happen with our flight. Basically, the earliest flight they can rebook us on will be on April 21st to Frankfurt, and we will be on a queue for a flight to Paris in case they decide to fly extra planes because of the backlog from the cancelled flights. We did not want to spend 6 days in Toronto, so we decided to take a train to Montreal instead and to (hopefully) catch a flight from there to Frankfurt. I really really really hope that volcanic ash cloud is blown away and that our flight to Frankfurt isn't cancelled. I worked so hard to get the vacation days for this trip, and I want to spend it in Europe!!!

Luckily, Rae has a cousin living in Montreal, and her cousin's boyfriend has graciously given us his extra condo (which he usually rents out) in Old Montreal for us to stay in.

If things had gone according to plan, I would be in Paris right now, about to wake up to go climb the Eiffel Tower in the early morning.....Throughout the past two days I have been telling Rae to look at the good side: we are alive, healthy, and not in Baghdad.