Whirlpool of Despair

What a morbid title, but that's what a friend of mine was calling his own city.

I spent the past 10 days on a random trip to Windsor and then back to Montreal. I guess it was to chase after my dose of romance for the year (seems to be an annual trend, lol)... But it was also to fulfill the fortune I got from the chinese restaurant I went to for my cousin's kid's first birthday.

I packed my bags on the 25th and left around 6PM.  I don't know why, but I couldn't fall asleep on the bus to Toronto. o_0 I stayed awake nearly the whole 6-hour trip..I think I was worrying too much about my guitar in the luggage area, and whether he was okay being pushed around by the other luggages.

I got into TO around midnight, and my next bus to Windsor was at 1AM. It surprisingly passed fast, but once we were on the bus, oh gosh....there was TRAFFIC before London. At friggin' 2AM! Apparently they closed a section of the highway.  In the end, thanks to speeding and less pit stops, we managed to arrive on time, at 5:30AM.  But here's the funny thing: I got a text from my friend (Allister) around 1:30 saying that he was by the riverbank getting high with some strangers... and then later on around 2:30, I get another message from his buddy Jeff who says that he'll make sure Allister picks me up at the right time... but then also says that he (Jeff) is quite wasted.

To make long story short, I waited at the Greyhound station until 7AM. LOL. But whatever. I was expecting it because I knew a night out of partying and getting up at 5:30 never ends well. The way I saw it was that I was already on a bus for 12 hours so what's the extra 1.5 going to do to me?

My friends lived in a house! They called it the Panda Den because they had tons of pandas everywhere. :D It was really cozy, and great for the 2 guys.

I guess the first thing I did was rest, lol. We just took it easy, did some groceries, played some music. We went by the riverbank and visited the Peace Fountain. There were also lots of fireflies outside, which I haven't seen in forever!

Next day, he took me around town. The one thing I wanted to see in Windsor was the empty lots and boarded up places. I found this delicious lot from a burnt down building.... Yes, I think these things are interesting.

I guess the main reason I went to Windsor was for the fireworks fest. It was pretty awesome! The fireworks were lit up above Detroit, so we had the city skyline to complement the show. We were really close, so the big ones felt as if ash was going to fall on us.

We visited Point Pelee the day after. It's apparently the most southern point in Canada. It was a nice day, and a very relaxing trip there. :D

Super clear blue skies!

Allister making a funny face. :p

Marshes

The waves were pretty crazy on the beach.

Next day, Detroit! I wanted to see more run-down properties, but sadly, we only stayed in the downtown area where yes, there were run-down places...but we concentrated on the art museums.

Not much to see here...

That night, it was another of Allister's buddy's birthday, so we had a little gathering. We also went to see Transformers 3 that night. The action sequences were way too long. I actually fell asleep at one point!

Finally, after sleeping in till 2PM, we got ready to head down to Montreal. Funny enough, just before leaving, I saw this fortune sitting on Allister's dresser.

"You are going to travel somewhere far away."

I don't know when he got that fortune, but the guy doesn't travel much (he's never been on a plane!) so driving to montreal is quite far. It also proved to be a ridiculously long drive since I couldn't help him with the wheel. o_0

We got stuck in traffic after Toronto...it was bumper to bumper for 2 hours! Ugh. And then, we had to drive to my new apartment which, by the way, I don't know how to get there by car. We had to guesstimate the exit and circle around the one-way streets before finally finding it at 4AM... My friend Alex said he'd leave the key in the mailbox (moving day is July 1st, and we arrived on that day so I didn't have the key yet.)  But he didn't. So umm...we camped outside the apartment and slept in the car. Finally, around 7AM, I saw some people walk out on the porch; it was Marc, an old friend from High School and I knew he was renting the room I'm now renting, but I didn't think he would still be there.

We finally got to get in! Allister passed out on the couch, while I sat on the balcony with Marc and his friend. They were smoking a lot of weed, and I kind of encouraged them to have more joints because I really love the smell (but I refuse to take a drag). lol

I guess we had a bit of rest before going out to join the festivities of Canada Day. The Old Port was filled with stuff to do and people.

It was also the Jazz fest going on. There are a bunch of free concerts and a ton of people roaming out and about.

My memory is a bit fuzzy with the events from the past few days. Maybe it's cuz I was showing him around my city, I don't quite remember when we did what, but I definitely brought him to different areas in montreal like Saint-Henri, Point-st-charles, downtown core, Chinatown, the Plateau, Place-des-arts... I also finally can say that I went into a club in montreal! I've been avoiding it for a LONG time...but Allister can dance (and boy is it HOT), so I grabbed my 4-inch dancing heels, brought along my other friend, and went out dancin'!  I must admit, it was SO much fun, and I really want to learn more dance now, lol.

It was a fun 10-day trip! I don't know when I'll see Allister again, but hopefully it won't be a goodbye like all the other boys I've parted from.