Promenades

Back to English. I like the idea of switching languages for each post; I hope I can stick to it. As I mentioned before, it's a pretty good illustration of my chaotic mind...

Just came back from a 15km run with the yuppies from the local running store. Yes, there's a shop entirely dedicated to running, just around the corner. I wouldn't have guessed you could make a living out of products to do with running. I mean, how much can you actually need to buy to go for a run, however long? Shoes, shorts, and a t-shirt. Maybe a belt to carry a water bottle, if you're stuck... I suppose people will find all sorts of ways to spend their money when they have enough of it. Sweatbands worth 30 dollars. Come on.

It's always a great way to get to know a city, running, long walks, generally getting lost on the way home. I have the equivalent sense of direction of a mute bat with a hangover, stuck in a sonar lab experiment. But somehow by meandering my way around Mont-Royal over to Westmount yesterday, and then today's run, I'm getting a good sense of where I am. That's what it takes, in my case. 3 holes in my shoes and a half-dozen callouses later, I pretty much know where I am.

So Montreal is getting to know me, slowly. I'm having to curb my instincts of hanging around in cafes or going for cheap eats around the town, as I used to do on a full salary in Stuttgart. But it's all the more incentive to get outdoors and do sports.

I wish I could upload pictures (I will do this soon), to show you Mont-Royal on a Saturday afternoon. Kids playing frisbee, Colombians playing music, potheads playing god-knows-what... The giant hill, plonked just west of downtown Montreal, is a-buzz with every wacko and his ferret, enjoying the sun and getting up to something outdoorsy and usually fun to watch. And people keep fit here. Droves of joggers and bikers tearing their way all around the place, dodging toddlers, pets, barbeques...

I'm off to do some Sunday washing and cleaning, and then hopefully get to Mont-Royal for the Sunday hippy gathering, the famous 'Tam-tams du Dimanche'. Talk about a stereotype of left-wing tree-huggers in their drum circles. But what the hell. I've only just arrived, I can afford to be a stereotype for a while. A stereotype without a drum, though.


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Video of tam-tams