I love days like today. I had a fairly productive morning [yes, even though I wasn’t up before 10:30 I still managed to be productive before noon]. After checking facebook, my email and the mailbox, I was trying to figure out something to do, the sun was shining and it was warm out. Naturally I found myself looking at the movie listings trying to find a good one to go see. There are three theatres in Montreal that I have been too, the movies playing there I had either seen already or just didn’t want to see. So I started looking at other theatres but none of them had any movies that interested me. Until I stumbled upon the Dollar Cinema, I had seen it before but at the time I wasn’t ready to travel to it. I don’t know what motivated me to go today but I’m glad I did.
The movie that was playing was Midnight in Paris at 2:30. It was just before 1 when I made the decision to go and I figured it would take me at least half an hour to get there on the Metro and then sometime to figure out exactly where I was and how to walk there.
So I took my trusted Green line and then I switched to the Orange line [easy peasy!]. It was different experience. I read somewhere a while ago that being in Montreal for a week or so you start seeing the same faces and it’s true, except when you change up your route. I felt like everyone was looking at me and everyone looked different somehow. Not to mention the trains were different, the layout and they had electronic signs in them!
Once I arrived at the station I was not expecting this:
Some stations are just brick, some have different coloured seats, the McGill station has old looking murals. But as you can see this one was different. In fact the picture doesn’t even do them justice, they were huge though. [side note: on Dec. 27 George Stroumboulopoulos had pictures posted on his website of ‘the most beautiful subways stations’ they were from all over the world, but George added a some from Canada, Metro Namur was one of them. I didn’t think much of it at the time. But then bam! I saw it today and must say it was beautiful.]
So I was glad I had that extra time to snap a few pics. Once I was outside I also had to figure out where I was going silly me headed in the wrong direction, it didn’t matter that I had written it down and had found it out online before I left. Thanks to my phone I set myself in the right direction. I had to walk about 10 minutes beside a rather busy highway, which I didn’t really like but it was nice out so it was ok.
I was standing in front of my destination when I was this:
I almost skipped the movie, haha who knows what that adventure might have lead too.
Heading into the mall I did my first good deed of the day, there was a man pushing a woman in a wheel chair and he was just about to try and open the door while get her through it when I opened and held the door for them. I then go the next door too. The lady said thank you and she said I was an angel :D hehe
Once I was in the mall I had no idea where I was going, the level didn’t seem to have much going on. So I found an escalator [I still haven’t written a post about them yet, I will]. At the bottom I could see the entrance to the Cinema, so I knew I was in the right place and I was still a few minutes early. I walked in, it was an open room with a counter to the left and couches around to the right. Straight ahead there was two of those signs with the letters you slide in, saying what movies were playing in each of the theatres. Neither of with said Midnight in Paris, so I was a little confused. I approached the woman behind the counter. I also hadn’t seen a ticket booth. I asked if Midnight in Paris was playing and she said yes, in the little theatre. I was curious to see this ‘little theatre’. I got a drink and popcorn and paid her for my ticket, came to a total of $5.15…tickets are $2.50 and the snacks are a dollar each. She also said that I could go in when the other came out.
So I sat down on one of the couches and waited. After a minute an older lady came up to me and said “it’s only you and me so far, it’s like a private showing” haha. Before I could say much we were able to go into the ‘theatre’ it was small indeed, there were at least 15 seats and it was laid out funny. I can’t even explain it, so I’ve included this:
The lady and I were trying to figure out the best seat. Where I was wasn’t bad, but I think every seat was terrible, but for the price I wasn’t going to complain. Before the movie started another lady came in and we were all talking about the movie, none of us had seen it before. I’m no movie expert but these ladies seemed to know a thing or two. The first lady even mentioned a few times that she is an actress, I over heard her saying she was in a commercial, I have not seen it. At least 5 others came in before the movie, or just after the movie started [pet peeve of mine].
The movie was projected from a BlueRay, that combined with the seating arrangements, it’s needless to say the place is a little ghetto. I do wonder what the other theatres are like though.
So after the movie the ladies and I talked some more, we all enjoyed it. Then they were headed to the bus. I told them I had to get to the Metro. They said this bus would get me there. I had to check to make sure my OPUS card would get me on the bus, I’d never been the bus here. They assured me it would. So we headed towards the bus stop. Unfortunately we missed it, but the next one would be along in 20 minutes or so. The first lady I talked with, walked to catch another bus, but I stayed with the second lady, Diana. We went back into the mall to wait and talked. I told her about being new to the city, she told me about the buses and that area of town. We exchanged numbers, she told me I could call her anytime [I’m sure that sounds weird but she was very nice and harmless. It doesn’t hurt to have contacts]. We even said we might meet up to see another movie sometime. If you know where you are going but not sure the area you can ask the bus driver to announce it, so she asked him to let me know when we were near the Metro since she got off before that.
It was weird traveling around the city above ground, I am so used to being in the Metro. If I could find a bus schedule that shows exactly where the buses are going, I might take the buses. [Heck, I might just jump on a bus and see where it takes me someday, as long as I end up near a Metro I can find my way back.]
I was in a new Metro station, so as I was heading down the second set of stairs [yes, I took the stairs instead of the escalator, those things get so crowded and almost no one takes the stairs haha] I was in awe of this light fixture, it was like a chandelier, not really fancy just this metal circle with big lights but it was huge! As I was admiring it I heard this flute, now I've been hoping to find a musician in the subway stations, but I haven't seen or heard to many yet. But as I was almost at the bottom of the stairs I noticed these stilt like legs. You know those clowns are circuses that have long legs, this flutist was like that! It was so surreal! So good deed number two of the day, I gave that guy some change [I've been carrying minimal change in my jacket pocket, so on the rare occasion like that I can give a little bit and feel like I helped somebody].
It wasn’t quite rush hour when I got back on the Green line so the train wasn’t packed. I had a good day. I don’t want to say it was too good to be true…but ‘the end of the month’ is looking like a week from tomorrow. So I need to find a place ASAP or yesterday! Hopefully it all works out.
And I think there is a bit of irony in this somewhere but as I started my adventure today I tweeted this “stepping outside the comfort zone again today. #thankfulforeveryday”
~believe.
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