Grandprix weekend in the sun [June 8-10]

Yup, I am posting this waaaay late. I've been working on it for a while and the pictures have been giving me a heck of a time. But here it is. haha

Of course this post will be wordy but I also have pictures!! See you after the jump...I hope. haha

I guess I'll start with Friday, I didn't spend it outside, I was at a movie instead. I saw Cosmopolis and I left the movie wondering what the heck I had just seen! haha I mean I had seen the trailer and I kinda knew what it was about, but through the whole movie I was just waiting from something to happen. It was written and directed by Canadian David Cronenberg, not to mention my favourite Canadian/Montreal actor, Jay Baruchel, [this Jay Baruchel] was in it. So I guess that was what sold me on it. I'm planning a post about Canadian movies so I won't go into to much detail about that. I researched the movie a bit more when I got home and found it's based on a book, which I now have on my Kindle and I plan to read it! I might post more on that when that happens.

Saturday I was planning to leave my place around noon, but of course it was a bit later than that when I was actually out the door. I was headed to the Atwater Market area, there was a free Osheaga Block party. Since I had 1-never been to that area of town, 2-it was a free event and 3-it was a hot sunny Saturday, I went on an adventure. 

I got on the metro, not only was it Grandprix weekend, there was also the Eurocup or something soccer related. So not only was the metro pretty full there were also STM police at every station, and as I would find out Sunday, in every car going to Parc Jean Drapeau [but more on that later]. I took the metro across town and when I was back above ground I had to figure out where I was. The nice thing about not having concrete plans is you can just wander. So I walked down the street that passed in front of the metro. Besides the beautiful blue skies the first thing I saw was this church. There are lots of old churches in this city, they are so huge and beautiful.

I kept walking and I walked past this huge area that had lots of plants, turns out it was the Atwater Market. I didn't get any pictures of the greenhouse area but here is the building and the tower.

Here are some pictures of the beautiful Canal:

Up the canal

Down stream

Up the canal from the other side of the walking bridge

down the canal from the other side of the walking bridge

Then I realized that the I was not that close to the Block party, so I went to find it. Including walking on train tracks. 

The smell and walking on the tracks always reminds me of Grammie Hachey's house on Murray Avenue. 

The Block Party was not nearly as close as I thought it would be. But it was nice to be out in the sun and fresh air. Without being too lost I found these wooden sneakers on the power lines and they led me to the block party.

It was indeed free! This sign even said so!

Silly me forgot to bring water, opps! So when I saw that the first booth had ice cold coca-cola I was pretty happy. There wasn't a whole lot going on, a few free draws [fingers crossed that I win a weekend pass to the Osheaga Festival!].
This is what I had to do to be entered for the passes, pretty harmless.

I continued to walk around, there was some guy painting this building:

And a DJ, playing some music:

No idea who he is and I zoomed in because I thought his laptop was a reference to Tim Tebow, it's not.

As you can see the place was packed!!! haha. There are people to the left of this picture and you could hear the music across the Canal, so there were people over there too.

it was not packed

The few of the downtown area...please don't mind the guy that is locking up his bike, that was an accident! haha

 Another view up the canal, but I was further down the canal.

This is a DSLR on a remote control helicopter thing. It was weird, I would love to see what the pictures look like.

 More views of the canal:

People enjoying the weather and the music on the side of the canal:

A cool graffiti walls. 

A history lesson. 

Some buddy out on the canal with a head cam.

Another picture of the tower at the Atwater Market.

And a couple more pictures of the church as I headed back to the Metro.

Since it was Grandprix weekend, everyone with a nice car thought they were Formula 1 drivers. Here are some nice cars I saw on la rue Sainte Cathrine.

I also saw this in one for the windows and I liked it.

There were soooo many people downtown, that I made my way to the Metro and headed home.
On Sunday, I decided to head to Parc Jean Drapeau and see what I could see about the Grandprix.
Before I even got to the Metro, closest to my apartment, I could hear the cars buzzing around the track and I saw this

It's no Goodyear blimp, but it was cool to see.

The Metro was packed of course and there was STM Police at every station. On the way to and from the Parc, there was an officer or two in every Metro car. Just for security. Then at the Parc Jean Drapeau Station, they were making everyone exit the way way.

The car sounds going around the track were louder there, obviously.  I just wandered around the parc. Here is another cool car that I found. 

I love it at the Parc. It is such a relaxing spot and the view is pretty cool too, you can see the buildings of downtown above the trees.

After I hadn't heard the cars for a while I started seeing lots of people coming for the direction of the track. It was a hot day, I can only imagine how hot it was in a Habs jersey:

I watched people leaving for about 20, then I was starting to feel the heat. So I found a shaded area and read for close to an hour. Hoping the Metro wouldn't be too pack. Unfortunately it was still packed! I waited outside of the station with 100s of my closest friends for a good 45mins! But once I was in the building it moved pretty quickly and I got a spot on the Metro. I'll know not to go there next year...unless of course I am there to see the races!! 

I know there are a lot of pictures, I had a heck of a time. When I include pictures in the future I will plan it out better! haha

I have a few posts in the works, hopefully get them out faster. There might even be one about me meeting my favourite Habs player!!

~believe.