Montreal mayhem

Bonjour mon ami!

Montreal is soooo much fun! I went up there friday and got back today. It's only about a 3 hour drive from me (the closest big city). That was my first ever trip across the border. For those of you not aware, Montreal (and Quebec province as a whole) is primarily french-speaking, but fortunatley most people also speak some english. That was good because the 4 or 5 phrases I know in french would not have gotten me very far!
Friday was sort of slow, I went to Mado's - Montreal's premiere drag club, only two blocks from my hotel, which was very fortunate because it was goddamn freezing out!!! It wasn't very crowded, but the performances were awesome - a couple of the girls there were absolutely gorgeous and put on great shows. There were only a couple t-girls there unfortunately (lots of beautiful women tho!) so I danced for a while, chatted with one t-girl and then went back home around 2am reeling a bit from drinking too many high alcohol content beers.

On saturday I had a quick solo lunch (en femme) at a nearby eatery and then met up with my newest, bestest trans-sister Jessica (she is from Ottawa but goes into Montreal most weekends). She was kind enough to offer to show me the night-life and introduce me to some of her t-girl friends. Not only is she amazingly beautiful, but she knows how to party as well!

We started out going to this little cafe down the street from Mado's where a local t-girl support group was having a meeting. I met a few very cool and friendly girls there (and special thanks to Linda for translating some of the banter for me!). Jessica is friends with a couple of them and wanted to say hi before we hit the club. After downing a delicious bowl of poutine (a delicious gourmet mix of fries, gravy and cheese curds - tastes a lot better than it sounds and it blows away any fries and gravy dish in the US), we went to Mado's again and it was almost a totally different place! It was mobbed and there was actually a line to get in. Gradually, a whole gaggle of t-girls and gg's who are part of the regular gang showed up (a few from the meeting at the cafe as well) and I got to meet all of them - they are such happy, friendly and nice people! They really made me feel welcome (especially when they all kept telling me how beautiful I looked :-).

Before, between and after the performances (they were basically the same ones as the night before, which worked out great because it allowed me to talk to all the girls while that was going on) we all danced our heads off. The DJ was really good that night as well - they played some awesome music - very upbeat and fast but danceable (for an hack like myself especially!). We closed the club down at 3 am (at which point I was finally getting used to the traditional kisses to both cheeks goodbye) and a couple of us headed back to the cafe for a quick bite to eat. On the way we met up with some cool gg's who seemed amazed (and a little pissed off) that Jess and I looked so good (despite the fact that for most of the night at the club my lipstick looked like a total meltdown disaster due to a completely sensual and mind-blowing encounter, the details of which shall remain private).

At the cafe the conversations were going a hundred miles an hour in french (wow they talk fast!!!) but luckily people were kind enough to translate enough for me (and vice versa because a couple of the girls did not speak english at all) so that I could follow a lot of it and partake in some of it. The Canadians are so animated and energetic - it's really refreshing. Anyways, we stayed there for about 2 hours and didn't get back to the hotel until around 5 am. I managed to get to sleep around 7 am and woke three hours later for a continental breakfast delivered to the door and to get packed and checked out by noon.

I'm sure I've left out some important details of the trip, but I'm only working on 3 hours of sleep at this juncture so you'll have to use your imagination to dictate the rest...

Thanks again to the stunning Jessica for taking me under her wing for a night - you rule babe! And special props to everyone else I met up there and who were so nice, including the only other first-language english speaker I met, the lovely Valerie. I will definately be heading back up there in a month or three for more fun and frolicing...

ps: select pics of the weekend will soon be posted in my Yahoo groups and Geocities page.