Further Notes from Montreal

Scott flew in yesterday and we are having our first non-familial vacation in five years. We spent yesterday afternoon exploring Chinatown and today we walked all over Old Town. We toured the Notre Dame Basilica, which made me kind of sad: it's a gorgeous old cathedral filled with paintings and intricate sculptures and people taking selfies. There was a tiny, transparent-walled-off area for people who actually want to pray; one sad-looking woman was in there. This made me sad, and frustrated with the Christian faith as I so often have been. Like, I'm sure the money collected from the tourists--and, btw, the exit of the building concluded with a gift shop, of course--goes to the historic building's upkeep, but--it just seems odd and sad to have a location of faith transformed into a location of performance, if that makes sense.

Anyway, after that we walked down to a street of shops including some lovely art galleries, including a gallery of Inuit art. In a prominent spot was a statue of a Shaman throttling a Christian priest, and I loved it. Like, not only is it this image of an indigenous avatar abusing the invader, but it just so aptly demonstrated how I felt after leaving the church, so.

Then we went to the history museum of Montreal, which was a lot of fun, and then tonight we went to a Polish cafe where we had one of the most amazing meals I've had in ages: borscht, a charcuterie plate of pate, cheese, pickles, and pork stuffed with prunes, and bread, and then a plate of pierogies, potato pancakes, bigos, and kriti, with a peach crumble and sweet cream to start. SO AMAZING AND DELICIOUS O.M.G. Just. Yeah.

Anyway, tomorrow we are going to Quebec City!