Logistics

Back at the Hotel Universel, I was informed that I would have to move out of my basement room. When I pointed out, in my fractured French, that there were several vacant rooms near mine, the lady at the desk said those weren't made up yet, but they might have a room on the top floor. The young man working with her said, "Yes, but it doesn't have a window . . . or, it does have a window, but . . . you'll see . . . " And so I got another clue to the hotel's shady past.

I hauled my bicycle and baggage in the elevator from the basement to the third floor, to a large, decent-enough room - a little shabbier than the others, a little stuffy, with a ceiling fan but no AC, and no wifi signal. There were picture-window-sized curtains at the end of the room, but when I opened them, the window looked in to a shallow, cement-walled storage room holding some old aluminum ducts and a washing machine and dryer. It looked like a perfect set-up for a private dancer, or an S&M dungeon, or a peep-show into the room. I wish I'd thought to take a photo.

I only needed a place to sleep well enough to get up early for a 7am train, so I closed the curtains, rinsed out some t-shirts and underwear, and hung them on my bicycle to dry.

For dinner, I walked to a neighborhood pub kind of place, with a nice outdoor dining area. I greeted the waitress and ordered my meal in French - fish & chips et limonade, s’il vous plaît, how hard is that? I think I was passing for a native, until the waitress came by and noticed I'd put ketchup on my fries. Real Canadians use mayonnaise.

My next priority was to use the desktop computer in the lobby at the Universel to find and book a room in Montreal, and to finalize arrangements to ship my bicycle back to Bellingham from Montreal at the end of my trip. This turned out to be the last time I had very workable internet access on my trip. (My provider had jumped from AT&T to Rogers back in Vancouver.) I could sometimes get wifi in coffee shops like Starbucks (they're not as ubiquitous as in the US), or in the lobbies or food courts of downtown office towers, but it was usually only good enough to check my email and Facebook, and (sometimes, very slowly) to post photos.

I was getting a little frustrated with BikeFlights by this time - the customer service person apparently didn't plan to worry about problems until they happened. I wasn't sure where I could have them pick up my bike, since I didn't plan to stay at LeDauphin again - I would have loved to, but I'm sure their rates were way out of my range. Also, I would need to complete some customs documents and print out a shipping label, once I knew where my bike would be, but probably wouldn't have internet or printer access in Montreal.

Finished, in under two hours

The wonderful people at LeDauphin assured me they would store my shipping box, let me pack up my bike on site, and have it picked up there, which was a relief. But trying to communicate with BikeFlights got to be a little comical after I left the Hotel Universel. They emailed me a long US customs form, which was impossible to read on my tiny phone screen. When I mentioned this by email, they replied "oh, sure, no problem, we'll send it again!" This became their standard reply, until I had three or four emails with multiple attachments, none of which I could read, on the infrequent occasions when I had a good enough connection to open them.

Back in Montreal, a few days before I meant to schedule the pick-up, I found a FedEx store in the Place Ste. Marie, an office tower downtown, but it turned out to be just a pick-up/drop-off location, which didn't provide other services, and they wouldn't let me leave my boxed bike there for an international pick-up. Finally I went to the Tourist Information Center, which directed me to a nearby shop that offered FedEx services. This turned out to be a little hole-in-the-wall tobacconist/candy shop/magazine stand/Western Union/FedEx store, where the capable and versatile shop-keeper had me forward BikeFlights' emails so he could print out the attachments. It turned out BikeFlights had sent me several pages of blank forms, along with five copies of a completed set, plus the FedEx labels. But it was worth paying for the scrap paper, to compensate for the friendly, pleasant service from Pat Tobacconist.

I was trying to transact all my business in Montreal in French, but my community college classes didn't really give me a lot of vocabulary for dealing with technical internet issues, or shipping and customs documents. Still, everyone was very patient and helpful, and happy to speak English when I got over my head trying to speak French.