Saturday, June 9, 2012

Live from Montreal - Canadian Grand Prix - Meet the Mob Day 1!

Ok, so we got up 4am, headed off to the St. John's Airport and low and behold all the flights were on time.  Check in was slow as usual but we made it through security just in time to board and by 6 am we were off to Montreal.  It was overcast and cold as usual in St. John's so we were thrilled to be going anywhere warmer.

When we got to the airport around 7AM Montreal time we saw the Formula Tours guys and they got us a nice big Suburban to take us to the Delta Hotel Downtown.  It took a little over an hour.... TRAFFIC HERE IS BRUTAL IN THE MORNING.

Of course our room wasn't ready yet and the tour guys weren't set up at the hotel yet so we bummed around St. Catherine Street for a while.  They were just setting up the displays, booths and various selling booths in a couple of cordoned off sections along the street.  Couple of formula 1 type cars there which I got pics of (not downloaded from camera yet because I never brought my computer).  Did a bit of shopping and got a bite to eat.

After lunch we walked to old Montreal which is a nice touristy thing to do but nothing too exciting there.  Weather was nice and I'd say we walked about 10 km all together.

So we were planning to go to an Italian place for supper  but upon arriving noticed they had jacked up all their prices by 50% to the tune of a plate of pasta was now running over $40.  I know we are on vacation but that seemed excessive we decided to visit Smokes Poutinery instead and it was fantastic.

Anyway lets get to the good stuff.  We doubled back to where all the concession stands and displays were and it was blocked with people and the bars were starting to rock already around 7.  It was the highest concentration of hot women I have ever seen, they were selling everything from beer to phones to tires to condoms..... you name it they were promoting it.  I decided to hold off on the mandatory hat and shirt purchases until we hit the track tomorrow.

So that was ok, and all of a sudden it started getting really loud and police were swarming the place.  The protesters tried to get into the concession area and the police were holding them back, helicopters were overhead, pots were banging, people were screaming..... NOW THIS WAS FUN!  I got a short video which I will be posting as soon as I can as well.  It is hard to say how many protesters there were, I would make a wild guess at 100.

So with all the police and protesters and whatnot we decided to head back to the hotel and grab a few beer.  Overall it was a great first day.  Our seats are grandstand 1 section 2 row BB seats 19 and 20, we picked up our packages at the hotel here when we got back.

I will have lots of pics and video to share when I get home, thats all for now.

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