You're not from here, are you?

That was the question a perfect stranger asked me one day last week... My first thought was "is it really that obvious?" I guess it was or he wouldn't have asked! :)

It was last Thursday... August 30 and the first day back at school for all of the elementary and high school kids. In Quebec, school starts on the Thursday before Labour Day weekend, instead of the Tuesday after the long weekend. Anyways, I had completely forgotten that it was the first day of school and headed to the bus stop at almost my regular time (I was a bit late) to find a very long line up of people waiting for the bus. As a side note, I was very surprised when I first moved to Montreal to find that everyone actually lines up in long straight lines at bus stops, instead of just casually congregating in the general area of the stop. But I digress and back to my story... At this point, it was too late to walk to the nearest metro station so I thought I'd take my chances with the bus. I mistakenly thought that, since I was at only the third or fourth stop from the beginning of the route, I'd have no problem getting on the bus, but I was VERY wrong.

I do work in downtown Montreal but I have to explain that I had been taking the bus to work every day for weeks and it had never been a problem to get to work on time. But that was during the summer and this particular day marked the beginning of the school year and a whole new definition of rush hour for me.

The beginning of this particular route is at a metro station and it's apparently really busy in the mornings! :) The bus arrived almost already completely full. As many people as possible squeezed into the bus, going in both the front and back doors, before the driver shut the doors and drove off, leaving the rest of us to wait for the next one. Three or four minutes later another bus arrived, also almost completely full. Again, the driver let as many people as possible squeeze onto the bus through the front and back doors before he closed them and drove off. I was left standing on the sidewalk with a few other people to wait for the next bus...

I started chatting with a guy at the bus stop and my disbelief at the situation must have been obvious. Was it normal to have to wait for three buses before you could actually get on one? Apparently it is in Montreal! He's the one who asked me the question of the day. I laughed and told him that I had recently moved to Montreal from Victoria, BC.

Three or four minutes later another bus came and I was finally able to board a bus and make my way to work, now very late. The traffic was heavy and I think that the bus must have stopped at almost every stop along the way because the ride was painfully long. Fortunately, I had my cell phone with me so I called in to work to let them know about my experience with the bus and that I was going to be late.

Needless to say, I've taken the metro to work since then! :) The metro is still crazy busy but at least a whole lot more people can squeeze onto each train. That said, I was on a very full train the other day when its doors also closed and left a lot of people behind to wait for the next one.

Until last week, I can honestly say that my definition of rush hour traffic was pitiful and I had no clue what it was like to deal with it every day. Before moving to Montreal, I had lived in various cities with populations ranging between 6,000 and 300,000, which is nothing compared to the almost four million people who live in Montreal! As a point of interest, I was reading some Montreal history earlier today. I was very interested to learn that the population of Montreal was the same as the current population of Victoria more than 100 years ago, at the beginning of the 20th century!

So that is the story of my first real experience with rush hour in Montreal... I think that I've adjusted to it quite nicely since then, meaning that I leave for work earlier and avoid taking the bus during peak hours.

I do have to say that, although I know that I live in a city along with four million other people, I very rarely feel like I live in such a big city. The area where I live feels like a community and I love it. I'm reminded of the rat race every day when I go downtown to go to work, but it's so nice to come home to a comparatively quiet and laid back environment where I often see people that I know on the streets. I guess it's the best of both worlds... :)