The trip I never planned...July 28, 2012

Saturday, July 28th, 2012, I'm going out to brunch to meet my friends Maggie, Kathleen and Mylène for Kathleen's birthday. I'm running late and rushing to go to brunch, not sure how much time it will take me to go all the way to the Plateau. We are meeting at Passe Compose restaurant, one of our favourites for brunch.  I head out to the Plateau enjoying the sun on my skin.  It is a warm summer morning.  I love riding my scooter, I feel free.

I finally arrive in the Plateau and luckily find a parking spot for the scooter a couple of blocks away next to other scooters.  I lock it up and walk to the restaurant and the girls are already there.  We have a lovely brunch, Passe Compose is good. We decide to go up the street to Parc Lafontainne to eat cupcakes that Mylène made. We find a picnic table and eat our cupcakes. Mylène makes great cupcakes.

I told the girls that I have to head out early.  It is about 3:30 pm and I have to meet Tyler at 4:00 pm in Verdun by the water. I've met Tyler a few times at his request.  I was his social worker at his high school while i was doing my internship there. So now I'm Tyler's volunteer social worker of sorts.  I rush to walk to my scooter concerned that I will be late. I walk a few blocks to my scooter and now that it's later afternoon it's quite hot.  I'm looking forward to getting on the scooter and getting some breeze.

I unlock the scooter and drive out to Amherst Street. I head south to René-Lévesque Street.  I don't really like taking René-Lévesque since its such a big street and gets really busy but it's the best option to get across to the west.  I didn't want to take Atwater Street since it's a Saturday and usually it's crazy.  I usually take Guy street instead to head south.  While I'm on René-Lévesque the light was flashing green to turn left at Lucien-D'Allier so I decide to turn left here.  While I'm headed south on Lucien-D'Allier I feel anxious, it's a considerable downhill.  I often feel anxious when I take streets I usually don't because being on a scooter is much more dangerous if I hit a pothole. 

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What follows is what I have been informed about from my parents who spoke to the police and what other people have told me.  After turning on Lucier-d'Allier, I have no memory of what happened:

A 22 year old driving a car going west on St-Antoine doesn't notice he has the red light.  He tries to brake but hits me while I'm going through the intersection.  He hits me on the left side at my leg. He was probably doing 50-60 km/hour.  After impact, I fly on the windshield of the car and hit my head on the left side. I roll off the car and end up 2-3 lanes away from my scooter.  The guy who hit me calls 911. At the intersection people saw what happened. 

The police and the ambulance arrive quickly.  A police person asks me my name and phone number.  I tell them and then pass out. The ambulance brings me to MGH (Montreal General Hospital). Upon arrival, I get a head CT. They are concerned about my head trauma.  I am admitted to ICU (Intensive Care Unit).  I also have a fracture to my left ankle. The media arrive later at the scene of the accident. 

TVA films my scooter on the ground. The police come to my apartment to see if anyone is there.  They speak with my neighbours to see if they have phone numbers for my family.  They call my landlord in Magog and ask him as well.  Nobody has the phone numbers for my family. The police even call my number and leave a message that I'm at the hospital.

The hospital has no phone number for my family either.  My iPhone that has many numbers disappeared in the accident.  Mom sees on TVA and on the Internet a picture taken at the scene of the accident.  She thinks it's my scooter.  It looks like my scooter she says to dad. She looks at the picture I had sent her a few months before of my new scooter.  Dad says he thinks I'm in Cornwall visiting my friend Jen. Mom's not convinced.  She's scared it's my scooter. They said the victim was a woman in her thirties.  She calls me. She sends me an e-mail:

Subject: Are you OK‏

Priscilla Smith                                              28/07/2012

To: Chantal Smith

Nous avons vu à la télé un accident de scooter gris sur Lucien lallier, qui a eu lieu à 4h aujourd'hui.  La conductrice dans la trentaine fut transportée à l'hopital.

Maman xiooxoo

By Sunday night, mom is worried.  She hasn't heard from me yet. She thinks this is unusual since we usually talk on Sunday nights.  She has the instinct that something is wrong.  It's later Sunday night and she decides to check my phone messages to see if something is going on, she knows my password.  She hears a message from the police saying that I had been in an accident and I'm at MGH.  My parents get in the car and head to MGH.

A Day in Uruguay

Daniel and I wanted to go to Uruguay today but were quite disorganized to do so.  We had no ticket booked on the Buquebus (shuttle ship) and no idea when they leave.  So we woke up early and headed to our favourite neighbourhood café, Desirio, to check things out on the Internet.  Dan called to see if there were tickets left but had trouble communicating with the agent.  Our waitress said, "Oh, the Buquebus office is at the corner right over there at Maipu and Florida".  So Dan decided he would go find this office while I run back to the apartment to get my passport and camera.  


We met up and Dan was discouraged because he did not find the Buquebus (I love saying this word) office and realized Maipu and Florida are parallel.  It was almost 9:20 and the Buquebus was supposed to leave at 9:45 am.  So we decided to chance it and hop into a taxi. 


The Amazing Race began... thankfully we had an efficient and rapido taxi driver.  We got to the Buquebus at 9:30 almost.  Dan ran out of the taxi to the Information desk while I paid the taxi.  When I got in, I looked around and noticed a screen that said 'Ticket Sales'. I turned to tell Dan but he was busy sticking his finger in some guy's face who was trying ask the agent a question before him (it was a very funny sight).

The famous Buquebus

We go to the ticket sales counter and a woman who was probably the fastest I have ever seen on a keyboard, ultimate turbo, printed out our tickets within 2 minutes.  She yelled 'inglès' to a colleague who told us we had to pay at another counter.  We ran to the other counter and paid then ran up the stairs to security.  The security agents asked "Boarding pass !".  What this isn't a boarding pass?  Pointing back down to the counter, they screamed "rapido!" (and of course laughing at the gringos).  Ahhh, so we ran back down, and got our boarding passes (what up with that, three different counter places to do everything?).  We ran back up, "Si, boarding pass" they said laughing.  We quickly went thru security and then had to go thru Uruguayan immigration who were of rapid efficiency as well.  We got our passports stamped and ran up the ramp to get on the Buquebus at 9:43 a.m.  We high-five each other in awe that we made it on.  This was a major Amazing Race achievement. Phewww.

Yeah !  We made it !

The Buquebus was a three hour ride, we had plenty of time to chill and check out the views of the Rio de la Plata to Uruguay.

See you later, Buenos Aires - go away clouds !

Uruguayan flag over Buenos Aires

You don't see this is Canadian ship bathrooms.  Everybody drinks yerba mate tea around here and throws it in the sink.

We are so cool it's ridiculous... except for my hair, what up with that swirl in the wind?  

Colonia, Uruguay, here we come.   Note the lighthouse (we will be there later....)

Yeah !  We have set foot in Uruguay, another country on my list !

Right away when we arrived, many people were waiting for us offering scooters, golf carts and restaurants.  Not thanks chicos.  Right away though, I like the feeling of Colonia.  What a nice change from Buenos Aires.  It's quiet, quaint, wide streets some cobble stone, lots of trees, old colonial style buildings, random old school cars and the water.  It is obviously a tourist town but I like it.  Dan and I were happy because lots of photography potential however I wish it wasn't overcast. 

A beautiful street of Colonia

I love these trees, so much texture.  They had them in Sydney, Australia too.

Tree graffiti

They have palm trees too.

Water is not really clear...

Bustin' a move yo

Old school cobble stone street.

So many colourful buildings in Colonia

We sat at that café.

Scooters and other motorbike type vehicles seem really popular here.

Scooters, scooters, scooters.

Cool ride.

I love how people there say Uruguay - real emphasis oh guay.  It was hard to say it right.

In Argentina and Uruguay, there are stray dogs everywhere.  Especially in Colonia, dogs just take a rest wherever they want even in the middle of the sidewalk.  Good for them.

Looks like a dead dog but she's just taking a nap on the sidewalk.

We stopped for some lunch at an overpriced tourist restaurant but it had a good location in an open plaza type area.

Well that's annoying.  We changed tables.

Feisty Daniel.  That was a good iced tea.

This was a huge piece of salmon, lots of shrimp and the infamous potato balls.  I didn't really like the balls.

I am usually not a great fan of the ravioli however this was very good homemade style ravioli.

We went for a walk up the lighthouse.

Up at the top

Wait... what is Daniel doing? Bloody hell, unstoppable - the cemetery, the lighthouse...

View of Colonia from the lighthouse.

Dan needed his a wifi fix (it's like hanging out with a drug addict), so i wandered on my own...

Cool shadows...

I made a friend along the way.

Agua caliente for those yerba drinkers.  I read that apparently Uruguayans drink more yerba

Alright.... already time to go back.  I wish we would have stayed in Colonia over night.  I liked this place.  See you next time Uruguay.

Dan is in shock.  He doesn't want to leave Uruguay.

We found an apartment

Daniel and I checked out of the hostel today to move into our apartment.  Daniel got put into contact with a fellow Santiago from LetsGo Argentina. Santiago was much more effective that the company I had contacted before leaving for Argentina.  Within 24 hours, he found us some places, we picked one and there you go.  


Since we had to wait a couple of hours, we wondered around the San Telmo neighbourhood.  I really like this neighbourhood.  It's old school, cobble stone streets, tons of stores, restaurants and cafés and the famous San Telmo market. We stopped to look at the Plaza Eva Peron but it was unfortunately dissapointing.  It's in the middle of a large street and I think some homeless people are using the statue area as a home since there was a mattress on it.

Plaza Eva Peron à la homeless shelter.

We then went to meet Santiago at the apartment.  The place is in Retiro which is a very business and tourist up-iddy area.  It was in a great location, on Suipacha Street (between Alvénar and Paraguay) and it has no buses - much quieter.  The apartment is a studio, two single beds, table and chairs, small kitchen and full bathroom including a bidet which I stayed away from  considering my last experience.  It's in a great location close to Subte and 152 bus that took us everywhere.  We even had a supermercado two doors down. Here's a video I took with Dan's camera of our window view on a rainy day (not that interesting).

Dan took off to do his volunteering so I went off in search of lunch.  I went to El Cuartito, a pizza joint recommended by Santiago.  Pizza is really popular in BA.  El Cuartito is a really old school place with photos of famous boxers all over the place. I wasn't sure what alot of the menu was and couldn't be bothered to 'Franklin' (my translator) everything, I was hungry.  So I ordered a jamon y queso (when in doubt, order ham and cheese).  Most pizzas in BA come on a wooden plate and when the pizza came there was so much cheese it just starts to roll off the pizza - crazy cheese.  I like it.  After sweating from my Quilmes stout beer (why do I always sweat!) and finishing my delicious pizza, I kind of just wondered around our neighbourhood.

I forgot to take a photo in the resto, this is my leftovers.  Good pizza.

I walked on Florida Street and Lavallee Street which are both major tourist pedestrian streets with tons of shops and people to harrass you to get 'cambio' (change) or a tango show.  It's nice because there is no traffic but annoying because there are tons of people.

Palacio San Martin - close to our place.  Stunning building but can't go inside.

I later met up with Dan at the apartment and Jonas came to meet up with us.  Jonas and Bernardo are friends of friends that we were put in touch with.  Dan had already spent some time with them but tonight was the first time I was meeting them.  So excited to hang out with some locals.  Jonas is a great person to spend time with because he is always a tourist guide pointing things out and giving history and cultural references.  I enjoy that.

Jonas playing tourist guide on the bus - courtesy of www.danielbaylis.ca

We went to Belgrano which is neighbourhood a little further from the center.  Jonas brought us to an Armanian restaurant where we met Bernardo.  I have only been to one Armanian restaurant in Montreal so I was pretty excited. We had a few dishes - hummus, falafel, potato moussaka and a rice dish.  I was a little dissapointed because they were not dishes that I haven't tried before but it was good nonetheless. We then went for some gelato and braced ourselves in a crazy rain storm that seemed to come out of nowhere and took a taxi instead of the bus.  Off to bed in our new apartment, hopefully with no bed bugs.

Armanian food - courtesy of www.danielbaylis.ca

Jonas, me, Bernardo and Daniel - courtesy of www.danielbaylis.ca