Montreal Chapter 2: Le Sous-Bois

door ornament

while in montreal, i stayed at a hostel-what better way to go when in another city? it's cheaper than a hotel, you meet a lot of different folks, and you can fix your own food! the hostel where i stayed was called le sous-bois. it was a pretty sweet place-the owner built all of the bunks, and it felt like you were in a little fort of your own when you were in your bed. the 'suites'/private rooms were 'gypsy wagons' in the courtyard behind the building. here's a drawing of one:


gypsy wagon a la sous-bois

there's a little stained glass planter i had drawn earlier in the left corner.

the wagons all are made with found objects for decorations, so each one had different doors and windows than all the others. it was pretty sweet, and the decorations were quite nice too.


door ornament 2
---
staying at the hostel was an interesting experience. it's been about two years since i've been on my own for so long, and with limited phone use (no cell phone use out of the country), i felt pretty stranded. it took me three days to get warmed up to being around complete strangers all the time. it smacked of first year in college... i wavered between wanting to stay to myself and wanting to make friends with the random folks that found their way to the same hostel as i had. a large number of the other 'residents' were younger and tended to go out each night after i had gone to bed. it's been a while since i've felt so much the homebody. some of the people were very nice, i was especially glad to meet a couple of fellow counselors there. in the end i had wished that i had had more time to get to know everyone (by the time i finally got ready to talk to people, they were leaving that day or the next.) fortunately, i came out with some contact information, and i did get a chance to befriend some neat folks and had fun doing so.