Off to Europe to run?

Just over 3 years ago I took up running and while it started off feeling like a chore, over time it became more enjoyable and then to the point of necessary. It helped signing up for races to keep myself motivated and with a goal. Why am I starting off with this? Because running is the initial reason why Z and I are off to Europe. I decided that I wanted to run a half marathon, but not just any half marathon back home. I wanted my first half to be memorable and somewhere fun. After participating in several run put on by the Rock'n'Roll Marathon series, I thought it would be cool to head to Dublin Ireland and run my first half there. I think Z at first thought I was joking and maybe even a little crazy but eventually he realized I was serious and so the planning began because who flies to Dublin just for a run? Why not make a proper vacation out of it too?

The tricky part of planning was how to split the trip up....do we plan around the run being the beginning, middle or end of the trip? After some consideration we determined we'd put the run in the middle and explore two new cities on either end. And so our European vacation was born...a few days in Prague, a few days in Dublin, and a few days in Oslo. Before we left we had to make a couple logistical adjustments, which allowed us to overnight in Montreal and provided us an opportunity to meet up with a cousin of Z's.

Flying AC is always some sort of misadventure for me. I really think this airline could use a massive customer service culture change. We dropped our luggage off where the agent checked our passports and gave us the gate number because we had printed our boarding passes at home. At the gate as we are boarding Z breezes through no problem, but my experience was taking longer. The gate agent comments/questions that my passport hadn't been checked. To which I replied that's funny the agent when we dropped off our luggage did that. The gate agent didn't quite like that comment and took her jolly time doing whatever it was she needed to do. Z noticed I wasn't right behind him and stepped back and says is there a problem to which the gate agent says my passport hadn't been verified and to which Z says what I did about the first agent. After being made to feel that this was somehow my fault, the gate agent finally did whatever and I was free to board. And for anyone who knows me, I walked down the gangway expressing how frustrating it is flying on AC. Just once I'd like to write a vacation blog and not have a story to tell and AC. Thankfully the next legs on our journey to Europe were on a Star Alliance partner airline. Just to finish this off, the flight itself was good and the flight attendants provided reasonable service.

We landed in Montreal and stayed at the airport Marriott which is literally attached to the terminal. Very convenient and quite a nice hotel. It was actually nice to break up the journey this way. After a good night's sleep we met Z's cousin Pascal for brunch. She took us to a great restaurant called Restaurant Passé Composé. This place is very popular especially when we showed up with a massive line up out the door. After walking around on Sherbrooke Street for awhile after leaving our name with the restaurant we returned only to find they had called us but we weren't there. Pascal did some sweet talking and we ended up getting seated at the bar where we enjoyed a great brunch.

 
              Enjoying mimosas and grapefruit juice

The best French toast ever!!

This was my first time meeting Z's cousin. Although our visit was brief, we had a great time and it was great that she could meet up with us. After brunch it was back to the hotel to repackage quickly and walk over to catch our flight to Prague connecting through Zurich. This time we got to experience Swiss Air.