MUTEK Montreal: Day 0

This post (and those to follow in the next few days) are a bit of a departure from the angle I've been taking with this blog over the last couple of years. After years of wanting, I've finally found my way Montreal for the Mutek digital arts and music festival. I'm traveling alone, and have gone all-in on Couchsurfing.org for housing while I'm here. I'm going to be using this space to record my experiences in a journal format, mostly for myself, but also for friends and family that might want to follow along. It's my first time in Montreal, and so far (albeit less than 24 hours in city) I'm feeling enthusiastic about the adventure.

I took a 6:20am flight out of San Jose on Tuesday morning (airfare was just over half the price of comparable flights out of SFO), which meant leaving my house in San Francisco at 3am. I'm nothing if not an experienced navigator of sleep deprivation states, so this wasn't a problem.

Typical airport theatrics and a long layover in DFW later, I arrived in Montreal around 7:30pm local time. Very first impressions:

1. The money is plastic with portions that are totally clear.
2. There is orange everywhere!

After a short ride on the 747 shuttle, I boarded the orange line (yep) at the Lionel Groulx
metro station. A kind Montrealaise woman stepped in to help me parse the route map (it turned out we'd been on the same flights that morning!), and we had a nice conversation about the parallels between San Francisco and Montreal neighborhoods.

I exited at the Laurier Street station, stopped at a market to pick up some food and beer, and made my way to my first Couchsurfing host's home. I knew from our prior correspondence that we had a lot in common (he's almost exactly my age, and has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence), but I wasn't expecting just how comfortable and familiar the experience would end up being. The apartment is full of bikes, one of his roommates is a musician that made his first trip to Burning Man last year, and there was kombucha in the fridge. An enclave of familiar culture in a foreign land? Or just the way things are out here? It's too early to draw any conclusions, but needless to say I felt right at home. Chatted for a few hours with the flatmates and friends in attendance before my host took off with his girlfriend to her place, leaving me with a key to the apartment and an invitation to use his room for the time being.

Today begins my first full day in the city, and the start of the festival that brought me here. I'm writing this from a comfortable Italian cafe around the corner from my host's spot. I'm drinking a hell of a latte. It's drizzling but warm, and the barristas are singing along to hits of the 80's on the house stereo. I'm going to explore a little more, get some lunch, and then head downtown for the Mutek kickoff at 5pm. More tomorrow!