May 15, 2023: The Flight

I left from Miami International Airport to Montreal with a girl from my cohort, Nicole. Before take off, I went up to the currency exchange booth to change my perfectly crisp American dollars to Euros. This was my first experience with currency conversion and with flying out of the country. 

Our plane shortly took off to make its way towards Montreal. We decided to put on the same movie, In the Heights. We noticed that there was Canadian beer on the airplane's food menu and figured that we should take the opportunity to try some. 

The brand was called Molson beer (which happens to be the oldest export in Canada crafted in 1903). It was a nice pale lager with a well-attenuated body. I am not regularly a huge beer drinker but wanted to take the opportunity to try a beverage from that part of the world. 

We had a three hour layover in the beautiful Montreal-Trudeau International airport. We figured this was the perfect opportunity to grab dinner before our connecting flight at 7:35pm. 

We walked around and finally settled on poke bowls at an Asian café called Livia. As we shuffled through the airport, we constantly heard, "bonjour" and other French pleasantries; this would be our first taste at culture shock. The menu, was also in French, so a lot of items were not easily identified. I was, however, able to identify a 'spicy salmon' bowl and felt confident in ordering that dish without asking the associate many questions prior to ordering. I have never been a picky eater and am always flexible with trying new dishes. 

The bowl was easily the most delicious poke bowl that I have ever had. The item was much pricier there than in America due to the fact that it was priced in Canadian dollars. The transaction fee that was included with using my American Visa card didn't help either. The bowl tasted very fresh. The seaweed salad and salmon were prepared perfectly and no amount of fishiness was detected with consumption. The utensils were made of wood (not plastic like in the United States). I could already see how much more environmentally conscious other parts of the world were comparatively to us.

Shortly after, we were ready to board our next flight. The plane set up was much different with two aisles and a middle section of seats. Nicole and I saw pillows and blankets neatly left on our seats by the attendants. We were trying to mentally prepare for the eight hour overnight flight. 

We tried to put on another movie and then planned to try and get some rest. About an hour an a half into the flight, the attendants presented us with our dinner option. We had a delicious truffle pasta dish, a dinner baguette, potato salad, and a brownie. The attendants were great with constantly checking in and filling everyone's water cups as needed. 

I tried to get some sleep and frequently adjusted my neck pillow to a comfortable enough position. I was unsuccessful. No matter how hard I tried to get some sleep, I would be interrupted by someone knocking into me, the sound of a flight attendant speaking to a person nearby, or by a screaming (possibly teething) baby. 

I knew that this eight hour flight would be temporary and that I needed to stay focused on where I was headed, Italy.