Kayla Goes Global

Back in September 2017, I went to Montreal! That trip was pretty exciting for me in a lot of ways – it was my first time visiting another country, my first time to Canada, and my first time flying solo.

I had such a great time on that trip, and I think I really caught the travel bug after that. Since it’s been on my mind so much lately, I decided now would be the perfect time to share more about what I did while I was there.

Like many of my past trips, I was heading to Montreal for a travel conference. Before this, I had only done the small conference in Scottsdale, so I was pretty nervous about how everything would go at a much larger conference. Luckily, my company has another office in London and I was going to meet up with one of my London colleagues in Montreal so that we could exhibit at this conference together.

Although I was glad to have a partner for the conference, this meant that I would have to travel to Montreal by myself, and that was a bit of a learning experience the first time.

I flew out of Harrisburg International Airport and had a connection in Toronto. It was my first time at MDT, but it wasn’t too big of an airport so it was pretty easy to get through security and make my way around. When I finally got to my gate I found out there would only be 3 people on my flight to Toronto. I thought that was very strange, though it was a pretty early flight. I remember being worried that they would cancel my flight because there were so few people. They didn’t cancel though, and we boarded very quickly and were taking off before I knew it. The plane was really tiny and the cockpit was open so I could see the pilots the entire time. I didn’t really like that. I don’t think I really want to know what they’re doing up there.

I made it to Toronto and found my next gate. It was a quick flight to Montreal after that. I remember getting to Montreal and hearing the announcements in French. I don’t think I really realized how French the area of Quebec really was, but it was pretty cool and interesting. I took an Uber to my hotel and had some time to get settled in before meeting with my colleague.

After getting myself together, I left the hotel to make my way to the convention center and meet up with my colleague. I brought a few bags of materials to set up our booth and I think the combination of carrying all this stuff and not knowing my way around made me feel pretty overwhelmed. I was having trouble getting my bearings, and I ended up having to ask for directions. A very nice woman pointed out the convention center to me, and then told me that she would walk me there and took me all the way to the convention center. I was so thankful for her and really appreciated the gesture. I’ve heard that Canadians are nice, but I wasn’t expecting her to go out of her way to help me like that. That interaction has really stuck with me since then.

I finally made it to my booth and met my London colleague for the first time. He was really nice and we got along great. We set up our booth and then decided to go out and explore Old Montreal. We walked around a little and stopped at a café to get maple lattes and s’mores gelato. After that we made our way to a Welcome Reception where we had a few drinks. We ended up at a nearby restaurant where we ordered poutine before heading back our hotels to get some sleep.

The next day was mostly full of meetings at the conference. We had the evening free, so we went to a restaurant called Méchant Boeuf for dinner. Everything was very good and the entire staff was super friendly and helpful.

After we finished dinner, we decided to go out for cocktails. On the way out of the restaurant, my colleague asked the hostess if there were any nearby places to get a good cocktail and she started drawing us a map on a napkin to lead us to a nearby speakeasy. We followed her directions and ended up down a dark alley at a big black door with a camera above it. We rang the doorbell as we were instructed and someone came to let us in. We walked down a staircase to enter the bar and it was really cool inside. They had good drinks and such a cool vibe. I found out later that the place is called The Coldroom. It was one of those experiences where I’m really glad that we went out of our comfort zone and asked a local where to go. Had we not done that I wouldn’t have had this really cool experience and would’ve never even known about bars like this in Montreal.

The rest of my time in Montreal was spent having meetings and attending the various functions sponsored by the conference. I had a good time, but it was mostly just socializing and networking with potential clients – so still work.

My colleague flew out the last night and I stayed until the next morning. I had an early flight again so didn’t get to do much else in Canada. It was a really great experience though. I really liked Montreal, and I would absolutely go back given the chance.