Bonjour hi!

Ah, over the course of the weekend, that phrase quickly became synonymous with the Montreal Worldcon. Being a fully bilingual city, everyone greeted us with a hash of English and French, and everyone throughout the four days were amazingly friendly and courteous. Even if the wait staff were slow at the myriad restaurants, they were charming, and when the food eventually arrived–my gods–was it fantastic.

Actually, my favourite dish of the weekend was on the Thursday night at a small bistro just off the beaten path. Lamb sausage and deer risotto. To. Die. For. Best risotto ever.

But the one thing better than the risotto that night–and for the entire weekend–was the company. After arriving around lunchtime and finding my way to the hotel, which wasn’t quite ready, I rang up Karin Lowachee to find out where “the gang was at”. After dropping off my bags, I met up with Karin, Amber van Dyk, and Kate Bachus. After registration, which was quite fast and simple, my roommate Holly McDowell landed at the airport and was subsequently making her way to the hotel. (And what an awesome roomie!)

For the rest of Thursday night we all caught up, drank, ate, and had a wonderful time. Other than that, the evening itself was rather quiet around the conference as people slowly trickled into Montreal. Friday was when things really picked up.

Friday consisted of panels and Noobox (yummy, yummy Noobox) and running into old friends and making new acquaintances. After a busy day, we retired to the hotel to relax for a bit and get ready for dinner. As we headed out, we bumped into Tobias Buckell wandering around the Palais des Congrès de Montréal (the main convention centre), and invited him with us. And I must say, Friday night’s dinner was probably one of my favourite of the weekend. Good food, good friends. And the conversation was fantastic too.

And burning fountains! Let’s not forget that.

After dinner, Toby went back to this hotel for a bit, and the rest of us headed off to the parties, which were primarily held in the “offiicial con hotel”, the Delta Centre-Ville. Unfortunately the hotels were kind of spread out, so walking–unless full of energy–took some time. Taxis were our friends. The first party we hit was the Angry Robot Books launch party, which, after being moved to a party floor (it had originally been booked on a “non”-party floor, which meant security and confusion), got rockin’, and also included, well, an angry robot. And lots of booze.

Once I got beers into my hands and started getting my sweat on for the night, I bumped into Peter Watts and Cailin Sweet (Caitlin! Drinks. Sushi. Soon!), where they posed candidly for a quick photo. And then it was all about chatting and drinking and chatting some more with friends. A good start to the night (and a great party Angry Robot Books!).

The second party we hit was the Tor Books party, which is always a good time, complete with lots of alcohol, compressed, sweaty bodies, and a who’s who of the SFF world. Finally had a chance to talk with Joshua Palmatier, as the last time we were at a con together was WFC2007 in Saratoga, NY, I believe, and we’d only chatted in passing.  After sweating and drinking about on the main floor of the suite, I headed upstairs with Holly where I finally got to meet Jenny Rappaport and John Joseph Adams in person (after having only chatted via the interwebs for ages), while getting crushed by a horde of people hovering around Neil Gaiman.

After the party we ended up at the InterContinental hotel bar, where we wound down the night with a few more drinks and much more conversation.

Saturday was an awesome, awesome day and night. Slept in, and then headed to the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MOMA) after breakfast with Karin, Amber, Holly, and Kate, where we saw a breathtaking Robert Polidori exhibit, along with an exhibit featuring Betty Goodwin. Afterwards we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed into old Montréal, which is full of charm and character and lovely architecture. And, cupcake shops!

After traversing the tight streets, Jenny met up with us, along with two new friends, Amy Sundberg and Yonatan Zunger, for dinner. Since most of the main restaurants were already slammed with Saturday night crowds, we ended up at a small “natural foods” restaurant, which, although extremely slow and the single waiter overworked, turned out to be rather lovely. After eating, we all scurried back to our respective hotels to get ready for another night of parties and, yes, drinking.

Before heading over to the party hotel, Holly, Amber, Kate and me had a few drinks at our hotel’s bar, where I introduced prairie fire shots to Kate (tequila and tobasco). Kate was unsure, especially after hitting the shot and wondering why her stomach was suddenly inside out, but she’s a stellar trooper and marched onward. (And, secretly, I think she likes them.)

Rumour on the street was the place to be Saturday night was the Night Shade Books release party for Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl. And it was, once we found out what suite it was located in. Once inside, Holly and I met Lee Harris, editor for Angry Robot Books and all-around nice guy, as well as writer Colin Harvey, where we all immediately hit it off and launched into one of my favourite chats of the con–a game of “who has given the world more – the UK or the North American continent?”. Lee summarizes this event much better than I could over here at his blog. Also had numerous other lengthy conversations with too many great people to list. Suffice it to say, the entire evening was made of awesome, and I doubt I’ll forget it anytime soon.

Sunday was primarily made of getting up early, nursing a hangover, saying goodbyes (oh noes, so sad!), and flying home.

Montréal, you were très magnifique!

I must say, it will be hard pressed to top this convention. So many wonderful memories were made, so many good times with the best friends ever, and new friends made. Not to mention my awesome roomie, Holly, who made the entire weekend a joy. Holly, you can be my roomie again any day.

And so I close out my Worldcon post with two pictures; one I took of Holly behind a lamp, which according to her is actually her brain (ha!), and the other just of the two of us, but I think it sums up our weekend perfectly.

Au revoir, friends, until we get to do it all over again.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 4:04 pm and is filed under Conventions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.