I can remember going to Canada for a weekend on two occasions. The first was a school trip sponsored by the French Club (which is a club of people that have been in French III class). The purpose of this was to spend a weekend in a city where French is the native language. Everything is in French, and maybe English as a courtesy.
This trip had us driving about 100 miles to Boston, MA (to protect privacy and make it a little harder for Brother Hounder to figure out who I am, I will not state which direction this was). I had to show up at school at 6:30 in the morning on Friday (it was Friday through Sunday). From there, we drove to Boston's airport. The radio was on during this trip (on a pop station). We got to Boston, and had about an hour's wait before the plane was ready. Then we took off.
It was raining on the ground (lightly). But, once we got through the clouds, it was sunny. It is interesting to see the clouds below you when you rarely if ever fly. We had an unplanned stop in Burlington, VT before going to Montreal. From there, we found the hotel. I believe strongly that it was the Hotel Meridien. It took a half hour for the whole group to check in (there were about 12 of us).
Now, the fun. We get in, and of course the heat was not on (it was about 50 and cloudy with light rain outside). I roomed with the French teacher that was in charge of the whole thing, and he saw the faucets in the bathroom. The left was marked "C"; the right, "F". ("C" stands for "chaud", which in English is hot; "F" stands for "froid", which is cold). So, he made the comment that "C" must mean "cold", but what does "F" stand for, "fxxxing"? At that, we went back into the room, which was about 60 F. He commented "Boy it is fxxxing cold in here".
We had plenty of fun there. There was about a half mile corridor full of stores and shops in the hotel. Escalators were everywhere. And we had to take three of them to get to the Metro (in English, subway). That took us to the city itself. We ate at a spaghetti house, and we had pitchers of beer (it was legal in Canada to drink at age 16). I, and one other person, had "liqueur douce", which in English means soft drink or pop. There was quite a bit of sloppage of beer--I counted an estimated 55 slops of beer. Then we watched a mildly dirty TV show (about people that spit in public).
That night, we had a few prank wakeup calls, prompting the roommate/teacher to take the phone off the hook. So, I beat him up handily the next morning and got ready while he was still sleeping. Gradually I opened the curtan to try to wake him gently. Soon enough, the others knocked on the door and got him up for brunch. We had a walk into a mall, and then had to race back to get ready for the bus tour of the city.
Once that was done, we found another place to eat. There wasn't nearly as many beer slops that time, and after we found a disco (yes, disco was still hot). As it was still late April, it was chilly (50 or so) and rainy/drizzly. But, once we got in the disco, it was dry. And empty. They played the song Good Time by Chic (which I have in its full glory). And it was LOUD. It had to be about 120 dB, which was fun for about 10 minutes. We left (presumably because it was still dead), and hit the arcades. I got to play Space Invaders in there, as well as the sequel the Deluxe version. Then, time to head back.
Now the drinking in earnest started. I was one of two that did not drink (try telling that to Brother Hounder who says that just being there means you are going to drink). I had fun taking pictures of them drinking, just to irritate them slightly (I know that you cannot get in trouble for breaking US rules while in Canada, of this nature). No, no one was drinking and driving. The drinking happened right in the motel room.
Next day, and time to leave. Two people got sick, one of them was because of drinking too much. We finally got back on the plane, and back to Boston where we had pizza. While waiting, there was a Space Invaders Deluxe machine that I had fun playing. From there, it was time to go back home. That was much too short.
Now, the other Canada trip. One year, we had the Grand Boasting Session in Toronto (the exact location is blurred to make hounders have to work to figure out). We rented a van for this, and there were (X) people in the van (a number between 5 and 9). During that trip, nothing much happened. We went back and forth to and from the motel and the Grand Boasting Session. There were no mall-like concierges in the motel. We did eat out each time, but there was not so much as a drop of beer or liquor to spill or slop.
During this Canada trip, the most that happened were the kids getting spanked for stupid things. I would see them getting walloped for doing things that they would be expected to do. No trips to the arcade. No watching mildly dirty TV shows. No listening to music, unless they were piping it in while we were eating. No endless Metro or escalator rides. We didn't even have a tour of the city or the nearby towns--except the drive to find places to eat. The discussion was mostly about how the all-mall territory worked for field circus.
The second Canada trip was plainly and blatantly dull. Now, I didn't drink during the first one (everyone except me and one other person did). I did have fun at the arcade and at the disco (even though it was hardly packed). And I enjoyed watching everyone else slopping their beer as they refilled out of the pitchers. Just the walking around and the endless Metro, escalator, and concierge walking was fun. Too bad none of that happened during the Grand Boasting Session trip. (No I will not say whether this was an assigned a$$embly or not, or what year it was since I want the hounders to have extra work to figure out who this is).
Both trips cost about the same with money. The plane ticket and the hotel was slightly more for the French Club trip, and everything was in French. But, we did not have to pay for gas each day. We also didn't donate anything for littera-trash or put money in the Worldwide Pedophile Defense Fund in Montreal. And they were about the same length. However, the one where we went to Montreal seemed to go by much quicker. I think I will take my disco, arcades, and watching everyone else get drunk and walking through miles of concierges and Metros any day.