Biodome
Oh my God, the trip to Montreal was beyond fucking amazing. The reason I'm writing about it is because everyone I know is really, really tired of hearing me ranting about how awesome the trip was. tl;dr, my best friend Ryan and I decided to take a day trip to Montreal, which is about two and a half hours away from us. Originally our friend Kristen was going to come with us as well, but she (predictably) flaked out at the last minute, as always. I feel like a bitch for saying this, but it was sort of nice without her - I don't think it would have been as amazing a trip if she'd come with us. It was perfect.
We boarded the bus at 6:00 A.M., because the Biodome opened at 9 A.M., closed at 6 P.M., and I wanted to be there all day long, as early as possible. We got into Montreal around 8:30 and, luckily, the Biodome was only 7km from the bus station, so the taxi there cost us not even $20. We sat and ate breakfast as we waited for it to open, and we were two of the first ten people there (which was amazing).
So, let me explain what the Biodome is. The Biodome is a big building which, predictably, is shaped like a dome, or half a sphere. It's sort of like a very interactive zoo, split up into four different types of habitats - South American rainforest, Canadian temperate forest, the sea, and the Arctic and Antarctic. I don't even have words to explain how amazing and realistic this was. The first habitat, the rainforest, was basically like they just took a big chunk of forest directly from South America and implanted it into the building. The trees were enormous, and a hundred feet tall; it was so humid that my hair, which I'd straightened that morning, had reverted to being curly within five minutes. But the best part of the Biodome is the way the habitats are situated. The path through each habitat is set up in such a way that you could theoretically interact with the animals living there, if they chose to come to you. It's like an actual path through the rainforest. Some of the areas, like ponds with caiman or capybara in them, are in pits that the path goes over like a bridge, and you can look down and see them there in the water, or resting on the shore; but otherwise, if a parrot or a California condor or a monkey was curious and wanted to come interact with you, it could. Towards the end of the rainforest habitat, a big pink bird flew down onto the path right next to me, not even ten feet away. It was amazing. It was beyond amazing. If you're an animal lover, you have to go there. It's like nothing I've ever experienced before. The only regret I have is that I hadn't saved up enough money from my, ahem, non-official job to save up for a DSLR camera. Luckily, though, Ryan let me use his camera (when he was done with it), so I ended up taking some really good pictures. They had really cool animals there - capybara, caiman, parrots and macaws, a golden lion tamarin, a tank full of piranha and catfish, a tunnel with a cave full of bats, an anaconda, and at least half a dozen different types of birds. Towards the end, I even spotted a sloth slowly climbing up a tree (but didn't have enough time to snap a picture of it, ironically).
The second area was the Canadian temperate forest, which sounds very boring.. but it was actually really cool. You couldn't interact with any of the animals here, but the enclosures had some really cool ones - otters, beavers, turtles, frogs, porcupines, and a pair of lynx. The otters were sleeping all day, but the second time we went through the Biodome, we saw the beaver chewing through a tree stump and bringing it underwater to add to his dam in the middle of the big pond. The lynx was sleeping too, unfortunately.
The third habitat was split up into two different areas - when you first walk in, it's an above-water sea bird habitat, mostly featuring birds like seagulls, ducks, loons, swans, and petrels. They also had a sort of raised waist-level tank when you first walk in full of fish, lobster, urchin and sea anenome that you could theoretically put your hands into, but aren't really supposed to. When you move past that area, they have a small lake surrounded by cliffs to imitate the conditions of an ocean island, like off the Eastern coast of Canada. We spent quite a while there, taking pictures of birds. They weren't terribly interesting compared to sloths, monkeys, big cats, and giant pink birds as tall as you are landing next to you, but some of them had very dramatic colors that made for some pretty amazing pictures. At the end of the first part of that habitat, you walk into a room that is the underwater view of the bird lake, and it's full of some really badass fish. They had about a dozen enormous sturgeon that, either out of boredom, curiosity, or a desire to show off, kept swimming past the glass enclosure at eye level, making for some pretty awesome pictures. It was getting pretty busy by this time and I was starting to get annoyed by the sheer number of people and the fact that the Biodome had basically become a nursery by this point, but it was difficult not to be amazed and awed by the beauty of the underwater habitat. We came back to that area three times just to sit and watch the fish and stingrays swimming by.
The fourth habitat was split on either side into the Arctic and the Antarctic. They looked basically the same - the only difference was the type of animals in them. The Arctic enclosure on the left was full of puffins, and the Antarctic domain on the right was filled with penguins. We took 270 pictures that day (and deleted at least a hundred shitty or fuzzy ones), but the best picture of the day was a picture I took of a couple of puffins. In the corner of the very start of the Arctic enclosure, there were two obviously curious puffins huddled up in a corner right next to the glass grooming each other, taking turns picking through each others' fur and watching people walk by. It was the fucking most adorable thing I've ever seen. We took some really excellent pictures of them and they left after a while, but the second time we went through the Biodome, those same two puffins were back sitting in almost the same spot, watching people walk by. I'm not sure if they were curious or just really, really bored. I'll definitely post some of the best pictures on here when Ryan gets around to sending them to me. There was this one really cute puffin who kept playing with his food underwater; I'll post the video link at the end of the post. The Antarctic part of the habitat was awesome, because the penguins were enormous show-offs; they kept doing spectacular dives and twirling around underwater for the crowd, and then swimming up to the glass to stare at people and watch their reaction, floating on the top of the water lazily on their belly. My hand was separated by the width of glass from touching a fucking penguin. The Biodome definitely stands out as one of the most amazing experience of my life (though I'm sure it would make much less of an impact on people who don't love animals as much as I do - it seemed like everybody was rushing through the habitats. It took Ryan and I at least an hour to get through each one. At one point, I saw people taking pictures of each other standing in front of big trees or tanks of fish, and it enraged me. DON'T YOU SEE HOW MANY AMAZING ANIMALS ARE IN HERE?! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU TAKING PICTURES OF PEOPLE?!).
Our bus tickets were round-trip for the same day, and the Biodome closed at 6 P.M., so we still had another four or five hours to kill before we had to board the bus. Luckily, the Biodome is in an area of Montreal that is heavily packed with tourist attractions - within a single city block (and in less than five minutes of walking time), they had the Biodome, a sports center, the Planetarium, the Botanical Gardens, and the Insectarium. We decided to go to the Planetarium, since the Botanical Gardens and Insectarium were outside, and it was raining. Actually, I'm not going to bother trying to explain the Planetarium. It was such a trippy, out-of-body experience that it would be impossible to describe unless you'd experienced it yourself.
Afterwards, we went to eat, and there were so many restaurants that we were completely overwhelmed by the amount of choices we had; in the end, we ended up wandering into this awkward little hipster-y waffle house with a single table, and ate waffles for dinner (and then went next door for poutine, and watched The Matrix: Reloaded in French). I was completely exhausted by the time we boarded the bus at 10:30 P.M., but we spent the return trip going through, and sorting out, all of our pictures. After my dad picked us up at the bus station and we dropped Ryan off, I got home around 1:00 in the morning, and I literally passed out the second my head hit the pillow.
So, I'm terrible at conclusions, but that was pretty much what we did that day. It was fantastic. I highly recommend the Biodome for anyone who is considering going on a road trip in the near future. It's very, very worth it - and there are lots of things to do in that area, too. Anyway, here are the beaver and puffin videos I took that day.
1. Beaver
2. Puffin
3. Penguin
I hope I did it correctly, I'm terrible at this sort of thing.
We boarded the bus at 6:00 A.M., because the Biodome opened at 9 A.M., closed at 6 P.M., and I wanted to be there all day long, as early as possible. We got into Montreal around 8:30 and, luckily, the Biodome was only 7km from the bus station, so the taxi there cost us not even $20. We sat and ate breakfast as we waited for it to open, and we were two of the first ten people there (which was amazing).
So, let me explain what the Biodome is. The Biodome is a big building which, predictably, is shaped like a dome, or half a sphere. It's sort of like a very interactive zoo, split up into four different types of habitats - South American rainforest, Canadian temperate forest, the sea, and the Arctic and Antarctic. I don't even have words to explain how amazing and realistic this was. The first habitat, the rainforest, was basically like they just took a big chunk of forest directly from South America and implanted it into the building. The trees were enormous, and a hundred feet tall; it was so humid that my hair, which I'd straightened that morning, had reverted to being curly within five minutes. But the best part of the Biodome is the way the habitats are situated. The path through each habitat is set up in such a way that you could theoretically interact with the animals living there, if they chose to come to you. It's like an actual path through the rainforest. Some of the areas, like ponds with caiman or capybara in them, are in pits that the path goes over like a bridge, and you can look down and see them there in the water, or resting on the shore; but otherwise, if a parrot or a California condor or a monkey was curious and wanted to come interact with you, it could. Towards the end of the rainforest habitat, a big pink bird flew down onto the path right next to me, not even ten feet away. It was amazing. It was beyond amazing. If you're an animal lover, you have to go there. It's like nothing I've ever experienced before. The only regret I have is that I hadn't saved up enough money from my, ahem, non-official job to save up for a DSLR camera. Luckily, though, Ryan let me use his camera (when he was done with it), so I ended up taking some really good pictures. They had really cool animals there - capybara, caiman, parrots and macaws, a golden lion tamarin, a tank full of piranha and catfish, a tunnel with a cave full of bats, an anaconda, and at least half a dozen different types of birds. Towards the end, I even spotted a sloth slowly climbing up a tree (but didn't have enough time to snap a picture of it, ironically).
The second area was the Canadian temperate forest, which sounds very boring.. but it was actually really cool. You couldn't interact with any of the animals here, but the enclosures had some really cool ones - otters, beavers, turtles, frogs, porcupines, and a pair of lynx. The otters were sleeping all day, but the second time we went through the Biodome, we saw the beaver chewing through a tree stump and bringing it underwater to add to his dam in the middle of the big pond. The lynx was sleeping too, unfortunately.
The third habitat was split up into two different areas - when you first walk in, it's an above-water sea bird habitat, mostly featuring birds like seagulls, ducks, loons, swans, and petrels. They also had a sort of raised waist-level tank when you first walk in full of fish, lobster, urchin and sea anenome that you could theoretically put your hands into, but aren't really supposed to. When you move past that area, they have a small lake surrounded by cliffs to imitate the conditions of an ocean island, like off the Eastern coast of Canada. We spent quite a while there, taking pictures of birds. They weren't terribly interesting compared to sloths, monkeys, big cats, and giant pink birds as tall as you are landing next to you, but some of them had very dramatic colors that made for some pretty amazing pictures. At the end of the first part of that habitat, you walk into a room that is the underwater view of the bird lake, and it's full of some really badass fish. They had about a dozen enormous sturgeon that, either out of boredom, curiosity, or a desire to show off, kept swimming past the glass enclosure at eye level, making for some pretty awesome pictures. It was getting pretty busy by this time and I was starting to get annoyed by the sheer number of people and the fact that the Biodome had basically become a nursery by this point, but it was difficult not to be amazed and awed by the beauty of the underwater habitat. We came back to that area three times just to sit and watch the fish and stingrays swimming by.
The fourth habitat was split on either side into the Arctic and the Antarctic. They looked basically the same - the only difference was the type of animals in them. The Arctic enclosure on the left was full of puffins, and the Antarctic domain on the right was filled with penguins. We took 270 pictures that day (and deleted at least a hundred shitty or fuzzy ones), but the best picture of the day was a picture I took of a couple of puffins. In the corner of the very start of the Arctic enclosure, there were two obviously curious puffins huddled up in a corner right next to the glass grooming each other, taking turns picking through each others' fur and watching people walk by. It was the fucking most adorable thing I've ever seen. We took some really excellent pictures of them and they left after a while, but the second time we went through the Biodome, those same two puffins were back sitting in almost the same spot, watching people walk by. I'm not sure if they were curious or just really, really bored. I'll definitely post some of the best pictures on here when Ryan gets around to sending them to me. There was this one really cute puffin who kept playing with his food underwater; I'll post the video link at the end of the post. The Antarctic part of the habitat was awesome, because the penguins were enormous show-offs; they kept doing spectacular dives and twirling around underwater for the crowd, and then swimming up to the glass to stare at people and watch their reaction, floating on the top of the water lazily on their belly. My hand was separated by the width of glass from touching a fucking penguin. The Biodome definitely stands out as one of the most amazing experience of my life (though I'm sure it would make much less of an impact on people who don't love animals as much as I do - it seemed like everybody was rushing through the habitats. It took Ryan and I at least an hour to get through each one. At one point, I saw people taking pictures of each other standing in front of big trees or tanks of fish, and it enraged me. DON'T YOU SEE HOW MANY AMAZING ANIMALS ARE IN HERE?! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU TAKING PICTURES OF PEOPLE?!).
Our bus tickets were round-trip for the same day, and the Biodome closed at 6 P.M., so we still had another four or five hours to kill before we had to board the bus. Luckily, the Biodome is in an area of Montreal that is heavily packed with tourist attractions - within a single city block (and in less than five minutes of walking time), they had the Biodome, a sports center, the Planetarium, the Botanical Gardens, and the Insectarium. We decided to go to the Planetarium, since the Botanical Gardens and Insectarium were outside, and it was raining. Actually, I'm not going to bother trying to explain the Planetarium. It was such a trippy, out-of-body experience that it would be impossible to describe unless you'd experienced it yourself.
Afterwards, we went to eat, and there were so many restaurants that we were completely overwhelmed by the amount of choices we had; in the end, we ended up wandering into this awkward little hipster-y waffle house with a single table, and ate waffles for dinner (and then went next door for poutine, and watched The Matrix: Reloaded in French). I was completely exhausted by the time we boarded the bus at 10:30 P.M., but we spent the return trip going through, and sorting out, all of our pictures. After my dad picked us up at the bus station and we dropped Ryan off, I got home around 1:00 in the morning, and I literally passed out the second my head hit the pillow.
So, I'm terrible at conclusions, but that was pretty much what we did that day. It was fantastic. I highly recommend the Biodome for anyone who is considering going on a road trip in the near future. It's very, very worth it - and there are lots of things to do in that area, too. Anyway, here are the beaver and puffin videos I took that day.
1. Beaver
2. Puffin
3. Penguin
I hope I did it correctly, I'm terrible at this sort of thing.