It's easy to get lost in a map...

During my lunch break today, I crossed Jean-Talon and went for a browse around Les Halles D'Anjou, which is a reasonably sympathetic small shopping mall, mainly occupied by food stores and places to eat for the many people who work in the adjacent office buildings. I skipped a Tim Hortons 'Combo Lunch' and got lost amongst the aisles of books in the big Archambault store at the other end of the mall. It is what I would have hoped for in a Montréal bookstore in that the shelves carry a mix of English and French books. It's easy to slip from one bookcase to the next and flit between languages.

I wasn't after books though, the time had come for some serious distraction material. Maps. Not even the Argos catalogue can offer as much entertainment for me. I love to get lost, create itineraries and imagine places I've never been to. I wanted to buy maps to accompany me on the rail trip I'm taking. So after some umm-ing and aah-ing, I chose a big fold out map of the USA, one of Canada (with railway lines marked - woohoo!) and for a bit of specific interest another smaller scale one of Manitoba.

The Manitoba map cost the same as the national maps ($4.95 + tx) and the change of scale didn't really make up for the fact that it's a much emptier map. But it does feature the railway line I'll be riding along in early May, crawling from Winnipeg in the far south of the province to Churchill on the Hudson Bay. And for hundreds of km either side of the railway line is nothing. The occasional river is marked, but there are no roads or settlements. Much of the journey is through comletely uninhabited terriotory, accessible only by train.

I am more excited than ever...

*j*