This trip was spontaneously arranged on Tuesday night and it began on Thursday with a very long train ride from Penn Station, after struggling to find a cab there at 7.30am. It was supposed to take around 10 hours, but various annoying delays meant I was cooped up in the coach for over half a day! Quite strangely and even more annoyingly, trains only run during the day - it would be so much easier to have a nighttime service, which would mean the day doesn't go to waste as badly.

After the journey everything got progressively better though. It's a great city and my only regret is that I haven't had time to see it all properly. The weather has been pretty decent, for the season, and a lot less rainy and windy than New York was.

Montréal is actually located on an island and there are spectacular views available from different points near where I was staying, especially at night (see picture). Lots of people say it's like a smaller version of NYC and in some respects I agree. There's definitely a near-equal diversity of population here, although the buildings aren't quite as statuesque or imposing.

There's also a good deal of natural green, quite different to the grey cement masses of Manhattan. The neighborhood in which I stayed was very pleasant, with a great variety of architectural styles in the housing. In autumn time the trees usually change to a vibrant array of reds, yellows and oranges - but certain environmental tendencies are required and unfortunately they haven't happened this year.

The downtown area of shops, restaurants, malls and entertainment possibilities is very similar to New York and, indeed, London. There are lots of different cuisines available and a good selection of stores to choose from. Even on a grim day the streets were busy and alive with activity.

Everything is in French though, from the roadsigns to the shop names, since this is part of the Quebec region. Many people grow up bilingual and that's something I really envy - even though the dialect spoken here is apparently quite different in many ways to the one used in France.

It was good to have a break from all the work in New York in any case and this has been a great excursion. Tomorrow I get the 9.50 train and the prospect of another marathon journey isn't exactly mouthwatering. Currently I'm scheduled to return home on Sunday night, after a couple of days in meetings at the UN to evaluate the WPAY+10 experience as youth delegate. This segment of my recent travels may be about to end, but it's definitely been one of the best yet.