I want to get a new mattress because the one I have is old and has springs that I sometimes feel. I turn from side to side many times at night, which is a signal that my mattress might be the issue. I had a decent mattress before, really thick heavy and soft, but eventually it sagged. The old outdated mattress I now have needs to go. This time I want to buy a decent mattress that won't sag in the middle in the longterm.

*This is not too much of an interesting post (by my standards LOL), but I figured I would try to post something "personal" in some way related to what I do/did, since I pretty much never do. A change from knowledge posts.

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Trip 1, Saturday

Yesterday, was June 24, the national holiday for the province of Québec. Ignoring this fact, I went out to get a new bed. I took my rollerblades so that I could get to the metro quicker. After switching to another line and finally reaching my destination, I walked the streets until I got to one of two mattress stores that I planned on visiting.

But to my dissatisfaction, both stores were closed as it was the national holiday for the province. I don't know why I expected the store to be open, but it wasn't. Now I would have to return to the store on another day and spend more money to buy public transportation tickets.

Unless, I use my rollerblades and I rollerblade back to my apartment. Normally I don't take my phone with me, but this time I took my phone just in case I needed to get online for something. It was a good thing I brought my phone, as now I needed to find the bike path according to Google maps for me to get back home. This would save me $3, but was it worth it?

This was the trajectory offered by Google maps.

One problem I encountered was that there was an unnamed road to take to get to where I needed, and there was also no bike path indicator that that road was the way to get to the bike path to go in another direction. Initially I missed it because I was just following the bike path which took me towards the west running parallel to the newly constructed highway. But I needed to go south, not west. I ended up backtracking the bike path with my rollerblades uphill in order to get back up to the unnamed road that would take me to the southbound bike path.

Eventually I made it close to the point where I had to cross the water canal. The bike path was not well indicated and I ended up rollerblading up a damp steep underpass that went under the canal, while cars passed me by. I was exhausted by the time I got up to level ground at the next light.

The rest of the trip home was much easier compared to the difficulties I had previously encountered.

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Trip 2, Sunday

The next day, Sunday, both stores were opened. But instead of taking the public transportation in one direction and rollerblading back, I decided to rollerblade both to and from my destinations.

Here's the trajectory of the Google maps had me take:

But that was only for the first store that I was going to. After spending an hour at the first mattress store and testing out some things, I then had to walk to the next store.

If anyone knows Montréal, then you know that when you are going northbound in the downtown area, you have to go uphill as Montréal has a Mount-Royal in the middle. The whole downtown core is built on the slanted ground of a hill.

If you don't believe me, check out this link with the steepest streets in Montreal to avoid walking up:

Or check out google images for pictures of some streets.

Eventually I got to the second store, and I probably spent 2 1/2 hours learning about the different mattress technologies and trying out different mattresses.

There are too many different types of beds, with varying prices, and for certain requirements. The bed I wanted was for side sleeping as I don't sleep on my back. I put a reserve on two mattresses using my credit card which is completely refundable if I don't choose either. I have a year and a half to choose if I want to buy either of the beds at their discount prices, plus a 20% discount that was in place on that one day alone because of the Québec national holiday.

Afterwards I roller bladed down slowly with the break making contact with the slanted street that was trying to propel me faster and faster down the hill. I made it down and back to the other store safely and in much quicker time than walking up the first time.

Then after an hour at the first store for a second time, I had all the information I needed for the mattresses I preferred at both stores, so I headed back home. The weather had announced showers in the afternoon, and it was about 3:30pm. As soon as I stepped outside of the store, there were trickles of rain starting.

Get going fast! No time to waste. Gotta beat the rain!

I put my rollerblades on and I started to skate home. Despite not having any rain which would've made it multiple factors worse, there was high wind velocity that was pushing me back on each step I took. Having wind pushing against you when you start the day is something, but when you're at the end of the day, having wind push against you is doubly annoying, at least in my case.

All I want to do is get home and I have this wind holding me back at every step! Argh! LOL.

I should mention that I don't go rollerblading very much other than to go to the grocery store. I was glad that I made it home in one piece without any soreness on Saturday, nor waking up on Sunday morning. Rollerblading for 5 km straight is not something I normally do. So I was satisfied with myself for having been able to do a mere 5 km of rollerblading.

Sunday was an even greater achievement for me, having done rollerblading for 4 kilometers in one direction, walking 2 km with a large portion of it uphill, then 2 km back down in rollerblades and another 4 km back home with wind resistance holding me back. That's at least 10 km of rollerblading.

And... I did this all without eating the whole day (I also didn't drink even a cup of water). Both days. Saturday I came back around 11:30am-12pm, but Sunday I cam back at 4pm to eat for the first time at 5pm. I was fine though, surprisingly. We humans don't need to eat so much each day it seems.

I'm glad and partially surprise that I was able to do 5 kilometers of rollerblading one day and over 10 km the next day, considering I only rollerblade 1 km going to-and-from the grocery store once or twice a week.

I saved $6 not taking public transportation on Sunday, and gave myself some nice exercise that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I like rollerblading to destinations now. Maybe I'll do it more in the future.

Once I do more research and figure out which mattress is the best for me to get at my price range, then I will likely be embarking upon another rollerblading trek to Montréal's downtown core in order to get my refund for the reservations I'm not taking.

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What about you: Do you rollerblade or bike to some/any destinations you need to get to? Do you not use rollerblades or bike for transportation and instead only use them for exercise? Or do you not do any rollerblading or biking at all? Maybe you like to walk to where you need to go? Or do you always use public or personal transportation when you need to get somewhere?

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Thank you for your time and attention! I appreciate the knowledge reaching more people. Take care. Peace.