Postcards: Montreal

Yes, July.
What can I say, its been a busy summer.

The service industry kills in the summer. By August, everyone I know are just zombies. Shells of human beings. Everyone is exhausted, over worked, over partied (you know, to make up for the over-worked part), and generally over it. Suddenly you have a deep hatred for....pretty much anyone who sits in your section. You say things like, "Sure, sounds great, thanks so much." when all you can think is, "No. No no no. No. Please leave."

This is the same reason I ended up in Montreal this summer.
Usually I'm more of a long extensive trip overseas which I've saved for for months, but this summer, I knew I was going to need a change. Living on a small island, working more than full-time is hard. The island is beautiful and the community makes it worth staying, but even Salt Spring's biggest fans need to get away sometimes. I made the choice to stay here this summer and work hard, with the plan to spend the money I made on experiences which would make it worth it, and memorable.

Obviously this was in JULY so my memories on the details are vaguer than they may have been had I written this when I was SUPPOSED to, but I felt like my travel record is just not complete if I don't say SOMETHING about it. The photos will explain it better than I can.

Day 1. Reunited and prancing through downtown.

My roommate has a birthday in July, and we have a common love for travel. Last year we took a huge group of girls to Las Vegas, this year she and I decided to get away again. We looked at what was cheap, and easy, and where we hadn't been yet. "Wanna go to Montreal?"
"...Yeah. Sure. Why not?"
So with zero knowledge of the city, or really what we would do there, we booked tickets and a room (a GREAT deal through expedia.ca) and a few days later we were on the red-eye after work.

We flew in early in the morning and took a cab through all the grey outskirts and into down town. It really was like being in a different country from the get-go. I'd heard it was a European city, but they weren't kidding. Nostalgia hit HARD when we rolled into downtown with all the large stone buildings and little bakeries, not to mention everything being in French.

Our hotel was in a great location, and way nicer than we expected. We were a little nervous that we had little to no language skills between us. Allison wasn't even a little bit kidding when she said she didn't speak any French, and I can understand it well enough to get around, but my own speaking skills leave something to be desired. It turned out to be a non issue since everyone in Montreal is smarter than us and fully bilingual it seems.
We dragged ourselves up to our room, humid, hot, exhausted... First on the agenda: Nap time.

Hotel Rooftop

From the top of our hotel

Honestly, in the depths of a busy summer, I would have been happy and totally willing to spend the money on a plane ticket just to get in some good nap time and cable TV. I'm not proud, but at least I'm honest. However, after a good nap, we did end up deciding to actually GO on our vacation and see the city.
With our lack of knowledge of ANYTHING to do with Montreal, we literally stepped out the front doors, looked left, looked right, looked at each other, shrugged, and randomly wandered off in whatever direction. I imagine we looked somewhat like those dizzy kittens you see all over YouTube.

Meandering

When we went to Vegas we all had things we wanted to cross off our bucket lists, but here in Montreal, we had no idea what our options even were. We wandered into a Holiday Inn and pretended to be guests while the brochure stand guy showed us the hop on hop off bus route....which we did NOT do. Instead, we now had a map with all the sights circled, and four very capable feet. In cute shoes.

Allison and I after having used our built in coastal instincts to find the waterfront we didn't know existed. Roots.

Within about 20 minutes we got sucked into a giant underground shopping center, and by the time my friend - A montreal resident for the past couple years- found us, we were drowning in bags. He managed to drag us back into daylight, and proceeded to give us the ultimate foot tour of damn near the entire city.

Touristing

European much?

There is so much history and beautiful architecture in Montreal, I was in heaven walking around through all the little stone streets and cathedrals. We stopped in the old town area for my very first ever poutine experience...Up until this point I really didn't understand it. Fries...with gravy...and cheese curds? Do you WANT death?
Yes.
The answer is yes.
If thats what it costs, I'll take it.

We spent a lot of time walking, exploring the various areas of town. As far as I can tell, Montreal is set up in sections. All the good food is HERE, the night life is THERE, shopping is over there, and the touristy part is ooovvverrr.....there. So if you want to see the sights, get real good food, and go out for some dancing, you either walk a lot, or hop a metro.

Overlooking the city after our long long hike to the cross.

My friend was an excellent host and showed up every day to show us around. We spent a good chunk of one day hiking through the park, looking for a cross perched on top of a mountain. It doesn't take 4 hours, but thats what it took us because we couldn't for the life of us figure out how to get there. We did though! ...Aaaaand then we got out of there right quick because we were hot and hungry.

THE Cross. The one we though we would die looking for. I guess there's no better way to explore a park than to get entirely lost in one for several hours.

Still looking for the cross

We DID check out the food network joints, which are pretty much right next to each other. Smoked meats are Montreal's "thing" so we HAD to try it, obviously. We shared ONE sandwich and were done eating for the rest of the day. We had one from "The Main" and by the time we made it across the street to "Schwartz's" we couldn't even look at food anymore. In a good way.

Giant adirondack chairs? Yes please.

French dinner

Looking for the room key, too impatient. There was hot poutine waiting to be eaten, so we resorted to this....

On Allison's actual birthday, we found a chic restaurant/wine bar, complete with pink lights and everything. The wine list was ridiculous, I wanted to keep it and frame it. We ordered appetizers and drank champagne and met up with a friend of hers, and then met up with mine as well. We wined and dined and ended the night dancing in a little night club up the road. There was also a random reggae club in there for a moment or so.

All over the night club area. Little cryptic photos with the fine for....being a squash? Drinking? Burping? This was one of the easier to understand ones.

Chic dining on Alli's birthday

We won't lie, the pink lights were a big part of why we came here.

Basically, we spent four days as jet setting, mimosa drinking, shopping, culture bugs. Big huge thanks to my friend Manlee for being the best host and showing us how to do it right.

Rooftop chit chats

I have awesome memories of hanging out on the rooftop of our hotel, looking at the city. Wandering around at 11:30 looking for ice cream sundaes. Dragging Allison to see World War Z after a long day of shopping. Thinking we were going to end up living in the park forever, never finding our way out. Our cab driver who danced right along with us when the J.Lo song came on the radio and stopped so we could get poutine. The woman in the museum who told me I should marry rich and tried to set me up with the guard, and invited us to their house for dinner. I even have fond memories of nap time in the hotel.

Having a relaxed moment

She loves love.

Late night sundaes, because why not?

A week away, mid-summer... Not easy to get off work. But totally entirely worth it. It made all the difference. I think I've finally found the trick to island life. Don't make plans. Do them.