A quick visit to Montréal

On Thursday the 9th of October we made our first trip 'over east', to Montreal. It was the Thanksgiving long weekend in Canada so we decided to make the most of some relatively cheap airfares and head to the [North American] home of smoked meat and poutine (pssst, hey Frenchies, it's just burnt chips n gravy with some cheesy bits on top -- good at 3am after fifteen beers, but tasty as it is, it's hardly the pinnacle of culinary excellence).

It's actually an island, you know.

The architecture was pretty cool, mostly in the 'old town'..



(obligatory 'old building' shot: check.)

This thing was just parked on the side of the street. Classy, like most of what we saw in Montreal, really.



There was better graffiti there than in Vancouver:



(this photo is just missing some impromptu breakdancing on cardboard)

The people in Montreal are all about 5 metres tall and have size US40+ feet. It was quite a shock and something I hadn't read about in any of the travel literature. That's how they get away with speaking French all the time.



One of my highlights was eating about 8,000,000 artery-hardening calories in one compact smoked meat sandwich, at the famous Schwartz's Deli.



We walked past this place a number of times during our stay and it was always very busy. Prior to chowing down there, we got some local advice that another smoked meat joint just over the road - "The Main" - was just as good and didn't have the line-up [it also has a booze license]. Still, there was only one 8,000,000 calorie sandwich you can eat in 72 hours so it had to be from Schwartz's.

We went for a wander up and around Mount Royal (allegedly the inspiration behind Montreal's name) and I was inspired to develop some solutions to the world's problems. Katie captured the moment. Can you believe it, a leaf landed right there? (I'm almost 30 you know.)



It was like a big leafy version of Mt Ainslie without the flies or the kangaroos. I have to say the view from Mt Ainslie is more impressive - as good as Montreal is, it's not really a nice city to look at.

A guy in a menswear shop told us: when the weather is good, everyone goes to the base of Mount Royal, bangs on drums, drinks booze and smokes weed. It seems like everyone in Vancouver smokes the wacky tobacky, but everyone's too scared to drink outside for fear of being locked up. Not in Montreal!



There was actually some pretty cool drumming going on here, but there was also some disturbing displays of movement in the appreciative crowd. Our favourites were "Ali G Raver Guy on Speed" (blue/white top with skullcap), "Hippy Mum Acid Casualty From The 60s" (black top/grey hair) and "Weird Pasty Man With Brown Tank Top" (er.. weird pasty man with brown tank top).

Like Vancouver, there were lots of excellent pub trucks on display. Most of them get locked up with locks that cost more than the bikes themselves.



Mmmm poutine (at Patati Patata).



On our last day, we stumbled across this awesome little cafe. I forget its name, but I think it was a TLA (Three Letter Acronym - insert geek laugh here).



We shared an oven-baked omelette and it was deeeeeelicious. Just about all the food we ate in Montreal was top notch - a refreshing change from Vancouver.



If it wasn't obvious, the trip ended up being a bad-in-a-good-way eating extravaganza. Luckily we averaged about 13km of walking most days to counteract the calorie intake.

We went to Montreal wondering if we could give living and working there a go, but we left agreeing that it was a great place to visit, but not really what we're after. The food, culture, sneaker shops and "just .. the vibe" was amazing, though.