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Bienvenue a Montreal!
My first time to Canada. Montreal to be exact. And it was a cool place to visit. Would I go back? Maybe if there was something else that gave me a reason to go back, such as a concert or festival.
The city reminds me of downtown Philadelphia. Old building structures mixed in with the new ones. Slightly gothic and modern at the same time. The people were generally nice. And Montréal is the part of Quebec, which is the only area in Canada where French is its main language. We tried to prepare though. We went to a six week virtual French class and did Duolingo for months. Lo and behold, I only remembered four words/phrases the entire time. Oui. Merci. Sil vous plait. And excusez-moi. Thankfully, they also speak English. Crisis averted.
The food was generally good. We ate at Belluci, which is part of the Underground City. It sounds amazing. But, if you’ve seen one mall, you’ve seen them all. It’s an underground interconnection of shops, restaurants, hotels, etc. Kinda underwhelming. Jacopo was my favorite restaurant, even though they allowed no alterations to their dishes. Time Out Market was good. Plenty of food selections with a bar. Tried Ungava Gin for the first time I wanted to take a bottle home. It was a really good gin. I also tried poutine for the second time on the trip. I usually try stuff twice to make sure I don’t like it. Not my jam. It’s French fries topped with brown gravy and white cheddar cheese curds. I found the toppings to be flavorless and pointless. I would have to be drunk and hungry to ever eat it again. Oncle Lee is labeled as one of the 50 most anticipated restaurant openings in the world. The world!!! And I’m not even sure why. The menu is pared down. Minimal selections. I ordered the Chow Mein Croustillant aux Fruits de Mer (crispy seafood chow mein). My shrimp were undercooked, in my opinion. And the noodles were crunchy and then soft. It was all just weird. Vieux-Port Steakhouse was delicious. Although, the service was super rushed due to their closing time. Why let us make a reservation 15 mins before you close? Anyway, I got their miso cod. Superb. Jacopo and Vieux-Port Steakhouse were in the Old Port area near the Kurios Cirque du Soleil show. We had second row seats at the show. So, seeing the performers that close and flying over our heads was a treat. Breakfast at the Commodore Restaurant was cute. It’s quaint. Looks like a swanky diner. Food was good there too. Oh. And the Tiki Bar, on one of the coolest streets in the world, was a let down. The drink was ok. And the street was empty. Maybe we went too early. Maybe because it was a rainy Thursday. I don’t know. But you could almost see tumbleweeds milling about. My only regret was not trying PFK that stands for Poulet Frit Kentucky aka KFC or Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Now for activities. We skipped the hop on hop off bus because we walked the city so much in the first couple of days. It didn’t seem like we needed to see anything else. We completed the Prohibition Era Exploration Game. Think of a scavenger hunt mixed with the Amazing Race and an escape game around downtown Montreal. The game started in the homeless area of China town. While searching for clues to unlock the next clue, a homeless man threw a lighter at us. Then while taking a break in a cafe, we witnessed an open air drug market directly across the street in a park. No one else seemed startled except us. We walked through their version of the red light district and back to a “safer” area. Right after, we went on a three hour history and food tour of Montreal. We saw a piece of the Berlin Wall, more of the Old Port area and the Notre-Dame Basilica. We tried a smoked salmon bagel, smoked beef shoulder and cheeses, a veggie taco, poutine with ground meat, pickles and mustard, and a cannelés bordelais with a cider. Like I said before, poutine is not my jam. Actually, the poutine with all the stuff on it was disgusting. All the other foods were pretty tasty. We visited the Biodome and the Botanical garden. The Biodome was pretty cool. It’s like going to a zoo and the animals are in their natural manmade habitat. The Botanical Garden was a maze with few signs. We got so turned around in there. The Chinese garden was beautiful. And I appreciated Canada highlighting indigenous people in their First Nations Garden. Because we all know that a land can’t be discovered when it already has natives living there. We went to the Caribbean festival and had VVIP tickets. So we sat way above the crowd and had table service. Yes, we are aunties and standing the midst of a crown is not our idea of fun. To our surprise TD Bank had a drone show. It was similar to watching a fireworks show but with drones. And at the end, the drones made a scannable QR code that took you directly to the bank’s website to open an account. Great use of technology and marketing. Ohhhh. How can I forget this part? On the way to the Caribbean festival, traffic was shut down. Why? Because a caravan of naked bike riders were riding through the city. And when I say naked, I mean butterball naked on their bikes pedaling around the city. I have no idea why. All male riders except one, that I could see. I just know some of them were correct to have their faces covered because their lower halves were shameful.
All in all, Montreal is a walkable and safe city. A Canadian lady even acknowledged my Juneteenth t-shirt. Everyone was nice, except the guy who threw the lighter at us. The food is good. It wasn’t expensive. It’s not a long flight from the east coast. Three days in Montreal is a good amount of time to see and do everything. And the weather is great in the summer. You should check out Montreal!
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