With a bit of time off scheduled in the summer, Shannon and I decided to get out of town for a little trip. I’ve wanted to see Montreal for a while, so I was excited to finally see what it was all about. Before this, I have to say that I had absolutely no knowledge of Montreal, besides it seemed like a neat place to go, and that it was in Quebec. There were a few things that surprised me, that probably shouldn’t have:
- It’s a straight line from London, you don’t have to turn at all! It’s a long drive, but an easy one
- There’s a mountain there, Mount Royal, hence the name
- It’s also an island!
I was also surprised at how easy it was to get around with just English. In fact, I feel like we barely heard any French at all, most of the staff would default to English (though maybe we were just in more tourist focused areas). This was great though, because my French proficiency is basically zero.
Another thing that I had heard of but had no context – that the drivers were bad. This is a fact! They don’t seem to respect the lane markers and on several occasions dangerously drifted over the line, both in the city and on the highways. Shannon did all of the driving in the city, for which I am very grateful.
Album Link: here
Day 1
After an 8ish hour drive, we made it to our Airbnb in Montreal around 5PM. We had plenty of rest stops and a lunch break in Trenton, but it was the longest travel day I’ve had in a while – just a warm up for the Europe trip in a few months. Our Airbnb supposedly had parking, but it was all taken. Over the course of the trip, we did a little street parking, tried a nearby spot (and got a ticket), and eventually found a longer term parking in a lot a little ways away. The location was great, very close to the Mount Royal Park, and also McGill. It wasn’t the best room I’ve stayed in, but it was clean and functional, so I’ll count that as a win. Lots of exposed pipe and brick, which I’ve noticed in a few different buildings – maybe just the age of the city.
We went to a Japanese restaurant called Otto for dinner, where I had some Yakitori, which was pretty good. The atmosphere was nice and it was the first time that I was surprised by being waited on in English, when I figured French would be the go-to. After a bit of a walk-around the neighborhood where there are an absolute ton of restaurants, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant patio for a drink or two. I couldn’t help myself and ended up getting a couple tacos, but I wasn’t expecting it to come with a big salad and rice too. The feasting had only just begun.
Day 2
It was calling for rain and thunderstorm, so we decided to save some of the more outdoorsy stuff for the following day. We went out in the morning in search of some bagels, which I heard were supposed to be good in Montreal. I’m not sure if it’s just the area we were in, but there wasn’t really that many places that just served bagels. We ended up at a place called Hinnawi Bros and got some coffee and breakfast, which wasn’t that good to be honest, but we were hungry and in need of caffeine.
We stopped by a big mall, I think it was Eaton’s, and stayed cool inside for a little bit – it was pretty hot outside that day. Wandered around, grabbed a couple things at Uniqlo, got some coffee’s and headed back out to lunch. We ended up walking to the famous Schwartz deli and lined up outside (it was still hot and a little sunny at the time, thankfully). That place seems like a restaurant that hasn’t changed in 50+ years, but the food was amazing. Made me think of a place you’d expect to see in New York, the guys waiting tables were older and nice, if a bit gruff. It seems like everyone sits at a table for 6, and we were packed in with a family of four. The sandwiches were worth waiting for, the meat was tender and the spices on it were perfect. I can really see why this has become an institution.
After heading back to pick up the car, we drove down to the old Olympic Stadium area to go to the Biodome zoo. It seems like most of the rain hit during a 5 minute stretch while we were driving, and thank god because there was a lot of it all at once. The Biodome is a pretty neat zoo, with 3 main areas: A tropical area with macaws, capybaras, some monkeys and the like, an arctic area with penguins, and a more native Canadian area with some lake critters, including a couple beavers and some big sturgeons. After visiting the animals, we took a look for the gift shop, which is usually unavoidable but is actually kind of tricky to find in this place, and it wasn’t really a great shop either – they had animal figures for giraffes, wolves, and elephants, which weren’t even there, but didn’t have a bunch of their star animals like the lynx… a missed opportunity!
After heading back for a quick break, we wandered around looking for a place to eat. There were a shocking amount of Japanese restaurants, but we had just eaten at one, so we picked a Persian restaurant that had good reviews. It was decent eating but the place was pretty empty during a busy time, so I hope they are doing okay! After that, we ended up at an Irish pub for a couple drinks. As we walked in, the place seemed deserted, but we got waved over to another section, quietly. There was an Irish guy in the back, in the crowd, telling stories. It was hard to make it all out because we were a bit far away, but there was a goodish sized group of people hanging on his every word. After he finished, there was also a two man band that was playing on guitar and fiddle. The guitarist sang, and while they were decent performers, the song lyrics were awful. It was like reading a paragraph from wikipedia in song form, he would sing a year and the name of a person, and then something about them or what they did in a verse, was so bad it was funny. We enjoyed a few beers and then headed back.
Day 3
It was a little cooler and clear weather that day, which was perfect, as we took off in the morning, grabbed a latte, and climbed up Mount Royal, which the city was named for. We were only a few minutes away from the base of the trail up the mountain. It was some steep climbing, but once we got to the top, there were some nice views of the city. The trail back down was a little more relaxed. It was very lush on the mountain and I imagine it looks great in the fall. There was a little rest area and shop near the bottom which also had a great view and let us continue to fuel up on caffeine for the day ahead.
The next mission was to find some good poutine. I found some recommendations online, and while most of the best ones sounded like they were pretty far out of our way, there was one near old Montreal, which was where we were headed, called Brit & Chips. We both got some fish and a big plate of poutine, which was very tasty. Extra tasty even after the big mountain hike. After a satisfying meal, we continued on.
Old Montreal seems like a very touristy area. There are souvenir shops lining all the streets, as well as some beautiful old buildings. Besides popping into one of the shops briefly, we didn’t spend too much time there. Instead, we headed over to the river and jumped on a bit Ferris Wheel. It looks like there was a whole amusement area down there, with zip lines, fun stuff for kids, and I believe the Cirque du Soleil tents. We got a great view of Old Montreal from the Ferris Wheel.
With that complete, we checked off all the big things we wanted to make sure to do. The Olympic area, Old Montreal, the mountain, bagels, poutine, and Schwartz. We were getting a bit tired, so we hopped the subway most of the way back and went back to the room for a little break. After that, we headed out to Gyu-Kaku, a Japanese BBQ place for some tasty meats. The place was pretty good quality and the atmosphere was nice. This was one of the only times where a server started talking to us in French (and he apologized and immediately switched to fluent English). Another tasty meal for the books.
Day 4
We had a busy few days, but they were a lot of fun (and I really enjoyed the food). Between those full days, I believe we got over 25k steps each day, and they weren’t easy steps either – the city is very hilly. It was mostly smooth sailing on the way back until we got to the other side of Toronto, but that’s just typical of the 401 I suppose. It was good to come back and relax after all that walking. I’d definitely go back there some day to see even more of it.