Thursday, September 4, 2008

What we did in Montreal

Here's a quick itinerary of things Anna, Erica and I did in Montreal over the Labor Day weekend:

Saturday
* Canadian Center for Architecture (on my own): I had a private tour because no one else showed up. The building was beautiful: it's partially an original building and partially a new addition. It houses the 3rd best known architectural library in the world! There were no pictures allowed inside (ditto for most other museums), but I did take a few outside pictures of the sculpture garden
* Lunch in China Town: Vietnamese: not bad, but not amazing (by this point Anna and Erica have arrived)
* Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal: quite interesting exhibits; again: no pictures. The museeum has a very pretty garden with a fountain outside. My favorite thing, however, were life statues of conjoined twin characters (reminder: find out the name and include the link)
* Dinner at Trinity: a beautiful Greek tapas restaurant. The portions were rather small, but we managed to get full. It was really nice to sit outside, other than the fact that everyone and their mother smokes in Montreal
* After dinner, Erica wanted to check out La Boom club...omg, we were at least 10 years older than the other 5 people in the club; the music was lame; the club looked ghetto--> we left after 10 minutes (good thing we at least did not have to pay the cover: our hotel gave us free passes).
* After escaping La Boom, Anna and I went to a salsa club 64/9 conveniently located 3 blocks from our hotel! LOVED IT! The music was awesome, people asked us to dance: it was great. I stayed only till 1:30 am (because I woke up at 4 am the previous day), but Anna stayed there till almost 3 am! What a trooper ;)

Sunday
* The plan was to wake up super early to go to Atwater Market. That did not happen, but we still managed to get there by 10 am. It was lovely. Very fresh produce, flowers, cheese, baked goods, and we also had breakfast there
* We then went to the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal to see the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit: it was astonishing to see how someone can be capable of designing such pretty clothing ensembles. And also, it is amazing to look at the workmanship of men and women who actually made those garments. Some of my favorites were the jackets inspired by Van Gogh's paintings.
* and then it was time for a nap
* Then, we took a trolley through the Montreal Botanical Garden.
* Next on the list was Old Montreal and dinner at The Keg: steak, baked potatoes, salad and unlimited glasses of Diet Pepsi. It was good. Oh, and mojitos! Old Montreal is very pretty: old streets, outside cafes and restaurants, families and couples walking around. We also attempted to do some shopping, but that just did not happen.
* Back to 64/9 for salsa

Monday
* Anna and Erica were leaving at 1 pm, so Anna decided she just wanted to visit the Latin Quarter, have breakfast and walk around for a bit. Breakfast was good, but once again, we were unsuccessful in our shopping endeavours (other than Erica!).
* after the girls left I took a 2 hour nap. And then I tried to decide if I really wanted to get out of bed and explore more of the City or just stay in, order room service and watch HGTV and TLC.
* I ended up going to the Mount Royal, and I'm really glad I did: the views were beautiful, it was nice to go and spend some time in the nature (lol). The only thing, I was surrounded by couples and groups of friends, and big families barbecuing and picnicking, which all made me somewhat sad
* I then went to another little neighborhood around Prince Arthur Street: people sitting, eating and drinking outside; lights; music; couples kissing by the fountain: right: not for me. So I ordered some Indian food and headed back to my hotel room. Ate, watched TV and went dancing, because after all, it was Monday

Tuesday
* My last day in Montreal. The only thing I did, which was so worth it, was a trip to The Original Fairmount Bagel Bakery, where I had a sesame seed bagel with cream cheese and lox: divine!

Then it was time to pick up my bags, and fly back to reality.

Thoughts: overall, I really liked Montreal. It was great to hear French language, enjoy the old architecture, taste great food, dance some salsa, and of course spend time with Anna and Erica. I wish less people smoked, and that they were just a bit nicer. I also wish it wasn't so expensive. But, I would still highly recommend Montreal as a vacation spot. Till next time!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! What a fun time you had!

Paz

Sasha said...

Oh this is definitely gonna help. Thanks!

Why don't I ever visit this blog? It's fabulous.