i got recommended a cool hostel to stay at while i was here in Montreal. i've found that usually if you get recommended a place, its pretty good and generally thats how i travel. i might have a bit of a look on hostelworld.com beforehand but i hardly ever book anything, mainly because i'm an indecisive sod but also i think its half the fun of traveling. i guess i've got away with it quite easily because i haven't really been traveling in peak season, so i might have to change my routine pretty soon. gay marriage is legal in Canada. i think Quebec as a provance was one of the first to make it legal. so i guess i shouldn't have been surprised when i saw a mass of rainbow flags and men in hot pants right near my hostel.
i met some really nice people while i was at my hostel so we did a fair bit of sightseeing together. one day we hired bikes and rode them to the top of Mount Royal. it was a pretty tough ride up, mainly because the bikes were really heavy but the view from the top was nice and so was the ride down. actually, Montreal got gots its name from Mount Royal. makes sense when you think about! while i was on my bike i noticed quite a number of markets and stuff going on around the city and not only on weekends too. there are some great little streets around Montreal full of vintage clothing as well as new labels.
overall i think Montreal is quite edgy and a bit dirty in places, but i prefer that. probably the most touristy area is the old town. mainly because its got lots of old buildings and restaurants, also it has the Notre Dame Basilica, which i walked passed but i didn't bother going in, A) because you had to pay to get in it and B) i've seen so many churches and basilicas, i've lost count.
winter Canada sounds pretty greuling, its so cold infact that that Montreal has an underground city, full of shops and restaurants to escape the elements. while i'm sort of on the topic of architecture, there was a building that i spotted while i was walking along the dock in the Old town that i found interesting. i later found out it was called 'Habitat 67' and it was built to demonstrate cheap and affordable living for the Expo in 1967. it was apparently meant be be pulled down after the Expo but it was spared. i'm kind of in two mind of whether i like it or not. on one hand it looks like someones thrown a bunch of block on top of each other, in other words, a bit of an eye sore. but then again i like the idea of affordable living. it kind of reminds me of how IKEA are currently trying to make affordable housing (click here if your interested finding out more about IKEA's affordable housing). apparently Habitat 67 isn't so affordable these days, infact there very much in demand and expensive. i think i'd like them more if they were less of them. i'll leave a picture of the apartment block so you can make up your own mind.
i got told that i should try some smoked meat while i was here and that a deli called Schwartz's on St Laurent st is the best place to get it from, so i decided that i would check it out. when i got there i was shocked to find that the line was running out the door. i had to wait a little but but holy moley it was worth it. i sat down and went to order a mixture of stuff but and the waiter said 'no, no, no, you don't want that, i'll tell you what your after' i laughed because i thought i was having a Seinfeld moment, instead of the Soup Nazi i had the Meat Nazi. i decided to run with it and i'm glad i did, it was delicious! i think if i got too much stuff i would've had taste overload.
i get the feeling that food is a big part of the people of Montreal. there are plenty of restaurants and you see people eating out quite a bit. supposedly seafood is really good here.
in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in 1969, John lennon and Yoko Ono did one of there 'Bed-in' protests against the Vietnam war. i tried the Amsterdam Hilton when i was there, because it was the first of the bed-in protests, but nobody knew where it was, but i guess the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal is a close second. so casually walked into this swanky hotel and got in the lift to go up to room 1742. i thought someone might stop me because i wasn't staying there, but i guess they were too busy to even notice me. there was a little plaque on the door that had John and Yoko's name on it. it was pretty cool because that was the room they recorded the anthem 'Give Peace a Chance'.
incidentally, while i was here there was a John and Yoko exhibition at one of the art galleries. it was pretty cool, they had some of John and Yoko's art work, the guitar John used during the recording of 'Give Peace a Chance' and various pictures and recordings they made together. there was this one piece where it was a white phone on the wall. i was a little confused about it so i asked one of the people working at the gallery what it was all about. apparently Yoko calls once a day and who ever is lucky enough to answer gets to chat with her. i imagine (pardon the pun) that most people would say stupid stuff like 'oh, i'm such a BIG fan Miss Ono' but you know what? if i answered i'd ask her the tough questions like 'why did you break up the greatest band of all time?'.
i'm a fan of John Lennon's music, but i really hate the way people (and Yoko) has made him into this marytr feature. i read a fair bit about John and he's not perfect. if you really wanted to be honest you could call him a hypocrite. for instance in the song 'imagine' he sings 'imagine no possession, its easy if you try...' then you see him in the filmclip in a massive mansion and his wife is wearing a fur coat. i'm not denying that he did some great things for so many people and for for peace, i just think that he should be remembered as a human being with good points and bad points, just like the rest of us. i think we can all admit to being hypocrites every now and then, i sure can. i think its funny how when people die, sometimes history changes to make that person sound better (or sometimes, worse) and not exactly what they were.
while i was in Montreal i decided i would spend a couple of days in Quebec City. to catch a greyhound bus there it was going to cost me something like $40 one way but i got a really hot tip from my hostel that there was a guy that has a van that drives back and forth every day he picked you up and dropped you off for $25, so i went with him. he was a really nice guy actually. he pointed out a few good cheap eats as well as a couple of places to have a drink.
the hostel i stayed in was really nice. really friendly and homely. i met some nice travellers there too. one girl from Spain who couldn't stop talking about how much she loved Australia when she visited a couple of years ago and how much she wanted to come back. i had no idea how hard it was to get into Australia. i had the feeling she was going to propose to me so she could get citizenship (just quietly, i was hoping she would - she was red hot!). anyway, enough of that. more about Quebec City.
Quebec City is a really beautiful little place, i think it was founded by the french way back when, and then it was taken over with a surprise attack from the english. i found it very hard to believe i was in North America, because it actually reminded me very much of europe, with the beautiful and very european looking Château Frontenac Hotel and various cute little stone cottages and little windy lanes built around it, also the original city was a walled, which is not to uncommon for european cities. but there was something different about it, it took me a little while to put my finger on it, but i think i figured out what it was: the lighting. it seemed way too bright, the way light was hitting the buildings seemed totally different to the way it does in europe. i might think that because i travelled europe mainly in winter and early summer but thats my theory, and i'm sticking to it!
both Montreal and Quebec City are part of the provance of Quebec, which means they are bilingual, speaking both english and french. i didn't really run into much trouble in Montreal because most people could speak english, but i did have a few troubles in Quebec City, everything is pretty much in French. i heard the french that they use here is different to the french spoken in france. its probably a dialect. but in recent years the have made a real effort to improve the quality of the french that is spoken in Quebec. which is similar to what i heard in Paris about 'the immortals' (click here to read about my Paris blog) to find out the reason they speak french in an English speaking country, your gonna have to read on a little further, for now i'm going to talk about the Citadalle fort.
it was built because the English owned the area and kept getting attacked by the Yanks so they built the Citadalle to fend off future attacks. it ended up being a big waste of money because the Americans never attacked again, but maybe that was becuase they knew they didn't stand a chance. the Citadalle is built in a star shape so that no matter which way you attack it, it doesn't have a weak point. regardless of how battle proof the Citadalle is, the government were really worried that the people of Quebec might side with American's so thats why they allowed the people to speak french. thats why people here still speak french. today the citadalle is still used as an army barracks and the Governor General lives there too, but you can do tours of area.
from what i can gather Quebec as a provence is quite different to the rest of Canada. not only do they speak french they apparently they do a lot of things the french way ie: tax etc. recently they wanted to be seperate from Canada. they even went to the poles and only missed out on being there own country by 1%. i wouldn't be surprised that in the near future that they do seperate.
i liked the dock area. they had some nice little shops and areas you could sit, have a drink and people watch for a while. another nice little area to chilled out in were the leafy parks near the Citadalle. they were actually designed by the guy who designed New York's Central park.
while i was here i ended up running into a girl and a guy that i met in Montreal and we ended up going for a drink in the revolving restaurant. it sounded pretty corny to me, and when i saw the menu i was glad we were only staying for a drink. but one thing that was well in my price range was the view. i sipped my drink very slowly and revolved as many times as i could before reality set in and i got given the bill.
apparently the best maple syrup come from Quebec (though i person from Quebec told me that, so they may be a little bias) so i had some pancakes and maple syrup. there were two types of syrup i could try. they stuff they make all year round, and the legit stuff that comes from the maple trees. i tried them both and the legit stuff was so much better. the waitress told me the best time for maple syrup is just after winter when they gather the sap from the maple trees and make the syrup. i got told i should try another delicacy from this part of the world, a thing called 'poutain'. i find it hard to believe that a french person could think of such a horrible, fatty dish. it consists of french fries, with cheese curd and gravy all melted together! i shared it with a couple of other people, i took a few mouthfuls but that was more than enough for me. i could almost feel my cholesterol rising with every bite.
in the provence of Quebec there really proud of singer Celine Dion, shes probably one of there biggest exports. but i dunno, i'd be disowning her pretty quick smart! have you ever seen her do a version of AC/DC's 'Shook me all night long'? it was pretty cringe worthy, i'm pretty sure Bon Scott rolled in his grave, and he didn't even sing it! check the video below to see what i mean...
while i was walking around town i went into an American Apparel shop to have a look around. i was just wandering around, minding my own business when a girl that worked at the shop asked me if i needed a hand with anything. i said 'no thanks, i'm just having a look around' from that she must've noticed my accent and asked me where i came from, to which i replied 'i'm from Australia'. she said 'oh, i met an Australian guy while i was traveling overseas...' i was like 'oh yeah, there's only 20 odd million of us, i might know hime, whats his name?' she said 'Dan Brumm'. i nearly died. Dan Brumm used to be the Audio Engineer i used to work with when i had to do radio ads back in Brisbane. i thought it might have been another Dan Brumm, so i described him. sure enough it was him. i couldn't believe i was in Quebec City and i met someone that had a friend in common. we ended up getting on quite well and that night she took me out with a couple of friends. it was funny because i noticed all these people were going up to one of her male friends and chatting to him and getting photos with him. i said to him later 'geez, your a popular guy' he laughed and played it down. it wasn't until later when i asked him what he does with him self that he revealed that he was currently on Canada's version of 'Australian Idol' (hence explaining why everyone kept going up to him)
its hard for me to pick which city i liked better, becuase i liked them both, but in different ways. i think Montreal is edgy and cool, and i thought Quebec City was european, but i think Quebec City was probably a little more touristy. for instance both cities had murals around the place, but i found there was a better chance you would see something spray painted in Montreal than you would in Quebec City. Quebec City had more of a polished feel to it, with the murals most likely legal and painted with a brush. not to say they they weren't cool, they were just different.
next i'm off to Toronto via Canada's capital city, Ottawa. more when i get there.
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