Continuing off from the vacation to Korea last month, this time I spent three nights in Montreal with a friend. Though it sounds like I stayed for 72 hours, the distance between Toronto and Montreal (~14 hour round trip by road) means that I had 2 days of time to actually be active. North America is massive.
Day 1
This was a pretty active day. It started with a climb to Mount Royal. You can climb by a longer, gentler path or climb quickly by stairs. I took the stairs, and it’s a decent leg exercise.
On the way to the St. Lawrence River, I passed through Old Town. It definitely reminds me of French architecture and style. The massive pizza slice is from Slice + Soda, a local chain. I’m not a pizza enjoyer but this was a good pizza, highly recommended.
Then I rode a bike to St. Helen’s Island and visited the Biosphere. The ride takes about 15 - 20 minutes. The Biosphere is one of several exhibition Montreal has scattered throughout the city, based on different scientific fields. The most famous one is probably the Biodome, which has various ecosystems (polar, jungle, deciduous forest, etc.) on display. The Biosphere contains exhibitions of how wildlife interacts with human society. There wasn’t much that was worth sharing by images, I thought it was somewhat meh for an exhibition, but at least it looks cool from the outside.
Along the way to dinner, I saw a festival happening and visited it. There was a few more of these planned for the future, each based on different cultures. This one was Japanese themed. The entrance fee is $3; booths sell various goods, street food and snacks, and there was a stage at the rear where people took turns singing J-Pop songs. I tried a few of the snacks, they tasted pretty good. If you see one of these festivals during a visit, they’re worth a visit.
Dinner was quite fascinating. This place is on the outskirts of Montreal and the restaurant’s kitchen is in that orange. It’s mostly a takeout place, but there are a few benches around for seats. It’s a fast food restaurant, but the quality is actually pretty good. The drink is a signature item and it’s amazing. It’s a secret mix of orange juice with a few ingredients, I think it contains milk. Whatever it was, that drink left a deep impression. Highly recommended you visit if you haven’t.
Day 2
This is a famous gnocchi place in Uptown. Despite the day being a weekday, there was still a decent line. The gnocchi was good, it would be a perfect snack in winter.
I visited the Planeterium, but I don’t have any nice photos. The coolest exhibitions are dome-shaped theatres, but photography isn’t allowed inside. The theatres are definitely worth checking out, it’s like a 3D movie but done properly and is glasses-friendly.
Wrap up
Maybe I should have paid more attention to French classes in elementary school. I basically don’t know any French, so it restricts me to only move around in the busiest areas with lots of tourists. I think there’s a lot of cool, smaller places that I wouldn’t be able to visit with a language barrier. Still, the visit to Montreal was fun. Toronto might be the biggest city in Canada, but Montreal is a much better place to visit as a tourist.