I've never been to Canada before. I view it as too similar culturally to the US, and the US bores me. This Thanksgiving we are doing a Disney trip with Stephanie's family, and with the way the days worked out, I had a few days extra to take off. I'd either take Miles or have my parents watch him. They were able to watch him. Montreal has an old town which looked cute, and flights and hotels were cheap, and it is just a few hours of travel, so I decided to give it a go.
Unfortunately, our veterinarian screwed us. Our cat had dental problems and they said that one week of recovery would be enough. They never mentioned that he would need to be in a neck brace for a minimum of two weeks. In addition, he decided to tear his stitches and became infected when we had him reexamined the day before the trip. So here I am alone in Montreal.
I picked the Old Town for its cobblestone streets, its interesting looking port, and its convenient location near underground tunnels, the subway, and Chinatown. I am staying in an apartment hotel on the twenty first floor. They did not mention the floor number on the hotel website.
I took an uber from the airport, as the information desk recommended it as being cheaper. I believe I last used Uber in France, and Montreal is for all intents and purposes, French. I noticed that the sky looked very nice while we drove to the hotel, so although arriving at 4:00 and being tired, I forced myself out. Who knew if I'd get another night with good lighting.
First, I walked across the street to the square in front of the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. I continued down the street to the tourist information center, across from the Montreal City Hall, which was already closed.
With nowhere in mind to go, I turned east toward the Port. I took a look down a street that looked old, but was under considerable construction. I continued on.
I walked until I reached the Jaques-Cartier Pier. To my left was a ferris wheel, which to my astonishment, was moving. It was quite windy, which brings my thoughts to the temperature.
Montreal is cold. I live in Florida, so I am used to it being hotter and hotter every year. I came prepared, but my body is not used to it. It always amazes me just how cold it could be elsewhere when it is just so darn hot in Florida. Additionally, this is only November. I have to imagine that it gets colder in January. It is currently in the 20s. I have something warm to wear around my neck, that can extend to my face. However, if I put it over my mouth and nose, then my breathing fogs up my glasses, which I need in order to see at night. Without it on my face, my nose freezes. I have been wearing my hat with a heavy beanie on top of it. I went out yesterday without gloves, as I wanted to use my camera. This was a mistake. It is just too cold, even with pockets, to go out without gloves. I have found that I have to alternate between keeping gloves on both hands and having a glove on just the left hand to hold the camera and have a gloveless right hand to press the button. Plus, I wear my camera belt with bag around my hips, so I now have to extend it to go on top of a jacket, and to make sure it doesn't cover my pockets. It is much easier to use a camera in warmer weather.
From the port, I took a few pictures but didn't wait until sunset. It was too cold and the port was too in the open. I returned to the hotel apartment.
Back at the apartment, I exchanged lenses with my low light lenses and ventured out again. My goal was a local Japanese Ramen restaurant, but I stopped back in the Notre-Dame square first for some pictures.
Chinatown is just a few blocks away. To my left stood two very green towers, obviously a place for aliens, and the strangest Holiday Inn that I have ever seen, with a smoke blowing tiny structure on top. I arrived at the ramen place and walked up the stairs.
I had miso ramen and gyoza. The gyoza in particular was amazing. The fellow that worked there explained that the chef had worked as a chef for a few years in Japan and had brought recipes back to Canada. Surprisingly, the menu offered vegeterian ramen broths, something available nowhere in Japan. It was probably the best Japanese food that I have found outside of Japan.
After some strange dreams through the night, where I was waking up and it was 3:30pm and I had slept through the day, I woke up at a normal time. While eating, I noticed that a rodent scurried across the floor in the kitchen and then poked its head out from under the stove. This is a fully furnished two bedroom apartment, with pictures on the wall, curtains, tables, a dishwasher, and even has a washer and dryer. Plus, I wouldn't think that the twenty first floor would have rodents. I would be wrong. I emailed the management who claimed they would come by and do something about it. I do not know if they did but I luckily haven't seen anything since.
I eventually took off for the Montreal Botanical Gardens. Nearby is a highly acclaimed biodome with different sections for different animals from different regions, but apparently it is all closed for refurbishment until 2019. Behind the biodome is the Olympic stadium from the 1976 Olympics and supposedly one of the world's tallest leaning towers. I was not aware that anyone was keeping track of the heights of "leaning towers." In any case, I noticed an outside elevator ascending and I made sure not to partake in this.
As I approached the front of the Gardens, I caught my first real sight of snow.
The outside "gardens" were open to everyone at this time of year. Luckily, they had greenhouses with plants. It was actually quite beautiful, however many of the plants were plants that you would see in Florida. I spent a lot of time photographing flowers, and as I finally left, I looked down and saw that I had the setting wrong on the lens, which would explain why I had such trouble focusing. Therefore, I don't have much to show for it.
It looks like I spoke too soon. The rodent just scurried right next to me to dive under the couch just a foot away from me. This does not please me.
After leaving the greenhouses, I walked along the path toward the Insectarium, also included in the price of the gardens. I passed a "garden" which was made up of grass and covered areas.
Online descriptions mentioned that the Insectarium had live insects. While technically true, it was only in one exhibit. The rest were of dead insects on display, of which I have no interest. The area with live insects had two sets of plants with branches between them. I spent time trying to get a good picture of the ants under low light. I was not very successful. It was interesting watching them carrying pieces of flower along the branches however.
Back outside, I decided to walk towards and the Chinese and Japanese Gardens. The only thing alive were the squirrels. I saw a black squirrel and I do not recall ever seeing a black squirrel before. The Asian structures were beautiful, but even some of what I assumed were statues or rock structures, were covered with more bags.
Next up was Gay Village, which reportedly housed the first North American gay establishment, a cake shop. I do not believe that it still exists, as I tried to search for it online and came up empty. In the summertime, the streets are blocked off from cars, but this time of the year the streets are open. Online guides recommended going on two streets, one of which had antique shops. Also, its metro station Beaudry, has rainbow colors. When my metro line breezed passed a heavily construction covered Beaudry station, I found out that it was currently closed for remodeling.
I walked a few minutes back toward Gay village, along St. Catherine Street East, which was lined with rainbow flags and a rainbow decorated pizza place. I turned onto the antique shop street, Amherst, but after a bit of wandering, I did not see any shops. The area was actually a bit dreary. I hadn't eaten lunch so I decided to walk the twenty minutes or so back to Chinatown. I passed a few murals along the way, but had already put my camera away as I had originally planned to take the subway there.
Tomorrow it is supposed to snow.
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