Day 4 & 5: Exploring Montreal

Montreal is an interesting city...I haven't been to any other city quite like it (Not that any 2 cities are the same!). There's the whole French/English dichotomy (French being the clear winner here! And its definitely interesting to hear French being spoken in North America!) The old vs new Montreal. The whole underground shopping system they have here. It's like you feel as though you're in Europe but in actual fact it's Canada!

The Streets of Montreal on a rainy Saturday morning - kinda how I imagined the East Coast to be like.

I would say I definitely like the charm of Old-Montreal! Our hotel was located in the 'downtown' area of Montreal - the part where its mainly concrete buildings (and to get my bearings right I would look up at the KPMG building located not far from us!) But Montreal - the city, is not big itself...so the 'touristy' part of Montreal was only a short 15-20 minute walk away. It's quite amazing that when you do walk to the old part of town...you do feel like you have stepped backwards in time. The roads are still cobbled stone roads...The buildings and architecture is still from the colonial times. It looks no different to any old European City. There are many boutique shops selling all kinds of antiques and goodies...and a whole variety of restaurants to choose from. On my 2nd day exploring Montreal, I walked through this great little alley selling handmade jewellery. I thought it was a cute little discovery!

Notre-Dame Basilica

Inside the Basilica - Isn't it just beautiful?

The Notre-Dame Basilica is quite amazing as well. It's where all the tourist flock to, but of course with good reason. The interior of the basilica is amazing with the deep blue colour in the background. I had to use my binoculars to take a closer look at the intricate details inside. It was actually designed by an Irish Protestant Architect that later converted to Catholism in marvel of his own building and so he could be burried there!

There's other historic buildings around the area but I guess for me its more charming to just take a walk around the area and get lost in the alleys and roads. I liked looking at all the old buildings marvelling the architecture and just observing how the buildings fitted in with each other.

Hotel de ville de Montreal (Montreal City Hall) - I just had to capture a photo of my Canadian red trees!

Streets of Old-Montreal

Montreal is also known as the City of Churches

We actually had pretty lousy weather on Day 4. It wasn't a great day to explore the city (we did that on Day 5) so we mainly explored museums. As I have mentioned on my emails, the Museum of Fine Arts was definitely worth the visit. I didn't get to explore the entire collection (I never realised how tiring museum sighting can be!) But we saw the good ones :) Picasso, Monet, Renoir etc etc. I took some photos of those I liked in particular that I will hopefully get to upload some time! (I seem to keep saying this!) We also went to the McCord Museum - which showcases a history of Montreal/Canada. It wasn't the best museum, but it gave you a good overview of Montreal if you were absolutely clueless about the city and its History - the early settlers, the new france, the cold winters, ice hockey etc etc.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

October by Jean-Jacques dit James Tissot (This was my favourite painting from the Museum)

Other Sightings included:

• A stroll around McGill University - one of the 2 English speaking Universities in Montreal. It's right in the city too. It kinda has a USYD vibe with the old buildings and the green grass! But I think it's not as big as USYD.
• Exploring the underground shopping system. I read in my travel guides that Montreal people love to shop. I think they do just by the number of shops in their underground system that connects to each other! It's different to Asian/American shops in that they still look a bit old (I think...not as modern) I didn't buy anything but just thought I'd browse around to say I've at least explored it!
• Walk down to Port-Montreal - I'm not very interested in Ports...but once you know Montreal's History you do get more of an appreciation of the port.
• Stroll around Chinatown - I actually had Vietnamese Noodle Soup the night I was in Montreal by myself! Was a cheap and tasty option :)

The beautiful McGill University grounds

The old juxtaposed against the new

Overall I did enjoy Montreal. I wouldn't say that it is somewhere I could live (not knowing French being a main obstacle!) but it's definitely worth a visit if anyone is going to North America/Canada. There's the Montreal Olympic Park & Botanical Gardens that is supposedly a "Must Do" as well, but my time was really quite limited there! (ok I feel like i have missed something on this blog but right now I'm too tired to think of what i have missed!)
Next Stop: NYC and the drama experienced getting to this HUGE CITY!