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!

Day 3: I sat on a plane

San Francisco to Montreal

I literally didn't do anything on Day 3 but sit on a plane from San Francisco to Montreal or hang out at the airports! I got to San Francisco International Airport around 9am...which was a bit early for my 11am flight...but it gave me plenty of time to check myself in. The US are super strict with all their security issues. You have to take your shoes off before getting screened! They are very restrictive with liquids brought onto the plane. Even a family with a baby carrying milk or other liquids get checked heavily!

The plane trip from San Francisco to Montreal was very turbulent! I felt more tired on my 5 hour flight than the 12 hour flight from Auckland to SF!! (no joke!) The bad thing about travelling West to East is the time you lose - 2 hours for me!

Anyway getting myself from the Airport to the Hotel was an interesting experience. I thought about just being lazy and catching a cab from the airport to hotel...save myself time and problems in a foreign city where they speak predominantly French. But when I got out of the airport I couldn't see the taxi stand!! I was walking around like an idiot and just thought OK I'll catch the Shuttle Bus downtown (I really need to get my glasses prescription fixed cuz I could barely read the signs!)...I read in my travel guides earlier that this was a good option as the airport is quite far away and a taxi would be expensive. So I hopped on just when the shuttle was going off! I think it was a good 30-40 minutes getting downtown. I'm impressed with their shuttle bus system! When I got off at Central Station...there's another shuttle bus that takes you directly to the doorstep of your hotel! How good is that? All for C$13!! Perfect for the clueless traveller like me!

When I eventually arrived at the hotel...my Dad suggested a Chinese meal at Chinatown, only a 5 minute walk away. That option sounded great as I had spent the day before eating burger and fries!! Chinatown is quite big here too...obviously not to the scale of SF but big enough to find decent food and finally have some rice!

Day 2: San Francisco on my own!

As I only had one more day left in San Francisco - I decided to join a "Super Sightseeing Tour". There was the option to join longer tours (tours that go for 5-8 hours) that takes you to the outskirts of San Francisco City such as Sausalito & Muir Woods. However, I ended up just doing the city tour that went for 3 hours...basically a quick overview of San Francisco the City itself. I must say it was pretty good to have someone guiding you on a tour, rather than exploring the city yourself and not knowing the history of it all. The driver/guide was very knowledgeable and gave us the history of all the sights we visited including:

• Golden Gate Bridge - yes again! But it's like you can't get enough of it!! Unlike the cruise, we actually had a chance to walk onto it and take more pictures. There was a security guard at the entrance of the Golden Gate Bridge checking bags. I'm not sure if that is due to the US being very cautious with security now or if it's always been like that. Again, once your on the bridge you get magnificent water views too!

View of the Bridge Again! See how perfect the weather was? Just brilliant!

• Golden Gate Park - just next to the Bridge is the Golden Gate Park. Apparently it's just as big as Central Park in New York. It's a pretty park...you can do all sorts of outdoor activities there...very pleasant and not too far away from downtown. We took a quick stop at the Conservatory of Flowers...more for a photo session than anything. The guide told us that the park gets VERY BUSY on the weekends - as people in San Francisco do not have a backyard (really, they don't...it's all just buildings!), so they all flock to the park to be in the 'outdoors'.

The Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park

• Twin Peaks - this is where you can see the entire view of San Francisco City. I took quite a few photos of this...it's interesting to see how the city is just full of buildings and not many trees or greens!! Still it was a great view of the city...you could see all the major city buildings such as the Transamerica Pyramid building, Coit Tower, another view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge (this bridge takes you to Oatlands & Berkeley).

View of SF City from Twin Peaks - Urban America! (If you look closely you can see Bays Bridge)

View of the Golden Gate Bridge from Twin Peaks - apparently most of the time it's covered in fog...so we were lucky to see it!

Ok, it's gonna take me quite a while to update on everything I did/saw on the tour so now its just going to be in brief point form!

• Chinatown - I actually went back to Chinatown after the tour to do my own exploring! Being Chinese, I just felt like I had to go in there and walk around the place. There's definitely A LOT of shops and restaurants there! My gosh, the number of restaurants!! If you were to eat Chinese food for a whole year, I don't think you can still finish eating the whole Chinatown strip. The first Chinese to arrive in SF were obviously from the Gold Rush days...It's interesting to note that wherever the Chinese people go...everything is still set up the old Chinese way. Another interesting thing was the number of Hunan style restaurants - I don't remember seeing Hunan style restaurants in Sydney! But yes, it's still predominantly the Cantonese living around Chinatown. (ok, the 'brief' point form thing didn't work here!)

Walking the Streets of Chinatown...

• North Beach - This is where the Italians settled...so there's a lot of good eateries here and you will not find one Starbucks in sight!
• Nob Hill - also known as "Snob Hill" in the old days. This is where all the mansions and early millionaires used to live (such as the Stanford guy that founded Stanford University). After the 1906 earthquakes, all the Victorian Mansions were destroyed and only 1 is remaining (which is currently owned by some Men's only club - I can't remember the name!) They have since built big hotels around the area after the names of those rich people!
• Civic Center - City Hall - Opera House - Asian Art Museum - Financial District - we only drove around the block...
• Postcard Row in Pacific Heights - Victorian homes - once I get my photos uploaded you should recognise these houses from "Full House" and "Kindergarten Cop"!!!

Postcard Row - Can you spot the Full House house?

• Lombard Street - known as the crookedest street on earth! We didn't drive up it...just looked at it through the coach!

In the arvo, I did more exploring mainly around the Chinatown area...and proceeded to do some shopping too! I didn't think I'd bother with shopping until I get to New York but the shops in SF were just so close to the hotel that I couldn't really stop myself! Yes, and there is a new Westfield shopping centre there too...with Bloomingdales opening next week! Talk about Westfield trying to take over the world haha. I bought American branded clothing such as GAP & Abercrombie & Fitch just for the sake of it!!

Union Square

Before arriving in SF my brother warned me about the number of beggars on the streets. He was right. Pretty much every corner you turn there is a homeless guy begging for money. Also at night, every other corner you turn there's people playing music! Whether it be a solo saxaphonist, a jazz band or an Acapella group...there's music keeping the city alive and active!!
Spending the entire day outdoors and on my feet for 4 hours...i was dead tired by dinner!! I went to a diner just on the otherside of the hotel - Lori's Diner for typical American hamburger & fries...it was pretty good!! And I think a diner is the only place I feel comfortable walking into by myself!! I got back to the hotel just in time for the Season 3 Premiere for Grey's Anatomy too :P So yes, I have fully submersed myself into the American culture!! (not that it was a hard transition considering how its like back home!)

Lori's Diner - where I had dinner - complete with Burgers, Fries & a large coke!

Next stop: MONTREAL, CANADA!!

First Stop: San Francisco

DAY 1

So I have finally arrived in the beautiful Northern Californian city of - San Francisco!

• It started with a 3 hour journey from Sydney to Auckland.
• 2.5 hour wait at Auckland airport for the connecting flight. (and thanks to Dad's business class tickets, I got to go into the business lounge to wait).
• Stringent hand baggage checks on board the flight to San Francisco - Yes they still don't allow you to take on lip gloss, contact lense solution or moisturiser onto the plane! (which is what they chucked out of my bag...apparently the contact lense solution would have been ok if I had a smaller bottle!) And yes, I was disorganised enough to NOT check what items I can/cannot bring on board!
• 12 hour flight across the Pacific Ocean whereby I still managed to cram 3 movies and some sleep before touching down in the USA.

The weather today was fabulous!! Not too hot or cold, just warm enough to wear T-shirt and jeans to get around the place. It's the sunny California I have always imagined. (or more like the ones depicted in numerous movies and TV shows!). We are staying in the Westin Hotel, right in the middle of the Union Square shopping area. There are all the usual American department stores here - Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstorm...so in a way it's a shopping mecca. But the minute we put our bags in the hotel we headed towards the most touristy place possibly on the planet - Fisherman's Wharf!!

The Entrance of The Westin. St. Francis - where I stayed for 2 nights.

The famous Cable Cars - I think its only tourist that ride of them!

We thought walking there might be a nice way to get to know the city...and of course, San Francisco is NOT a flat city, but rather hilly!! The slopes we had to climb reminded me of Coogee's Arden Street! After climbing a few slopes, we thought we'd do the tourist thing and get on the famous San Franciscan Cable Car! We travelled nicely along, but then the cable car stopped for a while. Apparently something technical so we decided to hop off the cable car and walk to the wharfs instead...cuz it was actually all down hill to get to the wharfs. We walked through Chinatown...which by the way is HUGE! Whilst just looking at the streetscapes and the numerous terrace apartments...I was instantly reminded of those Amy Tan novels such as the Joy Luck Club!

Fisherman's Wharf - Pier 39 (in case it wasn't clear enough on the photo!)

The adorable Sea Lions - enjoying the sun and sunbaking!

Golden Gate Bridge from afar

We took a 1 hour cruise around the San Francisco Bay area from Fisherman's Wharf which was really relaxing! The cruise had a tacky American recorded tour voiceover whilst the boat was in motion...but it was still nice! (Hey, its America!) The cruise took us close to "Alcatraz" and of course the "Golden Gate Bridge". Although we have the Sydney Harbour Bridge that we are so proud of...the Golden Gate Bridge is still marvellous...especially when you get a close look at the bridge and realise it's such a structurally and architectually amazing bridge!! It's huge...or more like long!(It's 1.7 miles long!) The Bay area is really windy...so even though the day was rather hot, it was freezing on the cruise due to the strong winds!! There were plenty of windsurfers enjoying themselves on the water with the winds.

Golden Gate Bridge - closer view...

So that's about all we managed to achieve in half a day + a short stroll around Union Square to check out the atmosphere and shops at night. San Francisco is definitely an alive and happening city. But for Day 1...I am just way too tired to go out and see more! Right now...the comfort of a flat bad is looking very good!!