Montreal

Just a quick note on a quick stopover in Montreal.

Before we began our journey overseas, we stopped in Montreal because I had never seen it and we were long overdue for a visit with a friend who lived there. It was only five days but that was plenty of time to see the old town and some of the major sights, eat some great food and get in a good catch up with our friends.

Montreal has some beautiful places. The old town is definitely worth a visit. We enjoyed strolling the brick streets and popping in and out of cute little stone building shops and restaurants and riding the (a bit overpriced) ferris wheel for the view of the city. We aren't really nightlife people but we heard Montreal boasts a buzzing nightlife scene filled with unique bars and exciting clubs. Some of the food was quite amazing - smoked meat sandwiches, poutine and lobster rolls were some of the highlights. We really enjoyed walking through the botanical gardens and the art museum as well (although we did get lost a couple of time in the museum's underground labyrinth). And even though it was the end of the growing season in Canada, the botanical gardens are lovely and even had a light up event in the Japanese gardens.

French was the main language spoken, but whenever we asked to switch to English, everyone was happy to accommodate. We never encountered anyone who seemed bothered that we didn’t speak French, despite hearing that might be an issue. It may help that we spent most of our time in a tourist area, but even our friend who lives there isn’t fluent and gets by perfectly fine.

Unfortunately we did have some not so pleasant experiences with our time in Montreal, mainly that every part of the city seemed to be under some type of construction. Streets blocked, orange pilons everywhere and the noise of construction vehicles around every corner. When we asked the locals if this was normal, they just shook their heads and assured us it was. Even our Airbnb backed onto a construction site that started work at 6 am every morning. It didn't give us the restful visit we'd hoped for,

The other frustration was the airport. It seems to be too small for the area and there is no train that goes into the city from there so the traffic getting in and out was some of the worst we'd seen. And the airport itself was quite crowded having long lines to get into every restaurant and lounge they had.

Over all we enjoyed seeing the other side of Canada and especially our friend who showed us around the city. Now off to Croatia!