Second road trip stop, Montreal. I had planned to stop instead in Quebec City, but after my initial CS host fell through and I couldn’t find another, I found one in Montreal.
This visit simply re-affirmed many of my previously held opinions of the city from my first visit in 2008.
This time, I was staying downtown near Place des Arts in a new building called Loft des Arts. It’ll be a nice building for sure, but they aren’t quite finished yet. The inside of the elevator was still wrapped in a protective layer, there were missing walls and mouldings in the halls and there were still-exposed wall innards in the lobby. The trees outside were laying on the ground waiting to be planted.
My host, an older (not old) francophone real-estate investor named Alain, was still waiting for the rest of his furniture and was even doing some renos while I was there. It was kinda neat to be one of the only a few people staying in an apartment complex under construction, even if there was no AC yet. (Might not sound that bad to someone in Newfoundland, but it was mid-to-high 20s for my stay there.) Also, when I first arrived, Alain took me up to the roof where there was a pool, a lounge and as you can imagine, great views of the city.
Though I didn’t get pictures of any of that.
I only had my camera out on one day, the day I went up exploring Mont Royal. Here’s a few, though none are particularly good.
1. Bixi bikes
They have these bikes all over the city that you can steal and return for some amount of dollars. Genius!
2. So many stairs
So I walked up around Mont Royal. I won’t say it nearly killed me, but it nearly nearly killed me. I think there was a bit too much lounging in weeks leading to my trip.
3. Crazy runner girl
This girl passed me, running up it and was there waiting, reflecting smugly when I finally got to the top.
4. Water show!
This is a water installation outside Place des Arts. The water jumps and shoots and turns different colours at night. Very hypnotic and thirst inducing.
More pictures on flickr, but not a whole lot more for Montreal.