Le Royale with Cheese
Montreal, Quebec. If I had been drugged, bound & gagged in another city and regained consciousness in the Alternative Backpackers in old Monteal, stumbled outside and attempted to orient myself, it would have taken me half a day to realise I was actually in Canada. This city is so different from all the other Canadian cities I have been in - especially Calgary. It's not until you see a Canadian post box or buy a coffee with a loonie that you realise you're in Nth America.
Monteal is just like being in Europe. Everyone speaks French and all the signs and menus are in French. I even saw a guy with a black and white striped shirt riding a bike with a long french stick in his front cart (not gottee or beret though). Old Monteal has cobbled streets and some remarkable old buildings including the Notre Dame cathedral. I keep running into cool looking book stores which I soon discover contain French language books only. It's still relatively warm in this part of the country - cloudy and 17 degrees today.
I really love this city. Its feels remarkably laid back for a spralling mass of 3.4 million people. Everyone is well dressed and they don't seem to be in a mad rush to get anywhere. Even your favourite scruffy backpacker is making an effort to do his hair and wear a decent shirt (much unlike when I visited Singapore years ago and proudly wore a torn & faded old Billabong shirt and sneakers while while strolling through all the plastic-looking consumers). I feel like I want to look nice here. I just get the feeling that people here are onto something. It's like they just get on with their lives without running ragged and making others' lives miserable in the race for the great American dream. They seem a tad smug about it too but not as pretentious as I'd imagined.
I've met with Tristan, my old friend from Canberra. We went to the same high school but he was a couple of years below me. We're both big alternative music fans and we've managed to score a couple of tickets to see Billy Bragg tonight!!!! I can't wait. This morning we went to the contemporary art museam. I was seriously impressed with a contemporary german painter named Neo Rauch.
We just had a massive and cheap lunch at the Spanish club. Why did we go there you ask? Well my cousin in Calgary has a Spanish partner, Jose, who lived here about 30yrs ago. Whenever he comes back he goes to the Spanish club. Anyway, he's a cool guy and he suggested I pop in for a feed if I was in Montreal. I think I will have to make this a tradition - track down the Spanish club in every big city I travel to thoughout the world for the rest of my life.
MG
Monteal is just like being in Europe. Everyone speaks French and all the signs and menus are in French. I even saw a guy with a black and white striped shirt riding a bike with a long french stick in his front cart (not gottee or beret though). Old Monteal has cobbled streets and some remarkable old buildings including the Notre Dame cathedral. I keep running into cool looking book stores which I soon discover contain French language books only. It's still relatively warm in this part of the country - cloudy and 17 degrees today.
I really love this city. Its feels remarkably laid back for a spralling mass of 3.4 million people. Everyone is well dressed and they don't seem to be in a mad rush to get anywhere. Even your favourite scruffy backpacker is making an effort to do his hair and wear a decent shirt (much unlike when I visited Singapore years ago and proudly wore a torn & faded old Billabong shirt and sneakers while while strolling through all the plastic-looking consumers). I feel like I want to look nice here. I just get the feeling that people here are onto something. It's like they just get on with their lives without running ragged and making others' lives miserable in the race for the great American dream. They seem a tad smug about it too but not as pretentious as I'd imagined.
I've met with Tristan, my old friend from Canberra. We went to the same high school but he was a couple of years below me. We're both big alternative music fans and we've managed to score a couple of tickets to see Billy Bragg tonight!!!! I can't wait. This morning we went to the contemporary art museam. I was seriously impressed with a contemporary german painter named Neo Rauch.
We just had a massive and cheap lunch at the Spanish club. Why did we go there you ask? Well my cousin in Calgary has a Spanish partner, Jose, who lived here about 30yrs ago. Whenever he comes back he goes to the Spanish club. Anyway, he's a cool guy and he suggested I pop in for a feed if I was in Montreal. I think I will have to make this a tradition - track down the Spanish club in every big city I travel to thoughout the world for the rest of my life.
MG
posted by Matt G at 11:25 AM
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