Renewing My Love Affair With Montreal

Back in September, I finally got around to doing one of the items on my Montreal bucket list:  cycle along the Lachine canal from Old Montreal to Dorval.  I hadn't ridden my bike in years, so I was a bit shaky at the start, but as my confidence increased I remembered how much fun it was to feel the wind in my face as I passed through the Old Port to Griffintown and so on.  It was also the day I decided to renew my love affair with Montreal.

For most of 2011 I wasn't sure I would be staying in Montreal.  While I like living in Montreal, the work culture does not always align with my values.  At the end of September, though, it looked like I would be getting a new job in Montreal, so I knew I would be staying for while.  Plus,  a couple of friends were moving to the city and their excitement was already starting to rub off on me.  I remember how much fun I had when I first moved to Montreal.  There is so much to see, do and experience here and it's all easily accessible.  With respect to my social and personal life, this is the best city in which I have ever lived.  It's the only major city where I've lived where I can randomly run into someone I know (and don't work with) while walking down the street or riding the metro.

So, to renew my love affair with Montreal in 2012, I will do more of the following things I love to do here:

• Embrace winter (if it ever comes).  Go skating, tobogganing, maybe even snowshoeing - at least once a week.  Find and enjoy more tea or hot chocolate.
• Embrace summer (when it comes).  Find and enjoy new terrasses.  Eat outside on my own. Finally attend a show at the Just For Laughs festival.  Spend time at the Jazz Festival.  Have a picnic in a park.  Watch the fireworks from Jacques Cartier bridge.  Find and enjoy more shop-made ice cream.
• Walk or ride my bike just for the fun of it.  I got a bike bell in Amsterdam.  I should use it :)
• More solo street photography (outside of my monthly MEETin photo walks).
• Go to Jean Talon or Atwater market every week.
• Go to the Botanical Gardens (my favorite) or some other park once a month.
• Visit museums.  We have A LOT of museums in Montreal and admission is inexpensive.  Hmmm... I really should get an Access Montreal card.
• Explore more restaurants, especially in my own neighbourhood and around work.
• Wear fashionable clothes.  Yes, I like living in a city where I can dress nicely.  Now if I only worked in an industry that didn't think I had a job interview or a hot date every time I dressed up...

With all these plans for adventures in Montreal, I really should revive this blog and share my stories again.  My professional blog will get more attention, so I'll try to update this one once a month.

Happy 2012 everyone!

Summer?

It feels like we're living in the tropics. Almost every day starts out sunny and then winds up raining in the afternoon or evening. Despite the wet weather, I still managed to have some summer fun in Montreal. I can't believe September is around the corner already.

I was too busy with moving to get tickets to one of the Just for Laughs shows. I did manage to walk through the street festival in the Latin Quarter one evening. It was pretty cool. There were people on stilts, giant insects (picture above), bands, living statues, someone creating a sand sculpture, giant balloons, acrobatic street performers... the list goes on.

Fireworks are a big part of Montreal in the summer with the international fireworks competition. In total, I saw three shows - one from Terrasses Bonsecours in Old Montreal, one from the fire escape of my building and one, which was by far the best, from La Ronde, where the fireworks are set off. The picture above is from the last show. China put on a spectacular display! It is definitely worth the ticket price to see the show from La Ronde. Speaking of La Ronde, I am completely convinced that it is guaranteed to rain whenever I go there. Fortunately, it stopped raining in the evening so we got in a few more rides and could enjoy the fireworks.

Even after selling my car, I still went on a couple of road trips. A group of us from MEETin spent a relaxing Sunday at the Cascades Rawdon. We never go hungry at MEETin events. There was enough food for the BBQ to feed a group almost twice as big. "Swimming" in the rapids was like being in a giant, cold jacuzzi. Fortunately, the threat of rain kept the crowds away, but the rain held off until the drive home. A few weeks later, the xtreme foodies group did a day trip to Vermont where we sampled chocolate, cheeses, tea, and did a pilgrimage to the home of Ben and Jerry's. Since we couldn't bring anything back across the border, we wrapped up the trip with a picnic in a park in the mountains. We're now planning to go back in the fall when the mountains change from green to yellow, red and orange.

The "search of the best" restaurants continued. I enjoyed shark curry at an African-Reunionaise restaurant. We're planning to go back when the weather gets colder, but the event will have an "over-18" advisory because the chocolate cake was very... satisfying. Even the guys got the look that usually only women get with good chocolate. We also sought out the best Thai, Pho, southern BBQ, Old Montreal bistro, and one really good dessert place. We also enjoyed another pastry tasting, courtesy of our group's pastry chef.

Other summer fun included The Tempest at probably the only dry performance of Shakespeare in the Park, a New France ghost hunt in Old Montreal, and a walking tour of my new neighbourhood - Plateau Mont Royal.

In between all the summer activity, I'm slowing getting settled in my new place. An anniversary also came and went, which was marked with a conversation for the first time in six months. It's the start of many conversations. It's a good thing. I'll leave it at that for now.

On the move

It has been another adventure in moving this past month. The previous owners moved out of my condo in mid-June, so I have been spending the past few weeks making it home. I've painted the bedrooms, moved in most of my stuff and I am in the process of getting settled - finally! The move itself went remarkably well, but my new appliances are late, so I'm living without a fridge and stove until next week. Good thing I always plan an overlap when I do local moves, so my refrigerated and frozen food is still living at my old place. I still have some odds and ends to take care of at my old place, so at least my food isn't getting lonely ;) Meanwhile, I'm learning all the good or not-so-good take-out places in my new neighbourhood.


I have also been on the move with various road trips. On my birthday, I drove to Ottawa to order a digital SLR camera as a gift to myself. It was a beautiful summer day and a roadtrip was a great way to spend it. The next weekend, the Extreme Foodie group from MeetIn did a roadtrip to Marieville in the Eastern Townships for the Slow Food Festival, followed by wine tasting... somewhere around there. The Slow Food Festival featured a variety of locally produced food, mostly organic. The week after was the St. Jean-Baptiste long weekend, so I drove to Ottawa to pick up my new toy, then to Stouffville to visit friends, then to Whitby for a pig roast and hot tub party. Men in a mid-life crisis really should avoid the alcohol and hot tub combination. I was merely an observer, but it was like watching a train wreck. The next morning I drove with a friend to Kitchener to hang out there for the weekend. We decided to try out my new camera in Stratford - the most photogenic town in the area and one of my personal favourites. I drove back to Montreal the next day. At least I'm putting the kilometres on my car before I sell it this weekend. A blog exclusive picture from Stratford is above.

I'm still maintaining my local social life, though at a slower pace. To add to the list of MeetIn dinners, we experienced the best of Malaysian, Northern Indian, Persian, and Italian. We also went to see U2 3D at the Imax, followed by a late dinner in Chinatown. For an event of a different pace, we also had a strawberry picking event in the West Island. One of the best things about summer are strawberries that are red all the way through the fruit. For a 40th birthday party from the Alumni crowd, I experienced a very trendy Greek restaurant. It seemed like the place to be that night. Speaking of the Alumni crowd, we held our first Alumni award dinner in five years -- a cocktail dinatoire at the McCord Museum. Everyone had a great time and I got to wear "the perfect dress". At work, the movie night in June was to see Kung Fu Panda. Ever since I started working in the game industry, I can't watch 3D animated films the same way. Every once in awhile I caught myself looking at the art and wondering what techniques were used to create it. I do have an increased appreciation, though, of what goes into those movies. OK, so maybe it would have been better to say my social life was at a slowing pace. The rest of July and August will be slower.


Summer is festival season in Montreal. I enjoyed bits and pieces of the Jazz festival on my way home from work every night, since the festival was literally next door. I tried to attend the big Bran Van 3000 street party after a quick MeetIn dinner at a cafe in the Gay Village (yes, that's what it's called). According to the Gazette the next morning, there were 100,000 people crammed in the street between Place des Arts and Complexe Desjardins. After spending the whole day painting, my tolerance for crowds was at an all-time low so I felt like toothpaste in a tightly squeezed tube. I tried to find a better spot with no luck, so I went home... where I promptly fell asleep. Just For Laughs is on right now. I plan on going to see the street performances in the Latin Quarter tomorrow night. I have been too swamped with moving to get tickets to one of the shows. Next year...