This summer I went on a solo trip to Montreal. Located in the Canadian province of Quebec,
it is the second most populous city in Canada after Toronto.
While most people in Montreal are bilingual, French is still the official language so it's
not hard to immediately feel like you're in a different country once you step foot here,
especially as someone coming from the English-speaking part of Canada.
My flight landed around 7pm, so by the time I checked into my Airbnb it was pretty late. For
a quick dinner, I opted to go get some Montreal smoked meat. The most famous deli for smoked meat
here is Schwartz's but I didn't feel like lining up so I went to its competitor across the street.
Montreal smoked meat is beef brisket that is salted and cured over a week,
smoked and then steamed. It's typically served between slices of bread and with mustard.
You might be thinking of pastrami now because that's what I was thinking of.
Don't come for me but I think I may have enjoyed this sandwich more than the one I had at Katz's
in New York. Maybe the meat was more tender, more flavourful? I definitely noticed the black pepper.
By the way, I did go to Schwartz's on another day, I just had to line up. Still yummy.
The Airbnb I stayed at was in an artsy neighbourhood called the Plateau,
which i'd highly recommend if you were visiting. It's charming and quiet but
at the same time very lively as there are lots of restaurants, cafes, bars
etc in the area. It's also still very easy to get around from here. One of the first things
I noticed in Montreal were the cyclists. I saw so many people commuting on bikes with a majority of
bike lanes separated from traffic with a physical barrier. Needless to say, I was very impressed.
On this sunny morning, I headed to Le Marché Jean-Talon.
It's a public market that started in 1933 and is open year-round.
Here I picked up some fresh Quebec strawberries before heading off to Mont Royal park.
Mont Royal park is an iconic landmark in Montreal. A small mountain situated in the middle of
Montreal where locals can escape from the city. I took a path to get to the top of this park.
Once you manage to climb up all the steps on one of the trails you're
rewarded with a stunning view of the city.
After a break to cool off and reapply sunscreen in the Chalet du Mont Royal
I headed for the lac au castors or beaver lake.
Here I noticed you can rent row boats and I was extremely tempted
but I didn't actually have enough time to do so. Instead
I sat down and ate the Quebec strawberries I had gotten earlier. They were really sweet.
In the late afternoon i visited the hip Mile End neighbourhood,
which was actually very close to the Plateau. It's home to two very famous bagel shops:
Fairmount Bagel and St-Viateur bagels. On this day, I went to Fairmount Bagel.
Montreal-style bagels are baked in a wood-fired oven, are crunchy on the outside and chewy on
the inside with a sweetness to them that is a result of being boiled in honey-sweetened water.
My sesame bagel was still warm and was definitely my favourite of the two flavours I picked up.
You can't go to Quebec without eating poutine, often the first thing that people will think of
when thinking of Canadian food. One of the most well-known places for poutine in Montreal is
La Banquise, which actually started as a small ice cream shop when it first opened in 1968.
It wasn't until the 1980s that they started serving poutine.
This 24-hour joint now boasts over 30 different kinds of poutine.
Poutine, if you don't already know, is french fries topped with gravy and cheese curds
and emerged in Quebec in the 1950s. At La Banquise
I went with La Mart, which had the additional toppings of sausage,
bacon, and mushrooms. It was by far better than any other poutine I've had elsewhere.
Old Montreal is one of the most popular spots to visit as a tourist but if you head there early in
the morning on a weekday it's not actually too busy. It's a historic district with charming
cobblestone streets and many structures that remain from when it was still part of New France.
My first stop was at Cafe Olimpico, a cafe originally opened in 1970 by Italian immigrant
Rocco Furfaro. The original cafe is located in Mile End but have
opened up other locations in Montreal over time including this one in old Montreal.
Here I picked up a latte, a breakfast croissant sandwich and a biscotti. Everything was delicious.
After old Montreal and the old port, I headed over to downtown,
the main street of which was Saint Catherine street.
By this point in the day it was very busy and I was feeling like
I needed to cool off so I popped into a mall.
One of the things I was trying to look for while downtown was the underground city,
a pedestrian network that connects many of the downtown buildings as well as metro stations.
According to the internet, there were entrances everywhere but I was really
struggling to figure out how to access it as I never really found clear signs.
There were also some dead ends due to construction. Eventually I went
to a metro station and asked the man at the info desk who helpfully directed me along.
This network helps people avoid inclement weather, especially during the wintertime.
Around 5 p.m I headed to Au Pied de Cochon, a well-known Montreal restaurant founded
by chef Martin Picard in 2001. It's almost impossible to get in without a reservation
but I got lucky because I showed up as soon as it opened and because it was just me.
Everyone else without a reservation after me was turned away. I ordered the "duck in a can".
So this one is served on a sourdough bread with a [...] on the top.
Inside the can you have foie gras which is wrapped in a [...] and you also have a buttery sauce
with a reduction of balsamic vinegar and veal glaze.
For dessert after this hefty meal I grabbed some soft-serve ice cream across from my Airbnb.
You'll find no shortage of soft-serve ice cream in Montreal.
In the summer, Montreal holds an international fireworks competition where a different country
showcases their pyrotechnic skills every week over the course of eight to nine weeks. It's
the largest fireworks competition in the world. A local told me that the Jacques-Cartier bridge was
a great place to watch the fireworks from. On this particular night it was Croatia's time to shine.
It was time for another round of Montreal bagels, this time at St-Viateur. I went to
the cafe this time, where you could order bagel sandwiches and sit down.
Next stop, penguins. The Montreal Biodome features four different ecosystems found
across North and South America that visitors can walk through and learn
about. They include real flora and fauna that are representative of the different ecosystems.
My first stop was, of course, the subpolar region.
There was a thunderstorm warning that day, which was supposed to start in the mid-afternoon.
I managed to make it back to the Airbnb just in time.
By the time I was ready to head out for dinner, the storm had cleared up.
I walked over to La Binerie, one of the only restaurants in Montreal still serving traditional
Quebecois comfort food. This restaurant has been around since 1938. The server was extremely
friendly and recommended the full traditional meal which is actually like a sampler of
different traditional items. The meal starts with a pea soup, then a main course of meatball stew,
meat pie, steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes, and baked beans in pork fat.
Simple but tasty. I took dessert to go because I had to catch a movie, so I ate it at the Airbnb
later that evening. It was poorman's pudding, which was apparently created by factory workers
during the great depression. Nowadays it is served with maple syrup instead of caramel sauce.
Back to the movie. I found this place on Google maps called Cinéma Moderne. It's a cafe slash bar
with a cinema projection room in the back. They show primarily independent films, from old to new,
international and domestic. Right up my alley. On this night I watched Chungking Express.
On the last day of my solo trip, I went to Crew Collective and Cafe,
the most beautiful co-working space situated in an old bank.
I can say without a doubt that throughout this whole trip I've been endlessly impressed by just
how cool Montreal is. It has definitely secured a place in my mind as the coolest city in Canada.