youtube what are you doing here i didn't know i'd be joined by youtube today
i guess i gotta make a video okay okay i'll make a video but next time you gotta tell me okay
can't just be sneaking up on me like that anyway it's a good thing you're here youtube
because i'm actually in a neighborhood i don't get to nearly often enough
it's an area called verdun and this is one of the more unique parts of the city
but also this is just a great time to be in montreal the energy in the streets
is great right now it's it's june 1st a new month is here and it kind of feels like a new beginning
for montreal patio season has just started up they reopened outdoor dining after a long time
the curfew that we've been dealing with for many months has also gone and equally as exciting for
a lot of montrealers the montreal canadiens just knocked out the toronto maple leafs
the montreal canadiens are headed to winnipeg for the second round of the stanley cup playoffs
if you're a canadian if you're a montrealer you know how big a deal that is and for me as someone
who grew up in winnipeg it's also a big deal that the next montreal game is going to be against the
winnipeg jets my hometown so this series is going to be very intense for me of course i'm going to
be cheering for the jets don't hate me montrealers okay i'm not angry i'm just disappointed i'm just
being honest with you i got to rep my city but i think we can all agree on one thing whenever
the toronto maple leafs are knocked out of the playoffs that is a good day anyway back to verdun
i'm standing here right outside the verdun metro station i guess to the south yeah the southwest
of downtown but yeah i'm going to take you on a little walk today and then after that
we're going to meet up with an old friend of mine named elizabeth she's lived in verdon for a few
years and she's going to give you the the local perspective it's going to be a lot of fun let's go
so yeah this is verdan avenue that i'm walking on now
uh or maybe it's verdun street it's we're done something
indian food sushi pizza by the slice so far so good verdan so far so good
nice little birdhouse
what's going on up here
look at this weird claw looking thing
i have never seen something like this in my life i mean i guess it's moving day and we're done
yeah june 1st i mean it's it's the beginning of a new month people moving in people moving out
but you know what that giant crane it reminds me of that game you know that game we you pay
a dollar and then you got that crane and you try and grab some like some toy or some
you know you got the glass box of toys and stuff ah you know what i'm talking about anyway dan
enough with the terrible metaphors because we are now walking up to wellington street which
as i understand it is the heart of verdun it's the main commercial street going down the middle of it
it looks like it might be pedestrian only today look at this bienvenue de wars what's the worst
i guess that means like pedestrian street all the way along here oh that's nice
you know what they must have just opened this because i heard that like at the beginning of june
monshaw was going to start opening up these walking streets
uh just like they did last summer they brought it back again which is a great idea
they even got a map of all the cafes and everything reminds me of those
maps you see when you enter into shopping malls sometimes i guess this is the new shopping mall
so as you can probably see a lot of these patios are still opening up no one really knew when
things were going to open up it was a bit last minute when they announced that the walking
streets are coming back and stuff so i think they're just preparing to get the summer vibe
started here in wellington street maybe i'll come back here a bit later see how the patios are doing
all right all right all right i'm gonna go meet my friend elizabeth
uh she lives with her boyfriend alex quick story about elizabeth and alex to give you an idea what
kind of people they are i actually met them when i was traveling in vietnam back in 2016.
they were the first people i ever met from montreal and yeah we were friends and you know
i just thought the people you meet when you're traveling you probably never see them again
but when i eventually moved to montreal we became friends again of course uh in early 2020 when the
pandemic hit and the world was ending and nobody knew what to do uh alex and elizabeth put on a
dj party on zoom a virtual party yeah that's just the kind of people they are they say you
know if the world is gonna end we're gonna have a good time so uh yeah they're they're awesome
all right youtube here we are say hello to elizabeth hi how you been good good we just uh
hung out at elizabeth's place had a little fizzy soda tonic soda what was it off-brand lacroix i
guess yeah now those those towers over there is that is that still verdan what's what's all that
uh it's on the other side uh-huh on the on the island those nuns are living nice they
hate being part of verdun because like okay it's usually like it's like more sub suburbian okay
a little bit more expensive well we're just like poor people they pay all their
city taxes and it all goes to us and they're like they don't like being part of we're done
we're just walking through this park gonna find a little trail that actually leads somewhere i've
never been before which is verdun beach it was only open like a year or two ago wasn't it yeah
yeah i think uh a summer or two they set up they they brought some sand and stuff and i
mean it's a good place to have a beach because verdana is still on the west end of the island
i wouldn't go swimming in the saint lawrence in the east end because that's like after all
the whole city and after all the factories oh you're right it flows it flows this way
yeah so i feel like it gets dirtier you know if i'd go swim verdun is not that bad
i think i annoy everyone i hang out with by doing shots like that but
hopefully youtube appreciates do a little cinematic touch i would do this too so like
i don't i really don't mind i can totally relate elizabeth has a youtube channel too
so he knows a bit about what it's like yeah i haven't uploaded anything like in a year but
you know elizabeth travels right yeah yeah okay i'll throw a link down below if anyone
wants to support another montreal youtuber go check it out elizabeth does really cool work
so for anyone who's watching from brazil or mexico or something you might be like oh cute
little canadian boots but for a canadian city to have a beach in the city limits
that's actually quite rare so it's nice to see something like this
no drinking i'm sure every verdana respects that right for sure no one in the history of
verdana would ever uh sneak a beer to the beach no not even the people sitting to the right of us
so we were just sitting here in the park and discussing one of montrealer's favorite
pastimes which is making fun of toronto but i think montreal is a cooler city than toronto
i think you would agree with that of course i would agree like i love it here like i'm a true
like ambassador for the city whenever i travel i do in hostels is talk to like everybody from
around the world like how cool my city is and how great montreal is i think the only city that like
is cooler is probably berlin like we can't compete with that level of cool but toronto is just like
it's a good place to be if you want to build your career and make money but you know it's not not a
lot of uh fun park hangouts i've been trying to put my finger on like what is that special
what's that special ingredient that makes monsieur what it is like i've been saying it's a city where
people can really be who they want to be just how they want to dress act how they want to act
i think there's a freedom to it do you have any thoughts on like what it is that makes montreal
a special place i think it's just like a really unique place in canada because like if like if
you just zoom out every neighborhood in montreal is different from each other and then montreal
is very different from the rest of quebec like the culturally here like it's not the same thing
if you like drive out 150 kilometers out in the country you're not going to meet the same kind of
people but then if you zoom out more then quebec is completely different than the rest of canada
you know it's french-speaking it's the different religion it's just like completely different world
and then canada like always puts itself in opposition to the to the united states so
there's just like so many layers of weirdness and complexity like being from montreal is just so
it's so niche it's like it's not comparable to any other place
the vibe is definitely picking up since i was here last this is this is pretty cool
yeah like uh until a few years ago we couldn't have bars and we're done
but now they're finally losing the restriction so we have like four i think four yeah but it can't
be like a just a bar it has to be a resto bar like have some fancy food or something it has to like
craft beer is that like one of those old laws going back to prohibition and stuff
i don't know like i don't know when it wasn't stated i think like for a hundred years there
were like there was just like a dry law in the neighborhood something about it being like a
neighbor like a worker's neighborhood and the municipality not wanting workers to spend their
money in the bar like if you want to go drink go drink at home with your wife kind of thing
that's what i heard i don't know how true that is yeah nice to see even this even this clothing
shop embracing the streets so everywhere either has a patio or is desperately building a patio
what'd you get that was a fake fake blonde big one so that wasn't a plan stop uh elizabeth just let
me know she wanted to grab a beer so we stopped by this little craft beer grocery place and one thing
i filmed in there was this uh spicy peanut butter i don't know if you've ever seen that stuff mambas
i don't even know where i heard of it but it's made by montrealer who came from haiti
and they have this like spicy peanut butter in haiti and they they were like wanting to bring
it to quebec this is like peanut butter with chili inside and if you're into that it's really good
so the woman working there she saw me in there with my camera right and she was like
were you taking a photo were you taking a photo at first i thought i was like in trouble like
oh maybe i should have asked you know but then i told her yeah i'm making a youtube video and she's
like okay you can have a free drink if you're making a video about us you can have a free drink
so i wanted to give them a shout out really nice lady and i'm sure the the poutine will be good too
i've definitely had my fair share of poutine since moving to montreal
but i'm embarrassed to say i haven't featured one in a video until today
should i give the local a chance to explain what a poutine is well it's french fries like a beef
gravy and cheese carrots cheese curds it's kind of like like a middle middle man in the process
of making cheese before you get cheese you get the curds but we kind of just stopped there
and it's like a really young cheese basically basically like mozzarella i didn't know that
i just thought of it as like a squeaky kind of cheese yeah it just squeaks on your teeth
i don't know how anyone stays skinny in the city when you have poutine like that
but uh yeah i just said goodbye to elizabeth thanks again elizabeth for your help on the
video my final thoughts on verdun i mean it's a neighborhood where it's it's got the best parts
of montreal it's got the multicultural food it's got the nice walking streets it's got the nature
it's got the beach which is very rare for montreal a lot of reasons to be happy in verdon there's a
lot of reasons to be happy in montreal right now like i was saying at the beginning the weather
is good the summer is coming restaurants are opening up it's a good time to be here
and yeah as a final thought just wanted to say i'm very grateful for everyone who watches my videos
i've been doing this for about five years i've traveled around a lot of different places but when
i moved to montreal like i didn't know if there was a market for this kind of videos i didn't see
many youtubers speaking english in montreal so i didn't know what to expect i didn't know if this
would be the end of my channel or not but i've got tons of messages from people offering to show me
their neighborhoods i've got tons of good comments in the comment section i've been feeling the
good energy recently in montreal and i i really appreciate it it really makes my day so thanks to
everyone who's been watching as always i'm dan from the new travel and i'll see you next time