hang on a minute this ain't Mexico!
(INTRO MUSIC)
hello everyone and welcome back today is Wednesday June the 26th 2019 and as you
can probably tell from the scenery behind me I'm no longer in Mexico after
spending 15 months in that awesome country, but don't worry we'll be back
there later in the year I promise! About a week ago I came back to one of
my favorite destinations in the world, I am in Montreal in Quebec in eastern Canada, the reason I say back is because I was here about six months ago in
December 2018, obviously at that time of the year,
freezing cold, winter, snow, horrific conditions. very difficult to film in and
one of the reasons I'm back is simply because I wanted to come back at a more
suitable time of year to also show you what monster looks like in the summer.
Now just to clarify this video is the first video in a series of videos coming
from Montreal over the next couple of weeks,
in this series we're gonna be checking out some areas that we went to last time
including Old Montreal, Notre Dame, Boulevard St Laurent, as well as checking out
some new areas that we didn't go to last time for example Little Italy which is
where I'm staying, Mile End, Mont Royal, Hochelaga Maisonneuve
to mention but a few. We will also be checking out some of the amazing food
available in Montreal, we all know that the food here is so diverse and
absolutely spectacular so I cannot wait to check out some new cuisine in this
city and additionally it wouldn't be one of these videos without a bit of a final
thought or a theme to the video so today we're gonna talk a little bit about
emotional connection you know I had a great emotional connection with Mexico
so is it possible to house that kind of connection with Canada so we're gonna
find out let's get going!
(Montreal montage MUSIC)
okay now that we've started off with a little brief look around
Montreal we're now in one of my favorite spots in the city we're down Boulevard
St Laurent, more on that in a second, in case you don't know Montreal the city
and Quebec has a province are bilingual so you can speak English and French here.
I've never learnt French in my entire life I studied German at school and I've
been in spanish-speaking countries for a long time so I apologise in advance in
these videos for my awful French pronunciation but I''m gonna try my best
you know
now I'm sure this is not the opinion of Montreal residents, welcome by the way
if you're from Montreal, but I feel like Montreal is almost forgotten about in
terms of Canadian cities Vancouver and Toronto I think gain a lot of the
focus in terms of tourism but Montreal has so much to offer one of the reasons
I absolutely love this city is because of the artwork and the fact that it's
such an artsy City there's so much culture in terms of art and music and
creativity there's a lot of those characters in this city that are those
kinds of people you know where I'm staying in Little Italy is slightly
hipstery you know I like the area. And in order to gain a great perspective of the
artsy culture in Montreal it's absolutely imperative that you check out
this street art down Boulevard St Laurent and indeed elsewhere in the city
and it's something that's definitely been responsible for me appreciating art
a lot more I talked a bit about that in Mexico and one thing about this street
art that I've read about and people have told me as it changes on a regular basis
and even today walking up this street I've noticed street art that has changed
since 6 months ago it's amazing let's take a look
(ART MONTAGE MUSIC)
three words I would use to describe Montreal would be cosmopolitan, colorful
and eccentric and I think the artwork that you just seen completely
contributes to that feeling and one thing I really love about Montreal as well
is the fact that it feels like London in many ways you know that's where I'm
originally from and London is extremely multicultural
and diverse city, full of different cultures and religions and Montreal
is exactly he same and also in terms of inclusivity so in terms of the LGBT
community there's a massive gay village area so it very much reminds me of
London and that's what I like about it I think, I think I feel accepted it I think
everyone regardless of background or culture can fit in in Montreal. So to
illustrate that point Montreal is very much a University city so
there's McGill University up that way when I was looking for someone to stay
here there's many Indian students student accommodation and that kind of
thing. There's many Mexicans as well which
surprises me who may be featuring in upcoming videos you know and I had a
friend when I was younger who moved to Toronto and you know I've read that 46%
of Toronto the population is made up of immigrants I'm not sure how true that is
I don't know about Montreal as well and many of my English students are studying
IELTS to move to Canada to either study or work so it just shows that Montreal
is a key see in terms of immigration. okay our next stop in this video is
Mont Royal, as you know I love to gain an overview of a city from above and this
is the ideal place to do it let's go! look at this man so pretty this
definitely highlights the difference between winter and summer in Montreal
just like in the UK you know you've got people sunbathing you've got people
reading books over there you know six months ago that
would not be happening. Is this Canada? sorry that's a Mexico joke of course
it's Canada look at this you got a gazebo bandstand kiosko it's just like
Mexico you know monuments in the background and already you can see the
city off in the distance. It's quite hot man it's like 25 degrees I think awesome
and you know what I was half thinking to myself should I just do this bit
tomorrow because I'm really exhausted I could really do
with gonna bed but then you know what I thought of the girl in Nightmare on Elm
Street who said "screw sleep!", so we are climbing you know what and there's also
a tourist bus here like a red double-decker bus let me know in the
comments if you want me to do that because I did one in San Luis Potosi in
Mexico and I actually really loved it I'm not going to lie so let me know and
if there's enough demand for it I will do that in a future video. We're into the
words amigos in the middle of Montreal on a Wednesday afternoon it's crazy to
think you know there's a city skyscrapers streets that sort of thing
and then you've got this whole wooded area slap-bang in the middle of the city
and it's such an important feature of montreal. Mont royal that's where the name
comes from and it very much reminds me of when I was back in the UK when I was
a kid when I used to go down at my Nan's place in the southwest of England we
used to walk through the woods and go up steps and climb over things and it's
just adventure you know this is what travels about I'm totally out of breath
but I don't care it's awesome there's trees there's wildlife there's birds and
lots of walking now I have to apologize because you might think I'm talking crap
now but I'm enjoying this today I know it's only like a walk upwards through
the woods and that but this is the sort of thing I love and it's the sort of
thing that reminds me of Canada's so much this is my third time in Canada now
and as I mentioned about emotional connection at the beginning which we'll
touch on at the end Canada has a very special place in my
heart it's always been one of my top three countries you know after Mexico
and Japan and for a very special reason because my first ever solo trip was to
Canada in 2006 thirteen years ago I went from Calgary through Canmore Kamloops
Lake Louise Banff Jasper down to Vancouver and across to Calgary and I've
got so many special memories of that road trip driving about staying in
motels exploring mountains amazing scenery and this just brings so many
memories back so when I was worried that I wouldn't necessarily have an emotional
connection with Canada but I'm starting to realize that I do. I know I'm a bit
hyper and over excitable right now child but that for travel does to me
there's the bus I was talking about this is why I love Montreal!
what an awesome way to get a great overview of the city when you first get
somewhere even though it's the second time I've been here absolutely awesome I
believe you can go further up which we will have a look in a minute I was quite
surprised by the fact that I got up there so quickly it looks a lot higher
than it actually is, I think obviously it's very large so there are numerous ways
you can get up here in numerous lookout points so you've got Avenue de Montreal
the Olympic Stadium over there, Parc la Fontaine again apologies for my bad
pronunciation, Pont Jacques Cartier the bridge I believe over there
Jacques Cartier was the first European to discover in quote marks Canada back
in the 1500s absolutely beautiful and coming up here
just gives you an idea of just how green Montreal is I didn't kind of realize
that until I got up here in comparison to you know concrete jungles like Mexico
City in Sao Paulo obviously Mexico City does have a lot of
green areas but it's not like this you know residential areas with you can just see
all the trees
now I know you can't see me but that's a good thing
cuz look at that view man I have a little clearing in the woods and a
couple of girls taking selfies wait for them to finish just look at it man
cityscape and I hate to compare places but this very much reminds me of the day
I went up checkerboard hill in Hong Kong and overlooked the city it's absolutely
stunning one thing I love in the world if big cities develop cities cityscape
skyscrapers it's just spectacular and before we go let's just take a
little look in details over there you've got the biosphere so Montreal I think of
it in 1967 or 68 one of them it was the site of the like World Expo and now I
think it's a museum or something along those lines I did go there the last day
I was here the last time I walked over that bridge and went to where the formal
one second is the Circuit Gilles Villenneuve that was just a couple of weeks ago
actually in Montreal, cityscape, hotels in the distance, central business district and
in the foreground you've got like less developed buildings I guess like
residential buildings so it's a real variety of architecture right on a
sweaty mess I'm sitting in mud and my stabilizer is on a rock as a tripod as
always which means it's time to bring this video to a close let's talk about
emotional connection the theme of this video if a mexican viewer or they
mexican you might be thinking what David's gonna be really depressed and
sad when he gets too Canada, and he's really gonna miss Mexican. There's no denying that I miss Mexico, it's like a piece of my heart
has been ripped out and I cannot wait to get back but that's nothing against
Canada you know I didn't expect it to have the same connection with Canada as
I do with Mexico because I never will realistically because it's not about the
country it's not about Canada it's not about
Mexico it's about the time I spend in Mexico to develop that connection and
one of the things I realized over time I don't know why it's taken me this long
to realize in the last three years of traveling full-time is the fact that
emotional connection is so important when it comes to travel in terms of your
mental health in terms of you enjoyment of a place if I used to go places I hate
this place it's awful I never gave it a chance oh I didn't give it that time to
develop in terms of connection, Puerto Vallarta, Kiev, Kuala Lumpar, but if I was to
stay in those places for longer I'm sure I would develop a connection to them
also I guess what I'm saying is the fact that if you want long term travel or the
travelling or indeed just on a short trip for a week
give it time you know you won't develop a connection with somewhere in five
minutes you have to go out and do things that I've done today you're out there
you're not learn about a country you're not going
to connect to it if you're just sitting in a hotel or an air B&B complaining as
I used to do so get your ass out there do things like this and build a
connection no matter how long it takes I'm only in Montreal for one month I'm
not going anywhere else in Canada so I'm not going to develop the same connection
but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try
I certainly am so that's this video done if you would like to see future videos
from Montreal and indeed the previous ones don't forget to subscribe leave a
like leave a comment are you from Montreal let me know about things which
you would like to see in this upcoming series yes it's a series this isn't the
only video don't forget that thanks for watching and I will see you next time
I'll catch you later