Au Revoir, Montreal

After about 9 days, our trip to Montreal has almost come to an end. Over the course of a week, we learned to efficiently use the Montreal metro system, added a lot of French to our vocabulary, discovered many adorable specialty shops and walked until we got blisters on our feet. For a normal urban city dweller, the walking might have been normal. But for an L.A. girl like me, whose walking consists of going from the parking garage to the front door of the building, it was definitely more than I bargained for. However, I think having the luxury of being able to use the metro and walk everywhere is something I love. If I could use a metro to get to Santa Monica, I cannot even tell you how much higher my quality of life would be.

I will definitely have photos and more stories later, but for now I present, in a short list, things we loved and did not love about Montreal:

Things We Loved

• the weather - it’s pretty much perfect. It’s not over bearing at all. It’s sunny, but breezy. Yep, pretty much perfect.

• good metro system - the Montreal metro system is very easy to navigate, despite all the stops and directions being in French. Getting from one point in town to another doesn’t take much thought and this system would most probably eliminate the at least immediate need for a car.

• cleanliness - Montreal is like all the good parts of New York and Europe put together, minus the trash. This city works hard on keeping its streets clean and we truly appreciated that. No trash, hardly any litter, visible street signs, c’est magnifique!

• cops on bikes - They are literally all on bicycles, a la pacific palisades! It’s really cute and they look so much more approachable and friendly.

•diversity - despite the fact that Montreal is mostly a French city, the diversity in people is amazing. This was evident during the Canada Day parade we witnessed on July 1st.

•the shops - Montreal is definitely a very ’shoppable’ city, unlike Rome, which we found a huge disappointment as far as shopping is concerned. There are familiar stores, like Urban Outfitters, Zara, Gap and even Payless Shoes, and a lot of specialty shops as well that make the traveling experience worth it. Case in point: half eaten gingerbread cookie cutters

•maple syrup - the maple syrup it’s everywhere! In every single touristy shop we went into, lo and behold, there was maple syrup to take home. Eventually, I succumbed and bought some too.

•french - it’s fun not having to sit on a 10 to 12 hour flight just to hear and experience a different culture. I have to admit though, we were both a bit surprised that almost everything is in French, sometimes to the point where we had a bit of trouble, but I learned a lot of new phrases and words in the process. I only felt comfortable replying in French the last few days we’ve been here though.

Things We Didn’t Love
•broken ticket machines at metro stations - in every other country we’ve taken the metro in, we’ve been able to buy a metro card to use over several days. But for some reason, Montreal has decided to close down all its automatic ticket machines, forcing you to line up at the counter where a metro worker hands you a ticket that looks like the kind you get when you accumulate points on Chuck E. Cheese. Then you take that ticket and place it in a glass box right next to the counter. It’s just really unnecessary and ridiculous.

•cash only rules - a lot of restaurants and other places we visited accepted only cash. This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. Why do establishments insist on making the lives of paying customers difficult by enforcing rules that aren’t current with the times anymore? Very few people carry cash these days, please do not make my life difficult by demanding I pay in notes. Thanks.

•french - yes, I know it’s on my ‘things we loved’ list, but it got a bit annoying at times. It would have had a different charm if we were in Paris, but I expected things to be a bit more Anglo-friendly than they were. Still, it was ok, I suppose. It’s quite a double edged sword.

•fur - Canadians love fur. Horrible, just horrible. For being such an environmentally conscious and friendly city, this was really surprising. I mean, they have entire shops devoted to the fur trade. Very disappointing.

•unnecessary fees - One sunny day, we woke up wanting to go to the beach. So we went to Parc Jean Drapeau for some fun in the sun. Little did we know, they were charging around $7.50 to get into the beach grounds! Seven dollars and fifty cents! To lay in the sand! Ged oudda heeeeeee