Je t'aime, Montreal, je t'aime...

Written by Crystal
City: Montreal, Canada
Weather: Cold, snow everywhere (not falling but not melting much either), temp somewhere below freezing.

Long time no post!

Let me bring you up to speed (forgive me if it's a bit brief in parts, lots to catch up on and not enough time!)

We left NYC for Montreal Sunday morning. Train journey was lovely, lots of snowy scenery. Snow-covered fields are pretty, but turns out they also wreak havoc with the train lines. We stopped for over an hour at one point, waiting for 20 miles of track to be cleared of snow drifts and fallen trees. After heading on a little further we were informed that the train could not continue, and buses would take us the remaining 100 miles to Montreal. 6 hours later, we arrived!

Montreal is lovely. It's also currently covered in a thick blanket of snow (they've had an unusually large amount of snow fall here recently, the most since 1972). Because it's so cold here, not much of the snow melts, so it remains a powdery covering on thick accumulations of ice from previous falls which makes walking around fun (when you slip but don't fall over), funny (when someone you know slips & falls over) AND dangerous(for obvious reasons).

French is the language spoken here (Quebec), and while almost everyone is bi-lingual (French-English), it's easy to forget you're in Canada because it feels so European (Locals only speak English to tourists and visitors from British Columbia). I must admit, I kinda expected everyone to be like the characters in Trailer Park Boys -- perhaps this will be the case in Vancouver.

We're staying with Anouk and Alex in The Plateau, a very cool neighbourhood not far from downtown Montreal. Given we've only had a couple of days here (and needing some recovery time from our NYC must-see-as-much-as-possible jaunt) we've been content just wandering around the place.

Now for the photos:

Walking in the snow

Washing in the Philosopher's Laundrette
(they come for the washing, and they stay for the Plato)

Anouk gets cute with the lens

We resisted the urge to plunge face-first into the BOWL OF WONDERFUL COFFEE!

Anouk & I conquer a snow mountain

Snow mountain conquers a car

Craig will never cease in being fascinated by icicles...

...or silly signage --
this one translates to "Nut Butter"... oh, how we laughed.

Kid transport, Montreal style

Hibernating bicycles


We had dinner at Vertige with Anouk & Alex


Alex & Craig loving it up


Anouk finds an igloo and prepares for bataille de boule de neige

Look, I made a snow angel!

After being thwarted by the rain in my attempts to ice-skate in NYC, I finally had my moment in Vieue Port, hooray!

Lobbing snowballs

We were tempted to go in and ask about the name, but thought it much funnier to goof off out the front

The Silophone -- you speak into the microphone which transmits your message into the 5th silo of the abandoned mill behind, lets it reverberate around for a while then plays it back. Would have been great fun if it actually worked -- judging by the looks we were getting from locals, it hadn't worked for a while.

Craig suffers another joke overload

Window art inside Mont-Royal train station

Bonjour! Craig & I wave to the frozen waterway

We're off to do some sledding/tobogganing tomorrow morning with Anouk, then flying to Vancouver in the afternoon.

Ciao for now!