Je t'aime Montreal

Spent 9 days in Montreal, Quebec. I have no words to describe my feeling towards Montreal, it is just breathe taking. Love the peacefulness, love the old buildings, love their friendliness.

Depart from Toronto right after the Disney's On Ice. It was a 5 hours trip by bus, since my camera and phone already die out of battery, the only thing I can do is sleep! Arrived at Ottawa Central Station at 4am, took the opportunity to charge both of the camera and phone. LOL. Pathetic eh?

Charging.

Ottawa Central Station.

Then took a transfer from Ottawa to Montreal, whole trip is about 2 hours and 30 minutes. Did the same thing on bus as well, sleep. Then one of our host in Montreal, Keat Yang picked us up at the Montreal bus station then brought us to our hostel. 

Berri Uqam station. Bought a 3 days subway ticket here since we will be going to take subway to travel around Montreal. 

After put our luggage in Auberge Alternative, the name of our hostel in Montreal, we headed to Chinatown for breakfast. It was cold in Montreal, like the day we arrived, temperature was like -12°C, and thin snow on the ground. And I was wearing my red Converse sneakers, with 1 pair of socks only. It-was-freezing! My toes got paralyzed for most of the time! Crazy! 

On our way for food!

We had dim sum! It has been 4 months I never had dim sum :/

After eating, we walked around to kill some time because we can only check into our room at afternoon. 

Snow everywhere!

Went to visit McGill University, where KeatYang and another host, HuiJing studying.

The main entrance of McGill.

Arts buidling.

Back to our hotel. They have common room with kitchen and serves free flow of coffee and milk. Love it!

Warm and homestyle feel.

Kitchen.

Dinner we had it in a Chinese restaurant with Andrew, Victor and Wawa together.

Next morning, it was Christmas day, so most of the shops are closed. We had no choice but to have our meal in McDonald's.

McChicken, always. LOL.

Then walked around in one of their shopping malls, Eaton Centre. As predicted, it was quiet, with all shops closed, well prepared for tomorrow's Boxing Day's sale.

Empty mall.

Snowflakes.

Then took a local bus to visit St. Joseph Oratory. 

It was really cold that day. I put on 2 pairs of socks. Forgot to bring my boots sial. LOL.

Main attraction of the oratory. The heart of Saint Brother André, the founder of St. Joseph oratory. 

This is the place where bunch of us had crazy times, played the song game, snow fight, etc.

Third day in Montreal. It's Boxing Day!

Quiet street, shinny sun, lovely buildings.

Not-so-lovely-crowd. 

13 of us split into 3 groups, I guess. I was with KahWai, CheeWeng and Thien. Then later KahWai left us to look for his Lego set. We shopped around, got myself a purple sweater and 3 pairs of socks from Garage, and a Montreal shirt.

In order to save cost, tonight's dinner we decided to cook ourselves! Montreal's tax really can kill people :X 

We had spaghetti! :D 

The only thing is, the gang I go with loves onion and garlic very much. But the good thing is, I found my mates! Odd people like me who dislikes onion and garlic! Woohoo! This kind of people is like 1/10 of the world. LOL. Ok, well, exaggerated a little. Haha. However, we had fun picking out onions for dinners days after.

The next day. One of the best days of mine in Montreal. POUTINE DAY! I had Poutine couple of times back in Windsor, at first it was introduced by Soham in CAW. Then tried some in Croc's, but they make it too salty so I wasn't really like it that time. CAW's was good tho. People said that if you go to Montreal you must try their Poutine and Bagel. Here we are for this day, La Banquise, famous for it's Poutine! Good thing about this shop is, they open for 24 hours! Geeeee, Y U NO OPEN IN WINDSOR?!

Look at the line!

My Poutine Mart, consist of french fries, cheese, gravy, mushrooms and sausages! OMG YUMS!

So, after I had this Poutine, I am craving for Poutine for most of the time. Even the meal I had after I came back to Windsor is Poutine, and I just had a Poutine today. F-M-L. I have control myself to have only 1 Poutine per week. Is not about the fatness, it is really unhealthy, no nutrients at all :/ OMG POUTINE I LOVE YOU LAAAAAA! Every time I type the Poutine, Poutine will just pop in my mind, then, my stomach start to make noises, geeeeeeee, dengggg. STOP IT! STOP ITTTTT! 

Okay, as for dinner. We bought stuff from a China marketplace in Chinatown. Saw lots of weird things, for example, ginger ice cream, ewwwww.

Before dinner, we headed to one of the tourist attractions of Montreal, Notre Dame Basilica! 

Outside.

Inside. We were sort of forced to watch the stupid sound and audio show, which is darn stupid and wasted my $20. Basically the show is about the history of this basilica, they made it in a very cheesy way. LOL. 

The real WHOA is after the show, which is after they remove the screens and open up the lights.

TAA-DAA!

And they have the biggest organ in North America! Take that!

It is built in Gothic style, which I should have learn it in my Ancient to Medieval class, but the lecturer didn't manage to get there. The feeling of reading the textbook itself is just not that impactful like how when I was in ROM. But still, I whoa-ed a little inside when they opened the lights, it is just...erm...whoa. Love how they use the blue colour in everything. Love how they put the gold stars on the ceiling. Wooooohooooo. It makes me want to go to visit the Pantheon even more!

Dinner we had rice with bean sprouts, crab sticks, taufu and many many garlic and onion =.=

Next day, first spot we visit was the Biosphere. We only went there for photo shot because it is not open for winter.

Biosphere.

Then headed to Bio Dome and Olympic Park.

Montreal Tower. Couldn't get up to this on this day because the weather was too foggy, if we go up we couldn't see a thing.

BioDome is basically like an indoor zoo, with 4 seasons, spring, summer, fall and, winter.

Saw monkeys, fishes, birds. penguins, beaver, porcupines, starfishes, ducks, seagulls, and etc.

 Monkey!

They also exhibits things like eggs, nests, bones, fossils, amber and bla bla bla.

Tiny eggs.

Dugong's bones.

Visited the Olympic sized swimming pool as well.

My lucky day? :P

Then  we had fried rice for dinner, as usual, with garlic. Meh, that night I really suffered a little bit, almost throw up. Blame my stomach for rejecting garlic. LOL.

It really taste good, I could finish all if without garlic seriously, sorry chefs T.T

Luckily we had awesome egg tarts for dessert! It's so delicious! Reminds me of the bakery in Bekerley T.T

6th day in Montreal is the coldest day, most of the guys were reluctant to go out hence KeatYang, Edmond, SuPing and me decided to go somewhere else rather than staying in the dorm do nothing. Introduced by KeatYang, we went to Juliette et Chocolat in St. Laurent. This place is totally a heaven for chocolate lovers,omgggg.

Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolateeeee!

Got myself banana chocolate crêpe and The Liegese Chocolate. With dark hot chocolate, melted milk chocolate, and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

LOVEITLOVEITLOVEITLOVEITTTTTT! Their chocolate tastes soooo niceeee, so pureeeee, so chocolatelyyyyy. OMGGGGG. Sorry you guys have to bear with my this food lover, lol.

TAA-DAAAAA~

It's kinda small inside tho, very home-style feel :P

XiaoYing and HuiJing made us cornflakes cookie! It was so yummy, with peanut butterrrr, wooooo!

Had Nasi Briyani for dinner. Which I didn't eat, I eat white rice instead :P

Nasiiiii.

Glad we had decent dessert tho. Fruits with yogurt!

Thien, SuPing, KahWai and me was high on these, I don't know why. Haha.

Next day, we went to one of the Montreal's specialty-smoked meat!

My smoked meat. 

For me I think is just so-so. Nothing special. LOL. 

But this shop is really famous. A looooong queue outside right after we are done.

Then, took subway to hunt for Orange Julep. A drink consist of orange juice, vanilla, and egg. 

This is how the shop looks like, super cute right.

Then, headed back to the Montreal Tower that we been to that day. It is the tallest inclined tower in the world, in Guinness World Record somemore, fuyoh! 

Up up here we go!

Snowy Montreal :)

One of the best shot I ever got! Switch on your flash light when snow falling, that simple :P

Dinner, woots!

Fried rice, I think. 

Finally, our last day in Montreal. First thing of the day was Beaver tail hunt. Is a must-eat-food in Montreal as well. Not really beaver's tail tho, it is like a fried flat bread, they make it look like beaver's tail :D 

I had a chocolate flavour one, a little too sweet. LOL.

Then, paid a visit to Gay Village in Papineau.

 I see muscles, woowoo! 

:PP

Had bagel on the street was kinda a new experience for me :D Eating while cold wind blows, wooooo~

Sesame bagel with cream cheese, heaven!

People said if you never tried Montreal's bagel then you are considered never been to Montreal before. Indeed, Montreal bagel, somehow, taste better, more bread-ish, I don't know how to describe in details, it is just way better than other bagel I had! You must try it yourself if you have the chance.

Next stop, Point G, famous for their macaroons.

Colourfullllll. 6 pieces for $9, memang gila. LOL.

And this night's dinner was the best! Sushi all-you-can-eat! Woohoooo!

That restaurant is located somewhere here.

Sashimiiii. Omg their salmon is darn awesome, tastiest salmon I ever had, even in Malaysia!

I was kinda lucky to sit with those big eaters, hmmm, or it is just Thien and me? Anyways, I really enjoyed! Didn't really pay attention to all the conversations, just eat eat eat and eat. LOL.

 Had the last hour of 2011 at Old Port, Montreal. 

 People mountain people sea.

And with a gang of Mexican shouting here and there like crazy people. Most importantly, there was no count down, just fireworks, and the whole fireworks performance lasted for 30 minutes, damn weird. LOL. 

One of the shots.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Although this is not the first time I celebrated New Year Eve in snow, but this is the first time I celebrated in snow with a bunch of friends! The group hug was awesome, I never had it back in Malaysia :'D Thank you people of UofT! 

The entire Montreal was fun! Love their buildings, love the poutine, Chinatown, French-style. Oh did I mentioned above? Quebec is a French speaking province, so road signs, buildings, even the people all speak in French, even Chinese in Chinatown! It feels damn weird to hear French from a Asian face. LOL. The only bad thing in Montreal is I didn't wear boots while walking on the snow, I forgot to bring, just sneakers with 2 pairs of socks inside, which is not sufficient at all. When the weather gets colder, my toes cramped like hell, walked like a puppet, dammit. And uh, remind myself next time try to avoid travelling with gamers or those who only like to play with their computer when travelling. Because, is kinda waste of time tho, and money as well, also is quite unfair for people who doesn't bring their laptop. Therefore most of the night those who didn't bring laptop played Chor Dai Dee to kill the time :/ My personal policy is never bring laptop when traveling, even when travelling in Malaysia. Other than that, they are pretty awesome travelling gang tho, definitely would love to travel with them some other day. Haha. And something I need to confess, I am in love with...

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POUTINE! 

And the crave has been started from the day I back in Windsor, the first meal I had in Windsor is poutine as well. GG. Need to control myself for only can have 1 poutine per week, if not I will die from heart attack one day, too much fats. LOL. 

Nyeeeee, whatever, Montreal, I will visit you again, no matter what! :)