When you can work from anywhere, why not make 'anywhere' a good place?
I'd been warned multiple times by friends I trust that it's hard to get by in Montreal without speaking French. Completely untrue. While that may be so in the rest of Francophile Quebec, you can get along just fine in the city on English, though they're usually roll their eyes as if to say, "Oh Christ, another person from 90 miles away who's trying to use the language my very nation speaks." Which is charming in its own, "I'll come over that bar and end you," sort of way. I mean to say, don't act like you're a completely independent French nation while you gladly take my money depicting the Queen of England.
But once you get over their false European sensibilities, the city itself and even most of its people, is/are an excellent experience. Take Rey at Arnold's bar in Concordia for instance. A sexy Israeli woman who mans the bar most days in this dark, downstairs establishment with a a great jukebox, incredible regulars, poker machines and its own prostitute.
One local, a guy with crunches I've loving named "Shut the Fuck Up, Dave" was rife with advice on what I should do and where I should go while in town. "For" Lorne is a delivery driver on the other side of me at the bar, he's been suspended for getting in three wrecks in the delivery truck in one week. He's 69-years-old and has me read him the suspension letter because he "can't see very well." Then there was Spike, an actual Ice Road Trucker in town on his holiday to see relatives. He leans over to me after ForLorne hits the head and says, "these people are bringing me down, man."
I agreed with him and walked up to Montreal's pretty fascinating Chinatown, authentic and comparable to all the great Chinatowns in most cities in its cuisine, smoking, chewing and talking with your mouth wide open, unidentifiable smells, blowing garbage and of course, spitting. Even with that hocking up a loogie noise that you just love to hear while you'r eating. Wing Fa is proper eating and it's not as run down as some of the other Chinatown joints. Not as much loogie hocking over to Wing Fa.
The little local parks are great, the murals all over St. Denis and St. Laurent and everywhere in between are pretty bad ass. There are small vinyl stores everywhere and, just like Europe, a LOT of the inventory is EDM. Some folks in Montreal proper don't speak English but you can play charades with just about anyone. Not everyone is a dick about the speaking French thing but some are, in fact, I'd say a solid 50% of the Montreal locals have a 'pat you on the head, aren't you cute, I'm ten times smarter than you' attitude. Which is fine. To each their own, I always say. But if I'm trying, accent and everything and your roads and train tracks and airports are open and you're charging me money for goods and services, act like we're all God's creatures and shove that attitude really, really far up your own ass.
You have the fucking Queen of England on your money.
The Metro system is very clean, pretty outstanding but I wouldn't want to rely on it and the buses in the winter, there seem to be some pretty good stretches between stations. I will say, all-in-all, the public transportation is excellent but on nice weather days, Montreal is extremely walkable. The Big Gay District is pretty cool, great vibe, cool art, god people, decent bars even for the straights. The old Olympic village is neat, I wouldn't tell you it's a must see, but I thought it was pretty cool. Especially the old ballpark. VERY cool elevator tour. And you can still walk right into the old swimming complex. There's a kid's science museum near there if you have mini-mes, they'd probably dig the whole area.
The mountain in the middle of the city, Mt. Royal, is worth the hike, great views, cool little diners near the top to enjoy. They've taken really good care of the encompassing park. But mostly, mostly I was there due to a generous portion of narcissism. In the 1880's the Canadian government had tried a few contractors who failed to even begin to build the Canadian-Pacific trans-Canadian railroad. So, the investors and officials hired someone who had already succeeded. Wm. Cornelius Van Horne of Joliet, Ill.
He succeeded and made everyone rich, so the Canadians celebrated him by naming a bunch of stuff after him and I explored that end of town to take pictures of my own name a bunch of times. Once even in Hebrew. (Fun Fact: Hasidic Jews... not big fans of you snooping around their buildings, taking pictures of their shit. And Van Horne is the Hasidic District in Montreal).
Montreal gets a good grade as a city, they're civil, creative, fun, have senses of humor and, even with that annoying 'we think we're French even though the real French laugh at us' thing, I'd go back in a heartbeat.
Check it out if you're ever in town:
Blues Club - near some touristy bullshit but it's actually a decent place - Bistro a JoJo.
Good bar with good food and old men speaking French - Brasserie St. Denis
Ridiculously long line for a nearly worth-the-wait sandwich - Schwartz's - if you do eat here, I'm going to call you a moron to your face for spending a total of 2.5 hours of your vacation waiting for a sandwich in a city with extraordinary and unique restaurants. (Tandem or Bistro 1843, for instance)
Dive bar with a built-in hooker and some VERY interesting regulars - Andrew's on Guy St.
Great pre-dinner or late afternoon drinks bar - Bar Bifteck St. Laurent - stupid name, great bar, great bartenders.
Decent sports bar - Resto on St. Laurent - bartender's Portuguese but speaks English.
Chinese - Wing Fa. No frills, just good food.
Ridiculous Breakfast joint (that may even be some weird Canadian chain but I don't care because it was awesome) with 1,000 things on the menu - get the Lac St. Jean - Allo! MonCoco.
Definitely check out the (smallish) Atwater Farmer's Market near the Lionel-Groulx Metro stop, there's a stunningly good breakfast taco-slash-brisket joint there run by a couple of kids who love Austin - Alwin BBQ.
MONTREAL IN PHOTOS:
But once you get over their false European sensibilities, the city itself and even most of its people, is/are an excellent experience. Take Rey at Arnold's bar in Concordia for instance. A sexy Israeli woman who mans the bar most days in this dark, downstairs establishment with a a great jukebox, incredible regulars, poker machines and its own prostitute.
One local, a guy with crunches I've loving named "Shut the Fuck Up, Dave" was rife with advice on what I should do and where I should go while in town. "For" Lorne is a delivery driver on the other side of me at the bar, he's been suspended for getting in three wrecks in the delivery truck in one week. He's 69-years-old and has me read him the suspension letter because he "can't see very well." Then there was Spike, an actual Ice Road Trucker in town on his holiday to see relatives. He leans over to me after ForLorne hits the head and says, "these people are bringing me down, man."
I agreed with him and walked up to Montreal's pretty fascinating Chinatown, authentic and comparable to all the great Chinatowns in most cities in its cuisine, smoking, chewing and talking with your mouth wide open, unidentifiable smells, blowing garbage and of course, spitting. Even with that hocking up a loogie noise that you just love to hear while you'r eating. Wing Fa is proper eating and it's not as run down as some of the other Chinatown joints. Not as much loogie hocking over to Wing Fa.
The little local parks are great, the murals all over St. Denis and St. Laurent and everywhere in between are pretty bad ass. There are small vinyl stores everywhere and, just like Europe, a LOT of the inventory is EDM. Some folks in Montreal proper don't speak English but you can play charades with just about anyone. Not everyone is a dick about the speaking French thing but some are, in fact, I'd say a solid 50% of the Montreal locals have a 'pat you on the head, aren't you cute, I'm ten times smarter than you' attitude. Which is fine. To each their own, I always say. But if I'm trying, accent and everything and your roads and train tracks and airports are open and you're charging me money for goods and services, act like we're all God's creatures and shove that attitude really, really far up your own ass.
You have the fucking Queen of England on your money.
The Metro system is very clean, pretty outstanding but I wouldn't want to rely on it and the buses in the winter, there seem to be some pretty good stretches between stations. I will say, all-in-all, the public transportation is excellent but on nice weather days, Montreal is extremely walkable. The Big Gay District is pretty cool, great vibe, cool art, god people, decent bars even for the straights. The old Olympic village is neat, I wouldn't tell you it's a must see, but I thought it was pretty cool. Especially the old ballpark. VERY cool elevator tour. And you can still walk right into the old swimming complex. There's a kid's science museum near there if you have mini-mes, they'd probably dig the whole area.
The mountain in the middle of the city, Mt. Royal, is worth the hike, great views, cool little diners near the top to enjoy. They've taken really good care of the encompassing park. But mostly, mostly I was there due to a generous portion of narcissism. In the 1880's the Canadian government had tried a few contractors who failed to even begin to build the Canadian-Pacific trans-Canadian railroad. So, the investors and officials hired someone who had already succeeded. Wm. Cornelius Van Horne of Joliet, Ill.
He succeeded and made everyone rich, so the Canadians celebrated him by naming a bunch of stuff after him and I explored that end of town to take pictures of my own name a bunch of times. Once even in Hebrew. (Fun Fact: Hasidic Jews... not big fans of you snooping around their buildings, taking pictures of their shit. And Van Horne is the Hasidic District in Montreal).
Montreal gets a good grade as a city, they're civil, creative, fun, have senses of humor and, even with that annoying 'we think we're French even though the real French laugh at us' thing, I'd go back in a heartbeat.
Check it out if you're ever in town:
Blues Club - near some touristy bullshit but it's actually a decent place - Bistro a JoJo.
Good bar with good food and old men speaking French - Brasserie St. Denis
Ridiculously long line for a nearly worth-the-wait sandwich - Schwartz's - if you do eat here, I'm going to call you a moron to your face for spending a total of 2.5 hours of your vacation waiting for a sandwich in a city with extraordinary and unique restaurants. (Tandem or Bistro 1843, for instance)
Dive bar with a built-in hooker and some VERY interesting regulars - Andrew's on Guy St.
Great pre-dinner or late afternoon drinks bar - Bar Bifteck St. Laurent - stupid name, great bar, great bartenders.
Decent sports bar - Resto on St. Laurent - bartender's Portuguese but speaks English.
Chinese - Wing Fa. No frills, just good food.
Ridiculous Breakfast joint (that may even be some weird Canadian chain but I don't care because it was awesome) with 1,000 things on the menu - get the Lac St. Jean - Allo! MonCoco.
Definitely check out the (smallish) Atwater Farmer's Market near the Lionel-Groulx Metro stop, there's a stunningly good breakfast taco-slash-brisket joint there run by a couple of kids who love Austin - Alwin BBQ.
MONTREAL IN PHOTOS:
Lots of prostitutes with their (young) pimps.
This was explained to me by Rey as a legal thing.
My new favorite t-shirt in the whole world.
The old Olympic Stadium really is damn cool.
But even when it's 90-degrees out, it makes it feel cold.
They have some outstanding and some terrifying buskers.
200-feet of Leonard.
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