Montreal has long been in my bucket list since I was a young kid. My aunt's niece came to visit us in San Francisco and the young kid in me that thought of her as the older cool girl and she lived in Montreal. 35 or so years later, I made my first trip to Montreal. In my mind, Montreal was glamourous and romantic and in reality, I'd say that Montreal was not that which isn't a bad thing but just different. I spent 3 days there arriving on a red eye flight on Monday morning. AI is a big thing right now and I used it to help me create a walking tour of the city on my first day. I didn't give it mileage parameters and so I clocked over 27,000 steps on my first day. I check into my hotel and this is how my time was spent:
Day 1 in Montreal, I checked in and dropped my bags off at the Hyatt Centric Montreal and then set off on foot with umbrella in hand because of the cloudy weather. Thankfully, rain held off. I passed by the Notre Dame Basilica, the Place a'Armes. I walked Rue Saint-Paul and made my first purchase.. my beloved Lucia Douglas Pine infuser. I can't get any shop in Canada to ship it due to current customs and taxes and so I bought every single unit the shop had! I then set off to Chinatown which was really cute by the way. No shortage of casual restaurants. I walked what felt like all of Saint Laurent from Chinatown into the Mile End neighborhood. I had to make a visit the Fairmount Bagels and was luckily a timely visit as their sesame bagels were coming out of their wood fired oven. It was the best bagel I've had and especially for $1.04 USD. I couldn't believe how cheap in general I felt Montreal was. I visited more shops around the area along with a stop at the rival bagel shop St Viateur. While both bagels were fresh out of the wood fired oven, I preferred Fairmount as the ones at St Viateur were a bit under cooked. I covered the neighborhoods of Mont Royal and the surrounding areas as well as the Market Jean Talon.
Day 2 in Montreal, I revisited the Mont Royal neighborhood and this time I veered off the main streets and explored the more quaint neighborhood side streets. The staircase architecture, the life in front of every building's lawns, a mix of grunge and layered complexity. I see why people like Montreal. After that, I walked up to Mount Royal via the Outremont neighborhood which was the cutest and aesthetically, very much my jam! I walked by the old money area of Montreal at the base of Mount Royal before ascending for about 20 minutes up to the view point where there was an abundant area for sitting and resting. Next up, I stopped by the Marche Atwater market. I was debating whether to go or not but it was one of those I might regret it if I didn't and so I went. It was a much smaller and quainter version of Market Jean Talon. It was mainly artisan shops whereas Jean Talon was groceries and market foods. I did come upon a nice gentleman who owned a fruit stand who proceeded to provide me with a mini lesson on Canadian geography! I walked by the canal to take in the atmosphere before heading back towards Chinatown for dinner. Across from my dinner spot, Sammi Dumplings where I also went the night prior was a shop selling Chinese dresses. At $20 each, I bought enough for my girls to grow into!
Day 3 in Montreal was met with rain which was fine since I would spend the next handful of hours at the Scandinavie Spa. After the spa, I walked all along the harbor waterfront towards the Five Roses industrial sign but at the end, it didn't seem worth it for the limited view on ground and so I headed back towards the Old Town. Another walk through the Old Town and that would be my time exploring the bucket list Montreal. I will miss the $1 bagels and not having to pay $8 for a matcha latte. I happen to be there during the Japanese Celebration week where the restaurants and eateries that had a focus on Japanese food culture were highlighted. I had a delicious sushi dinner at Nozy for about $25 which would be unheard of in the San Francisco Bay Area. Montreal to me was a mix of grungy, understated and layered. Like any city, it was homeless camps, a street where people with drug addiction issues in need of mental help congregated and I happen to accidentally walk through such a street. Having grown up in San Francisco, my experience had me continue walking through vs turning around to take another route. One of the highlights for me was the many street musician performers I saw along the way mainly in Old Town and the senior citizens in Chinatown doing their daily breath exercises. Until next time, Montreal!
