Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Montreal with Eben!

For Labor Day Weekend, Eben and I took a little road trip to Montreal!  Its only about 6 hours from New Haven.  In addition to it being just a very cool place to go, it was also my very first time in the foreign land of Canada.

Every morning, we would take a walk to a cafe for breakfast and fancy coffees. 

Clearly showing I how one should drink coffee when in Montreal.

We rented bicycles ($5/day! And you can find them on almost every corner - you use them and put them back as you like... amazing program), and rode around the old quarters.

Cobblestones and toes.

It was so lovely to just wander around and explore.

My first time in Canada!

Fortunately, Eben speaks French.  It inspired me though - I'm still deciding whether I want to learn French or Portuguese next, until now Portuguese has been way ahead, but this trip nudged French forward a little in the race to my bucket list.

Lovely architecture everywhere.

Labor day was being celebrated in Canada as well, so there were street festivals everywhere.  This also meant there were NO hotel or hostels available.  Thanks to some good 'meet the stranger' skills, we found a place... but it was more than a little sketchy.  However, it was also only $20/night.  No complaints here!

We had quite the scavenger hunt trying to find a Beaver Tail, per the recommendation of my Canadian friend Kelly.  It was delicious - fried dough with 1/2 nutella, 1/2 cinnamon, sugar and lemon.

And we had to have a famous smoked meat (pastrami) sandwich - yummmmm.

Eben looking either emotional about finally finding the smoked meat (it took about an hour trek in the rain) or petrified.



Lovely trip, lovely company, lovely city.