A little piece of Montreal

OK maybe not such a little piece. I was sorting through my photos from the weekend and honestly couldn't decide which to not post! So much to show and tell... where to start?

I arrived in Montreal early Friday evening to a bustling airport and hoped into a cab - "Hotel Le Dauphin" spoken in my best French accent (as I'm sure you can picture it) was my destination. I figured that if the French here were anything like the French in Paris I had to pretend not to be English... The accents lasted a few days and changed to Russian depending on how cold we felt. 

Hotel Le Dauphin was amazingly located – central to almost everything - with exceptional front office staff who were so friendly and knowledgeable and directed us to the best of what Montreal had to offer.

Dax and I decided to head out to the Chinese Quarter (Quartier Chinois de Montréal), and had a phenomenal experience at Shabu Shabu Kagayaki Restaurant (I know – mouthful right?). The origins of Shabu Shabu cooking date back many years, where Japanese families gathered around a large hot pot for their evening meal. Shabu Shabu literally means splash-splash. We were given thin slices of raw meat and vegetables, which we cooked quickly in a heated pot of spiced boiling water. I must say it was a very different experience – but what a wonderful way to start our little Montreal adventure. 

Entrance to the Chinese Quarter

  

Shabu Shabu Kagayaki Restaurant

Day one was spent doing a walking tour of the Old Town – which also happened to be the harbour and down town.

Who knew Canada could be so diverse? Montreal is almost completely French and came about back in the day when the French colonised this part of Canada calling it "New France". I would have thought a different name should be used but then again the colonisers were not as thoughtful. I loved the idea of brushing up on my French, but at times I found myself asking for things in Spanish, which caused a lot of confusion. I suppose that’s the price you pay when you’re teaching yourself a different foreign language. My 1 hour flight out of Toronto took me further than I had realised to what felt like I was on another continent completely, let alone another country.

  

Notre Dame - Montreal



LOVE THOSE HATS

 

Dax in Downtown/ Old Town Montreal

Looks like that ship is there for the winter - ice completely frozen around it!

Lake freezing over



The French dressed up like a polar beer and wolves



   

  

 

Museum of Natural Science on Ile Sainte Helene

 

Saturday evening we popped into the Montreal Winter Festival. Picture an outdoor DJ stage in the middle of the square with loads of people just dancing and going crazy. It’s also the coldest I’ve ever been dancing so I spent a bit of time dancing/ jumping around just to stay warm! This festival is an amazing time for the French to get together. They open all museums to the public and have loads of cultural shows happening throughout the weekend.



JITS keeping it real

 

Festival in the background



Best part of the festival was the food! Now I’m all for emotional eating but Montreal puts the emotion in eating. As the girls, Dax and I found out, the local winter speciality are chocolate waffles. BUT (and that’s a huge but) the chocolate is put into the waffle so its hot and melted by the time you bite into it! AMAZINGLY tasty... wow craving one as I type that.



To the left is the ice tobogganing stand which the
festival had set up. Dax and I came back to
do it the next morning. Such FUN!! Yes that is me in
the picture that I'm taking a picture of.

Sunday morning found me back at the Notre Dame. Except this time I was actually inside the church sitting through a French Catholic Mass. Now for those of you that know me well, are probably wondering what the heck I was doing at mass – especially a French Catholic one. But there was something awesomely beautiful about this morning. I could not understand any of the service, but it is amazing how the “Peace be with you” ("Sign of Peace") in any language is so understood. An old French man walked up to me to shake my hand (as is the tradition of the “Sign of Peace” for those of you who are not familiar with it) and even though we responded to each other in 2 different languages – for that moment there was a connection between two humans from totally different cultures and in that moment there was NO JUDGEMENT. It was so incredibly powerful that the “Sign of Peace"  brought me to tears! I recommend sitting through a service in any religious house in a foreign language – it doesn’t matter what religion you are, as most of you know I’m not a religious person, but you will be amazed at how moving it can be to be still and present! 



Inside the Notre Dame.

Very ornate.

 Sunday we explored the French Quarter (La Quartier Francais), this included slipping into some shops (only to escape the cold that is ;P) and a trip to the top of Parc Mont Royal which has an amazing lookout point of all of Montreal. Getting up to this point was a thing and a half. The route up to the top was iced over and it made the trip up very slippery and entertaining – I  found myself laughing at people who had fallen in front of me (who are we if we cannot laugh at ourselves?).



Getting lost on Parc Mont Royal



Some great photo ops in  Parc Mont Royal  

 

Slipping down the mountain

 

Taken from the bus on our way down the mountain

The architecture in Montreal is wonderful. It is characterised by the juxtaposition of the old, being the legacy of two successive colonisations by the French and the British, and the new, being a mix of colour and glass that brings the city to life. I recommend you go just to see how the city changes from district to district.

Dax and I treated ourselves to a decadent French dinner as our last dinner in Montreal. And it was WELL WORTH IT. Our 6 course meal included foie gras, rabbit and one of the most incredible chocolate fondants I have ever tasted. It rounded off a great weekend – where Dax and I spoke and laughed (more laughing that speaking) for 4 solid hours. They say that the real gift is having a friend to share laughter with. The duration of our dinner took such a long time we nearly missed our metro back to the hotel.

Our little piece of French Cooking HEAVEN





Where the Foie Gras are you?

Leaving Montreal I was struck by the ugliness of the concrete structures that make up and keep their highway system together. Something I had not seen in the beautiful inner circle of the city. My brother made a very valid point – “Sometimes pretty doesn’t always weather the weather”.

I think there’s definitely something to be said about that!

Ellicottville AKA EVL

To say that it has taken me 3 days to recover from the past weekend is the understatement of the year. From the battle bruises I managed to obtain when I had a fight with a ski lift (he won) to the massive LC I was wearing on the Sunday made me realise what an epic weekend we had in New York State - at the very awesome town of Ellicottville (pronouced Alcoville by all Canadians until a South African tries to explain to the US Boarder control official that that was where we were headed).

We arrived in Ellicottville to a wonderland type town. Christmas lights beautifully strung throughout the town. Heading off to our friend’s house felt like it was a complete welcome from the work that we had been doing for the past few weeks.

Up bright and early to hit the slopes on Saturday to make the most of the snow that had finally arrived – winter was only a few months late this year. My mustard jackets got some remarks with many people telling me they hadn’t seen a jacket like that since the 80's… Had a good laugh, but at least people could see me coming down a slope and move out of the way before I ran over them. The lady spotted in mustard… joy



Cupid on the mountain



Quick lesson before heading up



Guru and I hit the bunny slope for a refresher on snowboarding – my second time ever and his first. And well he is seriously talented. He was up and boarding in no time like a pro.

Best teachers EVER

Got some amazing lessons and tips from Carrie and Jen – guys to you I’ll always be grateful. You taught me in 2 hours what the instructor last week failed to mention. And after the crash course the sadists in the group thought it would be funny to get Guru and I up a proper slope. After a run in with the ski lift where I bruised the right side of my body to the point where I thought I had internal bleeding and an almost torn groin ligament from the board heading in one direction and my foot staying in the snow – I was up and running to get some boarding in. Look its 5 days from the boarding trip and I’m still blue. I suppose that’s what you get when you manage to get run over by the ski lift and then get stuck under it when the operator stops the whole lift to try get you out – possibly my most embarrassing sports injury to date – but also the one I think I will laugh at most when I think back on this weekend.



Bail... AGAIN...



FLO (AKA GURU the PRO)

After the amazing time spent on the slopes we headed back for some much needed R&R time in the hot tub while watching the snow come down. Absolutely best thing a person can do after a day on the slopes. I tried the Spring Bok recovery idea by rolling in the snow… I still question whether it actually works – but was amazing getting back into the bubbling hot tub and a glass of wine after rolling in the snow that’s for sure!

  

The most amazing R&R ever!

Saturday night we tried to introduce the word “braai” to replace barbeque… but it was still fun having my first official BBQ in the states. It wasn’t long before we learnt what Vodka slaps were (were 2 people have Vodka shots and literally slap each other) – which was incredibly entertaining… South Africans have NOTHING on Canadians when it comes to partying up a storm… this was followed by a dance off circle in the lounge, being picked up by a cab driver to take us to the towns local and a slight memory gap in which time the collective lost a camera, 3 credit cards, 1 debit card permanently lost, 1 debit card left behind the bar with a $20 tab on it and a lost South African Drivers license. Shit got messy – just saying…

Rumble in the jungle

Needless to say, Sunday's drive home was not one of my most pleasant and I was grateful to be sleeping in the back seat where I could open my eyes every hour to see the weather change from a snow storm to a beautiful winter’s day.

That is meant to be the road

Snow storm hit - poor Jambles could hardly see the car in front of him

The boys and I got back to Burlington and headed for chicken wings at Wild Wings to lick our wounds and have possibly the best wings in town (although I’m convinced the boys only go there for their choice grade in waitresses (although they’ll never confess to that)).

                                      

My camera got donated to the town of Ellicottville. So I’m grateful Guru had his safe and secure so we had some evidence of the amazing weekend we had.

So far this has been the longest week of my life – but SUPER excited for the long weekend trip up to Montreal… going to be another incredible weekend in good old Canada.