September 8, 2018
On my way to South America I'm stopping in Montreal, Canada for a few days, a few days of great views, impressive/weird/fun architecture, cool street art, and a lot of craft beer.
I mentioned in the last post that I would start my trip through South America in Canada, or more accurately Montreal. The main reasons for this extra stop was to split up the long flight and to see my friend Farrah that I met during a previous trip through Europe. I’d also heard that Montreal is a cool city so why not stay a few days.
The first things I noticed while walking around was how many food places there are. They’re everywhere with food from all over the world, and all places I tried were really good too. Of course I had to try some Canadian specialities such as maple syrup ice cream, salmon and cream cheese bagel, and poutine (fries with cheese and gravy).
But Canadians aren’t only really into food, they also want a selection of beer to go with it, or more like thousands of different kinds of beer from the province of Quebec alone to choose from. How about this craft beer shop? And no, I didn’t manage to try all of them, but I wanted to.
Another thing Montreal has in abundance and of good quality is street art, everything from small pieces here and there to commissioned murals covering the entire side of a house. In some areas you could literally find something around every corner.
There’s not only the street art to look at while wandering around Montreal though. There are also a lot of impressive buildings. The Olympic Stadium looking like a UFO (or possibly a huge LP player with the arm up), and a big sphere built for the World Expo 1967.
My favourite building was however Habitat 67, another construction from the World Expo. I’m not sure if this is efficient in some way or just built to be different, but it’s weird and I like it.
Most days were spent in this manner. Walking around, finding cool places, eating food, and drinking beer. But I did also manage to get into nature a bit by heading up to Mont Royal, a small mountain in the middle of the city with some great views like the photo at the top of this post.
That was all for this time in Canada. I definitely want to go back some day to see more of the country, but now it’s finally time for South America. I’ve just arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!