Sam & Georgia's Travels : Montreal

It took us 5 hours on an incredibly uncomfortable hot bus to get from Toronto to Montreal, but we arrived around 2 o'clock. After we checked into our hostel in Old Montreal we decided to give poutine a try. As expected, the chips, gravy and cheese curd combo was amazing and has quickly become my favourite meal ever.

We spent the rest of the afternoon having a look around Old Montreal, walking along the cobblestone streets in the freezing cold. It felt as though we were walking through a small French countryside town, not a major Canadian city.
I loved how everyone speaks both french and english, it made me wish I knew another language!

The next day we got up early and visited Notre Dame, which was pretty spectacular. The inside is full of such incredible detail, from the staircase to the altar, it is amazing. We also had a look at the Chateau Ramezay which used to be the Governor of Montreal's home and endured 500 years of Quebec history. Benjamin Franklin stayed here when he was trying to convince the Canadians to join the revolution, the building was built during the French colonisation and became a university after Canada became part of the English Commonwealth.
It was a beautiful old building that felt very French, each room held a different era of the Chateaus history. It was awesome to walk through the building and get an understanding of the history of Montreal and Quebec.

We then had a look through the Bonsecours Market which used to be the main trading area in Montreal. It still holds a number of stores and has a design and textile museum on the bottom level.
While Sam had a look at the shops, I visited the museum, where there was a heap of cool clothes from the 20's and 30's.

We also visited the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, which is much smaller than Notre Dame and has a tower with views of the Old Montreal docks. There is also a crypt underneath the chapel with a large archeological site that is currently being uncovered.
The view from the tower was gorgeous and we were up there just as the sun became hidden behind the skyline of Downtown.

On our last day in Montreal we headed Downtown. We climbed to the top of Mont Royal, which is a huge hill that overlooks the city. It was covered in snow and felt as though we were walking through a winter wonderland. It was a long walk but it was definitely worth it. The view of the city was amazing plus the snow covering everything around was so pretty.

After that we had a look around the under ground city that stretches all around the downtown area. It's really just a huge underground shopping centre connected with a heap of subway tunnels.

We managed to have Poutine everyday, much to my delight and Sams dismay, plus on our last day we had a huge Canadian style breakfast with plenty of maple syrup!