My final trip during my time in Canada was a weekend in Montréal (Québec). Montréal is the second largest city in Canada. Yes, I’ve been there before when we joined the Chinese bus ride in the beginning of November, but as we only saw St. Joseph’s Oratory, Notre Dame, the Biodome and the tower in Olympic Park, Nicole, Ida, Mirjam and me decided to go there for a second time to really explore the city. Last minute, Lucy, one of Nicole’s roommates, joined us. We had a great time!
We booked tickets for the Megabus a few weeks in advance to get a cheap price (https://www.megabus.com/). The Megabus goes from Toronto Coach Terminal to Montréal over night. Usually the trip lasts 6 hours, on our way back however, there was so much snow that it took us about 9 hours. We had to pay CA $ 88 in total for the bus, plus about CA $ 30 for the Greyhound Bus from Guelph to Toronto and back. As we had already made a good experience with the Hostel International (HI Hostel) in New York City (http://hinewyork.org/), we booked a room in the HI Hostel Montréal again (http://www.hihostels.ca/quebec/177/HI-Montr%C3%A9al.hostel). We had to pay CA $ 38 per person per night for a 4-person bedroom with our own bathroom. The price included a nice breakfast and activities offered by the hostel that you can join without paying an additional fee. Saturday morning e. g. we participated in a tour through Old Montréal; the tour guide was really good! If you are a member of the HI Hostel group, you will pay CA $ 5 less.
We started Friday evening at about 10 pm with the Greyhound Bus from Guelph and transfered to the Megabus at about midnight. In between we even had enough time to go to Dundas Square (like the NY Times Square in small) and into the Eaton Center (big shopping mall) to admire the beautiful christmas decoration. Cheesy, but really nice!
The bus ride could have been nice if there hadn’t been a problem with the heating system. On the top level of the bus, where we sat down, it was more than 30 degrees Celsius! No, I do not exaggerate. I woke up in the middle of the night all sweaty, afraid of breathing in the sticky air and convinced not to survive the night if I stayed there. :-D Luckily I found an empty seat downstairs. There it was really cold however, but better a bit chilly than too hot. We arrived in Montréal early in the morning on Saturday. It was much colder than in Guelph due to the fact that we went up north. The sidewalks were partly frozen, it was windy and we were tired, but whatsoever: We had arrived in Montréal! :-) After a big detour we finally found the hostel and could already go into our room, which was especially nice for warming up from the cold outside. Also we could eat from the breakfast buffet that morning although we had booked only one night. At 11 am the tour through Old Montréal started and we explored the Underground City (Montréal has the biggest Underground City worldwide. There are 32 kilometres of tunnels over 12 square kilometres of the most densely populated part of Montréal. Office towers, hotels, shopping centres, universities and much more are connected through the tunnels. In the underground city you can find many shops and cafés. The network is climate controlled, clean and well-lit. During the cold winter it is particularly useful.), La Cathédrale Marie Reine du Monde, the area around Notre Dame, the Old Port and much more. The guide especially emphasized the fact that you can find symbols for the rivalry between France and Britain all over the city. At Victoria’s Square e. g. you can find a beautiful entrance to the Metro system as you may know it from Paris. Directly opposite to it there is a big statue of Queen Victoria of England. At Place D'Armes in front of Notre Dame there are two funny looking statues, one British gentleman with a pug in his arms facing the Cathedral (built in 1829) and one French Lady holding a poodle in her arms facing the Bank of Montréal (BMO), Canada`s first bank built in 1847 ("The Poodle and the Pug"). It is a symbol of both countries’ feeling of being superior to the other one: The British gentleman looking in a boastful manner at the Catholic Church, representing religious traditions; the French lady doing the same with the Bank of Montréal (BMO) representing the new world and hard-headed British businessmen. Close to Notre Dame you can find many nice restaurants and cafés. We went to the „Venice“ café which not only has a really nice design but also good food. After lunch we went back to the Old Port. During winter you can do ice skating there. Despite the cold it was so much fun! Near the harbour there was one of the city’s christmas markets, which are far less popular in Canada than we know it from Germany. So you shouldn't’ expect too much of them. But with all the christmas lights and the beautiful buildings around the market it was a special atmosphere anyway. (And we got a Hershey’s chocolate kiss and a slice of Ristorante pizza for free ;-). After the christmas market we were so cold again that we decided to have a hot chocolate in another nice café and to look for the Eaton Center Montréal to warm up in there. We ended up in another mall, but we didn't care, it was freezing! Our first day ended with a dinner from the grocery store in our hostel room.
The next day we first went to the tourist office and from there to Notre Dame where we could finally officially enter. The day before there had been a wedding so that it had been closed for the public. The Cathedral is extraordinary because of its colouring. The choice of colours is reminiscent of an oriental church while the rest is classical Catholic. You can easily stay in there for half an hour or more to admire its beauty. After lunch we took the subway to the Olympic Park. I so much wanted to go to the Rio Tinto Planetarium and fortunately could convince the others that it was a good idea. I love planetariums and am actually thinking of buying a projector for starlight for my bedroom to have my private planetarium every night before going to sleep. The entrance was CA $ 14 for students and we could watch two shows (20 and 45 minutes). When the first show ended and everyone got up from their bean bags one did not: Nicole had fallen asleep during the show and was sleeping calmly in her bean bag. Well, it had been two nights of little sleep and the dark an the starlight can make you sleepy. :-D Back in the city center we walked through the entertainment district, found two other small christmas markets, coincidentally walked into a Gospel Concert in a church, tried to go up the 360° Observation Deck at Sommet Place Ville Marie, which was unfortunately already closed, finally found the Eaton Center and had dinner in a restaurant called „Frites Alors!“ Most of us of course chose poutine. :-) After dinner we slowly walked back to the hostel where we waited until it was time to leave for the Megabus. This time the heating system was fully functional, but the ride took three hours longer than scheduled due to the massive amount of snow coming down. Finally, Canada turned into a white winterwonderland! <3