Bonjour Montreal

We arrived in Montreal to a stunning sunny and slightly cooler day, which after the humidity was a huge relief. We got off the plane and through border security pretty quickly and took about 45min to get to our Hostel. We arrived at four in the afternoon only to be told in french by one of the cleaners that we couldn't check in till 6pm and that the owner was sleeping. So we took out some lock chains we had and fastened our 25kg packs to one of the beds before heading out exploring for the afternoon in the sun. The hostel is really well located on Sherbrooke Street - but unfortunately, not having access to wifi or a map, I followed my gifted sense of geography in the wrong direction, so rather than exploring downtown we ended up in a not so nice area just south of La Fontaine Park. Eventually we gave up walking and went to relax in the park, while trying not to let our first impressions of Montreal dampen our spirits - as many have told us it is a lovely place.

Just before six we went back to the hostel to check in. Once we had our room all sorted we went in the correct direction to explore Montreal. Less than 3 blocks from our hostel is St Denis street, one look at that street and we realised what people had been telling us about. It was Sunday of Labour Weekend and the streets were packed with people there were lots of cafe's, pub's and clubs with outdoor seating where people were just sitting together, drinking, smoking and socialising. There was lots of interesting music playing and the whole vibe of the place was relaxed and electric at the same time. We walked for a couple of hours through St Denis and St Catherine Street before calling it a night.

Our first activity the next day was a walk up Mount Royal. We walked to the summit and then down to Beaver lake. It was nice and the cool weather made it pretty pleasant.

The top of Mount Royal, facing downtown

After our walk it was lunchtime so we headed to a local favourite Schwartz's Hebrew deli as recommended by many but evangelised by Mr Lorne Dmitruk. It was well worth it, smoked meat sandwich had literally 7cm of the melt in your mouth meat.

Mmmm smoked meat

 Once the meat had settled we headed down to Old Montreal. Which had a very similar vibe to St Denis Street but was situated amoungst all the old historical building on a cobblestone road. I guess it was a good taster for what we should expect when we head on our Europe Tour in October. We had a nice walk but and down the street which is a collection of restaurants, souvenir shops and art galleries. We stopped at a pub and rested our feet while enjoying one of the local brews.

Once we got back to our hostel we had a bit of a nap before we capping our day off with a dinner of poutine (for the kiwi's - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine). As we were in Montreal it seemed fitting to eat there most celebrated dish.

Today we leave for Toronto on the bus, so we got up, went for a quick run around the park and have just finished a lovely croissant breakfast at one of the local cafes.

P.S. Dawn-Marie if you are reading this, Kimilla and I couldn't help but picture you sitting outside in one of the cafes enjoying a glass of wine. It all seemed very fitting.