Part one of the trip: Montreal, Canada.
I hadn’t really thought of Canada as a destination to travel across. Unlike South East Asia, where I have been a few times, it didn’t occur to me that actually, Canada is a brilliant travelling destination, albeit more expensive than some of the other well-trodden routes around the world.
After a whole day of travelling, we eventually landed in Montreal. Hungry and tired, we found our way to our hotel, dropped our bags off, and set out into the city. My first impressions were good ones; it was sunny, the streets were lined with people out drinking and chatting to friends, and there was a general sense of happiness in the air. Granted, we were extremely tired, and we had celebrated perhaps a little too much with the free bubbly on the plane, so our opinions might have reflected this slightly, but nonetheless, it seemed lovely.
We were staying in the Downtown area of Montreal, surrounded by vegan cafes, shops and bars. After an interesting set of gluten free vegan “meals and snacks” on the aeroplane over to Canada, a delicious, cheap meal from ‘Green Panther’ was exactly what the doctor ordered.
After a long sleep, and a lovely wake up call from jet lag, our second day in Montreal started at 4am. My first, non-sleep deprived impressions, didn’t change from the previous day! The sun was shining, the city was waking up, and walking around the city, you could easily mistake it for a beautiful Parisian suburb, dotted with stunning street art and beautiful buildings.
One extremely lovely surprise for us was the Basilica de Notre Dame. Situated in a small square, the outside doesn’t prepare you for the beauty within. The lights, shadows, architecture and ambience truly astonished us; having been to many different beautiful churches, this was definitely up in the top 3, and well worth a visit when visiting Montreal.
Our time in Montreal, although short, was brilliant, and I took a lot more from the city than I thought I would. However, one improvement still needed is my French (luckily most people spoke to us in English!).. well then, onto Quebec!
These Wild Journeys 