Part of this blog will be dedicated to travel ideas. I'm a big fan of weekend road trips. I am determined to exhaust all of the interesting places within a 6 hour radius. Periodically, I'll post about a trip that I've taken that is complete with itinerary and suggestions for stop-ins. Stop number 1 is Montreal where my roommate from college, Rachel, and I went this summer.
Day 1:
We arrived early on a Saturday morning and got our dose of Canadian coffee from Second Cup (we were trying to be as Canadian as possible) and proceeded to walk around Rue St. Catherine. That street is more or less a tourist mecca. Lots of designer shops mixed with churches and other more traditional things. There is a large, very cultural section of St. Catherine that we found later in the day. It was...how shall we say...interesting (we found a group of people doing a bizarre mix of yoga and interpretive dance as they made their way down the street). :-). We did find a really random game of life-sized chess happening though and that was pretty darn cool!
Determined to see as much of Montreal as possible, we took some detours up side streets and got our fill of treats before lunch. We stopped off at Divine Chocolatier - an absolute must for any traveler to the city - and had some delicious ice cream (chocolat and blueberry cheesecake) and some free chocolates (we were chatting with the owner for a while). We walked past museums and universities on Rue Sherbrooke, but did not stop to take a tour- we spent most of the time walking.
Another "must walk" street is Crescent. That is where the nightlife of the city is. Though, we didn't get to do too much nightlife exploring in this area, it was a pretty neat street with an eclectic mix of restaurants and night spots.
By far, my favorite part of Montreal was the Latin Quarter and Rue St. Denis. The restaurants there were the best and it was the liveliest section of town with lots of color and energy. Some recommendations of places to check out: Juliette & Chocolat and Cafe Creperie (where Rachel and I got strawberry crepes with real whipped cream on top).
Our hotel was actually north of the city (Gouverneur Ile Charron in Longueil). Hotel wasn't great, but we saved money by not staying directly in the city. We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Tamales, also located just north of the city limits. The food was good (we ordered chicken enchiladas). Oh and being that I was part of this traveling duo, another ice cream stop was necessary- next stop Hartley for some vanilla/chocolate soft serve that was heavenly!
Day 2:
Rachel (note name in a moment) and I desperately wanted to check out Rue Rachel, so we spent most of our day in this section of the city. First stop- breakfast at La Banquise for a ham omelette, toast, homefries, and fresh fruit! Oh my goodness, yum!
From here, we decided to do a walking tour of food and try all sorts of pastry shops, etc. We got chocolat, menthe, and cafe caramel macarons from Marius et Fanny's Chocolatier on Rue St. Denis. We wanted to buy furniture from Zone, Canada's coolest furniture store- IKEA but a bajillion times better! We tried Truffle miel at Suite 88 Chocolatier. We had koulorakia at an amazing Greek pastry shop called Samos on Rue St. Laurent. Continuing onto Rue Mt. Royal, we stopped in and got a strawberry shortcake mini cupcake at Petits Gateux. We got a fresh fruit frozen yogurt at Patio. After walking around for a couple of hours (and several miles later), we ended up back on St. Rachel where we stopped into La Vache Qui Pete for some zezettes- mini pastries.
I do want to note that although we spent a good deal of our time finding eating establishments, this particular section of town is known for its vintage shops, unique stores, and overall trendy vibe. We had a lot of fun up here.
Before heading back down to Boston, we stopped into Old Montreal and Rue Notre Dame to see the Cathedral. Our hankering for sweets wasn't quite done, so we stopped into Claude Postel for a strawberry and maple chocolate. We then wandered over to Chinatown where we stopped in at Callia for a Wife Cookie which was an acquired taste...
The drive back was only about 5 hours. It was a super quick weekend that we jam-packed with sites and sounds. I hope that you get some ideas for travel from this. I know we had a blast!
Also, check out my Montreal roadtrip fb album for more pics! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=590035267438&set=a.590034588798.2125039.701333#!/album.php?aid=2125039&id=701333
Adieu,
Katie
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