Solo travelling to Canada day 3

On day 3 in Montreal, I decided to hit the local markets. I walked about 1h15 to the first market. I wanted to see the most I could of the city so I avoided the metro as much as I could!

It was quite a lovely walk to be honest. It was a long walk along the canal Lachine. I loved seeing all the different architecture along the way. 

I walked past this sign saying it was the national Quebec day but didn't realise it was actually that day until I heard people at the market wish each other a happy Jean Talon day and saw people walk around wearing the Quebec flag. There was an event and I think a concert at a parc in Montreal but didn't know which park and didn't know where it was but to be honest I'd planned so much that day that I wasn't really bothered about it. In hindsight I wish I would've gone lol it probably would have been fun. Oh well!!

The first market I went to was the marché Jean Talon. This was put down as a must do in the travel guide I bought! I was surprised to find mainly flowers, fruit and vegetables stalls but it was still very fun.

I found a shop that sold a bit of everything! I bought a can of drink that to be honest wasn't very nice (I had to force myself to finish it), a pack of BBQ and maple syrup crisps that I brought home to share with my mum (they were very nice) and 2 different types of chocolate bars that I also brought home to share with my family (we haven't eaten them yet)

I wanted to try Quebec strawberries because my Canadian friend told me to absolutely try them and they were the best strawberries I've ever eaten! I also bought some cherries that were also very very nice. I was having a hypo at that point so I had a sugarry drink and many strawberries and cherries which felt wrong because I usually can't eat too many fruits because it makes my blood sugar go too high.

Walked past a petrol station and wondered how much petrol was in Canada but I couldn't see any prices so I gave up lol. 

The walk to the next market was about 3 hours which I thought would be too much considering I would have really bad hypos after only an hour long walk but also because I'd already walked almost an hour and a half so I thought I'd test out the local metro! I was surprised because it was mainly empty, there were loads of empty seats, it was clean, nobody was being too loud, there weren't any drunk people or people begging for money which are all things that are the opposite of the metro in Lille for example!

After getting the metro and a short walk, I arrived at the marché Atwater which was also put down as a must do by the travel book I bought.

I started with a smoothie from the smoothie and juice stall. I can't really remember what smoothie I had but I remember it being very nice, I found a picnic table near the juice stall so I sat there, had my smoothie and had more of the strawberries and cherries that I'd bought at the previous market. When I'd finished with that I had a wander around the market, it was very food orientated but it was mainly meat, fish or cheese to eat at home and I couldn't buy that but I still enjoyed it. I went to a spices shop called epices de cru and the lady was lovely, they had soooooo many different spices in there I must have spent at least 30mn smelling everything and choosing what to bring home for my mum and I to cook with. I ended up buying a Montreal steak rub just because I had to and also because my Canadian friend said I should try it lol!

I then walked back to the old port ( it was a very very long walk, about 2 and a half / 3 hours) through boulevard Saint Laurent which is a street I wanted to go to because they had lots of shops and souvenir shops I wanted to check out but I didn't realise everything would be shut as it was National Quebec day, I did think of going back there later in the week but decided against it because I'd already bought loads. 

I couldn't believe it when I walked past a tasty crousty restaurant !!!! If you're french you'll know these are VERY popular in France and I know Quebec has lots of things we have in France, such as Columbus café, 3 Brasseurs restaurant, O'tacos and many others but I certainly didn't expect to see this lol!!!!

When I was going through the travel guide book before coming here, I found this vegan restaurant called Aux Vivres that was in boulevard Saint Laurent so I had one aim and that was to eat there for lunch. I had a caesar wrap which had: salad, crispy tofu, fake bacon, tomatoes and caesar sauce and it was SOOOOOOO delicious!!!! I was scared of not liking tofu as I'd never had it but it was REALLY nice!!!! I couldn't recommend it more. It was so nice I had it again later in the week and I still think about it about 3 weeks after coming back. In fact since I've been back I've been doing lots of research on recipes to use up some tofy we have at home and I've never used! I'm thinking of trying to make this wrap at home! 

I had a break on a bench halfway through my walk back to the old port and I saw someone walk past with a Shane Hollander (from Heated Rivalry) hockey jersey!!!!! I wish I would've said something but I was so surprised that I didn't think of anything to say lol !

Only a couple of kilometers until the old port at that point, getting closer!!!!

Before going to the old port I had a wander through the little streets around the place Jacques Cartier. I fancied an ice cream but didn't know if they had sorbet and as a lactose intolerant I didn't fancy having a stomach ache for the next 3 days but I found a place that did cookie dough!!!! Which was lovely!!!!!! So nice I had it again another day! I can't remember the name of the place but if you walk past the flowery arch, it's the stall with blue doors only a couple of meters down the road on the right!

Another place I wanted to try was the Olive + Gourmando coffee shop and this time I did order an iced coffee but she gave me a hot coffee and I was too shy to say anything so I drank it anyways lol but it was very nice! I also bought a tote bag they were selling because it was very pretty!

Last few meters until my hotel! My feet were hurting so much I'd walked 15km that day lol

I bought a pack of bagels when I arrived, to have for breakfast but, bagels are a staple in Montreal and theres many bagel shops I wanted to try but I saw online that there's always a really long queue so I ordered bagels from Kettlemans on Doorsdash and it was the nicest bagel I've ever had! I got a creme cheese and bacon bagel and it was lovely! Would definitely recommend them! 

I better get this post done, I promised my mum I'd make an apple and maple syrup crumble when I finished my post lol!!!!

Solo travelling to Canada day 2

On my second day in Montreal I woke up at 5am, probably because I went to bed at 4pm the day before but also maybe beacause that's 1pm French time lol. I decided to look for a coffee shop or anything that was open at that time and all I could find was a mcdonalds. So I left the hotel at 6am and headed for the mcdonalds. 

The mcdonalds was on boulevard Saint Laurent, which was on my list of things to visit but as I'd planned it for another day I didn't explore too much. I ordered a bacon and egg muffin and two hash browns because they're not available in France and when we cook them from frozen they never taste the same. I also got a watermelon lemonade type of drink and a large coke because I was thirsty and it was already hot. I didn't expect the drink to be that huge... It must have been at least one liter! The seating area wasn't open yet so I sat on a nearby bench and a woman sat next to me and we spoke for over an hour and she gave me lots of recommendations!

I obviously had to take Lily with me to Canada... Here we were sat on a bench, waiting for the science museum to open!

I decided to go to the science museum as soon as it opened as the woman at the front desk the day before said it would take 3 hours to visit. I was very dissapointed in the museum, not because it's boring, but just because I think I wasn't the target audience. I spent 45 minutes in the museum... If you were here with children it would be perfect I think, it's very interactive, but as a young adult, I didn't find it as interesting / exciting. They had multiple places within the museum where you could refill your water bottle which was very practical because by 10am my 1.5L water bottle was already empty lol. So basically I wouldn't recommend this if you're an adult without children but if you're with children definitely go for it. But bare in mind, its 52 cad to go in (well, for an adult, I can't actually remember how much it is for children) but if I would've known I probably woudn't have gone there. 

I then had a short walk to the next museum I was going to, they had these water fountains which I found quite cool. By that point I was having a hypo again so I went to the museum's café and had a sugarry drink which had 40g of sugar in it if i remember right, and it was still going down so I was quite worried but eventually it went back up.

The next museum I did was Pointe à Caillère. I thought it would be really interesting as it's an archeology and history museum, but I have to say, it was the most boring museum I've ever been to. Thankfully it was free because I'm under 26 but even then, it felt like a waste of my time lol sorry. The only fun part of the museum was the viewpoint at the top of the museum where you could see all of the old port which I found very pretty and I stayed up there quite a while. 

More yellow buses!

I then walked around place Jacques Cartier as well as the Jacques Cartier pier. I think if I had to name one of my favourite things about my trip to Canada it would be this area of Montreal. I loved the vibe of it, I went to a couple of different souvenir shops as I wanted to bring loads of stuff back for my family. I loved the pier because it had loads of little independant shops, lots of food trucks for different things (even thought I always had the same thing!!)

By that point, I was having a hypo again... reoccuring theme you'll see in these next few blog posts lol. I had a strawberry and mago smoothie and it was a great value for price in my opinion, it was over a Pint I think, the cup was huge (it might not look like it but it was!) and it wasn't that expensive. So I definitely reccomend. If you walk around the food area at the pier, it's near the picnic tables opposite the ice cream stand! There's only one so you'll find it straight away!

I was going to do another museum but I was scared of being dissapointed again so I went to check it out reluctantly and it ended up being a church, so I only stayed about 2mn because it was quite busy and wasn't very intersting to me. Here's what it looked like from the outside though.

I had spotted somewhere I wanted to have lunch at while I was at the pier in the morning so I went back there for lunch. I saw a man on a funny bike which made me laugh lol. 

With no surprise I had my first poutine of the trip (first of many). There's a restaurant in Lille owned by people from Canda and they do the proper poutine with the real cheese and everything but I'm never in Lille anymore so I never have it anymore. Plus obviously I had to have at least one while I was in Canada!!!! It was very very nice. If you're ever at the Jacques Cartier pier you'll find it straight away, there's a line of food trucks and it's the second food truck of the line. Definitely recommend. Without tips and tax it was 11 cad I think so considering it's a huge portion I didn't find it too bad. 

I was getting a bit tired by then, but there was a couple of thrift shops I wanted to check out so I went on a walk which ended up being about 2 hours because the first one I wanted to go to, the map was sending me to someone's house so I didn't explore too far. And the other one was in a main street (I can't remember the name) but the shop didn't exist, the place the map told me would be the thrift shop, it was a glasses shop or something so I gave up. 

By then I was, as you can probably guess, having a hypo again. I just wanted a quick sugarry drink but there were no shops or corner shops around where I was (or there was but it was a bit far away and as my blood sugar levels were dropping rapidly, I didn't risk it). I ended up walking past a coffee shop that had a sign outside saying they had lavendar flavoured lemode or iced tea or something like that I can't really remember, so I went in. Then inside they had a sign saying they had maple syrup iced coffee so I thought ok I'll have that instead (as it was something I really wanted to try and thought having a hypo was the perfect excuse to have that). When it was my turn to order, I couldn't see the maple syrup iced coffee on the menu so I panicked and just got a normal latte. I speak french, so I should've guessed, but I didn't realise that café glacé was iced coffee so I ended up having a hot coffee which wasn't ideal because of the heat but it did the job lol. I went to 49th parallel coffee shop. I definitely recommend, the coffee was very nice!

I then ended up going back to the hotel at about 6:30pm which was reasonable considering I'd been up since 5am. I was planning on going back out for dinner at the restaurant but at that point I'd walked 13km I didn't have it in me to walk another kilometer and back for dinner to the restaurant I'd found online. Thinking about it, I could've just gone to the Italian restaurant at the end of the road my hotel was at, but I really wanted to try this vegan restaurant out. I have a Canadian friend that I met online and she told me that the Canadian version of Deliveroo is Doordash, so I checked it out and the restaurant I wanted to go to was on there!!!! Bonus!!!!! 

I ended up having butternut ravioli and the aranchini looked really nice so I ordered them too. First mistake was to not check if the hotel kitchen had any cutlery (they didn't) and to check that the restaurant gave cutlery (they didn't) so I ended up using a pringles lid as a fork !!!!! LOL !!!! It was NOT ideal but it worked lol. I can not recommend this restaurant enough, it's called LOV (without an E) and it's so lovely. I ended up eating there again another day and I physically went to the restaurant and it was so pretty. I 100% recommend the butternut ravioli but not so much the aranchini, they were a bit boring and flavourless in my opinion.