Montreal Day 3

We woke up late the next day and I was really hoping that Aaron was feeling better. He had slept through the night, but had been sick since about 2pm, so I was concerned that he would still be feeling badly. But my Aaron was up and ready to go. Now that I've had the same thing, and was sick for days, I am certain he still felt awful but didn't want to disappoint me, so he pushed through the pain :(

We left the hotel and went to find a place for breakfast. We found an amazing little haunt that served, of course, crepes. I had a cheese and apple crepe. Aaron; ham egg and cheese. It was so good, so much different than ones I make- these were authentic French crepes. In observing the others in this tiny restaurant we realized, as Americans, just how fast we eat. There was another set of Americans in there and the four of us finished our meals in what seemed like nano-seconds. I don't think our culture values meal times like we should (hence our New Year's resolution to eat more slowly.)

We left the restaurant, got the car, and drove to Olympic Park where the Bio-dome is located and previous Olympics have been held. It was enormous! We went back to the hotel, dropped off the car, and walked straight to St. Catherine's Street. I love this street. The shopping is amazing and unlike anywhere else I have been. There is an underground mall, AND the streets are lined with stores like Banana Republic (my favorite), Guess, Urban Outfitters (my other favorite) and many, many, many others. We spent the entire day going in and out of the stores, but didn't really buy anything. We are both cheap, and our dollar was worth so little.

Inside of the underground mall.

They do it up right in Canada, I tell you. The Christmas decorations put America to shame!

There is one thing I have to say about Montreal. There are many, many, homeless people there. One homeless man particularly struck me because he had 2 dogs with him. For the longest time that day I couldn't get him out of my mind. How does one live, in such a cold climate, with two puppies? I had to keep reminding myself that it's quite possible that he is a "professional homeless person." But the dogs, man, that killed me. They did look very happy and well cared for but boy oh boy, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

After exploring what St. Catherine's Street and the underground malls had to offer, we continued to walk around (and use the Metro.) We eventually became hungry and stopped in at a Quizno's, then headed back to the hotel.

This picture was taken outside of our hotel.

And in the elevator :)

After regrouping, we walked to St. Dennis Street to find some grub. It seems all we did was eat, eat, eat; but then again, we walked, walked, walked! We found a perfect French Bistro with amazing pastries. I got a grilled veggie sandwich with a salad and a chocolate pastry- YUM! Aaron got a sandwich and salad as well.

We decided to go back to get the car and drive down to Old Montreal to see the Hotel De Ville at night. It was well worth the trip. We also wanted to venture to Mount Royal.

On the way from Old Montreal, we drove through a part of town we had not yet been in. It was a residential part of the city. What was interesting was that we found ourselves in the middle of some religious event. The streets were filled with hundreds of Hasidic Jewish people. They were wearing their traditional clothing; all black suits with large hats. I don't know what they were celebrating and I checked a Jewish calender, but there wasn't anything listed at that time. Perhaps it was a wedding or Bah Mitzvah. It was beautiful, humbling, and made me feel so ignorant about other cultures/religions.

We had to take a picture of the stop signs. Everything and everyone was French speaking. This was a challenge for me as I am fairly rusty and much better in Spanish. Luckily, I was able to navigate us pretty well in terms of the language barrier.

While we had the car we wanted to go to Mount Royal (get it, "Mont-real.") As you know, Montreal is an island. Well, smack dab in the middle of Montreal, is a mountain: Mount Royal. It overlooks the entire city and you can see it from pretty much everywhere. Seeing it at night was absolutely breathtaking. It reminded me, a lot, of Las Vegas.

The views were breathtaking. The air was so fresh, and this cross could be seen from most anywhere at night. Religion seems to be a huge part of the culture in Montreal. I consider myself so privileged to be able to experience and get a glimpse of another country.

That concluded Day 3. We knew we had a long drive ahead of us in the morning so we made our way back to the hotel to get some rest after a beautiful, eventful, and busy day. What a perfect ending to our 3rd day in Montreal.