Montreal: Who needs the Expos?

#TBTFiles

Montreal, Quebec

August 2012

At this time, I was going from part-time to full-time at ESPN, so I had to take advantage of the time off. I went to visit a friend in Quebec City, and spent a night in Montreal.

Surfing the St. Lawrence River at sunset. That ain't me, folks.

The main river sport outfitter is KSF. It's $125 for lessons, gear, and surfing two spots. According to the website, it was a 6-hour excursion, but I don't remember.

This is the bunny wave on the St. Lawrence River behind the Cite du Havre Park. These are called standing waves, and according to riversurfing.ca, they're formed by "fast moving water going over a drop or slope and the river bottom contours. The water goes down the slope or drop then comes back up to form the wave." Basically you start upstream, angle yourself to let the current take you into the wave, and like normal surfing, paddle hard to stay on the face, control the board, and pop up. Just that easy. That last sentence was sarcasm. 

This is surfing the area called Habitat 67. The area is hidden behind some nice apartment complex. You have to climb down a little hill (no stairs, peeps), and you'll likely see a line of surfers looking to ride. You need to be a decent swimmer to do this, as there are parts of the current that you don't want to battle swimming against. After the ride, you're taken downstream for awhile before you can swim back towards the shore. Honestly, I think I only got up a couple times, but it's a cool feeling. I certainly prefer the ocean, but it's another notch on the belt. The water temperature wasn't that cold either, but I think surf tours stop in September.

Werd.

Colorful lighting on those Montreal nights.

Not sure I remember where I was walking. But they got fancy street decorations.

They're all artsy and stuff up north.

Like for real.

I think that's a library! Who knows?! I suppose anyone who can speak French, or who's been to Montreal. But that ain't me.

Nice burger and beer at Les 3 Brasseurs. The beer was better than the burger if I recall. I don't think avocados are native to Canada. Really good white ale.

There's a decent casino there originally called Casino de Montreal. It's decent if you have a gambling problem. I only show these chips because I think I got took by the exchange rate at the cashier. I tried to pull a scam, by buying in for X-amount of chips in US dollars, but then cash out Y-amount of Canadian dollars. I don't remember what happened, but I'm pretty sure I got played.

Really late or really early.

This was my first ever stay at a hostel. It was called the Montreal Central, and was located in a central location. Montreal really need to work on more clever names. I shared a room and bath with 2 other dudes, and was on a bunk bed. I kind of feel like I'm told for that, but that said - it was so cheap! I wish I'd been doing this more before, especially when traveling with a group of friends. I think my room was around $30-40. As hostels go, I have nothing to compare it to, but I think the premises were fine.

Downtown.

Maybe there's art here?

I don't know if they realized they made the lamppost crooked. Dummies.

Montreal is an amazing biking city. Very accommodating, usually bike paths. I rented from a spot called Dyad, bike was $12 for 4 hours or $20 all-day. It's also located in a fun neighborhood.

Sir George-Etienne Cartier Monument. I don't know what they did, but I'm pretty sure it had an overall positive influence on Montreal.

Xiao long bao. Dumplings. I've heard amazing things about Montreal's Chinatown. The area was crowded as F! There's a large Asian population in Montreal. The food was good, but unfortunately for you, I don't remember where this was.

Old Montreal

More from Old Montreal area.

I've never been to France and I imagine this is what it's like. I'm such an avid supporter of cobblestone streets. All streets should be made of cobblestone. Except ones you have to drive on...

More Old Montreal.

How I feel about being able to remember what I did in Montreal.