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.

Toronto: City of Silent Second T's

#TBTFiles
Toronto

Aug. 2011

I was in Detroit to attend the Asian American Journalist Association (AAJA) convention, and at the time I booked my ticket, I wasn't fully employed and quasi-occasionally freelancing for ESPN.com's Page 2, but as luck would have it, by conference time, I had landed a full-time freelance gig in San Diego. Because the economy was in the pooper at the time, I was awarded a fellowship to attend the conference for free, so I immediately put the money I was saving into more travel! Enter Toronto, a city I'd never visited and heard great things about, and less than four hours away from Detroit.

Fun fact: Canadians don't pronounce the second "T" in Toronto. Wheee! You wacky Canadians!

The border. This is not how it was presented in "The Untouchables." 

What is this, Times Square?! Actually, almost everybody from the state would describe Toronto as a clean New York.

Quick detour to Dublin apparently. 

The famous St. Lawrence Market, Toronto's first and largest marketplace. I find it interesting to note that according to toronto.com - the market is open every day except Sunday and Monday. That's almost 30% of the frickin' week! Can you get away with that? You're better than that, Canada.

The Distillery historic district. Some say it's a tourist area. Whatever, it's f'n rad! It's a short walk away from downtown Toronto. The area, established in 1832, was formerly known as the Gooderham & Worts Whiskey Distillery. They revamped the whole place in 2003, but it totally has an old-time feel. Cobblestones! 

Architects gone wild. That's actually a boob. #ItsNot

It's been way too long since I've been here, but I took a picture of it because it had some awesome food. Again, don't know what it is anymore. Cool story, bro.

The Hockey Hall of Fame.

I can confirm the sign says "Hockey" and not a zoomed-in pic of "Shockey" - a tribute to the former Saints and Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey.

The guy who inspired me to get '93 Hockey on my computer. My hockey knowledge was never so great. Tomas Sandstrom and Kelly Hrudey all-day long! 

My boy Ojima has zero slap shot skills.

I, on the other hand, have clearly embarrassed that virtual goalie. Who is that, John Vanbiesbrouck?

I was concerned this would be difficult, but they shoot the pucks out of this thing at like 5 mph (and that's like the superstar setting). I made me feel like Goldberg the goalie from the Mighty Ducks.

There are plenty of interactive things to do at the Hockey Hall, which is way better than the basketball HOF. Maybe I'll post those pics in a future blog. It would be filled with pics of me taking disappointed selfies.

Ahhhh yes. The finest trophy in all of sports, Lord Stanley's Cup.

So we went to the CN Tower to do the edge-walk, shown below, but it cost almost $200 and decided against it. The CN Tower is 147 floors. Now most of you know this is exactly the type of adrenaline-type attraction that I normally pony up for, but at this time I was unemployed (aside from random freelance gigs) for nearly 7 months! Brother had no cash left! 

This is a sample of what the CN Tower walk was like. I guarantee if I were up there, I would walk off the edge or try to jump off, because I'm so securely harnessed. That's the type of thrill I love - when I can pull some crazy shit and not worry about dying! Dying sucks.

Lot of Gretzky in Toronto.

The legendary improv club, the Second City - which helped launch careers of Bill Murray, John Candy, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, etc, etc, etc.

We ate and drank here with a local pal. It was good. That's all I got.

The CN Tower at night.

Pravda, vodka house. This place was sick. Had this crazy old school Russian decor. It's where I stereotypically imagine KGB agents and spies cavorted when discussing how to foil James Bond.

We opted to do a little tasting. We may or may not have ordered from a Russian tasting menu, as well. I don't remember. That's the problem with these TBT blogs!

We didn't taste all of these.

Post-tasting vision. Out.