Once I returned from Nepal, I looked at the calendar and realized we had a long weekend coming up. I asked Sam if he wanted to go somewhere for Memorial Day, and after looking at flights, we decided to head to a destination that both of us had wanted to explore for a long time: Montreal!
It’s not a long flight from DC, either. Only about two hours to get to somewhere with a pretty unique vibe. Montreal definitely feels like a North American city, but it does have a certain European flair, from the coffeeshops and cute walkable neighborhoods. It’s also got a great food scene, which I didn’t really realize going into this weekend – we had amazing food for every meal!
One of our best meals was very serendipitous – Sam had heard of a specific bakery, and we went there to check it out. As we ordered our pastries and chatted with the man working behind the counter, it turned out that he had worked for a different subsidiary of our same company. He asked if we had figured out our dinner plans, and ended up helping us make reservations at this pasta place that was fantastic. Our seats overlooked the kitchen and it was so fun to see them make the food as we had our meal!
We also checked out several museums while we were there. We learned about the history, saw the old sewer, and explored the art scene. We also went in the Biodome, which was one of the more interesting zoos I’ve been to lately – each section was its own habitat, with open areas for the animals that made it feel a little more like how they would live in the wild than most zoos manage.
I wanted to check out the Olympic Stadium, which was hosting some sort of music festival when we were in the area. There wasn’t much to see, but they did have a small exhibit on the history of the games in Montreal.
And of course, we couldn’t leave without trying both of the Montreal specialties: bagels and poutine! Both classics, and it was fun exploring the neighborhoods that were full of cafés competing to offer the best Montreal bagel.
One of our morning outings was to the titular Mont Royal, where the name Montreal came from. I’m not sure I’d call it a “mountain” but we took a bus up and had great views overlooking the city. There were a lot of paths crisscrossing around and we saw plenty of people who were there to run and bike. Definitely worth a visit, especially if it isn’t as hot out and you want to spend some time outdoors.
My biggest takeaway: I loved Montreal. It felt very livable, with a lot of nice neighborhoods to explore and enough amazing food options that you would never run out of restaurants to try. I would definitely be interested in returning, and I’m excited to explore more of Quebec now that I live so close!
