What about Montreal?

Ask any European if he can name a city in Canada, and everyone will most likely answer Montreal. It's not the capital of the country and it's not it's biggest city, but yet it's the most famous one. Because of the Olympic Games of 76 maybe or well, i don't know why really.

I was very much looking forward to Montreal. I really had high expectations. People generally seem to like that metropolis, so I really thought i would love but. but no... We walked around in the city for two days, visiting all kinds of places, and yet did not feel charmed at all. We both had a feeling of missing out on something as there was nothing that really made us feel like we discovered something nice. There are a few reasons why we didn't like Montreal so much and why we probably need to go back and give it another try. Someday, preferably in the Winter when we can see it in the snow.

1. We started out with a guided walk in Vieux Montreal. The tourist board had sent me this walking tour booklet that recommend us to start near the Notre Dame Cathedral, but we were walking the tour for more than a half hour before realising that we should just do our own thing. There was absolutly nothing to see in Vieux Montreal. It was boring as hell. The Cathedral charged 4 euro to get in, which we both declined to do, as churches should be open to everyone. There was a huge line to get in anyway. The Place D'Armes was just an ordinary square and the Bank de Montreal building wasn't all that impressive. The rest of Vieux Montreal was lifeless and left a bad first impression of the city.

2. We had both loved Quebec City which is still very authentic in it's history and charm. Compared to Quebec City, Vieux Montreal was nothing but a rundown area. There were only a few places around Place Jacques Cartier that were nice, the square itself, the city hall, the old courthouse, the Marché Bonsecours. But even the harbourfront did not excite us much.

3. It was cloudy weather and we even had rain when we were walking around. Not many people were outside, so it did not look thriving at all.

4. Our hotel was far away from the center or from any nice neighbourhood, so we never felt like we stayed in the city.

5. There is not much colour in Montreal. And grey cities just don't charm that much.

Anyways, i liked the Downtown area more, which reminded me a bit of the area around Union Square in San Francisco. The subterranean shopping malls are impressive, but the shops aren't that interesting. THe skyscrapers are big and impressive and the skyline looks better than the one of Boston, but it's not Manhattan. I really liked the street we drove through to get to the Mount Royal and the parc on the hill itself was great too. The view was amazing. We enjoyed the Olympic park as well, although come to think of it, the tour we did was boring (well, our tour guide was boring) and the view from the top of the tour at the stadion isn't really worth the money. Besides of that we didn't really visit that much in Montreal. I'm sure the museums are great, but we didn't care for the museums that much.

And don't forget.. and you won't... Montreal is a French speaking city. I mean, I thought it would be bilingual, but it's not. Not everything is indicated in English and if it is, it's in a smaller letter size. honestly, it's a law. If you have a bilingual document, the english has to be at least half the size of the french. I am not kidding here.

Oh yes, when we were there it was the last weekend of the Outgames. Liza Minelli was to perform in the Olympic Stadium at the closing ceremony and there was a street fair in the gay village. We saw the arrival of the marathon winner and went to have a peek at the party grounds of the contestants where The Netherlands had of course taken over the stage and present a sing along eurosong drag show. In Dutch! believe it or not. Those party grounds sucked. But the street fair in the gay village was nice. The village is a cool gay ghetto. I didn't go out as i was too tired and too far away, but i'm sure Montreal is a good place to party. Big clubs, big bars, big muscles, big wigs... hehe.