My long weekend was well-spent sitting in the park in Montreal.
My friend Miss Jackay (formerly Jackie) spent last summer in Montreal looking for Kristen Stewart, and recently returned to almost have coffee with Nicki Minaj.
Though I've visited Montreal a number of times in the past, it was nice to get more of a local's experience this time around.
We relaxed, ate, drank, planked, and photographed ourselves spontaneously laughing.
Highlights inside.
PARK TIME!
Montreal offered a great, relaxed feel for my long weekend, as we spent a good deal of Saturday and Sunday lounging in the park. This seems to be the thing to do in Montreal, which I really appreciated.
Maybe because I live in the city, but I just can't seem to get the same relaxed park time feel when I lounge in Toronto. There are usually other things I feel I should be doing.
But in Montreal it felt perfectly great to have pitas and dip, along with a couple tall-boys of sangria, while lying in the grass, looking for hunks, and gagging at the gross PDA in the vicinity.
THE SIGHTS!
Since I've already seen traditional tourist sights of Montreal, this visit was all about the personal landmarks.
I was excited to see, and be photographed in front of, landmarks such as Miss Jackay's office building, the house our dear friend Janice Wong once lived in, a hotel Miss Jackay recently stayed in while apartment-hunting, the supermarket she occasionally shops at, and the optician's office where she once bought eyeglasses.
THE NIGHTLIFE!
Miss Jackay's neighbourhood has a number of great patios within walking distance, which we took advantage of on Friday night. We were also convinced by friends of friends that night to head to an after hours party that Miss Jackay described as the scariest place she's ever been.
So we cabbed up to the furniture district with these friends of friends, and proceeded to walk through deserted alleys looking for this party. It kind of felt like this.
After deciding that this party wasn't actually happening, a friend of a friend received a text from another friend confirming it was scheduled for the next night.
I snapped the above photos before jumping in a cab out of the deserted furniture district.
After some quality planking on Saturday night, Miss Jackay and I decided to head back to the after hours party. This time when we arrived, we could actually hear music and see people walking inside. Success!
Though Miss Jackay said it wasn't nearly as scary as the previous time she attended, the party provided a delightful combination of warm beer, hipsters and house music. A time was had as we danced and people-watched.
Sunday night we stayed in and watched Clueless.
TAM TAMS!
Sundays in the summer Mont-Royal hosts an event called Tam-Tams, where participants gather on the east slope of the mountain around the monument to Sir George-Etienne Cartier, and play tam-tams (hand drums).
I did not expect to be as entertained by this drum circle as I was. I just stood and watched, unable to turn away from the group of people playing their drums with increasing acceleration, and the intense group of dancers whose energy they fed off of. There were so many great characters to observe, and I just loved it.
I quickly identified my favourite dancers, one of which reminded me of my roommate from first-year residence. If you had the pleasure of knowing him, see if you can spot his dancing doppleganger in the above video I took.
Next time I vow to join in the dancing, it looked like too much fun.
Elsewhere in the park, visitors were tight-rope walking, juggling, and hacky-sacking, while hordes of people -- like us -- lounged in the sun.
THE FOOD!
With all our park lounging, we pretty much didn't stop eating all weekend. Between all our snacking, we consumed some truly delightful treats.
Upon a friend's recommendation, we visited Buvette chez Simon, where I ate a quarter roasted chicken and some of the best spicy french fries I've had in recent memory.
On Sunday we waited an hour to eat brunch at Lawrence, which thankfully turned out to be worth the wait. I had delicious eggs benedict, which we followed up by splitting a couple orders of yummy donuts. Warm and covered with sugar, some were filled with lemon and the others chocolate. We did everything but lick the plate where drippings of filling sat.
My last meal in Montreal was a large and delicious poutine from Chez Claudette, which effectively crossed #53 'how 'bout some really great poutine?!' from my Summer Fun List.
Finally, on Monday we stopped at Yeh! for some serve-yourself frozen yogurt and toppings. It was my first and last fruit consumption of the weekend. It also conveniently matched my outfit.
Although we once found ourselves at a McDonald's, we somehow resisted.