Montreal Part I: Our Arrival

August 6, 2012 By Leanne Vogel January 1, 2014

One of the deciding factors in me leaving my 9-5 job was to enable me to build on a career that would make working from anywhere, experiencing the world, and spending more time doing the things I love, a possibility. So when Kevin was asked to come to Montreal this week for a couple of meetings, we decided that we’d extend the trip and I’d tag along for it. It’s been ages since I’ve been out East. The humidity, good food, friendly people and gorgeous sights had me excited for the trip all week long! We took the red-eye Sunday morning at 1am that had us in Montreal at 7:30am local time. Thank goodness for the jet lag homeopathic pills I used during my trip to India. Those things are magical. A little nap in the afternoon was all I needed to feel on top of my game all day long. Our room wasn’t ready so we left our bags with the front desk, strapped on our cameras, and headed out for breakfast. I broke my toe a week ago so I hobble everywhere. As much as I wanted to go out and adventure yesterday, my toe really limited us. But we still got to see some pretty cool things. Like plastic food in the window of a restaurant… mmm… And an alleyway that reminded us of something that would be in Batman. You may think that this is just an ordinary alley, but we don’t have places like this in Calgary. I thought it was too cool! We walked passed a bunch of Reuben’s Deli’s. Their menu looked delicious, but Kevin was in the mood for pancakes, so we kept moving. We saw a man picking up all of the rental bicycles from the rental terminals. I’m not really sure how the program works. Again, something we don’t have in Calgary but that really intrigued me. It looks like you go up to the terminal, pay, then get your bike for a period of time. There are terminals like this all over the city. After about 20 minutes of hobbling through the streets of downtown Montreal, we came across Ben & Florentine Diner. They had pancakes, they had fruit, so we went in! The menu was very similar to Cora’s breakfast & lunch. Easy to read, lots of pictures, great for two hungry and partially tired travelers. Kevin ordered the berry almond pancakes which said it had loads of fruit… as you can see, there wasn’t a lot of fruit. Lots of preserves, but very minimal fruit. There were loads of almonds though! The portion size was good, too. I ordered a bowl of fruit and brought along some almond yogurt and fresh ground flax seed to pump up the dish. Before: After: So delicious. We headed back to the hotel afterward, found a quiet and comfy spot in the lobby, and set up a movie. Have you seen 21 Jump Street? So ridiculously hilarious. I’m sure I disturbed more than a couple of people with my roaring laugh. Our room was ready around 11am which gave us time to shower, nap, and head out for a lunch at Crudessence – the only raw + vegan restaurant in Montreal. Definitely planning to go back a couple additional times before we leave on Wednesday night. As you can tell from my wide smile, the food was unreal! Okay, time to change into some shorts and a t-shirt and head to breakfast and a day of markets, Old Montreal, and a picnic in Atwater. Have a fabulous Monday, and don’t forget to check to see who won the DeLallo Foods giveaway!

This entry was tagged: montreal, travel