Montreal Retrospective

We had a great time in Montreal. Although everyone here spoke English, there is still a touch of culture shock in having all of the signage and the initial spoken language when someone greets you be in a foreign language.

The food was great. Davia’s favorite meal was Iberica and Rich’s was La Medusa.

The people of Montreal were very pleasant. The most interesting person was Ted, despite the fact that if he feels the need to make things up about himself while on a dinner date with his iPhone, then he likely isn’t all that interesting! One of the nicest people we met was Frederic, from Couche-Tard. We asked whether he had any hand sanitizer, as we were looking to buy a bottle for the trip back to New York City. He said he did, then went into his own backpack and gave us his brand new bottle, which we’ve been using during the train ride home.

It was interesting to be in such a big city that was missing some of the common staples of life in NYC:

• We rarely heard a car horn honk
• Seldom did we hear any sirens
• Never did we see anyone yell at someone else
• Things were very clean; there was not much garbage in the streets or on the sidewalk or spilling over from trash cans. Even the trash cans were clean.
• We don’t recall seeing anyone who seemed miserable in their job – everyone we encountered took pride in their job.
• We saw only a handful of homeless people and they were extremely polite.

Some other things we noticed were that it’s pretty popular for older women with grey hair to dye sections of their hair in bold, bright colors like bright blue or bright purple. All babies under one were worn like a front backpack and not wheeled in strollers. People just generally seemed happier and more calm. We didn’t see many dogs.

Music played pretty much everywhere we went, and there was a lot of late 90’s and early 2000’s rock and soft rock. We heard Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles at least four times, one of which was at BIS restaurant, which featured a longer version that was much slower than the radio version.

At the train station on our way back, we didn’t have to check in like we did at Penn Station, which explains why the Canadians who were returning to Canada had no idea they were supposed to do so before boarding.

At lunchtime on the way back, and using a lobster tool, a cup of very hot water from the cafe car, plastic utensils, several napkins and a cardboard snack holder, the butter was melted and the lobster consumed. It was both a delicious and perfect meal for the train!

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Living the high life in Montreal was relatively cheap, too. All in all, we spent less than $2500 USD on this trip, coming out to slightly less than $500 per day. Our biggest expense was the hotel, followed closely by food. Here’s a breakdown of our costs in U.S. Dollars using the current exchange rate. All restaurant costs include a 20% tip.

Item	Price
Amtrak	$280.00
Le Mount Stephen	$836.00
Bar George	$68.55
Les Enfantes Terribles	$72.97
Arcade 2000 Plus	$10.00
Bis	$155.31
Universel Déjeuners	$35.18
La Medusa	$85.48
Mbiospa	$185.71
Kit-Kat (from the hotel mini-bar)	$3.02
Iberica	$209.68
La Fabrique de Bagel	$3.78
Le Pois Penché	$115.65
Poissonnerie La Mer	$34.65
La Medusa takeout	$18.24
Room Service	$80.18
Couche-Tard	$53.59
SAQ	$105.66
SQDC	$43.90
Olly Fresco’s	$2.00
Postcards and stamps	$26.82
Uber with Rachad	$21.46
Total:	$2,447.83