back in 2022, i went to Montreal right after having gone to DEFCON (which you can read about here), where i had met up with my father and spent some time visiting local attractions.

this year, as my plans to attend DEFCON were scrapped by the United States devolving into a country that was no longer safe for me to go to, i decided to take the savings i had set out for that purpose and go back to Montreal, as it had been on my list of places to revisit since i'd gone there in a time of significant personal change, and didn't give the trip as much attention as it deserved.

this may or may not have also been spurred by me having been extremely sick for a few weeks beforehand, and having been informed i was being made redundant at the end of April.

Day 0

recovering miraculously the day before i was supposed to board a plane for Montreal, i packed up and very early the next morning departed for Zurich Airport. the flight was mostly uneventful, but i did manage to catch some nice pictures at Schiphol Airport.

truly liminal

oh yeah, one of my new hobbies is photography. i try to make the best of my Sony A7(ii), currently with a 50mm lens and a 70-200mm lens.

anyways, one taxi ride from Montreal Airport to the city later - which was disappointing because they were supposed to already have extended the metro/light rail system to the airport - i checked into the hotel that would serve as my base of operations for the next few days.

after buying a few groceries and making some food, i decided to crash and adjust to the new timezone i now found myself in.

Day 1

the next morning, i decided to go sightseeing a bit, and went for a walk exploring Rue St. Catherine (W), which is the city's commercial artery, but also a location with many interesting side streets. after that, i changed directions to Old Montreal, specifically the Old Harbour.

on the way, i saw the Notre-Dame basilica, as well as a few fun that caught my attention (and my lens), as well as a protest. after a short stop to recover a bit as i was still a bit under the weather, i arrived at the Place Jacques-Cartier, a tourist hotspot but also a place with a vendor that i know makes some pretty good take-away poutine, which i then enjoyed in the park right by the harbour.

as it was getting late, i shuffled back to the hotel and got some rest.

Day 2

the next day, i was joined by another creature, and we both went to a Chinese noodle shop that i had remembered as being exceptional, and my memories didn't disappoint. after the hearty meal, we then proceeded across the city on foot with the objective of going up the Mont-Royal.

this being done on foot of course meant that were were going to go through plenty of other locations, one of which was McGill University's campus, which had some interesting buildings and architecture.

after climbing straight up one of Montreal's steepest roads, we took a bit of a short break before going up the trail to the Lac des Castors, a small lake that has a nice view.

peaceful garden

from there, we went to the Belvédère Kondiaronk, which offers a very nice view of the city, and allowed for some nice pictures to be taken:

a nice view of the city

after a walk down the stairs on the opposite side of the Mont-Royal, we called it a day.

Day 3

the third day was another exploration of things that i had done in the past, namely visiting the Biosphère on the Île Ste-Hélène, as well as visiting Montreal's Botanical Gardens.

Day 4

this day was the last day where we both would be able to spend time together - as the person i was with had to go to an event the following days - so we ended up going for a longer walk around the Northern side of Montreal and snapping some cute pictures.

we namely visited the Parc la Fontaine and walking down the Rue Ste-Catherine (E) before heading back to the hotel.

Day 5

the fifth day was announced to have terrible weather, so an inside activity was chosen, namely heading to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, which has so many expositions that going through it took me several hours, thereby also confusing me as to why the sky had darkened upon my exit.

Day 6

despite having spent a non-trivial amount of time in Montreal, i was still missing a part of the local experience, so i decided to go explore the city's famed underground (the RÉSO) and grab some pictures of liminal spaces.

in the afternoon, i returned to Old Montreal, and proceeded to go visit the Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History, where the main expositions were in fact underground, walking amongst the foundations of centuries' old buildings.

i later linked up with Ibad, a long time friend who was in Montreal that week, that i had also linked up with 3 years prior, and with whom i had a few pints and a hearty meal with.

Day 7

finally, on the penultimate day, i ended up going to the Biodome (not to be confused with the aforementioned Biosphere), a reconversion of the old 1976 Summer Olympics velodrome into a number of distinct wildlife ecosystems, which - although almost fully booked - is definitely a recommended experience.

my lack of planning meant that i arrived there in the morning and had to book a ticket for the same afternoon (and therefore had to go back and forth to the - somewhat removed from the city center - Olympic Park), but in the end it was worth it.

Day 8

the last day was kind of lost, because i had the misfortune of having a mid day flight, so simply slept in, finished packing my bags and checked out of my hotel, before heading to the airport (which was hell due to the lack of acceptable transit opportunities) and checking in.

FIN

the 10 or so hours of return flight were a wonderful moment for me to reflect on the trip and to be extremely satisfied with how it unraveled.

was there some down time and time that was not fully utilized? yes. but this also made recovering from the holidays a breeze.

the sheer multitude of photos from that time are why it took so long to actually write this blog post, because editing 140 out of 800 photos takes a hot minute.

to close this looooong blog post off, i was extremely happy to revisit a place that i had visited an entire gender ago, however this time with a calm mind and a newfound sense of personal happiness.