Back when Paul went to Europe for his coaster trip, I went to Canada to visit with some friends and check out our northern neighbor. Specifically, I visited Montreal and Ottawa for Canada Day. I had a great time!
Montreal is a pretty neat city. It has a great transit system and is very easy to get around. French is the predominate language, but virtually everyone knows English. I didn't have any issues with the people in Montreal, despite hearing they could be stubborn. I met up with our friend Janice on Tuesday night. Janice was in Montreal for a conference along with a few Swedish colleagues, we shared an apartment style hotel near metro station Atwater.
The next morning, Janice's boyfriend Peter flew in from Sweden and we explored the city while Janice was at her workshop. Montreal has some rough edges, but a really nice historic area and some really modern areas. I also really enjoyed the amount of public art scattered through the city.
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| Notre Dame of Montreal |
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| Inside Notre Dame |
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| Old City Area of Montreal |
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| Old Granary on the St Lawrence River. These have remained due to cultural/historical significance. |
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| Biosphere - Houses an Ecosystem Museum |
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| Downtown Montreal |
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| Public Art |
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| McGill University |
Over the next few days, we explored Montreal in between UEFA Euro 2012 matches (Peter and I are soccer fans)! Montreal has a good nightlife scene as well. Janice and her colleague Kristoffer joined Peter and I off and on. We visited the 1976 Olympic Stadium site, where there is a biodome with different ecosystems (not be be confused with the biosphere pictured above!) and a nice botanical gardens that had music and cocktails.
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| Habitat 67 |
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| They really phoned WWII in on this monument! |
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| Convention Center |
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| Peter being eaten at the Biodome at the Olympic Stadium |
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| So that's where baby Swedes come from! |
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| Downtown from the Olympic Tower |
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| Smoked Meat Poutine - A Canadian Delicacy |
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| Olympic Stadium tower from the Montreal Botanical Gardens |
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| Three Musketeers! |
After the conference was done, we went to Ottawa for Canada Day on July 1. This is the equivalent of America's July 4th, and Ottawa is the national capital! Canada Day is a lot of fun and Ottawa is a beautiful city. It sits on top of a hill above the Ottawa River and has lots of pretty government buildings. The weather was wonderful (although a bit warm for the Swedes) and we spent lots of time walking around in the sea of Canada Day red! We stayed in a hotel right near the city center, making it easy to walk around for food, bars, and events.
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| Of course there's a beaver! |
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| Parliament Hill and the Ottawa River locks |
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| Party! |
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| Government Buildings |
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| Canada Supreme Court. Yep they dress like Santa Clause! |
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| So pretty! |
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| Everything is Canada themed! |
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| Yay! Janice! I'm sporting my Canadian best! |
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| Soooooo many Canadians! |
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| Notre Dame of Ottawa and the Art Museum |
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| Getting ready for fireworks! |
Overall, this was an excellent week-long vacation. Compared to most of my trips, the pace was very relaxed. We spent lots of time just hanging around drinking and talking. We took lots of nice walks and, overall, the weather was very cool compared to my routine summer in Atlanta. Montreal and Ottawa are pretty different cities. Montreal is larger, more urban and rowdier. Ottawa, on the other hand, reminds me of a scaled back version of Washington D.C. It's very picturesque and they did an excellent job planning out the city.
