A Brief Visit To Montreal

Community Highlights North America A Brief Visit To Montreal

October 16, 2023

After saying goodbye to my new friends from the train, I ran into them two more times as we tried to find our right exits from the station. I have now arrived at Gare Central two times. I still could not find the right exit. It did not really matter. I finally just left the station so that I could sort out my directions outside.

I had originally thought that I would take a ten-minute subway ride to my hotel. But it was a beautiful day, so I decided to walk.

I immediately ran into Montreal’s infamous road construction. Winters are long here, making the construction season short, so roads get redone seemingly all at once. Residents believe that incompetence and corruption might also make things worse. We (there were many fellow pedestrians) were stopped for several minutes on both sides of the road as some large machines passed back and forth.

My first criteria for choosing hotels for this trip was location. I wanted to be walking distance to the train stations, and for the most part I succeeded. But then, of course, I was also concerned about price. For Montreal I decided that the options near the station were a bit expensive. Instead, I went with a hotel in an interesting area and picked out the Hotel St. Denis, in an area referred to as the Latin Quarter, which is also home to University of Quebec in Montreal campus.

The reviews were good, but I certainly did not choose the hotel based on its curb appeal.

With the construction delay, it took me about 25 minutes to get to the hotel. My phone alert went off as I greeted the receptionist. She immediately asked, “Is that your dog?” Yes. My notification is a recording of my dog Zoe letting out a nice howl.

I checked out my room. It was small but looked clean and comfortable. I would not spend much time there.

My plans for my one day in Montreal were messed up by our late arrival. I wanted to both visit Old Montreal and walk up to Mount Royal but doubted that I had time for both. I decided to take the longer walk up to Mount Royal first.

I took a few photographs along the way.

This was a bit of a homecoming, and as I walked I was feeling some rather mixed emotions. I had some great memories and some not so nice of the city.

I lived in Montreal for about a year in 1981/82. I had returned from four years living in Botswana, working for the Botswana Government as first a Peace Corps Volunteer and then under US AID. After enjoying an extensive trip through Asia, I decided that an MBA (Master of Business Administration) would be a great way to get my North American career started. MBA’s were really the trendy thing back then.

I thought Montreal would be a great place to live (it was), and that I could learn some French while doing my MBA (impossible). I applied to McGill University. I had no idea what I was getting into. I learned too late that a common MBA program design was to run “boot camps” and accept ridiculously high attrition rates. As the weeks passed, our classes became smaller and smaller.

We had a party that November. Some of the students put on a skit that used Queen’s song, Another One Bites the Dust, but they substituted MBA for One, so it went - Another MBA Bites the Dust. I can never listen to the song without thinking back to those weeks.

I believe that about half of our program group dropped out in the first year. I was one of them. So, in January, rather than going back to McGill, I signed up for French classes at the YMCA. I loved the classes and the city, and in spite of the Montreal winter weather I moved about the city practicing my really rudimentary French, including with a lovely lady at a bus stop. I wonder whatever happened to her? Those are great memories.

This day's walking route took me past the university. I stopped at the Samuel Bronfman building where I had all my classes that fall. Although it had been over 40 years since I spent a miserable autumn there, I still had a strange feeling as I stood in front of the building.

I walked through the university and up the stairs to the top of Mount Royal. It was busy, both on the pathway and at the top.

I thought about walking around the park, but had limited time left before dark, so I headed back down the hill and through downtown to Old Montreal.

I took a few photographs.

I arrived in Old Montreal and listened to a musician in the park.

I really wanted a coffee. I found a café and decided to also order a chicken crepe for supper.

By this time, I had walked for over 10 km, and it was dark.

I had little charge left on my phone or in my body. I returned to my hotel. I was too tired to walk up the street to the enjoy the night life on St. Denis.

I did a WhatsApp with Po and Zoe and went to bed early.

October 17

I slept well but woke up quite early at 5:15 am, likely a combination of an early to bed plus the different time zone.

This would be the day that my Amtrak experience would start with a train to New York, but I had something to do before that. I had picked out a place to buy my croissant, Mamie Klafoutis bakery café. I arrived just after it opened at 7 am. I hesitated for a few seconds about eating there, but the woman told me that there was seating upstairs or “en haut” since we were talking in French, which made me quite happy since it had been 43 years since I had lived here and took those French lessons at the YMCA. When she gave me my croissant I hesitated and ordered another. “Dans un sac?” No, I just wanted to eat two.

These were proper croissants, just as I remembered from years ago, but not like I remembered from last year when I posted this:

I arrived about 40 minutes before my departure time. I thought there would be a café. There was not. I went into a small store. They had croissants wrapped in cellophane. I bought one. It was not exactly the warm croissant in the basket experience that I had envisioned. Po texted, “Perhaps what we remember is not real anymore.” Maybe I need a trip to Paris.

No, I just needed more time in Montreal.

I took a few photos of the street on my way back to the hotel and regretted that I had not been there the night before.

I almost got run over while taking photos. I was not used to bike lanes.

This featured blog entry was written by Bob Brink from the blog Searching for Magical Moments.
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