A Montréal Adventure with Thirteen Friends
Trip Tip: If you are traveling to Montreal in December make sure you pack all your winter clothes, and maybe an umbrella.
Budget for three days: $250-$300 Canadian Dollars
5 Crumb Rating: M Montreal, Restaurant Nudo, Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan
Mood Music: All I Want for Christmas – Mariah Carey
When you have a large group of friends who are young and have little money and you all live in New York looking for an adventure, Montréal is a pretty good option. The US dollar is worth more, you can easily drive there, you can find a cheap place to stay, and it is very different from New York. So— that’s what thirteen of my friends and I did. In December we took a drive to Montréal for the weekend and this is where it took us…
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We took three cars and packed the fourteen of our bags and us. Since it was December in New York the skies were grey, but the roads were curvy and scenic. The ride went smoothly, and there was no weather to deal with and no traffic at all. Jake’s car may have needed some more time at the mechanic, but I won’t get into that right now. We left at around 6am and we arrived in Montreal in the afternoon just as planned. To keep busy on the six-hour ride, the four who rode in my car all fell in love…. Not really—but— we did the 36 questions from the NYT Modern Love article to fall in love, and it made for an interesting ride.
Link to read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.ht...
Picture – M Montreal
Before we had left for the trip, we made sure we could find a cheap hotel or hostel for a large group of people. Luckily Christine is always on top of her research game, and she came across the hostel, M Montreal. Both the hostel and the parking for our cars were really cheap. Important Tip! Exchange your money in the US before going to Canada. I exchanged my money and brought about $270 Canadian dollars and it lasted me the full three days and two nights which included the hotel stay, food, drinks, souvenirs, and attractions. At the time, I was a broke college student—now I am a broke adult—and that was a very sweet deal. The hotel cost about $35 in US currency for two nights, and parking was around $10 a day in a nearby garage, which we all split (the perks of traveling with a million or so people). I found all of these prices crazy because I have paid $16 in the city (NYC) for three hours. That is highway robbery, and I will save that tangent for another time and place. Classic New York. Besides the hostel being a steal, it was also the perfect place for fourteen twenty-somethings! “Ah to be young again,” said someone older than me. Hehe.
The room wasn't glamorous—one bed might have had crusted vomit on the side—but it had everything that we needed. Honestly, the vomit added character. There were eight bunk beds and each came with a light and a port to plug in any chargers. We got a fridge and a couch. We also had a shower I one bathroom, and the other bathroom had a toilet, sink, and shower. There were also additional bathrooms in the hallway outside of our room. The two pictures below are of the room—I couldn't get the whole thing in one shot because it was L-Shaped. In addition to our room, the hostel also had a kitchen, tables, a bar downstairs with table games, and a complimentary breakfast every morning! Needless to say, we picked a good one.
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We spent the first part of our time exploring the area trying to find some food near the hostel. It was grey and rainy, but it wasn't too cold for December. We stumbled upon a McDonald's, and there was a doorman there smoking crack. Well—maybe he wasn’t the doorman, but it certainly was a crack pipe. Unfortunately, we traveled a little more and realized we were in an area that seemed to have a large population of drug addicts, which can lead to a large homeless population. The homeless population in Montreal was really active and vocal. They came right up to some of us, which is very different from what I've experienced previously in New York. Now that I have gotten completely off track...we went into the McDonald's, made their lives difficult by only speaking English, and then ate our American food. SO, not much cultural engagement in the first hour, BUT we were still in another country, so it was cool.
Picture – Place Émilie-Gamelin
It was around Christmastime, and there was a winter park down the block from our hostel, so we decided to check it out. It seemed normal, there was music and a lot of people, Santa was hanging out, and then OUT OF NOWHERE these very large monkeys appeared. I couldn't get a great picture because they were dancing and chasing us. It was really bizarre and a little bit traumatizing. We left after that. Actually, we had to find some people in our group that we lost...we thought they may have been taken by the monkeys...but then we found them! Just a regular night at the Christmas park…
Picture – Club Date Piano Bar
Later that night, we wanted to go out somewhere close to our hostel and do something fun for a big group. We walked around for a bit and found (someone may have yelped it) a karaoke bar! It was called Club Date Piano Bar. It was fun, and there was room for thirteen of us to get a table, which wasn’t happening at the other bars in the area. The drinks were about what you would expect, but the entertainment was fun. There was a pretty spacious dance floor and a stage for the singers with TVs for everyone to sing along. You best believe that when Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas came on—we all went up and danced like a bunch of US animals. We all were able to get a turn to sing, and there was a really big song selection. It only was awkward when the songs were French, but we made due. The picture above was taken when someone decided to sing Eminem's Superman. Veeerrrryyyy uncomfortable. Otherwise, we had a great time!
Picture - Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan
The next day we had the whole day to explore, so we decided to head over to the planetarium and bio-dome. Luckily, we had 14 people so we were able to negotiate a group discount. We got passes for both attractions for $27 Canadian dollars. Pretty sweet deal since we were spending a good chunk of our day there. It’s all about the bargains at this age.
Planétarium Rio Tinto Alcan ended up being the COOLEST planetarium I have ever been to! And I have dabbled in quite a few planetariums. See those bean bag chairs??? THEY ARE MOONS!!!!! During the show you lay on them and look up at the planetarium screen. It was mind blowing, and I loved every second of it! It made me feel like a small child, which is so rare in this jaded adult world. Word of advice though—don't go when you're tired. It's really comfortable. It was 100% worth all of the discounted money we paid for it, and I want to go back again.
Picture - Biodôme de Montréal
Next, we hopped over to Biodôme de Montréal, which was right across the street. That was also really fun. There were three sections: tropical, forest, and arctic. It was basically a big indoor simulation of the outdoors. The penguins were probably the best part.
Picture – Restaurant Nudo
After our field trip, we were all really hungry. I like to check out the “real food” when I go to a city. I never understand when people go to a city they are new to and go to a chain restaurant. Where is the adventure? Says the person who went to McDonald’s as soon as they got to Montreal... Oh the hypocrisy! Whatever, whatever…
When I was leaving for Montreal, someone had suggested a ramen place to me. SINCE I love food and plan my life around it—I had ramen on the brain. The person who recommended it to me couldn't remember the name of it, SO I had to find something on my own. With a little help from Yelp and a lot of walking, we found Restaurant Nudo AND IT WAS SO GOOOOOOD!!!! When you walk in you can watch them from behind the glass making the fresh hand-pulled noodles. It was like we were at another Biodome—but this one was for noodles. My kind of Biodome! I got the Braised Beef Ramen and it was amaaaaaazing! They had this red pepper oil at the table to enhance the spice, and oh my God it was so perfect. When I was finished, I couldn't get up because I had so much ramen in my stomach. I crave it frequently, and I am 100% going back whenever I return to Montreal. 10/10 would recommend. Pictured is my good friend Jessie gleefully eating her Ramen.
Picture – Old Montreal
Afterwards, we did some exploring of Old Montreal to make sure we saw all of the sights before we left. It was a nice walk if you wanted something mellow to do. As you can tell from this picture, it was pretty cold. It's probably really nice on a warm summer night, but then you wouldn't have all of the holiday lights. It's all about the trade-offs.
The rest of the night was spent eating pizza-ghettis (unfortunately not pictured), celebrating a birthday, and hanging out in the hostel.
Overall, the trip worked out really well for only one full day of being there. It was a nice getaway that was far enough that it wasn’t home, but close enough that we could be a drive away. And as for Le Petit Humbí…well, let’s just say he resides in East Harlem, but frequents Montreal for his evil schemes.