Montreal Madness

Well, I have to say the reading week just past much well spent in Montreal, being able to explore a new city is always something I’ll look forward to, but it was the fact that Montreal had such a French feel that almost made it strangely familiar in its architecture and culture. Being able to turn 21 here with an amazing group of people also made it a much-deserved highlight of the year so far. Here is the cream of the crop from our explorations in the marvelous French-Candian city.

Mont Royal 

Due to the first day we arrived ultimately being the best weather-wise, we decided to brave the hike and climb up Mont Royal, the large hill/small mountain that the city is named after (Mont Royal…Montreal….see the similarity?) and I had to say I haven’t seen anything quite like it when we got to the top. Being able to look over the entire South and West sides of the city from one point was utterly spell-binding. We could’ve spent all day taking pictures of the beautiful snow-kissed landscape but we didn’t want to waste any time that we had. However, we were there taking photos for a good hour all with jaws to the floor with the sight that met us at the top.

Starting the ascent up the hill/mountain (still not sure how large it is)

Only one of the views we had about half way up – not a cloud in the sky.

I don’t know if I need to say much for this apart from wow.

 

McGill University

However much I am a UoT student, after travelling down from Mont Royal, the foot of it lead us straight to the entrance of McGill university, I have to say the buildings of McGill definitely won me over. They looked like something out of Hogwarts but a little more….French should we say. You can see why people come here though, the university is immaculate and you can tell inside all the buildings they had state-of-the-art facilities. On such a bright day as it was it would’ve been rude not to have a look around, even though realising I was wearing a UoT t-shirt underneath my opened coat I could see there was some rivalry between UoT and McGill – one of which we all embraced very comfortably.

The art museum and department at McGill, iso mighty looking in the sunshine

Yes, I took my coat off to plainly reveal the UoT t-shirt because REPRESENT.

 

Montreal City Hall

Just for the pure majesticness of the building we swung round to Notre-Dame street to find the city hall, and boy is it massive. Standing on the street opposite from it I had to take a panorama of the building as it didn’t fit into my frame, and it’s 5 floors. 5 FLOORS! We only made it into the ground floor as we sort of weren’t meant to be there (whoops) but from the outside, it looked so official and just purely brilliant to look at.

The first sighting during the first night coming back from McGill and this is what made me come back. Almost looks just as good illuminated at night.

This still doesn’t do justice of how big this building is, it’s utterly gargantuan.

 

Schwartz’s

I want to have lunch at this place every day for the rest of my life and buy the same thing every time – the smoked meat sandwich. To describe biting into this as like being kissed by your first life for the first time would be an understatement to the sandwich itself. It tasted like how an orgasm feels. Legit. Don’t believe me? Go there and try one and then tell me that you didn’t need to change your trousers after eating it. I was so sad after finishing my first one that I immediately bought a second. Even the layout was amazingly Canadian dinner-esque, with narrow tables with elbows touching of the people you’re next to and service quicker than a Brits wit. It is a place that I shall return to in the future mark my words.

Just look at it. So much meat the bread can’t even hold it. I need a moment.

Julietta’s 

If Schwartz wasn’t enough for that afternoon, this place certainly added the most amazing cherry to a culinary afternoon I’ve ever had. The desserts here were just stupendous, so rich, but no rich enough to become sickly. The flavour of the chocolate and the waffle and the balls and the ice cream all came together into one amazing dish that truly rivals all others. I would happily drown myself in the chocolate they make here and if I died, I would die a happy man. Just magnificent.

Starting the ascent up the hill/mountain (still not sure how large it is)

 

Basilique Notre-Dame

I’ve never been a place so peacefully quiet, where I felt I really could think with such clarity due to being able to hear the bowel movements of someone from across the room. After entering the grand wooden doors came a very picturesque site, almost equivalent to that of visiting Disneyland for the first time (and also because the top of architecture reminded me of the Disneyland castle). I could’ve spent many an hour here thinking as I do, about the past, present and future plans for what might be in store for me. Sitting in the pews with complete strangers and friends alike everyone seemed to be very at peace with themselves, admiring the amazing work that past sculptors and architects had built for over 5 years to create. To pay only $5 to visit such a marvel is by far worth it (and if you keep your ticket after you leave you can go in more times than one as they have no date just a confirmation stamp – saving your pennies!) 

Mighty, majestic and quite magical. Montreal answer to if Disneyland met Christianity.

Mark and Sophia admiring yet more amazing architecture hiding in a sealed room around the corner from the main entrance.

Ice Canoe Racing

Gabriel and I decided to get up early after a heavy night drinking to go and explore Old Montreal, but soon into venturing around the area we heard loud sirens with French commentating nearby so obviously we went to investigate and what we found was probably nothing we ever could’ve expected. Ice canoe racing. Yeah. It’s a thing. And I have to say that it was very enjoyable to watch, especially the beginning when teams of 5 used their strength to slide their canoe across a large stretch of ice and into the frosty waters to then paddle and batter opponents away in a quest for the finish line. The vivid colours of all the different canoe teams were something to be admired, as well as the crowd, who kept running from side to side of the viewing points to try and get the best view of the race. It was rather wonderful to see such a crowd be so into a sport in unison.

Test runs of the glide into the icy waters, I have to say the speed they were going at was something to behold.

The first development into the race after the launch. Lots of what I can imagine was French swearing and egging on from the crowd.

La Banquise

I have to say I have become quite fond of poutine as of coming to Canada, I never thought I would just due to the combination of hot gravy, cheese and chips but I have to say it works! Now there’s poutine, and then there’s poutine from La Banquise. Let’s just say there’s a very good reason for why there is always a line out the door to be seated when you get to here. Opening the menu to find that they served more than 20 different types of poutine was just mind-blowing. My choice was influenced by someone who had already been there before as he said “it has more meat than you’ll be able to finish if you get a large portion” so obviously I took the challenge of seeing how much meat there could be on in a poutine dish.

 

Holy. Mother. Of. Food.

 

This is what came before me. I honestly could’ve cried from how much food there was and how delicious it looked. The fact you could only just see the chips and the bottom of the dish made me excited to embark on this challenge of mighty foodstuffs. It was a mission and there was a bit of touch and go, but when a very hungry Englishman takes on a challenge, they won’t go down without a fight. With much beautiful battling with the poutine I finished the bowl of poutine, and yet I immediately became sad. I was so hellbent on eating it I almost forgot to savour the taste. The amazingly meaty, spicy, succulent taste of probably one of the top 10 dishes I’ve ever had.

The best part is I’m coming back to Montreal in May to explore some different sides to the city, and probably some same eateries but there will be much more to come in May.

 

Exciting plans have just developed for late March, but I’ll let you know the location of that in good time – for now I leave you with this, if you don’t think you’ve got time to do something, take a deep breath. Stop for a few seconds. And say to yourself “I do have time” because however wrapped you might get in studying or work, there is always time to do other things that make you happy.

Reconnecting & Revamping

 

It’s been another busy couple weeks here in Toronto/Scarborough, hence why this is a little over two weeks but I hope you’ll forgive me as below are a few of the interesting stories I picked up on the way here.

Reconnecting

Before even voyaging off on my adventure to Canada my mother informed me of family we have over the pond on the Grant side. My mother’s cousin, Patricia, and my 2nd cousin, Scott – both of whom I was very excited to arrange to meet up. Fortunately, that came a lot sooner than I thought, as previously I would’ve thought I would’ve been swamped with uni work and them with professional work meaning it would’ve been difficult to meet up, however this wasn’t the case.

Last week I met up with Scott at a lovely bar on King Street called Betty’s (I would highly recommend it for the range of draft beers and the nachos there). Whilst arranging to meet up at 3 pm on that Thursday, I have to say I was a little anxious, I mean what do you say to someone who you’ve never met before but you’re related to? It was an odd situation to be in. I had the following questions, including others going through my head;

“What do I say to begin with?”, “Don’t come off as a posh English twat please for the love of food”, “Make sure to pay for a round if he drinks”.

As I was approaching Betty’s I got this surge of panic hit me like a train, I don’t know if any of you get that. Like when you look forward to an event, but on the way to the event you start to overthink how people will view you, up until when you actually arrive and start the small talk does that feeling then subside – that is exactly what happened to me, and the worry soon subsided for very good reasons.

A huge plate of nachos and some 4 drinks later, Scott and I were getting on like a house on fire sharing personal stories and learning about how he found himself living in downtown Toronto, about his and our family and the connections that came to make up the Grant clan in former generations. Considering we were in the pub for about 4ish hours  we chatted about everything from old lab partners, past and present relationships, about his family in Toronto and what it’s like to be a dad – which sounds equally hilarious as it does stressful, local Toronto knowledge of the where to get the best food.

Many of these were had, Betty’s was a rather lovely place on King Street for good food, beer and service.

My favourite line he shot through to me about food was this – “the only way you could eat at every restaurant in Toronto is if you born in the centre of downtown and ate a new place every day for the next 50 years, and only then would you be about half way there” – purely brilliant.

We spoke about relations to famous bassists *cough* Guy Berryman *cough* to a plethora of topics. He told me about the other family I had in Toronto, consisting of Patricia, my mums cousin, and her daughter Whitney who seemed like very epic people – and two people I’m very excited to meet extending the Grant clan. My favourite story Scott told me was actually about his parents, they moved to Canada down in Waterloo, where Scott was born, and they said “we’re only going to be in Canada for 2 years max” oh how wrong there were. 40 years down the road they’re still living in that same cottage in Waterloo and honestly, I can see why. Canada as a country is so amazingly diverse and friendly that to be able to live here and gain residency to be Canadian would be an absolute honour. Toronto in these weeks grown on me like the best rash possible – I honestly couldn’t find another way to put it. It’s safe to say meeting and chatting to Scott made Toronto as a whole feel a lot more homely, knowing that there is family a stones through away from my family that enlightening was a real highlight of my time here so far.

Scott and I, safe to say I definitely needed him for the support after catching up. 

I will definitely be meeting up with Scott more often for more Toronto shenanigans, I mean what kind of family do you get partially drunk with at mid-afternoon on a Thursday? The best kind.

 

Revamping

I realised that with a couple midterms that crept up in quick succession, I didn’t have much time to explore Toronto for a couple weekends due to revising. But this week just gone by more than made up for that for multiple reasons.

Licks

The highlights of the past week actually started in Scarborough. After a long food shop at Food Basics we thought we’d treat ourselves to some food before we took the bus back to uni, and Sophia picked the best place to eat. Imagine the same set-up as Subway, but for burgers! The fact that the actual burger itself was huge, but the fact you could literally have anything else on it – how the even closed the burgers was a work of art, including th burger itself. For much less than getting a burger at a proper burger joint, it more than matched up in terms of size and taste in my eyes. Mark and I were certainly in awe of the challenge we had to face. It’s safe to say we devoured them.

We were men on a mission to conquer food, and we did. 

Biermarket

Never have I ever been anywhere that have so many beers on tap, I was expecting a good range, but nothing quite like this. And I even found this on tap.

Never had I seen something more beautiful 

I couldn’t believe my eyes, in amongst the North American country band playing loudly in the background to the very Canadian feel of the Toronto locals in the place, the flower of Scotland was found. Here. In Toronto. This made me unbelievably happy – and so I continued to drink pint after pint until, well, the night became a bit of a mystery after leaving at around 3 am. It was interesting drinking with Ryan and Mariana below, one crazy for Scottish beer, and the other a beer hater – we nearly swung him around to it, and by nearly I mean he finished his pints (I know no student to never finish their drink, fact).

The fact I was even able to take this picture was something to behold, besides the out of focusness. 

Bâton Rouge – my first poutine experience

I’ve been in Canada for about 5 weeks now, and up until last week I’d never tried poutine, a well-established dish in Canada – chips, gravy and cheese curds. After already having chips and gravy back home in Edinburgh I thought “would the cheese make much difference?”. My lord did it. As well as an additional extra we found on offer at the lovely French restaurant of La Bâton Rouge. Lobster. Poutine. It tasted like everything I thought it would and more, and for $10 for an ‘appetiser portion’ I was more than full. La Poutine week was what sparked my interest, where different restaurants were putting on different offers of multiple poutines for a week only. Safe to say it was a good week for food.

Distillery District – a.k.a Hipster Café Central

Whilst hungover from the previous night at the Biermarket, we decided to stumble around the Distillery District in search of something cure us of our dehydration, and we found a couple things that did just the trick…..mostly.

Caffe Furbo may’ve been one of the most alternative, hipster looking places I’ve ever been to, it was like being slapped in the face by a beanie from a bearded man wearing a flannel shirt in corduroy. It just oozed culture, from the minimalist decor inside, the colourful chairs, the abstract art draped on the wall. But what we came here for was a pepper-infused espresso to really try and kick start us into the day. And it did more than that, it might have had enough caffeine and spice to put even make Eeyore become more spritely. I felt the caffeine rush hit me, but the added spice nearly gave me the biggest migraine from hell. Mixed opinions of this drink but you’ve got to try everything at least one ey?

I’ve never had something so small that’s packed such a big punch.

Soma is the Canadian equivalent of Hotel Chocolat we have back in the UK. But it’s so much better. However pricey the chocolate might be, there’s a reason for it. It’s all handmade at the location, and you can see it happening through glass screens, and it is utterly amazing. The care that goes into making the chocolate is incredible, as well as the hot chocolate that we got from there. For $5, from such a place I was expecting to get maybe a couple of mouthfuls of a beverage. But instead this giant mug of hot chocolate came towards us, and it was one of the richest and tasteful things I’ve had the pleasure to drink in a long time. Definite revisit will be here for more chocolate related postings.

Hot chocolatey goodness. 

Nathan-Phillips Square

It one thing everyone has to do whilst you’re in Toronto in the winter season – ice skate at night at Nathan-Phillips Square, and however much of a tourist attraction it may be, it is still dominated by Canadian folk. It must just be something you do as a Canadian, as of most of the Canadian people I’ve met so far own their own skates, it’s just their culture to skate. The sign behind the rink illuminates the surroundings very extravagantly in a rainbow coloured fashion, and for someone of novice skating ability, it was nice just to go at our own paces and admire the fact that we were central downtown, in amongst the skyscrapers reaching high into the clouds above. It was a rather tranquil moment even with the hustle and bustle of the many skaters moving to and fro. But even with that, it was something I’ll never forget – and probably something I’ll do again before the rink closes as it was far too good to only do once.

So much red-eye (editing to come later) but a great moment I have to say. 

Toronto is evermore becoming a place that I can see myself living in at some point in my life, even only being here for just over a month it’s already had such an impact on me. Who knows, maybe Scott is right for future plans of Canadian adventures. But for now, I’ll continue to explore to report back on what I find for you guys.

FYI – Reading week is coming up, so new destinations are on the cards for definite.

Watch this space.

 

George

 

 

Arrival in Toronto

Well, I made it in one piece which I can imagine that with my terrible sense of direction that came to a large shock to a lot of you, but I’m here, in Canada.

After parting with my family and Adrienne at the early hours of the morning I proceeded to get my first flight from Edinburgh to London. It was soon to see that serendipity was upon me. After being spotted by the women aside from me that I must be British as “no one has tea on these BA flights unless they’re British”. It’s safe to say we got chatting. Turns out she was a lovely music teacher who was returning Washington D.C to begin classes again. Little did I know until later in the conversation that her husband, Craig, works in a vaccination lab for the Gates Foundation (funded by none other than Bill Gates himself). We exchanged emails, I got talking to Craig, and I might have some work in Washington or London possibly in the summer – more on this as it develops – but that was a clear case of asking the right questions, and being in the right place at the right time.

Connecting to my flight in London was more then swift, Terminal 5 had everything one would need but I wasn’t to stay for long as the gate departure was calling soon after I landed. The extra leg room on the flight to Toronto was more than amazing, it’s the first time I haven’t felt like I’ve been packaged into a confined space and left to squirm around to find a comfortable position. However a very emotive infant came in to spoil what comfort I had in my leg room. But hey ho I got to Toronto Pearson airport. And at this point, I pretty much had no idea where I was going.

The TTC (definition) was easy enough to navigate to UoT Scarborough campus, but without having any form of internet connection I had to rely on the Canadian bus drivers for aid. I have to say, they’re some of the most helpful & pleasant people I’ve met on a public service, they made sure I knew exactly where I was going and which connections I needed to take, one of them didn’t even charge me a fare because it was my first time in Canada!

With all that, I got to the campus, and it was like a winter wonderland with fresh snowfall over the night. Picturesque doesn’t even begin to describe. As of being the first one in my flat I had the celebratory moment “I made it, without any hiccups, to a country and a university I’ve never been to before. Fuck”

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any time to take it all in as the following day lectures started. I do have to say compared to back in Stirling, they’re quite intense with regular pre-lab quizzes and online questions of the sort. This made me realise that most of the time I’ll have to explore the city will be at the weekend.

The first few days were terrifying. Even with my flatmates all be a very nice group of guys I found it harder than I thought to integrate myself into the Canadian lifestyle. Forcing small-talk upon others is something I’ve been known to be quite successful at but here I felt out of my depth. And coming Up until the Thursday & Friday of the first week.

Thursday was a residence event in the nearby residence centre, whereby it was a ‘Winter Wonderland’ of carnival games. Even though the games themselves weren’t as high as expectations found, the plethora of different people I met that evening definitely kick started my stay in Toronto for definite with many a plan coming after that

I’ve now been here for over a couple of weeks, and even now I’m still getting to grips with many things, but there have definitely been a few highlights already.

Downtown Toronto – Dundas Square/Eaton Centre

As soon as you get off the subway station at Dundas Square all you see is bright lights on vibrant billboards and high up bars & restaurants, it looks very much like a smaller Times Square.  Especially to be hear at night is something special to just be in the centre of the city with everything whizzing by around you without a care in the world. It’s an extraordinary feeling. The Eaton Centre situated at the square is by far the biggest shopping centre I’ve ever been to, considering it has 5 floors with each one containing what feels like an endless amount of shops of all different kinds, fashion, tea, cuisine of all cultures this place has pretty much anything you can think of. I haven’t even been on 2 of the 5 floors as yet but that will come. I’m hoping there are more displays of animals here like the geese we found on the 2nd floor.

Fun Fact – the geese are actually made from lots of different pictures of different geese that are arranged together – art is amazing sometimes. 

Harbourfront 

Just a stones through away from Union street station you come to the magnificent harbour side of Toronto, it almost seems surreal that there’s a water body in such a densely packed city of people and skyscrapers. But whilst admiring the amazing harbour with it’s large amounts of boats bobbing up and down in the semi-frozen water there were two places along here that really caught my eye. The first being the Natrel Rink where it’s cheap as anything to hire a pair of skates and to be there till your heart’s content. Myself and a couple of exchange students from UTSC came down and met up with a load of other exchange students and I have to say it was lovely to meet so many people from all over the world. France, The Netherlands, Japan, Sweden and various places in Canada to name a few. With how long it’d been since I skated I was quite proud that I only fell once! With the CN tower situated near here it would’ve been rude not to include it in this – I will get a picture from the top of there one day when I’m here don’t worry!

The second place we went to after a long afternoon skating and chatting was a place called Amsterdam – confusing name, yes, but the beer they sold here was impeccable, the fact they brewed it all is what looked like a large barn was just brilliant. The authentic smell of the hops they used flowed through the restaurant like an freshly poured pint. The fact they had so many beers here it would’ve been rude not to try a few. I would definitely recommend this place to beer lovers, and non-beer lovers as the food here looked rather good too!

Kensington Market

This has to be one of the oddest places I’ve ever been to so far. The fact that all the places in the market are so brightly coloured but yet look so run down baffles me, however some of them looked so modern in their interior. Due to the cold of the day we didn’t stay around for too long, but from what we saw it looks like a very hipster area with everything being vintage or just out of the ordinary. For example the photo below showing the ‘cocktail emporium’ where they had the hardware to make cocktails on one side, and the alcohol for said cocktails on the other. An amazing example of the kinds of things you find here. This area will definitely be explored in more detail on a warmer day, but to as we left the market we did stumble on some rather magnificent graffiti that we couldn’t not admire. I mean look at it!

Sugar Marmalade 

A Chinese restaurant just near to Kensington market that simply seems authentic Chinese and Chinese fusion desserts. Just desserts. How amazing is that?! I didn’t go straight into the new when I ordered, but these filled pancakes did leave my stomach wanting so much more, they do hot and cold desserts of so many different flavours you could come here a dozen times and still not try even half of them!

The Hoxton – Madeon

A night I shall not be forgetting for a long time, whether it was the fact we went on a whim  without having tickets in the hope we’d get in (which we obviously did) or the fact that it was so easy to get to the front of stage being so tall. Madeon’s music was just everything and more. I couldn’t describe the feeling having the music hit you in such a way that everything in the world didn’t seem to matter at that moment in time. It was truly amazing the Hoxton as a venue was incredible with raised side areas and amazing sound system where the music filled the place. I didn’t manage to get any good videos from the gig but I was more into just enjoying the night, which I most certainly did to the fullest.

These are but a few places I will highlight, and there will definitely be much more exploration into Toronto centre outside of studying I can tell you that much. But I know what you’re all thinking if you read my last post;

“Every week you said you were going to post, and this is your first post since you’ve been here!”

It’s been a big adjustment getting accustomed to the Canadian lifestyle, a whole new currency, education system, city, people – everything. That is one of the reasons why weekly posts will probably not be happening, as I’ve got to go and actually explore the city first to then come back to you guys. I will aim for fortnightly posts here, with a little wiggle room I should be able to manage that. But trust me, there is much more to come with some of the plans organised.

Watch this space.

George