Adventures of the Metro

I prefer to walk when I travel to a new city but lately, if it's far enough away, I'll use public transportation.  I decided Thursday and Friday would be my train days. I was able to use it pretty easily, with the exception of not knowing where to put my card on the machine to reload it with more fare money. The man behind the glass helped me. It did give me an opportunity to say "I don't know how to speak French" in French, a line I learned when Tim and I went to Paris. You would think I would use that line all the time, since I, in all situations, do not speak French. Nope. I have taken to say "bonjour" and then ask if English is okay, or just break into a simplified English. More on this later. 

I took the train to the Botanical Gardens. Definitely some great gardens.

The Chinese garden

Fountains

Big lily pads

Japanese garden

Indigenous people's story and works

Various other cute and pretty things

It just so happened that the old Olympic Stadium was across the street and I was going to go up to the lookout, but it was temporarily closed. There is a great skate park there. 

In case any of you are wondering how my blister is doing, it continues to be large and in charge.

You might ask yourself "Is that the last picture she took of her gross foot?" It is not.

I really can't understate that I managed to find an Air B&B in great location. There is a food hall down the block, making dinner very accessible. I had pizza again.

And this is how my project was going at that point:

Okay, Friday.

I took the Metro to Fairmount Bagels, considered one of the quintessential bagel places in Montreal. For the second time now, I have gone to one of these Montreal food gems, seen a line and realized that there are more than one line because there are other popular eateries on the same block. In this case, the place next to it was selling gnocchi, to go.

So I got two bagels, one of which I just ate while writing this. The other one I ate sitting on a bench, with a tiny Philadelphia cheese cheese. The bagel was fresh. There seems to be a debate about if Montreal bagels are better then NY bagels. They are not. This was good and definitely better fresh, but I would take a good NY bagel over this one. Still, I came, I saw, I ate bagels. Mission complete.

Oh, and contrary to my promise to myself I would keep my spending down, I did walk straight into this yarn store which I found by accident. I could have spent A LOT of money here. I decided to get three colors, rather then enough yarn in one color to make something like a sweater. So now I will figure out what to make with singular skeins of yarn.

The main reason I went on the Metro was to go to the Jean-Talon Market, in Little Italy. You can tell you entered Little Italy because suddenly all the signage is red, white, and green.

I bought maple tea and drank a protein shake. I browsed a lot and took the Metro back to my Air B&B, where I finished these.

I would take a picture wearing them but I'd need another hand.

I went to the Chinese bakery to get a pork bun and walked back to Old Montreal searching for souvenirs. I was told by two merchants that I said "bonjour" so well they thought they could speak to me in French. Really, a lot of people speak to me in French. There is probably no way to know looking at me I don't speak French. I spoke to a lovely young woman who sold me something I got for my parents. I found out she was born and raised in Montreal but was starting school to study finance and economics in Buffalo, NY. She told me she also got into LIU which she then had to inform me is in Brooklyn, not Long Island.

I then went back to the Food Hall and picked up a falafel wrap.

Between Vancouver and Montreal, Montreal is supposed to be less expensive. It might be due to the fact that I'm in touristy areas, but I was not expecting to spend this much on food. The Canadian dollar is .73 of the USD. But their sales tax is 9.975%. Because their prices look similar to SF, I am likely spending less than I think I am. I have not been doing the math. But I would not say it's an inexpensive city. 

I have two days left. I tend to leave myself two extra days to do whatever, although this trip has been more leisurely than my usual pace. I had planned it this way. I might hit another museum today. It is going to rain today and tomorrow although right now it's dry. Oh, and when I just went out to get coffee, they were setting up for some event which involved food truck and (I think) classical music. I should probably look that up.