I’m often fascinated by the destruction of old worlds. It fascinates me to see what once was and what is. In this sense you can see the history in the walls of Montreal’s old city. The cobblestone streets, the crammed buildings, the stone finish, the archways are all remnants of a world that existed centuries ago. Montreal is an old world and a new world rolled into one.
The old city has been repurposed. It’s now a center for tourists of all kinds to explore. You can visit one of its many restaurants and shop at its many stores inside what looks alike a medieval structure. It looks like a medieval structure because it is a medieval structure. I only wish goblins and dragons were real.
Montreal’s Olympic Stadium
We did a lot on this trip. We visited the Olympic stadium. The olympic stadium looks like a structure from the future. It looks beautiful from the plane and even more beautiful from the ground.
It reminds me of rotting corpses, blood splatter and perhaps love. This isn’t as random as you think, they filmed the romantic horror comedy Warm Bodies here. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about a zombie who comes back from the dead, twice, once as a zombie and once as a human after realizing his heart can beat again if he falls in love. It sounds ridiculous cheesy but it’s actually pretty good.
The olympic stadium has a lot of attractions to choose from. You have the Biodome which has four different sections that displays the terraformed Earth in different parts of Canada. The climate is controlled to its specific location and they also include animals and a proper ecosystem. It’s a great learning experience if you like to nerd out about that kind of stuff.
There is also a Planetarium with amazing shows of the constellations (in english and french).
Let me break it down for you:
It snows 9 months out of the year in Montreal. It’s not like we see on TV. Its meters of snow.
Its minus 5 degrees fahrenheit for most of it. Its cant-go-outside-because-your-skin-will-break-off cold.
Perhaps I love this city because I come from Los Angeles and I have never seen anything like this before. This city makes me feel like I’m arriving on a distant ice planet where everything is frozen over and you never see the light of day. In that science fiction geek sense, I feel distant from everything I once knew and I LOVE IT.
On a more realistic note, I love Montreal because it’s generally very open-minded. It has a giant gay scene with great gay events. Their summers are celebrated by throwing festival after festival. They learn how to enjoy the sunlight like its going to disappear soon (because it is) and they’re not afraid to keep things different. Also, the men are a great mix of French and other ethnicities which makes them more attractive than most.
Its got an old medieval city, a new city, a mixture of people and cultures and it feels like a booming metropolis.
Do I recommend Montreal? YES! Go in the summer. Experience their winter. See it all.
I’ve made several travel vlogs on my trips to Montreal, here is another one. Check it out: