The old Montreal was a queen of luxurious banquets. The new Montreal of today is a young female artist on a passionate journey seeking new inspirations. One thing never changes – the proud flame in her soul.
As a student, like many others I spent my summers interning. Last summer, I got to intern for two months and a half for a non-profit in Boston. I was paid well, but knew something was missing.
Every summer, I try to travel at least once. That summer, I had to be an adult and went to work instead! My boyfriend, seeing my conundrum, suggested I take a solo trip before starting my internship.
He didn’t mean it seriously, but I did. Two hours later, I was beyond excited to receive my electronic tickets to Montreal and Quebec City (Canada).
To save money, I took a bus trip from Philadelphia to Toronto, then a train ride in five more hours from Toronto to Montreal. A total of 17 hours. I can still feel my aching muscles even just thinking back about the trips now.
On the bus, I imagined how Montreal would be an ancient, charming city full of cultures, unlike some industrialized cities in Canada where you can only see suits and skyscrapers.
Before dozing off, I even tried to brush off my modest French learned during three years of college, knowing Montreal is known as one of the most French-speaking countries, second only to Paris.
A 375 years old island
It turned out that Montreal is not as ‘ancient’ as I imagined. Well, it is ancient, but in a ‘peculiar’ way. A real-life statue of a baby sitting on a bench, a piano covered in graffiti, a collection of seven men painted in red and squatting… in a circle. If you are not paying attention, you may miss out on the beauty of sculptures everywhere, cleverly hidden away in busy corners of streets and skyscrapers (1).
Still excited from the fact that my hostel looked just nothing less than a fairytale castle (2), I heard from the receptionist that “You are here just in time for Montreal’s 375th birthday celebration! It’s gonna be awesome!”
Standing amidst the Saint Lawrence River, this country is known for its exuberant party culture, enough to satisfy the local hunger for art and culture. The main attractions include the international exhibition of Expo 67, Francofolies (music festival), and also the Just For Laugh festival.
One time when I was wandering around, I was surprised to see the City Hall walls were moving! Paying more attention, I realized they were just footages and animations of the city history, projected onto buildings. They look so real life with both sound and visual effects. This is one of the memorial projects celebrating the city’s birthday: tourists can save maps and information about the 75 historical landmarks, plus 30 spots where projections took place and create a walking tour for themselves with just a phone and earbuds.
Montreal was sleepless at night, almost. I was always chasing the streetlights, watching animation characters sometimes turning into beavers (the official symbol of Canada) talking on the walls or jumping around. Suddenly I felt like a little girl again, watching commercials with my mom on a brand new tiny television.
Old Montreal: English pug and French poodle
“Do you know how much the city council paid to light up the bridge for the celebration? 40 mil. CAN dollars!”, my local friend Darren complained. This extreme exhibition might be due to the fact that Montreal is such a commercial, political as well as travel hub that the government went too far with the celebration. Darren was talking about the Jacques Cartier bridge, adorned with expensive LED systems right in front of our eyes.
This bridge is named after the first French explorer who first came to Saint Lawrence River (where Montreal stands today) as well as North America at the beginning of the 16th century. Walking around Old Port and the ancient towns of Montreal (Vieux-Montreal) was nothing less than living in the last century movies for me. A French colony during the 17th-18th centuries, Montreal is full of European-inspired paved streets, architectural masterpieces and charming little coffee shops.
As my mind wandered away thinking about the past, I entered a colonial-themed outdoors market. Ladies in cotton dresses and pleated hats standing behind counters, meticulously setting up all kinds of merchandise: flavorful fruit nectar, thickly sliced sausages, and bottles of famous maple syrup. Men worked in pottery shops and other kinds of craftsmanship. The ambiance was filled with music from the exciting bands of drums and trumpets.
Having bought two berry cider bottles for souvenirs, I stayed for a while to watch an impressive matching performance as well as an 18th – century – “band” performance that was no less exciting.
In 1763, under the Paris Agreement, Montreal is handed over to the British Empire and Spain by the French. After that, British, Irish and Scottish immigrated to Montrea, making up a diverse population, half of which speaks English while the other half speaks French. Saint-Laurent Avenue is then considered the boundary, separating the ‘British half of Montreal’ in the West from the ‘French half’ in the East, interestingly.
Typical of the ‘rivalry’ between the two halves is a set of two statues called “The English pug and the French poodle”, situated right in the center of Montreal. Darren eagerly told me “Do you notice that the man wearing Anglo-style clothing looking at the Notre-Dame (symbolic of French cultural influence) condescendingly while the woman wearing Chanel looks despised over the Bank of Montreal (the power symbol of the British Empire)?
Montreal – Circus of the Sun | P2
Notes:
(1) See more interesting artwork in Montreal here.
(2) My hostel was Auberge Bishop, only a few minutes walk from the metro station Guy-Concordia and the Concordia University.
If you need a visa to visit Canada, you can find all the information about how to apply for a Canadian visa here.