Bonjour, Hello!

Last week, I (A) went to Montreal, Canada for Spring Break with friends. The city was a ton of fun! Although NYC will always have my heart, I was so impressed by Montreal! The city was clean, the subway system was very easy to follow, the nightlife was a ton of fun, and the restaurants were awesome! 

• My friends and I stayed at Le Centre Sheraton in the center of the city! We were within walking distance of shopping, plenty of metro stops, and lots of great restaurants. 

There it is on the left!

• I cannot stress enough how easy the metro was to use! Coming from NYC, Montreal's subway system was a piece of cake! Everything was no more than five or six stops away from each other (at most). 

via

• I loved how diverse the city was. There were parts that felt just like New York, and other parts that felt like Europe! Old Montreal was by far my favorite part of the city to go to during the day. The cobblestone streets and the old world architecture was absolutely beautiful. It was absolutely wonderful to just walk around and enjoy the European feel of the city. 

via

• My favorite site to see in Old Montreal was most definitely the Notre Dame Cathedral. The lights, the gold, the elaborate statues...everything was breath taking! We even got a chance to enjoy a "light show" in the Cathedral where they put on a show of lights and told the story of the church's history. It was one of my favorite moments of the trip!

Photos courtesy of my beloved blackberry!

• After a few lunches at little French cafes and comfy creperies, we took a trip to a market in the "Little Italy" section of Montreal! There were fresh fruits, veggies, breads, and flowers sold everywhere. We ended up buying fresh baguettes, cheeses, tomatoes, and olives and making our own sandwiches. SO yummy! 

Definitely blurred out my friend's face and her college sweatshirt, lol! 

Fresh gerber daisies! So pretty. 

• The food. I cannot say enough good things about the meals I had in Montreal. Let's just say that by the end of the week, our hotel concierge knew us all by name. He helped us out sooo much to find the best restaurants in the city. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the food...we didn't want to seem too touristy! But take my word for it :) 
• The nightlife. Another amazing thing about the city. Being that all my friends are of age in Canada (18 years old), we took full advantage of that and went out dancing basically every night! So fun. One recommendation I have: don't go to the touristy clubs/bars (i.e. Crescent Street). The native favorites are the places to go- plus, there are way more cute french speaking guys at the native hang outs! 
• All in all, I was amazed at how quickly I picked up French and how incredibly bilingual the people in the city were. Every time we would enter a restaurant or a store, the workers would say "Bonjour, Hello!" (hence the name of this post...) and it was amazing to me how easily they could turn one language or the other off in the blink of a second. So awesome. It was a great learning experience for me...next stop- France! 

Hope you all enjoyed my Montreal recap! If anyone has any questions about the city or any interest in visiting in the future, don't hesitate to ask! I'd love to help :) 

xoxo, 

A