Indian Summer in Montreal

All my wishful thinking came true! My last two posts saying "summer come back" seem to have worked (hashtag 'longlivesummer') and with perfect timing too.  I took a weekend trip to Montreal to visit Crystal and see what's up, as I've only been there twice before.  I have zero summer clothes on me as it was end of September and I had been wearing thicker layers already the week before, so my outfit in this post was generously donated to me by Crystal.  For those of you who don't know, the title of this post, "Indian Summer" refers to an unseasonable warm couple of days in autumn (just saved you a Google search, you're welcome :P)

Also, a quick note, there are a lot of photos in this post so I've kept some of them in a more thumbnail-y size, but you can, as always, click to enlarge :)

Saturday:

We wanted to head to Chinatown to grab some lunch.  Little did I know that my camera would be springing into action pretty much right away.

Place des Arts subway station

Their Chinatown compared to Toronto wasn't as impressive from the outside, although decorated with little flags streaming about to celebrate China's 67th birthday.  However, the Lanzhou la mian place we went to had these fantastic lanterns and despite this being only the second shot of the day, I had a feeling it'd be my favourite.

Lanterns at noodle restaurant in Chinatown

After lunch, we took the stroll from Chinatown to Old Port.  Along the way, there were a bunch of gorgeous buildings, and had I gone into architecture, I'd be able to tell you more about them other than that they looked "really cool".

A church

Another church

A hotel

Probably another hotel

If you were ever impressed by my captioning abilities, I completely understand.  I just seem to have a way with words.

After some wandering in and out of cute boutique stores, we finally arrived!

Vieux-Port en francais

View of the St Lawrence
-- reminder of the actual time of year

It was extremely sunny and we were starting to feel the heat, so we decided to hit up a different kind of "hot spot" for dinner.

But the line was too long so we went elsewhere :(

Cute little house and towering building beside it

Sunday:

We went "mountain climbing" up Mount Royal.  I've only visited once before in the winter so it was a completely different in the "summer".

View of the city from the chalet

More architectural appreciation

We sat there for a good while and enjoyed the sunshine and cool breeze.  On our way down, we passed a lot of brick houses, often with a low, stone fence, which made the perfect stand for some timer shots.

Pretty sure this might've been somebody's private residence...oops

There were also some really awesome street art, this "Paint" one being my favourite:

"Paint"

"Birds"

Found recycling bin as a stand so I could get in on these shots.

we're so cool

And then there are just a bunch of things that really spoke to me as "Montreal":

Green statues

Intricate details

more statues that make less sense
but I like them anyway

Lastly, before I left my too-short trip, I went back to their major street, St Catherine, and was very glad that I did.  The night scene compared to when I was there during the day...the difference is literally, ahem. "day and night" (badum-tss).

Day

and night

and motorcycles

Definitely had a blast and and am looking forward to going back soon now that I'm so much closer. (which reminds me, I actually haven't posted about my new place yet so that will be coming up next!)  Making the vow to eat at Kazu next time for sure!