M is for Montreal

Here is a sad story that I have been telling a lot of people, as of today I have been in Canada for about 11 years, and I have never been to Montreal until recently. meanly because it's soooo far away from Toronto ( a 8 hour drive) and dad is the only one who drives in my family..... (well.... I do drive, but mom does not trust my driving skills to ride in it)....

I have been bugging my bf forever to go to Montreal with me during the school year since it's a lot closer from Kingston (where my university is located).. but school year is really busy, and I go back to Toronto every holiday I get. 

Around two weeks ago, bf told me he had a surprise for me, here is a little background information for you, my bf like to say that he has surprise for me to get me happy when I m sad, but usually it's nothing big so I did not expect very much when he said that. But then he told me that he is taking me to Montreal! I was sooooo happy!!!!   muahhhhh <3 thanks lg 

For the next 2 weeks, I did a lot of "research" but it's more about where I am gonna go to eat and play!!!! so I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Here is a tip to book cheap hotels! 

I really do not consider myself as an adventurous and open to new ideas. But bf is! so we tried Hotwire 

Here is how it works, it's quite easy actually! go to hotwire.com , enter the city you are going to and the dates you are there for, and it will pop up several hotels at the specific area at a really low price but they do not tell you >.< only when you book the hotel will it tell you which hotel it is. 

so it's a little bit of risk! but they do tell you the number of stars the hotels has. The anonymous offers usually gets you around 30 % discount, but if you are more concerned with getting a specific chain of hotel, there is a second window that pops up that does that, there is usually less discount, but you know which hotel you book!

We were adventurous and booked anonymous 4 star hotel at $87 per night!! once we paid we found out its Delta hotel! The total came too $107 with tax and fees. 

we booked mega bus which came to $100 for two people round trip, and we were all set

The morning of was not soo smooth, we were almost late
for our bus! I did not get the Tim Horton bagels I wanted
for the ride. But it was a good thing I was prepared the night
before! so we made the bus anyways XD

cannot stop cam whoring (apologies) look so sleepy >.<

sooooo we finally got on the bus. I do not really like to say bad things about people, but Canadians could be more considerate! or thebus could be better designed! I have riding buses a lot due to traveling back and forth from Toronto, and people like to sit by themselves, only when there is no other choice would people choose to sit beside other people.

So when we got on the bus on kingston, there were no double seats left! so there was no way my bf and I can sit together >.< and no one even offered to move so we can sit together ( a little selfish of me... but .... T.T ) but finally, we found two seats at the very end of the bus that were together ... problem averted (lesson: I would offer to give up my seat next time so people can sit together <3)

i know the picture is wayyyy too small for you guys to see the writing, but it says "Welcome to Montreal" yeah!!! The first thing we did upon arriving in Montreal???  being stuck in terrible traffic!

 

direction from the bus terminal to hotel <3 but I was so hungry from not eating anything (cause I did not get the bagel I planned to get) that there is no way we are heading to the hotel without some food in our stomachs

I got soooo excited when I saw french that I understand... muahahahahah all those years of french classes finally paying off!!!

 

we were just walking around and we cam across ........CHINA TOWN! gotta love China town because I m Chinese .... lol.... its like the must go to place lol

The rule of thumb to identify a good restaurant is to see how many people is in the restaurant! if it's packed, then go in!... the restaurant we went to was packed! 

I ordered pork chop! cause I m a meat eater!!! muahahahah... lol.. not really, it's just that I do not like to cook meat my self so I order it when i eat out

bf ordered egg plant with meat and sauce (鱼香茄子） it's a famous Chinese dish la~ the Chinese name sounds much better than the crappy translation I wrote lol...

over all, it was a awesome meal! taste much better than the crap Kingston has to offer (omg I m so mean) the total came to around $16 incl tax.

there is some thing unique about montreal's  China town, all the restaurant has a bakery component to the restaurant, so if you are in a hurry for lunch, you can always grab something in the bakery for to go. 

some bikes you can rent! but the problem I see is that you have to find somewhere to return it, but wut if the location you go to is full, then you have to go to another place and hope there is a spot...

some awesome European buildings at old montreal <3

we came across this really neat shop in old montreal section of the town, it has all the creative things such as

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a "pot" holder, lol, that's such a high school joke lol I still find it funny though

there is also the horse rides... they smell horrible, I cannot imagine being stuck on the ride and having to smell their pooo... >.< bf asked me where do they poop? and we noticed a little bucket located under you know what to catch it lol... XD

soooo finally after eating and walking around a bit, we arrived at our hotel to check in.

here is the view from the room, it was the 19th floor <3

we were right beside McGill <3 a awesome campus! very clean and beautiful old buildings, like Queens, except they actually have an enclosed campus.... (i m sure everyone else already know that) but I thought it was interesting.

a statue of Queen Victoria. The Queen's school of business is one of the few remaining Victoria schools, but we do not even have a awesome building like that ... sigh... 

there is a lot more pics to come! but I got a little tired... so I will blog the rest another day <3 

stayed tuned ...for food! restaurants! and sights to see