Easter Weekend in Montreal

View outside of train window

I spent Easter Weekend in Montreal, travelling in a different way for me, exploring the city and watching a hockey game. I went up specifically to see a Montreal Canadiens game and you can read that post here. But now I thought I would share how the rest of the trip went.

At some companies, employees have both Good Friday and Easter Monday off and I am thankful that my employer provides us that opportunity so I did not have to take additional days off when I have not worked long enough to get vacation time yet. It had been tricky to plan because I was originally going to visit Toronto as well but decided just to do Montreal. I went alone and took the train from Halifax to Montreal. I had taken a train back in grade 9 but it was not a good experience so I wanted to do it again. The trip from Halifax takes about 24 hours and it was kind of long but I'm glad I took it. I had packed a couple of crossword books, an actual book, some food and a blanket to get me through the ride but for the most part I just stared out the window, played on my phone, and talked to this guy across from me and struggled to have a good night sleep. I would suggest bringing your own food, as pretty much all their food is preprepared then microwaved so it didn't taste very good.

Breakfast sandwich at St Viateur bagels

Flower at botanical garden

Once I got to my destination, the gentleman I met on the train helped me get a transit pass and I decided to walk straight to my hotel to drop off my bags. You can get a locker at the train station but I didn't really want to go back. I stayed at the Comfort Inn Downtown Montreal as it was the cheapest one near the arena. It was pretty comfortable and surprisingly nice. When I arrived at about 11:30am, I was shocked that I didn't need to leave my bag as they had my room ready so I checked in and went upstairs to rest my feet for a few minutes. One of things I wanted to do was try Montreal bagels so I went to St. Viateur Bagel & Cafe for lunch and ended up getting a breakfast sandwich, it was delicious - I wanted to get another one but didn't. Afterwards, I visited the Jardin botanique de Montreal which is near Olympic Park. I walked through the five greenhouses as it was winter, there was no flowers outside and I also didn't see many inside either but it was still a good visit. Then, I went back to my hotel and around 5:30pm I decided to go out for dinner at a restaurant called 3 Brasseurs and I got a poutine which was yummy.

Montreal is known for poutine

The next day (Sunday), I had breakfast at the hotel then hung out for a few hours in my room. I couldn't figure out where to go for lunch so I just visited 3 Brasseurs again to have their burger sliders. Then I checked out Old Montreal by just walking around and taking pictures with my digital camera. I saw the Grand Quay (including the Bonjour Montreal sign), nice old buildings, some architecture from 1967 Olympics, the Notre Dame church and a few fancy vehicles. You can into the church but you have to pay for it and there was a lot of people there that day so I did not check out the inside. I spent Sunday evening at the Bell Centre. It wasn't very nice weather the whole weekend which sucked and it made it hard to fully enjoy my adventures but I'm still glad I took the trip. On Monday, I didn't do anything but have breakfast and get packed up. I took the bus to the airport and flew home.

Bonjour Montreal sign at Grand Quay

I hope I can visit Montreal again in the future and do some other things around the city.