J'aime Montreal.

Our first day in Montreal started a bit bumpy but it all worked out in the end. The hotel we originally booked at through Priceline ($60 US a night at Hyatt Regency) apparently had a fire so we got directed to the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth. It actually worked out great because I've stayed here before and it's right next door to the train station. We've been booking most of our hotels through Priceline.com. It's a website that allows you to bid your own price for a room only you don't know which hotel until it gets accepted. You pick the area of the city you want to stay and the rating of the hotel. So far I've been getting $60 US for a four star hotel. In comparison we could have paid $169 a night if we had booked directly through the hotel.
The hotel is within walking distance to St. Catherine Street West so we went out and walked around. This is their big shopping street but we weren't there to shop (I'm trying to travel light!) so I tried to avoid temptation and only window shopped.
The next day we went to see Vieux Montreal, the old part of the city. I love this area of the city since it feels so European with the cobblestone streets and old buildings. It was a really nice day to walk. We were pretty tired from all the sightseeing so we took it easy and sat by the river with a view of the Cirque du Soleil big top tent. The show playing currently is called "Ovo". Most of the shows were sold out already.
Charles saw a sign for Casino de Montreal so we took a taxi there that night. It was way bigger then we imagined. It's about a ten minute cab ride from downtown on an 'island'. The casino stretches out over five (or six) floors. There are restaurants and bars located throughout. It was a mini Vegas in Montreal. We walked around in awe mostly just watching people play. The place was packed being a Friday night. There is a 24 hour 'deli' that was really nice inside. It served hot food with three different combo prices; one including a regular drink, one with beer and one with wine, only in a casino in Montreal!
Saturday I wanted to experience a real market here. We took the metro to the Jean Talon marche. The metro makes it really easy to get around the city and a day pass for the metro and bus costs $9. The market was mainly outdoors under cover with small boutique specialty food shops bordering the area. This market is closer to the farmers markets around Vancouver only on a bigger scale and it's open seven days a week. I wouldn't even compare it to Granville Island's public market because it's really for locals and the prices are dirt cheap for produce. There are stands serving food as well. We saw shawarma sandwiches being sold for $3! We tried a bison sausage on a stick for $1. The stand with 'frites' had the longest line. The specialty food stores I loved because they were so obvious from one another in which one had the best foods. I walked into one and there were hoardes of people at the meat counter, another one had everyone buying bread and another cheese. One place in particular I couldn't even get to the counter to buy anything it was so packed with people! It was a food lover's dream and we were envious the locals had a market like this.


Next up: Au Pied du Cochon! It was so amazing it will get it's own post so stayed tuned...