Montreal, la métropole du Québec

Tina's city walks
In the 16th century, explorer Jacques Cartier first described a 233-metre-tall hill, located right next to where downtown Montreal is today, and named it Mount Royal, apparently for the charming landscape he saw from the summit. The name Montreal originates from Mount Royal and started being used officially about two centuries later. I made this hill the first point of my visit as this is where the city itself started from. The most eye-piercing sight on Mount Royal is a 30-meter-tall cross, which is beautifully illuminated at night. It was built here to honour the Virgin Mary who protected the city from floods. While it has been revamped several times, the original cross was erected as long ago as 1643.

By the time I visited in March, the snow in the city had melted, but there was still quite some on Mount Royal. Nevertheless, there were numerous locals jogging around and a myriad of squirrels who gladly munched on my nuts and raisins from the last packet I had brought from home. Close to the Beaver Lake (Lac aux castor), I managed to convince one of them to take a nut from my hand, hopping about half-a-meter away and masticating nuts with what seemed like a great pleasure, giving me ample opportunities to take photos up-close. In addition to the forest, which at the time of my visit was completely bare, and hiking and running tracks, there are several viewpoints in Mount Royal. The most famous one is probably the one in front of Chalet du Mont-Royal, which offers great vistas over downtown, St. Lawrence River and part of the park. On the eastern side, there is another viewpoint, from where you can admire the site of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. Montreal Tower, the most prominent feature from a distance, is even the tallest leaning tower in the world!

After taking in some fresh air and picturesque views, I headed downhill and the way lead me to McGill University, one of the most prestigious Canadian institutions of higher education. Although McGill has a typical North American campus, the buildings are somewhat scattered around. I escaped the cold for a while by stepping into a library, where I discovered that my phone had automatically connected to the Internet. It turns out that there is a network of universities, which support a Wi-Fi network called eduroam. Students enrolled at any partner institution get to access eduroam at any other university in the network. This can be highly useful during trips like this one!

Jure's impressions
One of the Master’s students at McGill, Moshe Safdie, designed Habitat 67, one of the first sights I visit in Montreal. This is an agglomeration of apartment buildings composed for smaller box-like elements connected to each other through passages and terraces. The idea of this design was to combine the private and natural environment is a densely populated urban area. Safdie’s project was constructed in the sixties and these buildings also served as pavilions at the 1967 Expo.

A walk from Habitat 67 towards the east of Montreal leads through St. Helen’s Park, the venue for kid’s Winter Olympics every weekend throughout winter. Disciplines include throwing snowballs, parents pushing sledges with their kids and other fun games. One of the delicacies of these events includes a dessert made of maple syrup. Hot syrup is poured onto a flat surface covered with snow and a wooden stick is placed at one end. As the syrup cools down, it is twisted around the stick and licked as a popsicle.

Parks such as St. Helen’s really come to life during summer or when the cold of the winder has passed sometime in May. In addition to taking part in street festivals organized in the months of summer, particularly around Rue Saint Denise, people of Montreal enjoy picnicking. Extended families gather somewhere outdoors, barbeque and enjoy first-class wine. Prohibition of selling alcohol in many downtown restaurants is possibly one of the reasons for this picnicking culture. It is quite fascinating that these same restaurants allow customers to bring their own alcoholic beverages and consume them along with food ordered in the restaurant. It goes without saying that streets lined with such eateries, for instance Rue Prince Arthur, have at least one liquor shop which sells wines from all over the globe.

Canadians enjoy not only food and wine but also the great outdoors. Canada is proverbially known for its beautiful nature spots and the outskirts of Montreal are no exception. I visited a national park known as Mont Tremblant, both in winter and in summer. Although there are no paved roads in the park, it is possible to drive around in your own vehicle. A winter visit to this park taught me how harsh Canadian winters can be. As I headed for a viewpoint about two kilometres into the park, I discovered that my phone had been switched off and the battery in my camera was at 10 % even though I had charged them both right before the trip. The cold is not only devastating for humans but also for electronic devices that we use daily. I soon understood why an employee at the visitor’s centre discouraged me from venturing further into the park at the time covered with several meters of snow.

My summer visit to Mont Tremblant National Park was a completely different story. The roads were clear, and my friends and I stopped at a nearby lake, where we hired a boat free of charge and rowed across. Some of us were feeling a bit adventurous and decided to swim in the lake, but we were attacked by leeches! Needless to say, this encounter somewhat shortened our bathing experience … Visitors to this part of Canada should remember that parks have little-to-no facilities. There are no restaurants or shops, so food, water and other necessities need to be brought along.

Although Montreal is la métropole, it does not have more than two million people living in a relatively vast area. Skyscrapers only exist in downtown and many people live in houses rather than apartment buildings even in the city centre. The green areas in the city and the proximity to several national parks give Montreal a soul that is far from a concrete jungle of a typical metropolis.

Jure Srebrnič in Tina Škorjanc