Bonjour mes amis!
I spent the last week in Montréal and went rafting in Mont-Tremblant.
Montréal was a great city but it was quite difficult for me speaking French again. And I still underestimate the distances here and walked most of the time. I stayed in a nice hostel which had an outdoor shower (just great) and breakfast on the terasse every morning.
I discovered old Montréal, the harbor front, Downtown with its big shopping streets and the Plateau Mont-Royal which was the best part of the city! It was similar to our Viertel, but bigger and even more relaxing with a lot of nice stores and parks. It is probably the liveliest, youngest and artiest neighborhood.
The houses have those great staircases and nice balconies. I was so impressed that I took a lot of pictures just of the houses.
We had great weather and the city was full with people spending their time at the harbor or in the huge parks. On Saturday I met Elisa again and we went to the harbor to watch fireworks. It was the US who managed the fireworks and it was really big and fantastic. Half an hour just crazy action. The next day we went to “Jean Tallot”, the big market place in Little Italy and bought a lot of fresh vegetables. After the market we went to Elisa’s place and she made fresh Chai Tea because it was so rainy outside and we really got wet. And I tried my first “poutines” which is French fries with cheese and a special topping. I had poutines with chicken and peas. The meal is very famous for Montréal or even Quebec and you can eat it 24 h per day. I have to mention that I tried a beer with apricot taste as well which is brewed in Montréal.
I met a nice girl from Holland at the hostel and we spent the next day together. A friend of her joined us as well. So we went to Mont-Royal again and tried the best Smoked meat in town. Then we went to the big park Mont-Royal and enjoyed the amazing view of the city. We went to the Olympic Tower the next day, because Montréal hosted the Olympic Games in 1976 and you can see a lot of attractions there for example the botanical garden or the Biodome, which created four different ecosystems with animals inside.
I left Montréal on Wednesday to go to Mont-Tremblant, the mountains around Montréal. Actually, it is a famous ski area but I didn’t know that before. I met Elisa there and went rafting on Thursday. The rafting was so great and much fun! We had to drive about two hours to river first and got our wetsuits, livewests and shoes there and our first instruction about rafting. We were about 30 people of different ages and had about 7 boats with guides in every boat. Because of the rain during the last couple of weeks the river had such a strong stream and was too dangerous for us that we went to an easier river. The first raft was the strongest one and I was the first person who felt out of the boat but the guide said I couldn’t have avoided it;) We did cliff jumping as well and had four more rafts to manage. It was pure adrenalin. We were even allowed to swim in the water so we went inside and swam with the flow. It was so easy and fast and we didn’t even have to move.
After finishing the rafting, Elisa and me went to the village of Mont-Tremblant and took the free chairlift through the city. Fortunately, a man gave us free tickets for another chairlift to th
e big mountain so we went there as well. The view was amazing! On the mountain, we felt like Heidi and the Alm Öhi and down in the village we felt more like the Truman Show because
everything seemed so artificial and touristic. They even had a bear as a mascot for the kids and a Christmas store (incredible). But we saw a free concert as well and tried another famous kind of beer.
By the way, I saw a deer right in front of me while I was reading near the hostel. A girl who stayed in the hostel did a crazy fireshow. And I met a guy from Germany at the hostel who I already had met in Toronto. Canada is probably smaller than I thought.
I am in Quebec City right now and will stay there until tuesday. I look forward to hear from you,
aurevoir et bonne journee!
uge campus with quite a lot of buildings and I spoke to my coordinators there. Everything seems to be alright and I got my student IDcard as well.
