Montreal Photos

Here are some photos of the recent Montreal visit. Enjoy!

Music One

Because all my CDs are back in Australia, I have been listening to Music One a lot. It is without a doubt the best internet radio station I have ever listened to. Check it out!

Easter in Montreal

Now I understand why Quebec has been trying to seperate from the rest of Canada for so long. When you arrive in Montreal after a one hour flight from Toronto, it feels like you have landed in a different country. The language is definitely a big aspect, but the architecture, food and people have a lot to do with it as well. As Sharon said, “The people in Montreal have style”. This is something that definitely lacks in Toronto.

We flew up Thursday night and stayed at a really great B&B (situated in the Plateau) until Monday. We did all the traditional touristy things: Old Montreal and Notre Dame (this was closed to visitors on Good Friday so we never had a chance to look inside), the Olympic Stadium (can you believe they are still paying it off!), the Museum of Fine Arts and the lookout at Mont Royal (thanks to Benoit and Raphael).

One of the highlights was going to Atwater Markets on the Sunday. This place has an amazing bakery and fine array of cheeses and meats. We also enjoyed walking up Rue St Denis and Rue St Laurant checking out the many shops and cafes. The highlight of the eating experiences (apart from the Easter Eggs of course) was a Fondue restaurant on Rue St Denis.

All in all, we had a great time and look forward to visiting again soon. Next time we will have to take the time to drive up to Quebec City as well. We have heard it is a beautiful place.

Unsubscribe

I am going to unsubscribe from Rory’s blog for a while. I really don’t care whether he should have attended Microsoft’s MVP conference or not, but I have better things to do with my time than read posts like this and this.

Thanks for the memories Rory!

Life in Toronto #1

Sharon and I have now been living in Toronto for 2 months. But you wouldn’t know from this blog! To stop the continual harrassment from family and friends, I am finally going to post about (some of) what we have been up to since we arrived.

We flew direct from Vancouver to Toronto on February 10th. Can I just say now that Air Canada has to be one of the most disorganised airlines I have ever flown with. For a national airline they are a disgrace. Not only were we delayed 6 hours in Sydney, but in Vancouver someone with the same surname as me was checked into my seat! This meant that it took about 40 minutes for us to check-in, and even then we did not have seat assignments. No surprises that Air Canada is bankrupt.

The first thing we realized when we arrived in Toronto was that it was freezing. We had seen the temperatures on the news, but it’s not until you walk outside at night when its -18C that you realize the true definition of cold! It took until the start of April for the temperature to get above 0C. Most Torontonians (is that a real word?) spend all of their time underground. Yep, noone goes outside (if they can help it) for the whole of winter. There are massive underground pathways that link most of the buildings together Downtown.

Our first four weeks were spent living at Dundas-Younge. We were close to the Eaton Centre (just like any other shopping centre really) and most of the other Downtown action happening at Younge Street. Some of the highlights of these first few weeks included: Snowmobiling with Natasha and her family at Forest Hill north of Toronto (racing down a forest trail at 100km/h really gets the adrenaline going), watching my brother Dom and his crazy singing mates at Roy Thompson Hall (and then having “one too many beers at the party afterwards) and taking a trip to the wonderfully tacky and completely over-developed Niagara Falls with Dom and Sharon the day after the concert.

Don’t get me wrong, the Falls themselves are very impressive. It’s just the casinos and cinemas that have been built right up to the water line that really spoil the whole atmosphere of the place. Niagara-on-the-Lake is a little town about half an hour east of the Falls. This is a place I would recommend anyone visiting if they are heading out to see the falls. It is really serene.

Sharon and I have both landed jobs with firms here in Toronto. I predictably went back to a company I used to work for in Australia, while Sharon scored a position as a Usability Speciaist with a local IT consulting company. All is going well with our jobs and we are getting back into the whole work routine. We have found a more permanent place of residency down at Richmond-Sherbourne.

I have had enough of typing (this is my longest post ever). We are off to Montreal for Easter, so I’ll post more of what we are up to next week. And yes, some photos will be appearing soon!