Fall is here

Another thing we don't get to experience in sunny Australia is the definition of seasons. So experiencing fall for the first time was magical. Each street is covered with fallen, coloured leaves and the sound of them crunching under my feet brings a smile to my face every time.

Halloween

In Australia, we don't really celebrate Halloween. While there are a few dress up parties, houses aren't decorated nearly as fancily, nor the lines at halloween costume stores nearly as long (are there even stores?!). We went to two halloween parties on Saturday. The first one at the Mile End Bike Garage. Everyone and I mean everyone was dressed up. It was so much fun. I went as Janelle Monae, B as a werewolf, although everyone thought he was Beetlejuice. P as a somewhat Dolly Parton and L as Kenny Powers from East Bound and Down

New Beginnings

So we have found a new house to live in. It's up in the Mile End, which is definitely the 'hipster area' of the city. We are moving in this weekend and will be living on one of the main streets. Our room will be huge, so huge that we don't even know how to fill it. Best thing is there are lots of great cafes, shops, bars (right opposite Baldwyn Barmacie - a cocktail bar), and restaurants (Gordon Ramsay's restaurant is on our street) right at our doorstep.

It will be the first time B and I are sharing a house again in over 18 months, but W the guy who lives there now is lovely and we have another guy from the US moving in too. Me and 3 boys...

Concrete Jungle

We headed down to New York for the long weekend and had 3 busy filled days. There is something about New York that just wins you over, whether its the free shows, the array of gourmet cuisine or even just the general street vibe.

Two years ago we visited about the same time and were a little bit scared about the heat and although thunderstorms were forecast nothing ever came and it never got too hot. We were excited about visiting the Brooklyn Flea again after managing to pick up so many good finds last time. We didn't find anything, however we did find out there was Smorgasbord on at the Sunday location. We were in food heaven. There were so many different stalls that we had such a hard choice deciding. I ended up going for the teriyaki organic potato dough balls from the Japanese stall and B as per usual went for Latin American food. I was also super excited to see a stall from one of my favourite blogs, Sweet Fine Day. I didn't have the courage to tell him that I was an avid 'stalker'.

On Saturday afternoon we headed to PS1 Moma to watch Simian Mobile Disco's DJ set. The vibe was electric and the crowd loved it, and the rain didn't for one second stop the dancing. A definite highlight of our weekend.

Cuisine wise, we hit the Spotted Pig where I had the shrimp with greens and beets and B went for the blue cheese burger which he rated highly. Saturday night after PS1 we headed to Mesa Cocayan in Brooklyn (which we never got to last time). The mexican food was amazing!

On Sunday we weren't quite sure what to do, but ended up going to the Alexander McQueen exhibition only to find a line that went on forever. (it would have been at least a three hour wait!). So we decided to skip it, despite rave reviews. For lunch we went to Pollinos where B was catching up with a school friend he hadn't seen in 12 years. His friend had such an illustrious career, cooking for various celebrities (he had just been on tour with Paul McCartney and was working on opening the Jay Z restaurant).

Summer festival

We went to our first big music festival on Sunday (other than the Jazz Festival), Osheaga. The festival was called Osheaga and we had a few bands we were really eager to see. Frightened Rabbit were up first. We had seen them a couple of times before and although they played only a short set they were still pretty awesome to see again.

Beirut was the main band we came to see and they didn't disappoint. Something about their Eastern European sound mixed with that voice just makes me swoon. Perfect music for a sunny afternoon and definitely the highlight of the day.

Other bands we saw were Crystal Castles, The Flaming Lips, and MSTRKRFT. Hmmm it doesn't sound like so much when we put it that way. Overall the festival was quite well set up. There were definitely a lot more stalls lined up around than back home and the food/drink line was never too long which was a bonus.

Just another busy Saturday

We have been getting into this routine of riding Bixis around on a Saturday to explore the city and today was no different.

A couple of Saturdays I came across this cute jewelery website, Self Made and loved the rings on there. Unfortunately the one I really wanted was sold out and so I emailed them as they were based in Montreal. They didn't have any more, but they did offer an invitation to go to their studio to see all the other rings that weren't on the website. So today we rode to their studio, just off Amherst, and met Melanie and Daniel, a couple of artists from Montreal. They had so many rings that I couldn't decide which one, after trying so many on I finally settled one which only cost me $30. Such a bargain!

They were such friendly people and recommended a flea market up at the St Michel metro, which we had heard of before but never got to. The market was like a mini Chapel St Bazaar and it was a nice slice of what we were used to. They had all sorts there from skulls, to globes to furniture to art. We didn't pick anything up but no doubt we will return there.

By this time it was already lunch, so we rode down to Jean Talon Market. The last time we went there, it was so windy and cold, and we wondered why it was billed as such a great market. However today was the perfect day, it was lively bustling and was filled with local growers selling their produce. It made us decide that we definitely want to live up that way. Now just to find a place..

On the way home, we managed to also squeeze in Parisian Laundry (a cute art gallery), as well as a Scandanavian Cafe in Little Italy.

Summer weekend

The past weekend really felt like the first Summer weekend we've had here. In case you haven't heard there's a heat wave sweeping through Canada and the US at the moment. B had a friend over and he's been staying with us for the past few nights.

Friday night was spent at P's house where her brother cooked up Southern American style ribs and boy was there a feast. The ribs were massive (as I'm a semi-quasi vegetarian I opted not to eat them), mac n cheese, salads, beans, potatoes. Enough for a king I say.

Saturday was spent down at the McAuslan brewery soaking up the summer sun, followed by pizza in Little Italy. After wondering around Little Italy in the evening, we've decided we want to move up that way now. The boys then went out for a big drinking session, but the summer heat must have got to me and I went home early.

Sunday was another day at the markets followed by dinner at our favorite pub, The Burgundy Lion. This pub serves all the good ole English style fare. B and I had the fish and chips and S had the Shephard's Pie. I also think its the only place we've been to three times in Montreal.

Summer Picnic

We had our first Canadian Summer picnic on Wednesday night. Katie, the girlfriend of the guy we are subletting off, had a birthday in Jarry Park. It was nice to be around a group of friends again, as it has mainly just B and I and maybe one or two other people. Today we had a group  of about 15 people.

The park itself was pretty interesting. They had a pool, a soccer field, a lake with fountain, as well as the little island which you had to get to via stepping stones (which is where we were). There were all sorts in the park from fitness freaks, to japanese drummers and  even a white magic wizard. We were also witness to a fight breaking out between 3 latin american friends and their lover, ending up with one of the guys running across the stepping stones and falling into the water (luckily missing his head).

Other highlights included an awesome cat pinata (made by Katies friend), Dave the dog who was the cutest thing ever, and vodka and perrier soaked watermelon.

No one mentioned it would be sticky

When we were thinking of moving to Montreal, everyone warned us about the cold, cold winters. I remember one girl in one of my classes telling me that her eyelashes actually had icicles, and her runny nose freezing up. But no one ever told us about the hot, sticky summers. The weather forecast each day only tells me about 29 - 30 degrees but seeing I never look at the humidity I'm always taken aback to how sweaty I am riding my bixi to and from work.

Its almost like a subtropical climate, in that its so sticky and muggy. Each day at my work, the alarm at the front door goes off cause the pressure in the air is low in Montreal. Each day I sweat a bucket load. Its not pretty. I like the summers, but i definitely prefer the dry heat. It doesn't help that our house at the moment has a black leather chair.

Life in Montreal

Its always hard moving to a new city. I'd say it takes a good six months to settle in before you start feeling like your new city is home. We have officially been in Montreal for 3 months now and I guess we are still trying to find our way. We are living in a cute little sublet in St Henri, which is a one bedroom apartment. Luckily for us this area is actually our favourite area of Montreal. Unluckily for us, its only a sublet and we will have to start looking for a place for September. The idea of living with other people scares us. There are just too many horror stories of horrible housemates, or houses falling apart, or even horrible landlords. This coupled with the fact that I'm not sure how long I'll stay in Montreal for, makes househunting very hard.

But onto the positives. We found a great little cafe on the weekend, called Griffintown Cafe. It reminded us of a cafe we would get back in Melbourne, delicious food and a great atmosphere. So far we have yet to find a brunch cafe we absolutely love, but this I would say finally is our nugget of gold. I opted for the 'classic crab cake with pickled & smoked jalapeño remoulade, fried eggs, and bacon' (of course minus the bacon) and it was certainly tasty. I would not normally think of crab cakes for breakfast, but it was actually perfect and soft and the jalapeno remoulade definitely complemented it well. B went for the 'Poached eggs on home baked biscuits with hollandaise, potatoes & mixed green salad. With homemade bacon or peameal bacon' and he raved about it. Best thing about the cafe is they do live music on Thursday, Friday and Saturday which we are definitely heading back to.

Another highlight of the weekend would have to be the Festival du Monde over on Parc Jean-Drapeau. On Sunday night was the Latin American night, with Brazillian, Colombian and Mexican flavours dominating. There is something about Latin American themed anything that draws me uncontrollably and apparently everyone else in Montreal. We made the mistake of riding Bixis over to the island (which was a mission in itself, we were dripping in sweat as we took the longest possible route) only to find that the main Bixi station was not working. Frantically, we had to try to find another or we were going to go over our time limit. However, with the thousands of people there, this didn't happen. Battling through the throngs of people we finally found one on the other side of the island and had to make the long trek back to the festival. The atmosphere at the festival was electric, the smell of barbecue drifting through the airs, and everyone in high spirits dancing in front of the stages. I ended up getting some vegetarian tacos and B ended up with an arepa with pulled beef (his favourite).