I found myself in Montreal last week on a really last minute vacation. Despite my dad being from Montreal, I’d never properly explored the city until now, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the land of delicious smoked meat, abundant sex clubs, authentic poutine, and awesome indie music. I really enjoyed seeing what the city had to offer, but it didn’t move me as much as I though it might. I’m still perfectly happy living in Toronto, even though apparently everyone hates Toronto. Haters gonna hate.

Trip highlights included: Mile End, Mount Royal Park, eating smoked meat at Schwartz’s, staying at a sweet apartment in the Plateau (found through Airbnb, aka the best site ever), exploring the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (for free!), discovering Distroboto, which sells tiny artwork for $2 out of former cigarette machines, and successfully carrying on some conversations in French without the other person switching into English.

Trip disappointments include: dropping my camera and damaging my kit lens, which now doesn’t focus properly at certain distances. Awesome! Good thing I kind of hated that lens anyway. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.