Hotel Castel Saint Denis is in an awesome location, and is prety good for a 2 star hotel. The concierge was very helpful and pretty funny, and the rooms are big enough for a short stay. They are similar in size to a dorm room.
After getting settled, we all set out for lunch at a Portuguese restaurant that Dan had stumbled upon the day before while I was working the event. It was a good 20 min or so walk from the hotel, but it ended up being worth it. I had one of the best lunches I've ever had, a Portugeuse sausage sandwich. It was simple and pretty affordable, but really really good. Dan ordered the chef's choice, which was just a load of meat, and James ordered the chicken on Dan's recommendation, since that is what he ordered for lunch the day before.
After lunch we wandered aimlessly around and found Saint Laurent, which a recommended street to walk around on. There was also a pedestrian traffic only section, similar to some streets in Copenhagen.
At around 2 or 2:30, we decided to take the subway a little out of downtown to see the botanical gardens. We ended up only going to the Biodome for time constraints, which was a huge complex that walked you through 4 different climates and the wildlife that lived in them. It started with rainforest and moved through another forest, a marine environment, and then ended with a penguin exhibit as we reached Antarctica. James got hit my a bird load, which made us all laugh, and there was this cool bird just walking around on the pathway. I took a load of pictures and a cool video of a bird flying underwater, but the journey didn't take us as long as we thought and we were on our way back to the subway into downtown before 4.
This time, we took the train down to the harbor, and wandered around without a specific plan.We stopped at an outdoor cafe for drinks and did a litle people watching before heading down the harbor. There's some pretty cool architecture downtown, but it was hard to get a good view for the camera.
After the harbor we found the museum district, but by this time things were nearing closing time. We did find a cool church built like Notre Dame in Paris, but they were charging entrance so we passed. Doesn't seem right to have to pay to get into a church. We wandered around some more, and then found China Town!
We went in and out of a few boutiques, then rested our feet at a tapioca tea house for a bit. We stopped at a Vietnamese place for pho, which was excellent, but not quite as good as the pho place in Houston i frequent. We did some more wandering on the "seedy" side of Saint Laurent and walked past some prostitutes on our way back to the hotel, and stopped at a club that was absolutely dead. We got a free hand stamp to skirt the cover charge and were told to come back in a few hours
Usually, my night would end around here, but we headed to the hotel only to dump off our souvenirs and such before hitting the Montreal night life.
First, we headed to a cafe for some drinks and ended up watching the Penguins beat the Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup. The local red beer here is actually really good, and I don't even like beer. After the game we decided to head back to the club we stopped at earlier.
It was really crowded and loud, which means it's a good place to be I guess. I did dance a little, but for the most part I was a wallflower with James. Dan danced more than I, but we spent more tme not dancing than dancing. It was a fun time, I enjoyed the people watching, but clubs just aren't my scene.
We left the club and got back to the hotel around 1.
It's kind of fun not having a plan or itinerary on vacation, you just walk around the popular pedrestian streets and have a good time.
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