Montreal, what a cool city. I couchsurfed with some cool Lebanese brothers, hung out with some friends I made in Ottawa, caught up with my friend Alex I met in New Zeland, spent time at a local co-op, an of course just explored the city. Montreal has a huge park running through it and wall after wall covered in street art. I really liked Montreal and can see myself living there someday... in the summer, because it was freeking cold, but the rent is also ridiculously cheap for being a city. It is a French-Canadian city, but nearly everyone speaks English (however, I did learn to say je ne parle pas français very well)
I was in Montreal for my birthday and I did not do anything outlandish, but I was happily surprised by the kindness of people. As I mentioned I met some people in Ottawa that I ran de vouxed with in Montreal. Chloe` and Bastien are some french students abroad in Montreal, and we made a delicious dinner at their house and this apple tart. They shut off the lights and said it was environmental then came out with the tart and sang happy birthday in French, English and Portuguese (their roommates are from Brazil). It was so nice and I really am so thankful that I had the pleasure to meet such nice people while traveling.
The Candles melted a bit into the pie
My french friends!
These are some pictures from coop Genereux. They are closely associated with Food not Bombs and are a community space to host events. There is a landlord but this house has been a coop for years and all the rooms were not originally there, they were constructed as you can see below.
They were so happy waving to me!
Poutine! This is a regional specialty that is basically french fries with gravy and cheese curds and this particular variety also has bell peppers and bacon. My other friend I met in Ottawa Florence who is from Germany, took me to the best Poutine joint in town!
In Montreal there is a house called the Productive House that a Swedish architect designed and is living in. Their energy is largely solar and geothermal. They have a garden and a greenhouse. They have a large gray water system at work and a bakery with a wood burning oven that will become a worker cooperative that will serve the community. Above is a picture of the most visually pleasing part of the house in my opinion.
At the coop there was a staircase painting party. There were people making plaster molds to make sculptures of body parts that will come out from the walls and people drawing with markers and glitter and painting. I decided to partake... this would be what I left
This was probably my favorite addition and I had a great talk with the artist.
This was the coolest bus driver ever! he had his bus decked out in hockey fan gear and had a bowl of free candy where you put in your bus fare that he refilled at red lights.
The view of the city from my couchsurfer's apartment
My couchsurfer used to study architecture and has a ton of little wooden block that he let me use to make a piece of art. that's it!
