The last night in Montreal

I'm well back in Denmark. But the last night in Montreal was magnificent; my goodbye party began in an old garage north of the tracks, went on to an illegal party in the industrial area and ended with free bagels and hugs from Andy at St. Viateur Bagels while the sun rose over Montreal. What more could you wish for?

 Alexandraplatz, 6731 de l'Esplanade, Mile-End

 Goofing.

 The brown brother was there, too. He came back from nature to say goodbye. In a week he'll be off to Halifax, lucky.

 The remains of the Danes.

 Orphé and Sarah.....

The Danes got fierce.

 White sister, brown brother.

 Absolute bliss. Warm bagels fresh out of the oven, cream cheese, salmon and good laughs.

We went home around 6am. Already, it was far too hot... Geez Montreal, one day it's -40, the next it's +30... Thanks y'all for making it wonderful in Montreal!

To market, to market

I'm knee deep in assignment hell, and so is Esben. So yesterday we joined forces hoping to get some work done. But we went to the Atwater food market instead to have Eastasian lunch at Satay Brothers and shop salmon for dinner. Esben is housesitting for Emélie and Kenneth while they're in Europe so we fired up the grill and sat on the porch working while the rain drizzled and the neighbours were having a (sober) party (we're in Montreal, not Denmark...) Assignment assignment, please write yourself!
Atwater Food Market, 138 Atwater Avenue, Saint-Henri

The food was great - we had Bun Vapeur which, apparently, is pork belly inside a puffy white bread thingy... And a rice/coconut dice for dessert.

Grill master.

Saturday walkabout

"Hey, wanna have coffee?" - I love texts like that, just jumping out of bed to have coffee with friends and walking around. Today, Esben and I walked up and down the streets in Mile-End, drinking coffee, eating doughnuts and ice cream and looking at vintage clothes. The city is windy and slightly colder today, I feel a storm might be around the corner.

 Esben had heard they make good doughnuts at Chez Boris (5151 Parc Avenue, Plateau) - they were very good and I don't normally like them.

 My window view this morning was fluorescent.

They make good ice cream on Bernard (somewhere between Avenue de l'Esplanade and Waverly)...

Weekend vibes + a little from last week

Ahhh, life is good at the moment. I'm enjoying not having to do school assignments (that blissful thing ends in a week, though...), and the weather is finally coming around to sun. The days are slow and full of music, birds singing, coffee dates and a little partying.

 On Monday, we had a roomie dinner in the apartment. John bought snow crab - they are only in season a few weeks each year, and that is right now. I'm usually not a big fan of shellfish but it wasn't bad!

Last week I had coffee in the balcony for the first time.

On Tuesday I met Hui for dinner at Comptoir 21 (21 Rue Saint Viateur Ouest, Mile-End).

Someone drew unicorns on the street at Bernard - the hipster factor goes through the roof.

 On Saturday I met Esben quite spontaneously for a coffee at Brooklyn Café (71 Rue Saint Viateur Est, Mile-End) They had a decent selection of Scandinavian furniture, and the coffee was good.

On our way back, we came by this summery bike. I haven't biked at all in 2013, and I really miss it. Can't wait to be reunited with Dagmar soon.

 After our party on Saturday, the Danes gathered at Hui's once again - this time for snow crab. The idea wasn't fully thought through as we were all suffering heavily from the partying the night before...

So after having eaten a bunch of crab, we moved to the parc nearby where we let the sun stroke our hungover bodies. It was great and very much needed.

Île Sainte-Hélène

Yesterday, the weather was truly amazing. So Christoffer, Thomas and I decided to go on a spontaneous trip to Île Sainte-Hélène, just outside of Montreal. It's part of the Expo67, and it was nice just walking around beneath the sun, talking and laughing, enjoying the quiet. The boys are going home soon, so quality time before wrapping up the Montreal chapter was needed.

 The dome was arched over an environment museum. A strange building.

 We peeked into a closed themepark; it looked undeniably kitschy, and my fingers itched to go in and explore à la Spreepark in Berlin. (click on link to see an old blogpost - in Danish)

 The Jacques Cartier bridge is so beautiful...

On our way back, we saw several of these little animals - can anyone identify it? Guinea pig? Beaver?