Watching the sun waking up Toronto while strolling to the Porter terminal made the 4:45 a.m. alarm worth its while. I found the rarely beaten path leading to a picnic table with a first class view of the city. I was not alone: Jean-Pierre from Quebec scooted over to accommodate me. I am not surprised that there are no other Torontonian in sight. We tend to function on a faster pace that precludes stops for rose-smelling.
Matt Galloway, my current favourite CBC morning show host, is announcing that this will be one of the best weekend in Toronto weatherwise of late. But then, I am flying to another weather system. I just hope that Montreal will be just as nice.
We saw a bright tailed light travelling slowly in the sky. Can someone tell me what this is?
Sure enough, Montreal was clouded over and drizzly. Despite the weather, I am eager to head out to enjoy a day of wandering. This is my old haunt after all. I have many happy memories set here in Montreal while studying at McGill (very few of them involved studying or training). I took the express airport bus into town. After watching little kids raising dollar by painstaking dollar with bake sales and such, I’ll try to do my part and be vigilant with my use of Red Cross funds.
First on my list is Marche Jean-Talon, my favourite market on this side of the Atlantic. The goal is to stock up on maple syrup supplies to last until my next visit. Maple syrup here come in 3 grades: light, medium, and dark. Those who are in the know, or pretend to be in the know, aim for ‘clair’ (light).
I was starving by now. Lots of good food can be found in Montreal, but unfortunately, past experience showed an un-vegetarian friendly city. This appears to be changing --there are now more choices for herbivores. I went back to an old haunt, Misto. This place serves up good Italian, with a nice balance in flavours. It was one of the few places in Montreal that had something vegetarian in a mainstream restaurant. Today, the menu had only one non-vegetarian offering on its lunch menu.
With a satisfied tummy, I head down my favourite shopping street in Montreal, St. Denis, to my favourite home decor store, Zone. When will they open up a Toronto franchise?
I was heading to Patisserie Belge for some chaussons aux pommes (apple turnovers) but came upon a new patisserie, Mamie Clafoutis. The place was busy with locals so thought I’d better check it out. The chocolatine aux amandes was divine!
Square St. Louis (not CARRE St. Louis) continues to charm me. I continued my walk through the Prince Arthur area. All imaginations that Montreal is becoming more vegetarian friendly were quelled here. The longtime Greek restaurants in this quartier still have no vegetarian main courses on their menus. Nor do the new start-ups. Oh well.
With the drizzle turning into heavier precipitation, I thought that my best option would be to head indoors and get some shopping in. Three dresses and a couple trinkets later, I thought I’d better leave as I my luggage space is very limited.
This evening, I spent visiting an old friend, Rayad, and meeting his sister Lilah and dog, Lucky. It’s been over a decade since we’ve met. We only managed to catch up on a fraction of our life events in the short evening, peppered with discussions of wildly different topics.
No comments:
Post a Comment