montréal and toronto, canada

21 Sunday Jun 2015

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Back to Canada ! There was a fair bit of hype going into Montreal…probably a little too much!

The drive from New York through upstate into Canada was pretty epic with plenty of lush green forrest and cops doing way more over the speed limit than me (it’s advisory right?). I might have mentioned before about America’s craft beer scene, typically they have gone nuts and you can get amazing beer almost anywhere, even at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, 6 taps….really!? The rain started as we crossed the border into Canada, selling point!

Quebec is a strange place, so staunchly French yet very bilingual, at least in the south. Which means you have this weird dilemma with the language. If you were in France you would give French a crack but in Montreal they speak both so you end up with this awkward hello in French then switch to English followed by awkward goodbye in French. Montreal was stop number 2 on our “places to check out that we might want to live in”. We were lucky to have a place to stay with our friend Parker who, originally from the West, had been in Montreal for 4 years and was happy to show us around. With the places we we were looking to possibly live we tried to keep it “local” and get in the mindset of what it would be like to actually live there. To be honest it’s not easy and you can end up dissecting and analysing the place to death which isn’t that enjoyable.

The time was spent wandering around the city talking about what it’s like to live there, watching the local hockey team the Canadiens falter in the finals, checking out Parker’s awesome performance in a local theatre production, the local markets, old town and generally just soaking it up. Alas you have a vibrant heart but there was something missing Montreal and so we move on to Toronto in search of bigger better things.

Toronto, T dot, TO. You are a big mofo! The last stop on our tour of potentials. Best be showing up for the party hey!

Toronto is big, sitting behind NYC and LA but strangely doesn’t feel that massive when you’re there. Well unless you try and get around it then it takes ages! After a large amount of time spent on peoples floors we decided it was time to splash out and get ourselves a place. Good old airbnb delivered in spades and we had a last minute (en route) warehouse apartment not far from the rather cool west end of Queen Street (Vogue magazine calls it second coolest neighbourhood in the world after Tokyo). Again the time was spent milling around pretending like we lived there. There were a lot of things we could have done tourist wise but like Montreal we figured we would be back so used it as a time to chillout, something that’s hard to do when always on the move. So that meant brunch and a BBQ with new friends Dave & Denise, dinners at the apartment, wandering up and down Queen & King streets, Little Italy and Little Portugal (hipsterville) and catching the street car (tram). You can pretty much say that Toronto is the Melbourne of Canada in that sense and we got a good feeling from it which pushed it into the frontrunner position (along with….New York!).

Not many pics from both of these cities, I think we were to busy doing our heads in on if they might be the right places to live rather than enjoying it from an casual point of view.

J & T

whistler, british columbia, canada

08 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by mintyandtashi in travel

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british columbia, canada, whistler

Hello Whistler! My oh my you have changed so……..oh hang on you are exactly the same. Like a reliable old shoe, but with not much snow (by Canadian standards).

I’d been on the snow reports from some time in January watching the spectacularly crappy season slowly grind out. I was wondering if there was going to be anything worthy of riding when we got there and if Tash with her “powder only” requirements looking like she might be propping the bar. Turns out as she was still a little under the weather instead made good use of the hotel Adara’s king size bed, free cookies & warm apple cider and stole many hugs from Kate, the resident golden retriever.

Somehow, the snow gods came through and there was fresh April powder with only a week to go before the season close of Blackcomb! As you can see in the pics below there was no chance of a ski out, a whole lot of muddy slush at the base but up top there was about 20-30cm which had me having to reacquaint myself with riding powder and Whistlers much longer runs and steeper gradients and in new boots…..ouch.

Village life seemed much the same except I wasn’t boozing on at the bar under the hotel like old times, but rather passed out due to extreme tiredness. I found myself running into people I did a season with 10 years ago, the Whistler bubble!

J & T

vancouver, british columbia, canada

08 Wednesday Apr 2015

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british columbia, canada, vancouver

ready for takeoff…goodbye melbourne

So here it is, first blog post! Actually being written in retrospect as the past few weeks have been fairly hectic. After packing up life in Melbourne (into a 9sqm box) we were on the red kangaroo to Van via LA. All smooth sailing except for the large amounts of luggage in tow. 5 large bags including a snowboard bag had us reaching for the trolley, a first for me! Even had a passing comment from an elderly American couple “who needs that much luggage unless it’s for a photo shoot”, fair call but they got a spray from Tash nonetheless. Funny shit.

Canadian customs open their arms and we are in and checking into the luxurious Comfort Inn on the corner of Granville street. Jetlag was kind of OK in a sense as it was that loud from all the action on the street below that we were staying up until the bars shut anyway. Large amounts of poutine were consumed over the coming days, damn that shit is good. So as Tash laid in bed recovering from the long haul, I did as I did 10 years earlier and went to Kitsilano to get some snowboard gear for the trip to Whistler. A large amount of deja vu happening. Was served by an Aussie and got new boots, goggles and bindings for probably less than a pair of boots back home. Sorted.

The rest of the time was spent walking around admiring how beautiful a city Van is and drinking shitty coffee. I felt dirty having my first Starbucks, sad to say it wasn’t the last (I’m drinking one as I write this). Before heading off to Whistler we spent a few days in Port Moody, east of the city, to stay with friends Corey and Ange and their two boys Laikyn and Indiana. Days consisted of eating pancakes, trips to the mall, scamming free gym entry, drip coffee (with butter pecan creamer, damn good, oh no it’s happening) and babysitting. Sure didn’t think we would be babysitting a week into our travels. I’d like to say we owned it, it was only a few ours though, so I don’t think we can really say we did.

We then headed off for a few days in Whistler (more on that next post) but were back in town for a hockey match against the Kings before flying out to LA. More great Canadian hospitality was bestowed upon us from the awesomeness that is Curt and Darlene who put us up and sorted tickets to the game. To say I was excited about this game is an understatement, I could never afford to go to a game when I was in BC in 2005 – Whistler/Blackcomb was paying me nowhere near enough. Kings needed to win to stay in the playoff race, Canucks needed to win to effectively clinch a playoff spot, game of the season, hype, hype. We had great seats as it was but by 2nd period our friends Dave and Ron had us all in their box for the rest of the game. Beer and popcorn provided! The game went to overtime with the Canucks winning it in a shootout! Time to celebrate!

And that’s a wrap for Van, it’s a bit of a strange experience to have to think about if you want to live in a city while you are there. As will be the case for Toronto and Montreal or somewhere else (if talking to Tash it’s somewhere in the States). Looking forward to being back at the end of the year.

J & T