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Beautiful sets, SignalHillHiker and Zoomer. You both know how to capture a moment! :cheers:
This photo must show the most incongruous display of fashion... ever. :) Quote:
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Shades of a Seinfeld episode... :D
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I love the reflection in this one:
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ScreamingViking - yes, I assume the couple in the middle of the fashion lineup are American tourists, perhaps a bit unfair?! ;)
And that parking lot pic I found a bit ominous.. is he holding a knife?! No, he's just the parking attendant who had just been asking me curiously why in the hell I was taking a picture of his shack until he got distracted by the blonde femme fatale. Here she is after shooting him with a poison dart and having his body dragged away by her Russian accomplices. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a70025e4_h.jpg Parkplatz Part 2 - Sept 21, 2025 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr Speaking of Russians, I noticed this lady and took her pic in the first shot as I liked the framing and how she stood out in the crowd of young folks at Concordia. I then asked her if I could take her pic and she more than obliged even though she was Russian and didn't speak a word of English. She took my phone to add her Instagram and I said I would share the pics, and somehow she understood that. Even though I wasn't happy with the lighting, colour cast, etc. she was quite pleased with the result if Instagram Russian translation can be trusted. Turns out she was a professional model, I mean duh, who the hell can pull of a pose like that! I did ask at first if she was Ukrainian, far better to star there than Russian if I'm going to offend someone it won't be a Ukrainian! https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...135ee208_h.jpg Olga, Montreal - September 17, 2025 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr |
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Even though I met my wife in Montreal, she is not a native of that city/province. Still, maybe one day we will move closer (say, to Ottawa). |
Zoomer, keep the pix coming.
Have you made it to Chinatown yet? It may be small, but it has a great grittiness and vibe (and also, really good Vietnamese food: check out "Pho Bac" which has the best Pho that I have ever tasted) |
Omg, zoomer's lens unleashed on Montreal. A feast for the eyes.
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Gotta be some of the best shots of Montreal I've seen. :cheers:
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Great pics, zoomer! I love that fashion one.
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Hey Coldrsx - your Ed pic is giving me bigtime Gastown Vancouver October vibes, cool!
Thanks for the feedback Echoes, Molson Export, Rico and giallo! I normally like to get the whole building in the frame with people within it, but the scale of the buildings with the lens I was using made that difficult, so it actually freed me up a bit to get closer shots and more people/vibe shots - a nice change/mix-up. K, one more before I share thoughts: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7179503c_h.jpg Toy Cars in Montreal - September 17, 2025 by JohnnyJayEh, on Flickr MolsonExport: "Have you made it to Chinatown yet? It may be small, but it has a great grittiness and vibe (and also, really good Vietnamese food: check out "Pho Bac" which has the best Pho that I have ever tasted)" Thanks, I've added it to the restaurant list for next year! I'm actually more of a ramen than a pho guy. Although in every city I'm on the lookout for a good grilled pork banh mi with Vietnamese iced coffee. For some reason Toronto had the worst ever, and I tried three places but more on that later perhaps. I found a pretty good hole in the wall in Montreal a couple blocks from the Jean Talon market that met my needs. But more food rambling later, perhaps. As for Chinatown, I did walk through but was with a friend who I had made walk 20,000 steps at that point and she just wanted to get to a bar in old town and have a drink. Not that gritty at all, a big bigger and nicer than I was expecting and at least THREE gates that I could see :D So comparisons will be made with Toronto and Vancouver and my hometown because that's my context/world. To be clear these are first time impressions, no doubt superficial, uninformed, ridiculous, over reaching, and bizarre at times. Feel free to call me out. I had a concern going in. That I would love Montreal so much that it would kill any desire to travel elsewhere in Canada and I would join the posse who snicker at Toronto, Edmonton and Prince George. I'm relieved to say that's not the case - there is still a place for Toronto in my Canada. And Edmonton and Prince George too. That being said, I did find myself searching rental apartments and wondering if it would make financial sense to live in Victoria AND Montreal (not at the exact same time of course). Then I realized I DON'T do humidity or winter. So that roughly leaves me with April 16 to June 18 and September 1 to October 15 for Montreal. I'm not sure I could get a lease with those dates.. So random thoughts in a few posts. Do not trust Google Reviews/rankings for restaurants in Montreal! It's all a scam, even restaurants that have 1,000 ratings. There are way too many that are ranked 4.7 to 4.9. In Victoria maybe because we only got the internet a couple years ago people haven't figured out how to use it to their advantage, but restaurants ratings are pretty much bang on and trusted. For example, I went to this kebab place rated 4.9 and I should have known because it wasn't busy and in fact the food was blah. I had a few places on my list to check out, I did hit Schwartz's twice in two days (because I met up with a friend who wanted to go there the next day). By the way $55 for two sandwiches and two cans of cherry cola - but it was worth it. I didn't think I would like the classic smoked meat that much, but indeed one of the best sandwiches I've had the pleasure of consuming. So I finally figured out the best way to find good restaurants was to go out at night, see where the lineups were that weren't tourist traps and most importantly, to be able to look inside and see the vibe. Yes, the food is number one, but I love a nice restaurant, good vibe (from high end to low end). I also didn't have a lot of luck finding a go to coffee shop with a great mocha that you can put your feet up and have a nice little something to eat, a couple places were found near the end. That's the thing, in your home town you've had decades to sort, test and determine your favourite go to places. But I have a large list of places I'm excited to try next time, but like most cities it feels as if 5% of places are great, another 20% really good, a bunch in the middle and really not that many that are terrible unless they're just surviving on providing cheap food. I did have a nice chat with a local fellow at the bar at Schwartz and he gave me some good recommendations including the Italian restaurant right next door. Restaurant/bakery prices are expensive unless you find the right hole in the wall. Went to a nice bakery a few blocks from the Atwater market, got one of the round croissants dipped in chocolate and filled with Nutella. I used to think that paying $8 or $9 for that in Victoria was ridiculous - well, with the tip that cost me $16 in Montreal. But grocery prices are dead cheap..or really grocery prices in Victoria are very expensive because it's an island market with expensive shipping costs and dominated by small and medium grocery stores. At least 30% cheaper on groceries, shocking! Ok, enough food talk, more important stuff to share thoughts on, but I will say that Montreal has huge number of gorgeous and classy restaurants - love that. |
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Retire when you feel like it and do as many things as possible that your enjoy. My Dad worked too long, only got 4 years of retirement until he suddenly passed and so many things he wanted to do never got the opportunity to do. My brother kept repeating "I thought we had more time together" but sometimes in life it gets cut short! |
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/\ amen to that Wigs.
Montreal - nice people, really nice. Genuine, down to earth, curious, friendly and helpful. I had several people come up to me and ask about what I was taking pics of, why, thoughts on photography, etc. I'll admit I'm not the quick/sneaky snapshot guy, I'm more of a stalker, stay out of the way, but circle around a bit, size things up, looks for angles, take several shots while holding the cam very still and purposefully, lol. So, down to earth, and very normal people. In fact Montreal is very normal.. wtf?! I was not expecting this. But I'm here for it as the kids say. If just feels normal, I saw almost nothing out of the ordinary, people were respectful, things just worked and flowed, nothing was jarring, shocking, upsetting, surprising, ugly, broken. This does not mean it was boring, far from it, lots to see and do and enjoy, lots of beauty. I tried to describe it to a friend, Montreal and Victoria both give off a nice rounded wave vibe.. so think for sound waves, nice rolling sound waves, where Toronto is spikey. Who the hell knew that the former Toronto the Good and Boring is now the edgy city in Canada?! Sure some homeless like everywhere, but not bad - where in the hell are the people smoking fentanyl or doing the fentanyl fold? I didn't see anyone openly doing drugs, a few drunks for sure. Are the social issues more in the suburbs? People seemed ordinary at least in terms of outwards appearance, dressed nicely, but few folks stood out. I walked over 150 km, passed thousands of people and everything was normal. A beautiful normal. Sure there was some garbage here and there, the fountain across from Notre Dame for some reason was filled with garbage and a guy was taking a bath in there and washing his clothes, but that was it in terms of out of the ordinary. The subway was awesome, and for a person that often gets confused in Toronto or Vancouver with that it's so dead simple to use and understand. Plus the trains are high speed and damn so smooth and quiet witht those rubber tires! No squealing wheels and even some bounce in the ride - awesome. Probably the safest feeling city I've ever been in too, even though I've never had much of an issue in any city. But I had my camera out day and night without a thought in the world and zero 'be careful' situations other than an old drunk on the subway. It feels like a nice warm massage walking through the city, the pace people walk at is the same as Victoria for crying out loud, lol. Yet, I did miss that sense of the bizarre, unexplained or weirdness. And maybe that's because Victoria is a very weird city which may not be obvious to the causal visitor. And I don't mean weird in a bad way, I just mean in terms of out of the normal or expected, no logical explanation or purpose. And not in a fake way like how some cities like to say "Keep X weird!" because then you're not. Nearly everyday I go out for a walk here and I see something that just doesn't makes sense, makes me shake my head, or laugh or smile. In part that may be because the city attracts more people who don't fit in, more loners, more people who see the world in very different ways and the way the city is situated in the natural environment. And it's small things, but they add up and you feel as if you're in a simulation or someone is messing with you from above. Just a small example, the other day I was walking down Cook street from to a grocery store along the outer edge of downtown. I passed by the ground floor unit where there is usually a large domestic pig out in the patio or for a walk, but not today - ok, normal thus far. Then walking behind an eldery man who had some etheral flute music emanating from his body, finally figured out it was playing from his phone in his back pocket. Ok, not weird. But then it was drowned out by a guy in a pickup truck who was blaring hip hop music and pounding his left hand against the outer door panel to the beat so hard I thought he was trying to fix a dent. Then the next block a couple of deers sauntered across the busy road and just before the grocery store two peacocks decided go into the hair salon looking for handouts I guess. All on a street where there are dozens of telephone poles painted with detailed cat art work and sayings, some of them on the dark side, lol. It's just layers of weirdness that add up. Finally I did come across this in Montreal - at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. I was excited to go here because as far as I can tell it's one of only two architecture museums in Canada - shockingly the other is here in Victoria. Yet.. the museum had ZERO Canadian content and ZERO architecture content. Unless you count the posters from European Socialist Architects and I guess the Douglas Copeland wall of tinker toys. But I did enjoy the detailed exhibit on glacier retreat in Switzerland and the flora and fauna display of the Brazillian rainforest. K, this was weird, and I needed this so I wasn't disappointed. They also had an excellent bookstore WITH architecture and photography books, and I spent a fair bit of cash here, including two cool Brutalist Architecture Maps for Montreal and Toronto. So yes, I will be back to Montreal next year, maybe every year. It's great, I love it. But Toronto, I'll still love you too as it's spikey, dynamic has more quirks and broken things, but still lots of great old architecture, busier streets, and lots of bold new architecture that wins and often as it loses. And great neighbourhoods, but damn, Montreal is so walkable and in an easy relaxed way. Montreal's new architecture needs to be bolder, it's as if it just wants to blend in. Often I would walk by a very boring, plain and uninspired looking ground floor and then look up and go 'oh, that's new modern building that looks pretty decent'. Obviously some exceptions, but I like how Vancouver does a great job for having modern buildings appear more inviting at visual/exciting at ground level. Strange because Montreal dominates at the ground level for the historic buildings, so why give that up? And yes, there are lots of old ugly buildings mainly from the 60's to 80's so let's never hear people complaining about Saskatoon's Baydo Towers, lol. And yet it's Canada's best overall city, up there with Van, Toronto and my hometown as my favourites in the country. Now they just need to something about the weather extremes.. ;) |
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You're like me where you don't mind some grittyness |
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