Montreal: Day Three

So, up and early this morning at half past 8 I arrived at the Play Des Arts Metro and took the train up to Berri-UQAM, and up to rosemont. I'm not sure if this is rush hour or not as it felt like a great travel experience. So, for a fact, if I decide to commute to work from closer to the city, it will not present a problem.

I then turned around and headed down to Peel Metro station, in hunt of a McDonalds.

Ignoring the annoying 4:3 aspect ratio.... the meal cost me CAD$6.20, which is far more expensive than I'd thought. In London, I can buy a similar meal for £3.59. I don't remember the price for Singapore, graah....

That said. My personal Sausage & Egg McMuffin best taste list goes as: Singapore, Montreal, UK, USA. I can't remember eating this whilst in Adelaide - for some reason I keep remembering eating the ham and egg mcmuffins.

But basically, Singapore's McMuffins are definitely my favourite. The buns are well done but not overcooked, and not oily. Montreal's McMuffins (sample size of one!) were a teeny tiny bit charred on the edges. What's more, I felt that the cheese and butter (or margarine) didn't blend well with the meat and muffins, tastewise. They stood out individually too much.

The UK McMuffins actually blend well together, but maybe because they are just so greasy. I always remember my wrapping being grease covered.

There you have it folks, I now need to travel to uh, auckland and japan or something to do more mcmuffin comparisons.

SOOOOOOO, after breakfast, I decided to head over to Montreal's Gay Village. I decided to stay underground as much as possible and explore the underground city.

Several levels of shopping. And I thought Singapore was bad. Anyways, I randomly explored the area and found myself at the McGill Metro, so boarded there and it was a straight journey to the Beaudry Metro station, which is right in the middle of the Gay Village.

Sadly, it was raining and quite miserable, so I decided to just head home. Instead of returning to Beaudry, I went up to the Berri-UQAM station.

Again, more shopping underground. There was this big bookstore with a whole friggin section with chessboards of all types. The picture above shows one window.... of at least 8 filled with chessboards.

I got home, had lunch, and decided to get in touch with another landlord near the Laurier Metro.

It was a very nice, very big one bedroom flat. It was slightly more than I wanted to pay, so I weighed my choices, and decided to look elsewhere.... by spending the next few hours trolling the neighbourhoods, looking for "a louer" signs but instead found a triforce.

I actually came across this massive property, that from what I could understand, held 6 separate apartments for a cool CAD$1.3m. Compared to housing prices in Singapore, this sounds like a steal...... but I digress.

Here's a few other pics from the area near the Laurier Metro:

Once again, I plod my weary self home. Decided to go to one of the big Provigno supermarkets to buy some grub for dinner. Picked up a Tourtière, a sort of meat pie for $3.99. Bloody filling. I also found some cool bacon.

My favourite brand noodles were also available, but were very expensive at 69 cents a packet. Back in Singapore, it was 6 packs for about SGD 2.60. Yup. In London it was about 40p or 50p per pack, can't remember.

After eating din-din, I got a call about another flat for viewing. Deciding that I wanted to view as many places as possible, I headed out. On my way to the metro station, I realized that I was really, really early, and would probably arrive at least 40 minutes ahead of schedule. I then decided to walk down St Laurent Blvd. 

There was this smoked meat place I was told to go eat at, but I already had dinner. When I was there, I had a taxi pull up with people coming to get food here. From what I hear, it's a popular tourist location, and the queues inside were long.

Lots of very interesting shops, such as this one selling one of items made from recycled materials.

The parking garage of the Théâtre Espace Go.

 Upon which, I arrived at the place I was to look at. I have no pictures, but I think I'm sold. The rent is more than what I wanted to pay, but it is still less than what I paid in London. In addition, it's right at the quieter side of St Laurent, and my office is not more than 10 minutes away - a major factor with winter to consider.

In addition, I really love St Laurent. just across from my place is a piano shop! And a bit further up, a guitar/synthesizer shop. Two grocery chains are just nearby, in additional of the local groceries and delis. Lots of food choices too.

It is not much bigger than my london studio apartment, but I don't mind. And much smaller than the place I viewed earlier today (1br vs studio). Price wise, the place on St Laurent is just slightly lower than the 1br. I think the tradeoffs are worth it though, so fingers crossed, hopefully I can get this place.

Perhaps tomorrow I can actually behave like a tourist, and not stress out about flat hunting.