August 14, 2012

[Kingston/Montreal] Stadium, Nostre-Dame, and Old Montreal

Olympics Stadium, Montreal, QC
09:30
Cloudy
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Simply a view on the suburban of the city.


Montreal Tower
We woke up at 08:00 and get ourselves prepared. We had our breakfast at Hyatt's buffet, which was complementary with our room card (I have no idea why). The breakfast was normal, selection was scarce, but according to the menu, it is about $25 Canadian Dollars per person. It was a ridiculous price, the food options are simply breads (that you can buy from Tim Horton's), milk (that you can buy from convenience stores), orange juice (not even freshly squeezed), sausage, bacon, egg (all of which can be bought from grocery store at cheap price), and some fruits (again, cheap). Anyone could make a better breakfast for $10 dollars and less. Overpriced!

Anyhow, back to topic. The Olympics Stadium was a few subway stations away from our hotel. It is located near the suburban of the city. The Montreal Tower, the tallest inclined tower, is located right within the stadium. Olympics Stadium of Montreal was built for the 1976 Winter Olympics, and was subsequently used for other sports activities. From the outside, it was not as impressive as Taipei 101 (tallest building until 2010) nor CN Tower (tallest tower until 2010), but it was somehow gorgeous that the entire building was tilted at that angle. The tower hosts a observation area on the top, which is accessible by taking trams. You can see the suburban of Montreal from the top.

We did not spend too much time in the tower. Having gone to both Taipei 101 and CN Tower, the view is simply not good enough to catch our eyes.


Nostre-Dame de Montreal Basilica, Montreal, QC
Cloudy
11:30
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It never gets tired to glance at this gorgeousness.

Nostre-Dame is a church located in the heart of Old Montreal. The building was beautiful, and the inside was extremely gorgeous. I have came to this place in December last year, but it was not tiring to look at the building again. It was beautiful to look at, mind refreshing, and the atmosphere could just calm me down as I walked around the church.



Old Montreal, Montreal, QC
Cloudy
17:00
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A place that is comprised of classical European.


After we visited Nostre-Dame, we went through the underground city (a series of connected shopping centres underground built possibly for the severe winter weather) and spent a few hours there. Since there was really nothing to talk about, I decided to skip it.

We walked our way to Old Montreal, a beautiful place that delivers the sent of classical Europeans. It is the oldest part within the city of Montreal. I have came to this place last December, but there was a huge snow storm where I was not able to see anything clear. The only thing I remember from this part was it beautiful lighting and European style buildings and atmosphere.

There were several street artists near the water. It was a great view, and reminded me of Assassin's Creed where Ezio ran down the streets (I really liked the game).



Montreal City Hall




A slideshow of today's footprints:




Conclusions
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This trip to Kingston and Montreal had definitely emptied my frustrations coming from school and work related events. In Kingston, I saw the beauty of a city near the water, another way of living, and a different atmosphere from all the rushy feelings in huge cities.

It was always a pleasure to visit Montreal; it is a beautiful city to live in. Being the second largest city in Canada, it is definitely a great place to live in if you enjoy the liveliness of a downtown but crave for silence and classical components within the busyness once in a while.

Of course, it is always different when are you travelling with your family. That I don't think I have to explain much, do I =] ?

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