Just recently I traveled to Montreal, Quebec and as many of you may know, Montreal is considered part of the 'French' Canada. The city has many beautiful architectures but a little too cold for my liking. Culturally I noticed a many differences from what I now call home. Originally I am from Odessa, Ukraine but I have not called that home in 17 years. Home has been New York since I was 5 years old and I could not be happier. I am very much accustomed to being able to step outside to the store at any time of day and buy anything from a toothbrush to food.
Moving on to my trip in Montreal, we decided at 10AM to get breakfast in what is called "Old Montreal". I do not exaggerate when I say EVERY restaurant was closed. The earliest one opened was at 11AM and that was an exception as others that serve breakfast was at 12PM. We sucked up our new york pride and walked around until 11. After visiting a few museums, lunch time came. I guess the French in Montreal had the same idea.. because every restaurant was once again closed from 3-5PM. Apparently this is the norm, so we spoiled new yorkers either had to wait it out or head out of Old Montreal. This may not seem like such a big concern, but I get cranky when I don't eat, thus small concern for 'normal' people = big concern for me.
After getting past food concern, we did a little bit of driving around. New city, new streets.. eventually I got lost. Coincidentally, my GPS chooses to stop working. I asked plenty of different people for help. Generally I try to be as pleasant as possible when asking for help, and normally I get a pleasant response back. Unfortunately, when I told people I was from new york and had gotten lost, most of them refused to help. Huh? I didn't get it. Everywhere I travel when I tell people I am from New York they love me (mostly because of the financial stereo type I believe) but these guys just had the opposite reaction. Very frustrating when you are lost and people just respond in a very nasty tone. Hey I could be wrong, maybe people just don't get lost in Montreal?
I do not want to convey just the bad parts of what I consider part of the French culture, I did have a great time. Everyone was very nice when it came time to take my money... joke. The hotel personal was very pleasant throughout the whole experience and we did meet a few pleasant French people that were very interested in chatting it up with us. All in all, I would definitely recommend someone take a few days off to go to Montreal, it is beautiful. Oh and one more thing, do NOT go to club 'circus'. It truly is filled with a bunch of clowns.. how could a club not serve alcohol?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Alex! Your story is very interesting. I don't know if it is true or not, but I heard that in Germany on weekend all stores are closed and people can't buy anything.
ReplyDeleteYou are very nice to share with us about your trip in Montreal with French culture. The stories you tell us are amazing and i never known that before but your experience let me think of once i went to a japanese sashimi buffet resturant at long island they also close from 3-5pm everyday. Different culture sometimes bring us a lot inconvenience.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the reasons I like New York. Labor laws are very strict in my country (Switzerland), which is why ALL stores close at 8pm on weekdays and remain closed on sundays. The government feels that the citizens need to be protected from consumerism. I personally enjoy being able to get groceries late at night, as I am usually busy during the day.
ReplyDeleteYour story reminded me of this past summer when i went to Chicago for the first time. Chicago reminds me of a mini new york city, it has this avenue called Michigan Avenue that looks like Fifth Avenue because of it's designer stores. Although it's a beautiful city I can't imagine living there, everything closes very early. The trains stop running by midnight and after that you need a car. In New York, everything is open 24/7, if your hungry at 3 am, for sure there is a 24 hour diner around. If you have to take the train late, you might have to wait long but a train will eventually come around. There is a reason why they say New York never sleeps.
ReplyDelete