Now that I have more time...

It's been already two weeks since I arrived to Montreal and now that I know, at least most of the time, in which direction I'm heading off to when I'm walking through the city, I have more time to pay attention to other things, the small things, and this city has a lot of them to offer.

I do also have more time to check the items of the checklist Arantza and I have been preparing during the last months, among them, a visit to the Jewish deli Schwartz's in order to eat, of course, a smoked meat sandwich.

Schwartz's is almost an institution in Montreal, a pilgrimage place for any visitor with culinary interests ;-) And so we headed off to the Boulevard St-Laurent, commonly known as La Main (I will come back to this street later), to line up due to the popularity of the place.

Looking at this sandwich, some of you will probably think of its New Yorker brother, the pastrami sandwich. I've found many sites in internet discussing the differences between these two ways of preparing smoked meat. However, and despite of having tasted both of them, the difference isn't still very clear to me. In any case, both are delicious, a very smooth and pleasant meat with a delicate flavor.

To finish today's walk, which we'll leave here at this time, I suggest a Where's Wally? sort of game. In following picture you can see both of us, my friend Arantza and I, can you find us? ;-)

I've found my direction

After a week in Montreal (yes, this is my first stop), today, at last, I've found my direction. I don't know if Montrealers do have a really great sense of humor or they just do it to confuse the outsider, the thing is, directions in this city are difficult to find: the north is east, the east south, the south west and, of obviously, the west is in the north! The funniest thing is that metro and bus lines, and even streets are named after these particular cardinal points. That is, if you want to head to the south (your south), you have to take the line that goes west, and the Montreal district called Montréal North is actually at the east, and don't forget that the sun comes up from the south :-) Can you believe it?

However, after a week going uptown and downtown, from left to right, I think I've found my direction. In my case, the compass points to the west, that is the direction I have to take to get to the streets Fairmount or St-Viateur. Do these names sound already familiar to you?

This is where two of the probably most known bagel bakeries in town are. Thanks to the important Jewish community in Montreal, one of the oldest and biggest Jewish communities in Canada, it is easy to find traditional Jewish products and dishes. Since both of them are a just a short walk from home, and they are open 7/24, it was the perfect morning walk during the first days in Montreal when, due to jet lag, I was awake at untimely morning hours.

Bagels are not everything, I know, so there will be new things in next posts. My good friend in Montreal Arantza and I will sacrifice ourselves for you and go out there to try many other things of the Belle Province, and write about it.

If you are still curious and want to know what else I do in Montreal, you can always visit the flickr gallery which I try to update every day.

Postcard home

I arrived at my first destination. Here I will be spending the next six weeks. I promised to write a letter home and these are the first postcards. Do you know where I am?

I'm in a place where houses have fanciful stairs...

...and doors in joyful colours.

Where graffiti say beautiful things...

...and you can have the best bagels in the world for breakfast ;-)

I'm gone for a round the world trip

If everything goes according to plan, right now I will be sitting on a plane crossing the ocean. I'm doing a trip around the world. I feel seasick just by writing it. Three months, three cities, two oceans, two continents and a half, and a lot of tasty things to eat on the way. This will be my first big trip on my own. I know, I know,  now it would be the right moment to say that my aim is to find myself and blah, blah, blah... but, seriously, I will be more than happy if I just don't get lost!

I promise I'll send a card from my first destination.