Montreal, Quebec – May 2016.

Last May, I travelled to Montreal with work to meet up with my team. It was the first time I’d been in Canada, so I was fairly looking forward to it – especially as I’d heard a whole lot of great things about Quebec in general.

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Denise graciously offered me space to stay in her pad for a few extra days at the end of the trip, even though she was in the middle of upheaving her whole life to move across the country. What a legend.

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Montreal itself has got a very laid back, creative feel, which suited me quite nicely.

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One thing that really stood out was just how unique and beautiful a lot of the buildings were, even on the same street. They all had character, and I’m pretty sure a lot of folk thought I was a weirdo for taking pictures of what must seem like ordinary streets to them.

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There was of course, work to be done.

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Based on what I had heard before visiting, I had expected Montreal to feel primarily European in nature, much like New Orleans feels like it would really be at home somewhere else apart from the US. Instead though, it felt far more similar (on the surface anyway) to other North American cities I’ve visited. Saying that, my American colleagues had the opposite perspective, with the European elements of Montreal really shining through from their point of view.

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Either way, there was definitely a good atmosphere everywhere we went. Montreal is a cool place to hang out, and I’d have liked to spend a bit more time getting to know its ebbs and flows.

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I’ll never get used to the whole bar service drinking culture though. It curbs drinking speed. That’s probably a healthy and sensible thing, but I just don’t see it catching on back home.

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I always underestimate how knackering it is to go to work meetups, and end up pretty burned out halfway through. Luckily, the company is good.

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Here’s Richard, one of the best.

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and Andrea, who nicely hung out with me when I was a pure mex.

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I shot a bunch of film when I was in town, as the colours were screaming out for it.

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Here is a bench where I sat and stuffed my face full of smoked meat poutine. One of many.

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Canada’s answer to a shooting range is axe throwing, where we went to work off some of our rage.

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Beards not required.

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The weather was bright and sunny, but not too hot. The colours were awesome.

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I’m not entirely sure how the lab managed to do this to the below shots…

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Musical saw!

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Farewell for now, Montreal.

 

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