Over the weekend, Brett and I ventured north to Montreal for the day. Burlington is only about 90 miles from Montreal, and, with the border crossing, it takes approximately two hours. Brett had never been to Canada, and I had only been once, when I took a day trip from Seattle to Vancouver. I was interested to experience Montreal, suspecting that French-speaking Canada would be quite different than the rest of the country. We ended up spending about 5 hours walking around, and, because we're cheap, spent as little money as possible. Below, I break down my impressions of each neighborhood we visited. Upon seeing this sign for the Metro, I immediately recognized it and said, "It's like the ones in Paris!" I love interesting signs and took note of these art nouveau Metro signs by Hector Guimard when I visited Paris in high school, nine years ago. I even have a similar photo (minus my husband) in a photo album of the trip. This sign is at the Square-Victoria-OACI entrance of the Montreal Metro. It is the only original outside of Paris, given as a gift to recognize the collaboration between the French and Canadians when building the Montreal Metro. You may encounter similar signs in other cities, but they are replicas. Vieux-MontrealProbably one of the most well-known neighborhoods in the city, Vieux-Montreal translates literally to Old Montreal. The architecture and atmosphere is completely wonderful. Old brick buildings, some from as early as the 17th century, line cobblestone streets, with people leisurely enjoying brunch at sidewalk cafes. Visually, it looked like I was in Europe. However, I have to admit that I was disappointed by how much the neighborhood caters to tourists. Many of the shops displayed generic t-shirts and tote bags, and the majority of the restaurant menus offered overpriced poutine or Italian food. As a cheap couple on a budget, we struggled to find a restaurant within our budget in this neighborhood. Eventually, we gave up trying to eat in Vieux-Montreal, enjoyed the atmosphere for awhile, and then moved on to another neighborhood for lunch. We wandered into Bonsecours Market, a National Historic Site of Canada, which was the main public market in Montreal for many years. Nowadays, it has been transformed from a farmer's market to an upscale mall with boutiques and cafes. The building is beautiful, and I heartily wish it was still used as a farmer's market today. Our time in the market was short-lived, since upscale boutiques and cafes were not amenable to our budget. The Notre-Dame Basilica is also located in Old Montreal, at the Place d'Armes square. Notre-Dame Basilica is a highlight of the area, and I definitely recommend visiting the square to see this beautiful church. Based on your budget, you can decide whether to explore the interior of the basilica, as there is an entrance fee unless you are there to attend mass. We elected not to pay the entrance fee, so Brett and I admired Notre-Dame for free from outside on Place d'Armes. Recommendation: Walk around Old Montreal to experience the old-world feel of the neighborhood, making sure to stop by the Notre-Dame Basilica and Place d'Armes. To save money on meals, head to another neighborhood for lunch or dinner. ChinatownOnce Brett and I were sufficiently hungry, we walked from Old Montreal to Chinatown for lunch. If you enter Montreal's Chinatown on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, as we did, you pass through this beautiful paifang, or traditional Chinese arch. There is a wide variety of Asian restaurants and stores. We chose to eat lunch at a Vietnamese Pho restaurant, which was budget-friendly and delicious. Sharing an extra-large bowl of Pho and a meat/rice/salad entree cost us less than $20 USD, including tip, which was the price of single entrees at many restaurants in Old Montreal. While the meat/rice/salad entree was acceptable, the Pho was delicious and satisfying. Recommendation: For a budget-friendly meal that won't disappoint, eat at one of Chinatown's many restaurants. We used wi-fi in a coffee shop to look up Yelp reviews before selecting one of the options. The neighborhood borders Old Montreal and downtown, so it is an easy walk if you are already in the tourist areas. DowntownFrom Chinatown, we meandered over to Rue Sainte-Catherine, which, unbeknownst to us, is Canada's busiest commercial avenue. Now, to be clear, you could spend a lot of money on this street, lined by stores like Banana Republic, Club Monaco, H&M, and more. As budget-conscious travelers, Brett and I simply enjoyed walking around and people watching. I wish I had been fast enough with my camera to catch a few of the characters we encountered, including a guy with an outrageously patterned suit and a girl wearing shorts smaller than most pairs of underwear I own. People handing out samples were also stationed along Rue Sainte-Catherine, so we took advantage of those freebies to have a snack of gummy bears and iced tea. Interspersed with the modern buildings and department stores were beautiful churches like the one pictured above, providing interesting architectural contrast between old and new. The hustle and bustle of this area was much more characteristic of a major city than the atmosphere of Old Montreal. To be completely honest, we ventured this way looking for Cafe Myriade, a coffee shop that Brett had discovered online and was determined to try. Cafe Myriade has a few locations around Montreal, and, while we picked the closest one within walking distance, we also chose the most difficult one to find. It was located in the basement of Club Monaco on Rue Sainte-Catherine, which is not something that is readily apparent on GPS or from the facade of the Club Monaco store. Once we found it, Brett enjoyed asking the barista about the Montreal coffee scene, and I enjoyed the 1920s-esque flair of the small cafe. Recommendation: Downtown Montreal has the hustle and bustle of a large city that is fun to experience. If you have the willpower not to shop, walking around the area is a free way to get a feel for the city. If you have the time, walk to McGill University's campus, located in downtown not far from Rue Sainte-Catherine, and explore the grounds, another free activity. After all, "Travel + Leisure rated McGill's campus as one of the 17 most beautiful university campuses in the world" (wikipedia). Observations1. Montreal is an interesting mix of new and old. While walking downtown, if you ignore the signs in French, it feels like just another big, modern city. However, in other areas, such as Old Montreal, the buildings date back centuries, giving a European vibe.
2. If you, like me, try to speak in French, and you, like me, are not awesome at it, people will automatically switch to English. Almost everyone we encountered was bilingual and easily switched between the two. A lover of the French language, I was a little disappointed because I had hoped for some opportunities to use it. However, I haven't been able to practice French since college, and I recognize my own limitations. I admit that switching to English was far easier when I needed help. I did successfully ask a police officer a question in French and receive an answer in French, so that's something. 3. I observed that, in general, people in Montreal are very fashionable. You encounter people in jeans and t-shirts, but, more often than not, I was impressed by the stylish outfits that we passed. 4. You will have to pay for parking if you drive. It's virtually unavoidable in a large city like Montreal. We found a parking lot, conveniently located a block from Place d'Armes, that allowed us to park all day for about $12 USD - not the best but not the most expensive that we saw. All of our exploring was done for free by walking, but the Metro is supposed to be easy to use if you want to venture further from downtown. If I was traveling to Montreal again, I would do some research on parking to find the cheapest possible places. 5. The street signs, construction signs, and advertisements are almost universally in French. Menus and signs in the more tourist heavy areas have English translations as well. I was able to put my high school/college French to use by navigating and translating some signs for Brett.
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Stowe, VT is a charming resort town, which is a scenic 35 mile drive from Burlington. While Stowe is often referred to as the "Ski Capital of the East", it also bills itself as a "four season" resort town. Therefore, on Saturday, Brett and I decided to take a drive to see what Stowe has to offer in the summer. First of all, Stowe is the picturesque place that everyone envisions when they think of tiny New England towns. The white church steeple in the middle of town stretches toward the sky with the Green Mountains rising behind it. Small, local shops line the street for tourists to wander through. Ice cream shops, cafes, and B&Bs inhabit Victorian buildings. The pace of life is slow, leisurely. The Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory, Cabot Cheese Outlet, and Cold Hollow Cider Mill can be found a short drive from town. We stopped at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill on our way into Stowe, purchasing maple sugar candy for our little road trip. Despite all of its charm, Brett and I exhausted the shops on the main street of Stowe within a couple of hours. I wouldn't recommend coming to Stowe expecting to spend days indoors at stores or attractions - the real attractions are the outdoor activities that surround the town. Vermont's highest mountain, Mount Mansfield, is located just outside the town of Stowe. In summer, head to one of the many hiking trails that ascend and traverse the mountain ridge. If you're willing to pay, the summit of Mount Mansfield is only a scenic gondola ride or a toll road away. There is a large network of mountain biking trails for all levels around Stowe. For less extreme outdoor adventure, the Stowe Recreation Path offers a 5.3 mile greenway for biking, inline skating, or walking. In winter, head to Stowe Mountain Resort, which has ski runs on Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak. Snowshoe or cross-country ski on the Stowe Recreation Path. If you exhaust the outdoor opportunities in Stowe, Smuggler's Notch State Park is only a 20 minute drive from Stowe and has a whole new set of hiking trails and ski runs to explore. You can also check out the Trapp Family Lodge, the mountain resort owned by the Trapp family (fictionalized in the "Sound of Music"), which brews its own beer, features outdoor concerts periodically in summer, and offers miles of cross-country ski trails in winter. After perusing the local stores and grabbing some coffee, we headed a few minutes outside of town to Stowe Cider, a local, family-run cidery that opened in 2013. For $6, the tasting room offers 3 pours and you can keep the small glass. We sampled the ginger cider, semi-sweet cider, and summer shandy cider, a seasonal cider that contains lemonade. The summer shandy was my personal favorite, and I loved being able to taste everything, since the cidery is naturally gluten-free. I recently learned that "beer tourism" is a thing, and it is one of Vermont's biggest tourism sectors, along with outdoor recreation and historic/cultural tourism. Vermont has a large number of craft breweries. Any beer nerd will be able to tell you that The Alchemist brewery is in Waterbury, a short drive from Stowe. However, don't expect to take a tour: the brewery is not open to the public and the brew pub was destroyed by Tropical Storm Irene a few years ago. Still, many restaurants in the area carry the famous Heady Topper along with other varieties from the brewery. My husband highly recommends the newly released, and harder to find, Focal Banger from The Alchemist. When Brett tries IPAs and ranks them based on taste, my gluten-free diet restricts me to rating his beers by smell. I have to say that Focal Banger is the best-smelling IPA that I have ever sampled with my nose. My recommendation? While Stowe indeed offers activities for all four seasons, there is a reason that Stowe is so popular in the winter. Personally, I'm hoping to return one winter to test out the ski runs! Plan your visit in winter to take advantage of downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, or snowshoeing. When you get too cold, head inside for some shopping, locally brewed beer, cider, or cheese.
While exploring Burlington during my first week here, I picked up a pamphlet about the Burlington Bike Path, and I immediately knew that I wanted to go biking. Ignoring the obvious hurdle of not having bicycles, I eagerly proposed this idea to Brett. After some persuading, Brett agreed to rent bikes with me and spend our Sunday afternoon on the Burlington Bike Path. The path goes along the waterfront of Lake Champlain, starting in Burlington and winding north through Colchester. On a windy but sunny Sunday, we headed to Local Motion, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting healthy and alternative transportation options. They work to make "the Greater Burlington area a better place to walk, bike, run and ski." Local Motion Trailside Center is conveniently located on the Burlington Bike Path and offers bicycle rental for those of us who are currently bike-less. Through Local Motion, we rented two cruiser bikes, along with a helmet for me and a handlebar bag to store a few of our items. It was a simple process to sign up, pay, and choose our bikes. Then, we headed out for a new adventure! The path we ended up biking led us from the Burlington Bike Path onto the Island Line Trail, which leads out onto the Colchester Causeway. In total, we biked about 11 miles each way for a total of 22 miles. Starting out from Local Motion, we passed Waterfront Park, the grass sprinkled with sunbathers reading and enjoying the beautiful weather. The rest of the route presented diverse scenery, from greenery surrounding the path to residential neighborhoods. We passed children playing in their backyards, a baseball game at a park, a beach on the shore of Lake Champlain, and many lush, green trees. Throughout the ride, we were treated to beautiful views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains in New York. The bike path was overall flat, making for a fairly easy ride, though some portions were unpaved and bumpy. In my opinion, the coolest part of the trip was the Colchester Causeway, which is a bike path that traverses part of Lake Champlain to connect Colchester with Grand Isle. Basically, you are biking on an elevated path with water on both sides. Views of the lake, mountains, and islands in the lake envelop you from all sides. Unfortunately, the Causeway does not stretch the full distance to Grand Isle, meaning that you must pay to take a ferry in order to cross the missing part of the path.
Brett and I agreed to bike until the end of the Causeway before heading back, so we did not take the ferry across. We did, however, stop to eat our lunch! We had packed a little picnic of sandwiches and fruit, which I carried in my daypack. On the Colchester Causeway, there are a few spots where the path widens, so we parked our bikes there, out of the way of foot and pedal traffic. Brett and I chose a flat rock on the edge between the path and Lake Champlain as the spot for our picnic. During lunch, we savored the sunshine and watched boats on the lake before biking back to Local Motion and turning in our equipment. The Burlington Bike Path and The Island Line Trail are perfect activities for people who love the outdoors, people who want to experience the beautiful scenery of Lake Champlain, and people who want to be active. If you own a bike or choose to run/walk the path, it is also FREE! Vermont is known as the Green Mountain State, and it truly lives up to that nickname. Around Burlington and beyond, there are mountains covered in dense blankets of dark green trees, in progressively lighter layers as they stretch into the distance. Naturally, with a landscape like that, there are hiking opportunities everywhere! Being new around here, I simply looked at my All Trails app and chose a hike within an easy drive of Burlington. As a side-note, All Trails is a great app for finding hikes, reading reviews, and getting directions to trailheads. The hike that I ultimately chose for my second day in Vermont led me to the summit of Camel's Hump in Camel's Hump State Park. Camel's Hump, in the Green Mountain range, is the third highest mountain in the state at 4,083ft, meaning that there are incredible panoramic views from the summit. I ended up following directions from the app, which led me to the trailhead for the Monroe Trail up to the top. If you look at Camel's Hump on Wikipedia, it describes the Monroe Trail as an "easy to moderate" route. While the first half of the Monroe Trail is not too difficult - though it is uphill - I would say the second half is difficult. There are some portions of the trail that are covered by rocks that you have to hike up, and the last quarter-mile to the summit is very steep. I would not call myself a super-hiker, but I am reasonably fit and I found it somewhat challenging. The Monroe Trail is about 3.4 miles one-way. The whole route took me approximately 3 hours round-trip. The Burrows Trail is similarly rated in terms of difficulty but is a mile shorter (about 2.4 miles) and departs from a different trailhead. Due to the dense tree cover on Camel's Hump, I only got small glimpses of the view until the very top of the mountain. However, I found hiking through the trees pleasant, giving me a chance to enjoy the aroma of the forest and the sunlight filtering through tree branches. About half-way up the mountain, I began hearing trickles of water and soon passed small streams and waterfalls that flowed alongside and across the trail. The whole hike was an interesting experience for me because it was my first ever solo hike. I have always hiked with friends, on short day hikes as well as multi-day backpacking trips. Hiking alone gave me heightened awareness to the nature sounds around me, and it gave my mind plenty of time to wander. Even without companionship, I enjoyed the physical challenge of walking and the emotional challenge of feeling small compared with the natural world. Though I did not have a view much of the way up Camel's Hump, the sweeping panoramas at the top made all of the challenges worthwhile. I was able to see across the mountains in the Green Mountain range to Lake Champlain and beyond to New York. I was incredibly grateful to have a clear, sunny day. I found a rock to sit on and admire the view while resting my feet. At the summit, a red shirt caught my eye because I noticed that it had a University of Wisconsin-Madison logo. I stopped the guy and said, "Hey! Did you go to Wisconsin?" It turns out that he had attended UW and graduated in the same year as I did. He and his girlfriend had moved to Burlington a year earlier. This chance meeting reminded me how small the world can be. Who would have thought that I would bump into a fellow UW graduate on top of a mountain in Vermont? Encounters like these make me feel connected to other people and grateful for unexpected interactions. I also chatted with a girl who was hiking the Long Trail with her mom. Hiking the Long Trail is one of my goals for the summer, so hearing her perspective and experience was exciting. I descended the mountain feeling happy and encouraged by these short conversations, as well as refreshed by my time outdoors. For my first hike in Vermont, Camel's Hump was a great choice, offering me a physical challenge and a beautiful view of the landscape. “It had nothing to do with gear or footwear or the backpacking fads or philosophies of any particular era or even with getting from point A to point B. It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles with no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental. It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way.”
- Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail This summer, I find myself in Burlington, Vermont. My husband, Brett, has an internship here, so we are living in the Green Mountain State until August. Even after four days, I can't imagine a more idyllic place to spend a summer. Burlington is beautiful, bordered by Lake Champlain and surrounded by mountains. As Vermont's largest city, there are a number of things to do, but it retains a small-city feel that is friendly and comfortable. This morning, Brett and I ventured to the Burlington Farmers' Market, which is held at City Hall Park. I will freely admit that I am a farmer's market snob. I blame this on attending college in Madison, WI, which has an AMAZING farmer's market on the Capitol Square. In fact, it is the largest producer-only farmer's market in the country. The stalls in Madison line the blocks around the Capitol building, and vendors offer a wide variety of produce, Wisconsin cheese, meats, plants, honey, etc. I loved waking up on Saturday mornings and spending hours wandering through the market, stopping to pick up a pastry for breakfast and vegetables for the week. Since shopping at the Dane County Farmer's Market, each time I try a new farmer's market, I leave disappointed at the small number of vendors or the meager selection of goods. I have not found one that can measure up....until now! The Burlington Farmers' Market reminded me strongly of my beloved Madison farmer's market but with a distinctly Vermont flair. Some of my favorite items included lemonade made with maple sap, an artist demonstrating how he makes pottery, wine tasting from East Shore Vineyard, aged cheese from Shelburne Farms, homemade hummus, maple walnut toffee, Green Mountain Mustard, and gluten-free baked goods (scones, macaroons, and cornbread, oh my!). I learned that Vermont and Wisconsin have a bit of a rivalry when it comes to cheese and dairy products. Though I remain loyal to my home state, Shelburne Farms had a delicious 3-year aged cheddar to sample, which I highly recommend. At the Burlington Farmers' Market, stalls line the paths of City Hall Park, as well as the streets around the park, from 8:30am to 2:00pm. The outdoor market is offered May through October. If you are in Burlington during the summer or fall, be sure to leave some time on Saturday morning to explore the market! Despite the chill in the air this morning, the market was bustling, indicating that this is a popular weekend activity for the locals. We enjoyed exploring the market leisurely, stopping to sample items, listen to a band in the park, and purchase some gluten-free pastries for breakfast. Brett and I look forward to bringing some of our visitors to the market this summer and returning to buy some of our favorite items, such as the Green Mountain Mustard that Brett loved. Instead of leaving disappointed, which has happened at markets in other cities, I left feeling content at time well spent and eager to return to the Burlington Farmers' Market.
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AuthorMy name is Alyssa Good and I have a passion for travel, adventure, culture, and new experiences! I focus on budget friendly travel, trip planning resources, and seeking out new experiences. Archives
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