Tuesday night I went to a great tapas restaurant on Rue St Denis called Confusion. They have swings in their dining room. How cool is that?
The thing that I like about tapas restaurants is that you can try more than a few things and not get stuffed. The even nicer thing about Confusion is that they take the traditional tapas meal and twist it just a bit (hence the "fusion" part in their name). The lighting was not great for the taking of pictures but I can assure you that my fried plantain chips with guacamole and feta falafel with mint leaves were amazing.
Afterwards I went to a great blues bar down the street for some great live music. The Bistro à Jojo has been running blues acts 7 days a week for 30 years and, after I realized I had been gritting my teeth and digging my fingernails into my palms for an entire song, it wasn't hard to see why. My love affair with live blues music continues unabated. The place just rocks. Even the bartenders were having a blast.
The next morning I woke up a little early and took the metro over to the Olympic Park for a look at the Biodôme de Montréal. It was originally a velodrome that hosted judo and cycling events for the 1976 Olympic Games and the Canadians wisely recycled the space into a massive and wildly popular tourist attraction.
Then you head into the North American forest environment (which, for some reason, is called the Laurentian Forest). This had all the animals we're used to here in the States. This makes them no less interesting, however.
From there you move into a massive aquarium modeled after the estuary habitat of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The tank is so big that it's disorienting to stand in front of it for so long. Your brain starts to tell itself that it's in the same environment as the fish which, according to your eyes, are just floating around in "the air"...like you could fall into it at any moment. Very cool.
And some of these fish were absolutely massive. Like easily the size of my carry-on suitcase but a lot longer.
On to the polar area. This faux environment reminds me of that last moment in The Truman Show where Truman's boat smashs into the sides of his fake world.
In this part of the biodome they just have a shitload of penguins...just dozens and dozens of them of all kinds waddling around or swimming in their tanks. These little buggers are incredibly photogenic but frustratingly hard to get a good picture of. No flash photography and they won't stand still.
Sometimes, however, this leads to an interesting photo. This little guy stared at me through the glass for what seemed like forever. When I finally took out my camera to see if I could snap a picture was when he playfully decided to move (he totally did it on purpose...I just know it). The photo came out to look sort of like an impressionistic painting.
Waddle, waddle. You can watch these guys on their very own webcam.
After I finished up there I took the metro over to the Planétarium de Montréal. I took (and really enjoyed) Astronomy in college and, since it's been ages since I went to a planetarium, it seemed like a good idea. It allowed me to get a better lay of the land with regards to downtown Montreal...and the actual projector looks like some sort of James Bond villain's laser.
From there I walked around Montreal a bit more before hitting Menthe et Couscous for supper. Once again: great ambiance...
...but terrible lighting for pictures. I had this awesome vegetarian couscous. I have got to learn how to grill vegetables like this. It's all in the order that you put them in, right? It should be simple enough.
At the Montreal airport the next day I had this awesome salad while waiting for my flight. I had one of those dreaded, 4-hour portions of free time to waste so I made some more headway on my Andrew Jackson biography (which I blogged about over a month ago but am still working on...only about 50 pages to go now).
Once I got back to Minneapolis I immediately went out for an amazing dinner with some friends at BALi. This place is over-the-top good. I had this curry with green beans, tofu and shitake mushrooms in a coconut sauce and a cinnamon/chili martini (how about that for an interesting combination?). BALi is relatively new so I'm going to go back to this place as often as I can.
The thing that I like about tapas restaurants is that you can try more than a few things and not get stuffed. The even nicer thing about Confusion is that they take the traditional tapas meal and twist it just a bit (hence the "fusion" part in their name). The lighting was not great for the taking of pictures but I can assure you that my fried plantain chips with guacamole and feta falafel with mint leaves were amazing.
Afterwards I went to a great blues bar down the street for some great live music. The Bistro à Jojo has been running blues acts 7 days a week for 30 years and, after I realized I had been gritting my teeth and digging my fingernails into my palms for an entire song, it wasn't hard to see why. My love affair with live blues music continues unabated. The place just rocks. Even the bartenders were having a blast.
The next morning I woke up a little early and took the metro over to the Olympic Park for a look at the Biodôme de Montréal. It was originally a velodrome that hosted judo and cycling events for the 1976 Olympic Games and the Canadians wisely recycled the space into a massive and wildly popular tourist attraction.
Inside there are four separate ecosystems to sample. First you've got the Tropical Forest where they had one of those giant rodent Capybara things. I've never seen one of them in the flesh before and, though I'm far from afraid of anything that size with fur, it was a little disconcerting to see such a massive rodent. It was chilling in its pool harmlessly eating some leaves but I felt like it could seriously mangle me if it got such a notion into its little brain. This thing was far weirder to behold than the alligators. (Side note: watch this video to get creeped out by one of these things with an old lady.) 
Then you head into the North American forest environment (which, for some reason, is called the Laurentian Forest). This had all the animals we're used to here in the States. This makes them no less interesting, however.
From there you move into a massive aquarium modeled after the estuary habitat of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The tank is so big that it's disorienting to stand in front of it for so long. Your brain starts to tell itself that it's in the same environment as the fish which, according to your eyes, are just floating around in "the air"...like you could fall into it at any moment. Very cool.
And some of these fish were absolutely massive. Like easily the size of my carry-on suitcase but a lot longer.
On to the polar area. This faux environment reminds me of that last moment in The Truman Show where Truman's boat smashs into the sides of his fake world.
In this part of the biodome they just have a shitload of penguins...just dozens and dozens of them of all kinds waddling around or swimming in their tanks. These little buggers are incredibly photogenic but frustratingly hard to get a good picture of. No flash photography and they won't stand still.
Sometimes, however, this leads to an interesting photo. This little guy stared at me through the glass for what seemed like forever. When I finally took out my camera to see if I could snap a picture was when he playfully decided to move (he totally did it on purpose...I just know it). The photo came out to look sort of like an impressionistic painting.
Waddle, waddle. You can watch these guys on their very own webcam.
After I finished up there I took the metro over to the Planétarium de Montréal. I took (and really enjoyed) Astronomy in college and, since it's been ages since I went to a planetarium, it seemed like a good idea. It allowed me to get a better lay of the land with regards to downtown Montreal...and the actual projector looks like some sort of James Bond villain's laser.
From there I walked around Montreal a bit more before hitting Menthe et Couscous for supper. Once again: great ambiance...
...but terrible lighting for pictures. I had this awesome vegetarian couscous. I have got to learn how to grill vegetables like this. It's all in the order that you put them in, right? It should be simple enough.
At the Montreal airport the next day I had this awesome salad while waiting for my flight. I had one of those dreaded, 4-hour portions of free time to waste so I made some more headway on my Andrew Jackson biography (which I blogged about over a month ago but am still working on...only about 50 pages to go now).
Once I got back to Minneapolis I immediately went out for an amazing dinner with some friends at BALi. This place is over-the-top good. I had this curry with green beans, tofu and shitake mushrooms in a coconut sauce and a cinnamon/chili martini (how about that for an interesting combination?). BALi is relatively new so I'm going to go back to this place as often as I can.
And speaking of interesting drinks. I had this thing called a Black Velvet whilst at McKibbin's Irish Pub in Montreal. It's half cider and half Guinness. That shouldn't be good, right? Wrong. Amazing. And photogenic.
So that's Montreal for blog consumption. I love love love this city and hope to return for an extended stay next year. Here's some pics I took around downtown.
Au revoir, Montréal. Vous avez mon coeur.
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