Ottawa- Montreal trip (picture heavy)

Just this past weekend, boyfriend and I went on a road trip to Ottawa and Montreal. I’ve been there multiple times with a  tour but this is the first time driving there. I like the fact that we were able to plan and go where ever we wanted to and do everything according to own time.

It was actually quite a bad weekend to go though, not only was it freezing but it was constantly raining and gloomy the whole week. I think we only saw the sun once. The first day when we reached Ottawa, the rain was so bad that I had to run to the nearest mall just to buy a pair of boots because my flats were completely soaked through. Yuck.

But other than that, I had a really good time. We did a lot of sightseeing and visited the main tourist attractions. I realized that I should really re-learn some basic French because all the signs and menus were all in French. The locals didn’t help much either. I constantly had my phone out on the Google translate page just so we know where we were and how to do things. Like a true tourist! Parking signs were especially a hassle, but at least I know Monday-Friday in French now =p

My favorite is the condo we rented, it was beautiful and modern. I wish we could have stayed longer haha. We had a balcony that we unfortunately didn’t get to enjoy due to the weather, but the whole thing was very spacious for just the two of us. Hotels are so yesterday! J

Once we reached Ottawa, we stopped by at the Science and Technology Museum since we are both nerdy like that. I am standing in front of space telescope

I also had a lot of fun playing with these blocks. They had books of things you can build and a lot of children and adults were trying to build them. Some were very creative. I went to the gift shop since i wanted to buy these blocks, but they were selling it for $400 for 1000 pieces, so uh…no thanks.

My bf the human hamster creating electricity

We made it to the Parliament Building, but it was pouring rain :( It got so bad at one point that my flats were completely soaked through, i had to run to buy boots.

In front of the infamous WW| and WW|| statue

We went up to the Peace Tower (The tall part of the building with the clock) and this is the view from above

Books with all the names of the solders i think

This is the condo where we rented. I love it! i can't believe i never knew about renting condos for vacation instead of booking a hotel. It's practically the same price too! It was so comfortable and spacious, i can totally see myself living there :) It had a nice little balcony too, but unfortuately it was rainy every day so we never got to enjoy it.

Kitchen area

Living room area

We celebrated our arrival with champagne  

Our first poutine experience in Montreal! This place is very popular and it's a must try! It's also opened 24 hours

This is the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal church. Very popular and big with a lot of tour buses stopping by every day. Very beautiful inside, the details are amazing

View from across the church

Spotted someone taking wedding pictures. It was such a cold and windy day

A front shot of the church. I love historic buildings!

We stopped by for some yummy nutella crepe

In old Montreal, a lot of buildings put up some halloween decorations

Another very nice historic building

Driving by Place Jacques-Cartier old port

We went to the Botanical Gardens, and across from there is the Montreal Tower/Olympic Park

Inside the garden: since they had an insect exhibition, they had all these giant butterflies and other insects made out of grass on display

We mainly went there for the GARDENS OF LIGHT show at the Chinese garden (they had many different kinds of gardens, we bought tickets for the chinese garden and the japanese garden)

So pretty

After we left, the bf drove us to onto of a mountain to see the Montreal night view. It was so pretty, the Montreal tower looks very beautiful at night, similar to the CN Tower

Lunch at St. Huberts

We went to this Montreal Island area where we saw this strip with amazing looking condos that looked like Lego blocks. It was crazyyyy. They were HUGEEEE and all connected. My mind was BLOWN! This place is called Habitat 67

Then we went around the building, and behind there was this huge lake with a bridge. There were so many people kayaking and surfing!!! Amazing place!

Someone is surfing in the cold weather!

we drove by the Biosphere but didn't have time to go in.

Went to another tourist attraction. Beautiful church called the Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount-Royal (L'oratoire saint-Joseph du Mont- Royal)

We decided to drive to Mt. Tremblant since we were in Montreal and we planned to go snowboarding there one day. but it took us FOREVER to get there, it was pitch black at 7pm, and there was no light what so ever in the mountain roads. We turned into a wrong path once which was SO creepy. It was so dark, so quiet, no other cars were around and it was such a narrow road that we had to reverse to get out. We found a nearby hotel to ask for direction and so we finally made it there, only to see NOBODY. It was a like a ghost town! I thought there were still summer/fall camps going on but no. All the shops were closed aside from a few restaurants, we didn't want to waste our long drive so we had dinner there.

Last day in Montreal before driving home, we had poutine for lunch. This place is also very famous and i loved it because you get to create your own poutine. I'm sure i gained a few pounds during this trip and i'm back on my green juice diet. My arteries will thank me.

Beautiful weather when going home. Figures. lol

My new nerd domo misses Montreal already