Weekend Getaway
Early March I took a stroll North into Montreal. It's about 5 hours from Boston. I took a scenic route through Vermont, though to be honest any road North ends up being scenic. My only real plan for Montreal was to drink coffee, walk the city, and take photos.
Productivity Juice
I've been to Montreal a couple times before, but this is the first time since my coffee addiction developed. The coffee culture in Boston and Northeast in general is to treat the drink as a utilitarian wake-up juice, something to get you to do your job in the morning and maybe carry you through the afternoon. In Boston, coffee is only good when it tastes bad.
I thought Montreal would follow suit in being an East-coast city with very few good coffee brewers, but I couldn't have been more wrong. There were so many great coffee brewers that I was spoiled for choice, I didn't have time to visit them all.
To be fair, there's a few good places in Boston that will serve excellent coffee, but for a major international city it's too few and far in between.
Mediocre coffee drinks are easy to make by just adding enough milk and sugar. But to make a good cup of straight black requires time and devotion to find the right ratio for extraction. And then you need the diligence to repeat the result consistently for every brew.
Aroma and taste. And I think a visual appreciation can also play a role in enjoying a cup.
Certain extraction methods take longer. I'm predisposed to pour overs, and I find it well worth the wait.
InshaAllah indeed.
White Heron was a unique experience. Pour overs are served in a set of three cups, each shaped differently. I was so excited at the presentation I forgot to take a photo! One cup was wider at it's top than its base, the second was narrow at the top and wider at the base, and the third was straight such that the top and base were the same diameter. As the barista explained to me, each cup brings out a different aspect of taste and aroma in the coffee.
One Man's Graffiti is another Man's... Mural?
I didn't know Montreal had a mural festival. More importantly, you don't have to be present at the actual festival to enjoy the murals, because the Murals are there year-round. Artists from around the world are invited to paint St. Laurent Boulevard. It makes walking the city that much more interesting when you have art to look at everywhere.
From the River to the Sea...
Everywhere you go in Montreal, it's Free Palestine. It seems the citizens also feel free to express themselves onto the city. This expression and solidarity with Palestine is prominent and prolific. If I stopped to take a photo every time I saw a sticker, painting, poster, flag, or mural in support of Palestine, I would never get to my destination.
Habitat 67
Although a bit out of the way, I had to go see Habitat 67. As you might have guessed from my previous writings, I like walking through brutalist architecture. Unfortunately I could really only walk the sidewalk in front of this place since there's no public access. Had I thought of it earlier I could have booked a tour. A lot of what I feel walking the UMass Dartmouth campus resurfaces here in front of Habitat 67; they are the same style after all. But there were differences too, and I think that's because of the different designers. Habitat 67 is designed by Moshe Safadie, who wanted to incorporate surburban elements into the design, such as gardens and privacy. This gives Habitat 67 that touch of the natural world among the concrete forms used in most brutalist architecture, even during early spring before any trees have really bloomed. You can make out some evergreens in the terraces that can be seen from ground level.
Architecturally Vibrant
Of course, Montreal is known to be architecturally developed, as there are proportionally many more interesting buildings to gaze at. Like the murals, it just adds to the many ways one can engage with the city.
Thanks for Reading
Until next time...
