Thursday night was the Mumford and Sons concert in Montreal which Ive been looking forward too since I bought a ticket for myself on my birthday. I headed out from work at noon to drop Maggie off and get to Montreal with plenty of time. Im kind of a stickler for giving myself a lot of time I get stressed if I cant be in control of things and I was stressing a bit about traffic and driving in Montreal (which Ive never done before).
I got into Montreal in good time and easily found my way to the Quality Inn in downtown Montreal. The hotel was an odd idea of Quality but then I may be a bit spoiled when it comes to hotels. Here is the room which was nice enough (and oh my god the bed was comfy I never realized how crappy my mattress was until I slept on that bed it was like it was hugging me.
The view from my hotel room:
The scary balcony why does it have five locks on it? Should I be worried about people coming in off my balcony?
The in room coffee maker! Drinking coffee in bed in hotel rooms makes me ridiculously happy.
The scary elevator I think Ive seen this in some horror movies.
So I got myself dolled up to head out here I am:
I walked for about an hour before making my way to the Bell Centre. I got there quite early and at first felt a little awkward about being at a concert by myself. You can see how early I was by this picture:
My seat was directly to the right of the stage 13 rows up.
I decided to wander around the building a few times, send some text messages and people watch.
Ah stylish Montreal boys:
And do you know what this is?
This is a $10.65 beer! I had three. Ive never drank $35 dollars worth of beer and not been drunk before!
There were two opening bands both quite good. Marcus Mumford came out and played a bit with the second opening band.
Mumford and Sons was amazing! So so so good live! They played every song off their album and a bunch of new stuff as well. I tried to take some video but it didnt work so well and I wanted to focus on the music. Oh and once the music started I did not care at all that I was there by myself. I cheered and screamed and clapped and sang and dance just like everyone around me.
So I mentioned that my videos didnt work but ah the great thing about modern technology - everyone else was filming and there were a tonne of videos on Youtube. I found some of my favourites and put them below.
After the concert I was pretty hungry and headed to a 24 hour deli for a midnight burger and fries and then walked back to my hotel on sore sore feet and fell into bed.
Waking up to a cold morning the next day I made myself my coffee in bed that I was looking forward to.
I then got prepared for a day of walking. I had forgotten to bring a belt with my so my concert scarf became my belt. Think of it as a girly homage to the voyageurs!
I had a guidebook from the library with a few walking tours and I chose the one for old town/historic Montreal because I love walking around the old buildings and cobblestone streets.
After walking for about an hour in a circuitous route to get to the area I stopped for a coffee and croissant. Man I could live on coffee and good croissants.
So I walked and toured and learned about the buildings and churches and history and it was great. I love a good guidebook. I remember being younger and when I went somewhere I wouldnt want anyone to know I was a tourist but you know what? I am a tourist why hide it! I saw some beautiful artwork too in some local galleries.
I decided for lunch to go to an Indian restaurant. It was a nice fixed price three course meal. Some great pakoras, papadams, curried veggies and chicken and nann. Finally I had yet another coffee and I was excited that they served it with sugar cubes. I dont think Ive seen sugar cubes since I was a kid in Europe and my sister and I used to steal them to eat as treats later.
After that was some more walking and then a subway ride back to the hotel to head home.
All in all it was a great mini-vacation and I would highly recommend concerts and travelling solo it was great to do anything that popped into my head and wander wherever I liked.
I want hotel coffee.