going to montreal, Canada. Any suggestions of places to visit and food to try?

[shateredsoul]

I'll be there for about 4 days for a conference. Any cool places to check out? Food? Arcades? Clubs?

[SNAAKE]

food: poutine

arcades: i dunno..check downtown st catherine area or something lol

and legal hookers

[ChadTower]

food: poutine

arcades: i dunno..check downtown st catherine area or something lol

and legal hookers

If you are hanging around St Catherine and you're looking for arcades you're wasting the whole trip.  Hit the clubs.  You won't be sorry.

[gryhnd]

+10 on the Poutine...says the ex-pat.  The concept freaks out my American friends until they taste it  

I haven't been back to Montréal in years, but they've got great (strip) clubs. Check out Chez Paree.

Back in college, the Peel Pub was a great hangout. Not sure what it is like now..but it was a place where the atmosphere was better than the food and beer :-D

More sedate: take in a tour and/or just wander around the historic Old Montréal.

[shateredsoul]

Poutine? Sounds like Pu-tang.

french fries with cheese curds? eww

Yeah, and I'll hit up the clubs and what not ,  will be staying at a hostel near downtown.

[ChadTower]

french fries with cheese curds? eww

One of my favorite foods.  Try it.  Make sure you get a real one, though, and not some crap from a chain restaurant.

[gryhnd]

Poutine? Sounds like Pu-tang.

Just be careful how you pronounce poutine. If you ask for a putain instead you might get a (pleasant? unwelcome?) surprise.

[SNAAKE]

oh yeah stripe clubs are awesome. they let 15 year olds in AND make them buy beer. the waitress was like "everyone is having one so you too". I was like..uh..ok

in their defense all my friends were over 18 and I looked kinda old and fit right in lol..

[RayB]

I can't speak for strip clubs but I do remember last time I was there they all advertised "touch dances" (shocking!)

Anyways, the arcades are all gone. So sad. The Ste-Catherines strip had like 10 of them, and a couple more down St-Laurent. We'd go "barcade" hopping (beer in a bar, then arcade, then beer in a bar, and so forth, working our way down the street).

Poutine: Don't knock it til you try it. I don't know who has the best there but I always make sure to have one at "La Belle Province" (a Quebec chain).  Or on your way up, the best fries and poutines are almost always in little "shack" restaurants (they call them "cantines"). Some of them literally are a step away from being a shack, but like I said, BEST FRIES EVER.

Touristy stuff:
Old Montreal. Beautiful area (but it's winter!),
St-Joseph oratory (even for the non-religious, it's pretty impressive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Joseph's_Oratory  )
Ste-Catherine street
upper St-Laurant street

Did I mention it's winter? Montreeal can suck in the winter.

[shateredsoul]

Thanks for the tips!

Any other suggestion for good Poutine?

Touch dances? Intriguing, but i'm afraid my wallet can't afford such a thing. I remember when I went for my first one here as a young teen, $40 bucks for 5 mins, no thanks.

Thanks for the Touristy stuff RayB

Also, can I get by with English? Spanish is my only second language.  And I can't remember anything from french in high school except

Je ne parle pas francais, Je suis un homme, uhhh I don't even know how to say my name is X anymore! Je mapelle olivier? something like that.  Yeah, my french name was Olivier =/

[RayB]

Yeah, most people are bilingual in Montreal. Enough so that those jackasses in the "Bloc Quebecois" party are trying to push for more language discrimination laws. (yes you read that right, not anti-discrimination, but for forcing people to speak the bastardized quebec french in the workplace).

[ChadTower]

Everybody in Montreal speaks English when they see green money.  The English may stop when the money does, though.

[stu33]

Yeah, money is an amazing translator.  I went up for a bachelor party up there a few years ago.  The club scene is just surreal.  The funny thing is, the 'dancers' all seemed to be medical students from New Jersey.  It's like they had a convention where they gave out generic 'starter' background stories for the girls to use to try and convince men to part with their money. 

[shateredsoul]

I'm really a student, do they give discounts? 

[opt2not]

A real Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich is also a good touristy food choice aside from the Poutine.

Though I love Poutine a lot more. Especially at the end of a night of drinking...
don't be scared of the term "cheese curds" either, it's just the top layer of young cheese and is actually very tasty. Melts easily too.

Also, be very careful crossing the street in Montreal. In true french fashion, car's don't stop for you, you stop for cars.

Go to the St. Catherines strip, enjoy a large number bars there. Montreal women are very outgoing and you'll be surprised how many flirty french women you encounter there.

Also, if you can catch a hockey game, the Montreal Canadians games are loud and filled with die-hard fans. It's a good time, even if you're not into hockey so much.

[shateredsoul]

A hockey game sounds pretty fun! Man I'm all excited now, oh wait i'm going for work too. Hmmm as long as I'm not hung over for my presentation and smelling of cheese curds I should be fine.

The good thing about being a grad student is that you can slack off sometimes and make up for it later, the thing is that I'm going to be going to New Orleans for 5 days right after this so I do have to get in some work somehow.  .... somehow.

[RayB]

OH, yes the smoked meat.  But also Montreal style bagels.