Winter Road Trip to Montreal

Okay I wrote this whole lengthy post last week and after two hours in I accidentally deleted it, then the blank page got back up, then I closed it and voila...post vanished.  I was soo freaking annoyed.  Ten minutes prior Angel accidentally tripped over my power chord and he thought it was his fault that it got erased.  So I let him think that the rest of the night and he was just trying his hardest to make it up to me!  Let me now try my 2nd attempt at this post.

Angel, Michelle and I left NYC early morning on a Saturday in March.  We had to meet up Alex, Sam and his cousin Kenzie in Jersey so we could all fit into one vehicle.  My brother Kris originally planned to come as well but work obligations kept him in NJ.  It was a good thing he didn't go however because we were packed to the brim with bags and snacks.  The 6 hour drive there would have been uncomfortable with another person.  The drive itself wasn't bad at all.  We had lots of snacks to hold us over along with lengthy Game of Thrones conversations.  Alex wanted to be the only one to drive, which I was fine with.  I figured because we were borrowing his mom's SUV he didn't want anyone to be liable.  I'm sure Angel agrees that the drive was smooth because he slept the whole 6 hours.  That boy can sleep through anything!

We crossed the border and got to Montreal without a hitch.  Once we were there I was glad I wasn't driving because most of the signs were in French.  I do dabble with the language but I'm not that fluent to translate and drive at the same time.  We rented an apartment through AirBnB.  The place was nice, in a great location and our host was really cool.  We dropped off our bags, claimed our sleeping areas and went to walk around the town.  We walked around the popular Rue Sainte Catherine for a little bit.  We to a liquor store to stock up for the weekend.  If you know me I'm not much of a drinker but I was going to try and hang.  Angel and I walked into a deli and I found a bag of ketchup flavored Doritos.  I know, I know it sounds so totally weird.  But when I was doing my research for the trip I read that Canadians loved ketchup flavored chips.  Forever A Tourist right?  As for the taste itself it really tasted like a mouthful of ketchup.  Everyone had about 1 chip and it took me about the rest of the weekend to finish the bag.  As we walked around the town I noticed there were strip clubs everywhere.  I know Montreal is world renowned for their strippers but it wasn't that kind of a trip.  It was a family trip guys!

Alex and Sam's brother Jon met us up and brought us to Boustan for lunch.  It's this tiny small and crowded Lebanese joint on Rue Cresent.  Oh man it was sooo freaking good.  I think it was the best falafel sandwich I have ever had.  Everyone was in foodie heaven.  What was even better was that the food was only a couple of bucks.  When you add in the currency exchange rate it was almost nothing!  It definitely fit into our budget friendly weekend.

Once we got back to the apartment we took a nap and then it was time to pregame!  I thought I was really holding my own with my glasses of my moscato and shots of fireball. HA!  I was totally fine with calling it an early night but of course no one else shared my point of view.  We met up Jon at this bar called Korova.  The drinks were pretty cheap there so we kept them flowing.  Since we were all pretty lush at this point we all got on the empty dance floor.  No one else was dancing but we didn't care.  Each one of us was dancing to the beat of our own drums.  Everyone at the bar was just staring at us.  They probably thought we were all weirdos but we didn't care.  We were having the time of our lives.  We were so uninhibited that people slowly started joining us on the dance floor and joining our dance party.  Next thing you know the dance floor was packed with people just waving their hands wildly in the air.  We were totally a hit.

By the time we left we were craving for some late night snacks.  Down the block we found Patati Patata which happened to be on my foodie list of places to try.  We all ordered poutine to go and ate it ravenously back at the apartment.  Angel was so drunk that he had no idea he ordered vegan poutine so he didn't actually have any cheese or gravy.  The next morning he just told us he didn't really enjoy that place so we had to break the news to him.

The next morning was my touristy planned day!  We started off with brunch at Beautys Luncheonette.  I found out about this place on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations.  I had a bagel with cream cheese and lox since that's what he ate on the show.  Being from New York I love bagels.  Bagels in Canada it turns out is a very different event.  They are much thinner and the whole is huge.  Would I say they are better or worse then our own bagels? Hmm I would say it's like comparing apples and oranges.  Both are fruit but don't taste anything alike.  I did enjoy my brunch very much.  After that we headed to Old Montreal for the rest of the afternoon.

We went into Maple Delights.  I read that they have free maple tastings and a maple museum.  Before we could do any tastings we had to check out the museum first which we were totally okay with.  It could've been a glass case in an exhibit in a museum.  But I wouldn't call that a museum.  Everyone just gave me a look of "Is this really what you planned?!"  It was free so we couldn't really complain.  It took me about 5 seconds to read through their museum then I pushed everyone went upstairs in hope that the sampling made up for the lack of museum.  The free samples definitely made up for it by far.  It was pretty intense.  I had no idea there were so many different flavors and uses for maple syrup.  It was so much we were bursting to the seams.  We couldn't even get through all the samples!

In the front of the store they were selling so many different maple flavored pastries and ice creams.  Even though I was stuffed I wanted to leave with more food.  The fat kid inside me never stops.  I was trying hard to figure out what to get when Angel pointed out something near the register.  It was called tire d'érable.   It looked like a spread of crushed iced laid out on a table, and the workers would spread out maple syrup letting it harden up, then you were given a stick and supposed to roll it up into what resembled a lollipop and placed into a cup of ice.  Yup I was definitely the fat kid in the candy store and I was definitely going to go with that.  My inner tourist was doing the truffle shuffle.  Since it was the middle of winter and we were going to walk around with a cup of ice we made sure to buy a cup of maple coffee for the walk outside.

Our next destination was the Notre Dame Basilica.  From all the research I did before hand I knew this was the place to see in Montreal for any tourist.  We walked through Old Montreal to find it and it was so beautiful.  Everyone took loads of pics outside.  When it was time to go in however no one wanted to go inside.  No one wanted to pay the $5 entrance fee.  I was soo taken aback.  This is the crown jewel of Montreal and everyone was letting a few dollars stop them.  I mean I'm all about budget but this was tourist blasphemy!  No one wanted to pay to get into a church.  They knew Angel and I really wanted to go in so they didn't mind hanging outside while we took our time to explore inside.  I was really glad that we ended up inside.  The far wall was simply stunning with all all it's shades of blue.  No one wonder so many people make it a point to stop in there.


 Later on Michelle had told me she would've went but she didn't have any cash on her.  I wish she would've said something.  We would've had no problem paying for her!  She doesn't like to travel too often and so I really wanted her to experience some new things with me.  At this point everyone was cold and tired so we decided to recover back at the apartment until it was time to meet up Jon again at night.

We met him at his school Concordia.  He writes for the school paper The Link.  It was cool checking out where he spends most of his time.  From there we went for something quick to eat.  We walked around and came across a bar that was hosting a trivia night.  If you know me then you know how much I love my trivia.  But this place asked questions that were so ridiculously hard it was not even fun to play.  We tried to stay as long as week could but at one point we just got up in the middle of the round and had to walk out.  I didn't want to end the night on a boring note so I got some Boustans to cheer me up real quick. 

Top: La Banquise
 Bottom: Patati Patata

The following morning we went and got lunch La Banquise which was on the top of my foodie requests for the trip.  I mean it's listed as a poutinerie on Yelp how could I turn that down?  Most of us got some ODed versions of poutine.  It definitely fulfilled my cravings for cheese curds for a while.  While at lunch I got an email from my agent saying that I had a callback for a commercial at 9:45 AM the next morning.  Yay I love callbacks!!  Since we were in Canada and a good 6 hours from home we decided to wrap up our trip a day early and head back to the States.  It was still early enough that we had a little more time to squeeze in some exploring.  

We got into the car and headed straight to Jean Talon Market.  It was another place I saw in No Reservations.  It was a cool fresh food market that offered very generous samples. Other than that we got over it real quick.  From there headed to the St Joseph's Oratory.  I had a feeling everyone else was fine with skipping it but I reassured them that it was free and would be worth our time.  I'm glad to say everyone enjoyed the oratory.  It wasn't crowded at all since it was cold and the oratory was covered with snow.  We had fun climbing and slipping on all the steps to the top.  The oratory is pretty huge so there is a lot to discover.  I would definitely recommending stopping by if you are ever in Montreal.

We still had enough time to check out one more site.  Jon brought us to Park Du Mont-Royal.  We ended up at a scenic overview of the city and just talked.  Jon wanted to show us a place that had an even better view.  There was a staircase near but it had a huge DO NOT ENTER sign right in front due to snow.  We looked around and saw no other way so we blew through the sign and started climbing the stairs.  Uh yea it was pretty dangerous.  The was snow and ice everywhere and we kept ending up on our asses every few steps.  For some reason that didn't stop us and we had to use massive upper body strength to get up those stairs.  From there we were in the heart of the park.  Even though I knew we were in the middle of a big city it felt like I was hiking in the middle of Vermont.  I feel like at home we don't normally go to the park after it snows a couple of feet.  But it doesn't stop them in Canada.  For them they just break out the cross country skis!  I thought that was so hardcore.  I just can't picture people doing that at my corner park.  We finally reached the point Jon wanted to show us.  It was so picturesque.  It was like we hiked to a whole new city.  The skyline was so close and so huge.  It reminded me of the surrealness of NYC when you stand in the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.  We just sat there for a while soaking up the views.

Finally it was time to call it a wrap on our trip.  We all decided the best way to close it out was to get Boustans.  Of course I got one for the road was well. =P  I'm so glad our first sibling trip was a success.  I love traveling and I hope to share doing the thing I love with the people I love more often.  I am looking forward to many more in the future. 

Planning a trip to the Emerald Isle

Hey guys!  I know I know I am the absolute worst.  I haven't posted anything for most of the year.  Since I am pretty much the only person that reads this it's okay I forgive myself.

But now let me write about something not as exciting as the trip itself but close enough to it...the planning part.  Some people hate planning and would rather just have someone else do the work.  IE. Angel can't plan anything to save his life.  Lucky for him I don't mind it at all.  When it's just the two of us I have carte blanche when it comes to our trips.  He's pretty chill and is willing to try and see just about anything.

Over the last few years I have turned it somewhat into a tradition to travel for Angel's birthday.  I mean what better excuse to book some plane tickets right?  Well my next big trip is coming up in October and I have been planning all week.  Over Memorial Day weekend I "accidentally" purchased a trip to Ireland from LivingSocial on my phone.  I've been wanting to go to Ireland over the last couple of years and I thought the deal I saw was interesting.  I had a coupon and was trying to finagle as much of a discount as I could, then I pressed buy by accident and there you have it.  I didn't think anything of it because LivingSocial has an awesome refund policy and I knew they would let me return it with no problem.  I told Angel that I bought it and he wasn't buying into the "accident" story.  He was kinda like whatever you bought it, if you really want to go we can think about it over the weekend.  So the cost of the trip on LivingSocial was originally listed for $1000.  The coupons I was trying to finagle was for 10% off trips, so that dropped the cost of the trip to $900.  After I spoke to Angel I called my cousin Gerard to see if he and his girlfriend Carissa would possibly be interested in joining us for this trip.  I told him he had 24 hours to think about it because that's how long the 10% coupon would be valid for.  He was very interested and would find out if he could get the days off.  Well it all worked out.  Everyone got their own deal from LivingSocial and we qualified for the buy 3 get one free discount.  After everything was said and done, the deal which included flight, car, 1 night hotel and 6 nights at Bed and Breakfasts came out too........$675pp!  At that price there was no way I was going to return that!  So Ireland here we come!!!

Fast forward to now close to the end of August and the planning must commence.  The only thing we had booked was the first night which is the hotel stay in Drogheda.  After that we get to choose BnBs from anywhere in the country.  So we really had carte blanche about what we want to see and do in Ireland.  I did a lot of cross referencing across travel books, blogs, websites, Instagram and Twitter accounts.  Ireland has soooo many stunningly beautiful places to see it was really, really difficult narrowing it down.  I wish we had a month to explore!  Since Gerard and Carissa are joining us on the trip, I wanted to make sure I wasn't being a nazi planner and making sure to do things that they would enjoy.  Luckily for me they are pretty laid back as well, they just wanted to make sure we can throw in a party or two and some hit up some good pubs.  My cousin mentioned he wanted to go to this party in Northern Ireland so I made sure to put that into the itinerary.  Angel was down for whatever, all he really requested was that we keep the car manuel which was what was included with the package.  To switch to automatic was an extra $160.  They don't really mess with that automatic stuff in Europe.  I was all for switching the cars because I love driving on roadtrips, but with stick shift that takes Carissa and I out of the picture.  Angel really wants to drive stick shift on the left side of the road with the driver on the right side of the car.  Oh boys. He also wanted to check out some Game of Thrones sites which I am all about.

Since we knew where and when the party in Northern Ireland was we at least knew which way we should head on our roadtrip.  Counter clockwise it is!  Carissa was really hands on in helping choose the BnBs after I chose what cities, towns and villages we would end up at.  After 7 revisions to the itinerary we now know what our days will be looking like.

Day 1: Catch an Aer Lingus flight from JFK. (Try to knock out during the whole flight due to early start the next morning.)
Day 2: Arriving in Dublin at the crack of dawn.  I set up a free 3 hour tour of Dublin.  According to Trip Advisor it's the best tour in town! With about 6,000 5 star reviews it was a no brainer.  After that we will definitely be stopping into the Guinness Brewery for the perfect pint.   I also want to do a quick stop at St Patrick's Cathedral.  Once we feel fatigued we leave Dublin and head out to our hotel in Drogheda.
Day 3: The Dark Hedges, Carrick-A-Rede Bridge, and The Giant's Causeway.  Staying in Portrush and party.
Day 4: Start our drive on the Wild Atlantic Way and make our way to the best hotel in the world at Ashford Castle for some afternoon tea. Then make our way to Galway for the night.
Day 5: Check out the Cliffs of Moher then end up in Kenmare.
Day 6: Spend all day exploring the Ring of Kerry and then stay in County Cork.
Day 7: Go castle hopping starting with Blarney Castle, Rock of Cashel and ending with Cahir Castle. Spend our last night in Kilkenny.
Day 8: Free morning (TBA) then back to DUB for our return flight

From all the research I was doing I was getting so hyped about this trip.  If I am missing any must die for spots please let me know so I can revise again.  One of my favorite kind of trips is road trips and this is turning out to be an epic one!

Leaving Winter in NYC for Winter in Montreal?!

It's been so snowy and frigid in NYC these past few weeks I can't wait to get out of here and head on my next adventure!  Where is that you are wondering?  Good ole sunny...Canada?!  Ha!  Leaving NYC to go to an even colder place.  Who's idea was this?!  As much as I love love love my cold getaways this is one of the times I'm actually finding myself wanting to escape to somewhere sunny and warm.  Alas that will have to wait until next month when I find myself soaking up the rays in Cabo.  This weekend I'm heading up to Canada for my first time ever and visiting the city of Montreal.

My brother is the one who came up with the idea for this trip.  He texted me last month saying that he wanted to head up to Montreal with his sister and cousin to visit his brother and he asked if me, my sister and Angel wanted to come.  (We come from a very blended family)  He appealed to the frugal traveler in me.  He said gas was super cheap and we can split an AirBnB.  Transportation and lodging for around $100...we all said yes! Some people thought I was crazy going on a weekend getaway in the winter to an even more wintery place.  After our previous trip last month to Boston getting cancelled because of the snow I was a little apprehensive on this trip.  I kept going back and forth because I was scared of more snow canceling weather but in the end the wanderluster in me won out.  I'm pretty excited because my brother and sister don't get to travel as often so I'm happy to be experiencing one of my favorite hobbies with them.  My brother even gave me a designated day to plan all the touristy things I want to fit in.  =)  Yay for family bonding!

Valentine's Weekend Bust

It's the end of February and I guess my New Year's resolution is already broken.  I haven't put up a real post in forever. Hahaha.  But I still have been finding the time to travel though!  Last month I was able to go to Las Vegas on a round trip ticket for $80!  I was there for a few days and even went on a little road trip to Death Valley, CA.  I must make a dedicated post about my adventures!

I had a scheduled weekend getaway setup for Valentine's Day in Boston.  Alas this winter has been something out of Frozen.  Frigid cold and bitter winds.  As cold as it is here in NY, Boston has been utterly crushed with snowstorm after snowstorm.  I tried to wait out a snowstorm that was destined to approach.  I was hoping that all the weather reports were wrong and there would be no storm in Bean Town during Vday weekend.

I had to face the facts and just cancel my trip.  I booked it back in December when I found out that Orbitz was having a deal.  If you signed up with Visa Checkout and used it to book through Orbitz you could get $100 off hotels $100 or more.  So I signed Angel and myself up so we could each get $100 off per night.  You could use it on any hotel anywhere.  The deal was for the first 10,000 people to use it.  In the end we decided to go to Boston because it's only a few hours drive away, we didn't have to spend money on plane tickets, and it's the perfect way to grab some good clam chowder.  After all discounts and taxes (on the full price) we ended up booking a weekend at The Hotel Buckminster for $50 each night.

As it turns out cancellation policies are very strict.  You have 48 hours to cancel through Orbitz.  I was able to get my money back in full for Saturday.  I was already within the 48 hours of our trip so I called Orbitz to see if they made any exceptions for inclimate weather and get my money back for Friday.  Everyone I spoke to at customer service was very nice and did seem to want to help me.  They kept having me call back because they had to speak to the manager at Hotel Buckminster to see if they would refund me my money.  Once Orbitz finally got a hold of the manager he refused to reimburse me.  I was so livid.  The hotel is in Boston they know how they are getting slammed with snow every other day and it's difficult to travel there.  He didn't care.  I wasn't getting my money back.  I tried to ask if I could switch it to another weekend but since I used the $100 a night discounts they said I could switch it but I had to pay the difference!  No thanx! I was not going to let what was supposed to be $50 a night turn into over $200 a night.  In the end after going back and forth with Orbitz they said their hands were tied.  They offered  me a $30 voucher for further use but I don't see myself using it anytime soon.

In the travel game I guess you win some and you lose some.  In this case, thankfully I didn't end up losing too much.

New Posts for 2015?

Ha!  I haven't officially posted anything on my blog since April 2014.  Does that mean I haven't travelled anywhere since then?  Absolutely not!  I am so thankful to have been to so many places last year.  For the most part I did get to stick to the theme of 'Discovering America.'  I started the year going off to the Berkshires for a weekend, in April down to Las Vegas for almost a week for a wedding and visiting some close friends, May I drove down to Texas for another wedding then stopped at Memphis, Nashville and Hodgenville, June I celebrated my 11 year anniversary with Angel in Maine, July my fam went on our first family vacation in I don't know how many years to Punta Cana, DR, August I was in Austin for a fun filled bachlorette party, September I was in Lake Tahoe and Kirkwood for yet another weeding and in October I closed out my travels with Angel's BIG 3-0 in Denver.  So many wonderful places and created so many wonderful memories.  I really must write them down!  I also have some good trips already in the works for the first few months of this year!  Well you know that saying..."New year new me."  One of my resolutions for 2015 is to write my experiences down!!!  

I really want to write about my past experiences before I create all the new ones for 2015.  I'm heading to Vegas on January 28th so gotta hurry.  Ready...set...write!!!