Hello lovelies! How are you today? ♥ See, it didn't take me two weeks to get back to blogging. I'm improving little by little. Hopefully soon we can also get to the more normal and regular posts because they are so much faster to edit and post than the travel ones. For me at least.

Today, I'm taking you to Mount Royal and the surroundings. So hop on and let's get to it!


I started my mornings in Montreal by making some coffee with the machine that was in our room, watching the traffic and morning TV. It was so nice to have slow mornings there because I usually wake around six on workdays and don't get the luxury of enjoying my mornings.



Once I was done with my coffee, we headed to the Jean-Talon market. It's a lovely marketplace with all sorts of stands and vendors. I would've loved to explore it more, but we had a mountain to climb, so I just visited one place that had been recommended:



Creperie du Marche. They make gluten free crepes, both sweet and savory ones. I had to try out the spinach, cheese, tomato and egg one, because it sounded like a perfect breakfast food. Which it was, too. So this is another place to eat if you are on a gluten free diet. I think the crepe was so delicious and worth a little detour (which was easy to make because of the vast metro system).



There  would have been amazing herb stands and everything really, but we didn't have proper time to examine them that well.



The place looks about like this on the street if you're walking nearby and wanting to find it.



Then it was time to climb the mountain. We headed as close as we could with the metro, and started hiking.



It takes quite a few stairs to get to the viewpoint closest to the city, and bit more hiking to reach the other ones. However, the pathways are beautiful in the summer and it's worth the exercise.



I spotted a squirrel friend! Granted, he wasn't as keen on me as I was on him.



It was fun to climb up since you get to see different views of the city from different viewpoints. And you also see a bit of the Canadian nature which is amazing too.



The first viewpoint we stopped at was Chalet du Mont-Royal. There's lots to see - not only the skyline of the city, but the building at the viewpoint and also the surroundings.



It's such a beautiful big city! Can't wait to book another trip some day.



Me being a tourist as all the time on that trip. Does this almost count as an outfit pic?



From there, we hiked to another viewpoint. I had googled that the raccoons of Mount Royal can be found on a spot across the mountain (or hill, whatever you call it), and since we don't really have them where we live, I absolutely wanted to see some fur babies.

I know they don't hold the same appeal to people who constantly see them as they can be annoying when they rummage through all the garbage in someone's backyard. But I still think they're so cute!



From the viewpoint with the raccoons, there's a bit different landscape to see.



Like said, people who deal with raccoons daily aren't too fond of them. Which I completely understand.

But since I love sharks, alligators and so on, you probably can understand how I love raccoons too. I love the ones people don't value so highly.



But seriously, if you look at that paw, hw can you not love it?



Hello little one! Although, to be honest, this fella was a bit chunky.



Look at that sweet face! I just really wanna get one of these as a pet. I'm not even kidding.



And yes, I found another squirrel. I would love photographing animals more but that will have to wait until I get better photography equipment.

After the hike, we walked around the center a bit.



There was this cool fountain in one mall, it was lit up and had a bit of a choreography to the movement even. We don't have enough of these in Finland!



One of my favorite things to eat in Montreal were the pizzas in Pannizza. I was amazed they had a gluten free option and that the staff seemed fully educated about the gluten even though I would say this counts as a fast food chain. But based on my personal experience, I would recommend trying this out. I mean, who doesn't love pizza?



One of my must-see things on Montreal was Point G Macarons. They make 100% gluten free macarons, and you know I can't pass a treat if it's gluten free. Picking out twelve favorites of these was my birthday present - and way harder than I thought!

Below, there are way too many pictures of macarons. But who doesn't love pictures of macarons, really.



Don't these treats look amazing? If you are in Montreal, and love macarons, Point G is an absolute must. I would've loved to pay another visit to the shop but we had so many other things to do I didn't have the time for it.



I know there are probably a ton of great local coffee shops in Montreal, but because Tim Horton's happened to be located very near to our hotel, I got to taste many different coffees from them. And I loved them all, especially the Iced Capps. Yum.



Lastly, a night view from our hotel room window. I kinda really miss this view, even though I love being home so much.