My first video blog!

Chinatown Toronto and Chinatown Mall Mississauga Ontario.

We decided to spend our first day in Toronto at Chinatown. We made a stop at the Chinatown Mall in Mississauga. This mall is more or less a strip mall with Chinese decoration for the architecture. Chicago Chinatown has a wall similar to the decorated wall in the video here, except Chicago’s wall is only about a quarter in length. The gate over the entrance to the mall is really impressive.

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Toronto’s Chinatown is much larger than Chicago’s.

It looks much the same as last year. We even ate at the same restaurant we ate at last year. Service was a bit disappointing though. It took forever for someone to come and take our order and the food took about as long and the three dishes we ordered all came at separate times. The tea was cold before we even started to eat.

The fruit stands in Chinatown I think are the real reason my wife wanted to come to Toronto.

She couldn’t wait to get there. We do not get many of the different types of fruit they have here in Toronto. Me, I don’t even eat most fruit. My wife is happy, and that is all that counts. Some of it looks kinda weird to me.

We got a late start today.

Some of the stores were starting to close before we got to them. We will be coming back for some more shopping later in the week.

This is my first time doing digital video for my blog.

The video was shot with a Canon SD600 still camera. I did the editing with Windows Movie Maker. I’ll be trying some other ways of editing the video next time. Hope it is not too boring.

I’d love to hear what you think of the video and any suggestions you might have.

Perhaps a shopper’s paradise

We didn’t plan for enough time in Montréal.

I wish we had scheduled a little bit more time on our trip to Canada to spend in Montréal. I know my wife would have loved to spend more time shopping there. Also, we had a wonderful time with the relatives. Fortunately for me, most of the relatives we met spoke English in addition to French and Chinese. They were all wonderful. Considering I was the only English only speaker there, they really made me feel like part of the family.

If you should go to Montréal or Québec remember French is the primary language.

All of the road signs are in French only. Nearly everything is French only including the subway. I find it odd that Ontario has both French and English signs, while Québec has only French signs. Something seems a little unfair about that to me. But then, I’m not Canadian.

This was the first time I have been somewhere where English is not a primary language.

Except for a few hours at the airport in Germany switching flights, this was really a first. In fact, I think there were more English signs at the airport in Germany. Even Malta, where the common language is Maltese , most of the signs are in English and nearly everyone speaks English as well.

 While in Montréal, we used the Metro subway system.

There was a Metro station at the end of the block from the home we were staying at. It was very convenient for us. And I didn’t have to worry about figuring out French road signs. While my wife speaks a little French, I was the one that first figured out how to understand what stops the Metro was at.

The Metro was very easy for us to use.

We bought a one-day pass for the day we went out shopping. It was very inexpensive. We were able to get on the Metro anywhere and get off anywhere we decided to. Milwaukee does not have the subway system. This is probably the first subway system I’ve used in over 20 years. I kind of enjoyed the rush of air from the tunnel just before the subway appeared. Standing kind of close to the edge of the track was also fun when they will drove off.

Our first stop was Chinatown in Montréal. 

Our niece had given us a short tour of Montréal to make the floor when we first arrived. So, we had a little bit of an idea where we wanted to go.

We got off the Metro at the right spot, but

 We did not know what direction to leave the building the subway station was in. We went out the wrong way and walked completely around the block before discovering it was right across the street. We actually got there a little bit early and many of the shops were not open yet. After checking out a few shops in Chinatown , we headed back to the Metro to go to the main shopping area downtown.

Once in downtown Montréal, shopping was easy.

Many of the buildings in downtown Montréal are connected underground. It is basically a large underground shopping mall. My wife had a great time. Eventually we went above ground.

While we were shopping we got to see some of the tourist sites downtown.

It is interesting to see how many people were eating their lunch outside, I think, by the Art Museum. After a few hours of enjoying the sun we headed back underground.

That was not the only shopping my wife got to do in Montréal.

Once we got back, we went out shopping some more. This time we walked. Fortunately it was just a a few blocks from where we stayed. This time it was a shops all lined up down the street. It was nice is that the sidewalk at large awning over at. Really nice because it was starting to rain just a bit. I kind of wish we had an awning over our sidewalk at home in Milwaukee. Then maybe I wouldn’t have to shovel the snow.

Shopping in Montréal is very convenient.

More than just putting shops in malls, transportation to the mall is convenient also. Having buildings connected underground, must really be nice during the winter. A shopper does not need to go in the cold and can still shop at several different buildings and malls. Montréal, Québec seems to be well adjusted to its climate.