montreal at night

The first part of our little week long road trip was planned out pretty well. We stayed one night at Caleb’s place near Cornell. Then we had booked one night at a hotel overlooking Niagara falls. From there we went to Toronto. After Toronto we had nothing planned yet. So we decided we would continue driving east into Montreal and then back to the US through Vermont to eat lobster in Maine. Since we had not planned this in advance, Bo looked for a hotel room near downtown Montreal that was relatively cheap, but still had good reviews.

So when we arrived at our hotel we had a little surprise. Our hotel was above a sex shop. Still, the hotel room wasn’t too bad. It was comfortable and clean, and much cheaper than any of the other hotels nearby. It gives new meaning to the phrase ‘bang for the buck.’

And on the plus side, it appeared that Chinatown wasn’t too far away. I wanted to walk to Chinatown and the Notre Dame Basilica, which according to Google Maps was only about a ten minute walk away. First I googled: ‘is it safe to walk in Montreal at night’ to which most pages on Google responded with a resounding ‘yes.’

It was sort of a semi walk of shame for me, because even though Chinatown was only about two blocks away, those two blocks were filled with strip clubs and sex shops. And even though I didn’t go into any of those seedy establishments, I would bet that most people would assume that a guy walking at night through the area would be a patron of those establishments. So yeah– semi walk of shame.

The Chinatown gate, guarded by a lion. Seems like this is a fairly standard thing in most Chinatowns I’ve been too. There must be some story behind the lions that I’m unaware of.

According to Yelp there were still some restaurants open in Chinatown, but when I arrived Chinatown seemed sort of creepy and deserted, so I didn’t walk through it.

The Notre Dame Basilica.

Fire Station in Downtown Montreal. Boots and overalls ready for action.

Green and Yellow lights, as opposed to the red light district that our hotel was in.

Aside from the area near the strip clubs, the streets were fairly deserted. Even though I guess we were in sort of a seedy part of town, I felt pretty safe compared to most American cities I’ve been to, but I didn’t tempt fate by staying out too long. After taking a few pictures I hurried back and fell asleep safely locked in the room above a sex shop.