What was your biggest surprise/favourite thing about the cities you've visited?

[The_Architect]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Was this recently?

Most recent was 2007, other times was 2005, 2002 and 1997 I believe, though I don't remember the 1997 trip very well.
I do remember distinctly that on the 2005 trip (a school trip), one of my then teachers and I wore our Leafs jerseys for fun and I got egged that day. Though I found that one funny as I was clearly asking for it then.

Quebec City has been very friendly every time I've been.

[SignalHillHiker]

^ I've never had a problem in Montreal but I second that Quebec City is exceptionally friendly. I think residents of Quebec city, regardless of their political views and for obvious demographic reasons, feel less threatened by anglophones than residents of Montreal. For that reason I think, from an anglophone perspective, Quebec City seems - unexpectedly - far more welcoming.

[Martin Mtl]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

^ I've never had a problem in Montreal but I second that Quebec City is exceptionally friendly. I think residents of Quebec city, regardless of their political views and for obvious demographic reasons, feel less threatened by anglophones than residents of Montreal. For that reason I think, from an anglophone perspective, Quebec City seems - unexpectedly - far more welcoming.

I'm sorry but this is ridiculous. Montreal residents don't feel threatened by anglos. At least a third of my friends are anglos and I never heard stuff like that from them. Enough with those clichés. Half of Montreal's downtown population, if not more, is anglophones. Montreal is the only truly bilingual city in this country. HAve you heard of McGill and Concordia ? Both welcome thousands of anglo students in the downtown core. You hear english spoken everywhere, ALL THE TIME in Montreal. The mere idea that a Montrealer would feel threatened by english is utter bull shit.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

I'm sorry but this is ridiculous. Montreal residents don't feel threatened by anglos. At least a third of my friends are anglos and I never heard stuff like that from them. Enough with those clichés. Half of Montreal's downtown population, if not more, is anglophones. Montreal is the only truly bilingual city in this country. HAve you heard of McGill and Concordia ? Both welcome thousands of anglo students in the downtown core. You hear english spoken everywhere, ALL THE TIME in Montreal. The mere idea that a Montrealer would feel threatened by english is utter bull shit.

Yes, I know Montreal is largely anglophone. That's exactly my point.

EDIT: Maybe if I reverse it, you'll see what I mean. Say I, personally, am an anglophone who feels threatened that French language and culture are going to completely erase mine, feels frustrated that the Canadian government reflects predominantly French desires that I simply don't share, angry that I feel I'm being held back from my full potential, etc... I think it's obvious that I would be much more aggravated living in Montreal than, say, Halifax. Seeing francophones and their influence every day would make me much more likely to snap at a francophone tourist in Montreal than in Halifax. It's the difference between on the front lines and safely in your own side's territory. That's my guess as to why, if it's true, anglophones might be more likely to have an experience such as those mentioned in Montreal as opposed to Quebec City. It seems like normal human nature to me. But, as I said, I had no problem in Montreal. It had the normal big city coldness that Quebec City doesn't exhibit as strongly... but that's normal.

[Copes]

SignalHillHiker is very clearly from St. John's, unless you were referring to someone else.

I'm off to Montreal the end of the month, and I'm nothing but excited. This will be my first time visiting the city since I was young (too young to appreciate culture, the city, etc). I'm looking forward to taking some things in and being able to provide some comments in this thread. Unfortunately it'll only be for a weekend.

Also unfortunately, all of my travels since I've started appreciating the character of cities have been outside of Canada and not in Canada. I've hit Boston, New York and Los Angelas in the States, as well as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Hague in Europe. Aside from airport hubs, I haven't been west of Moncton in Canada since I was 14 (so almost ten years). I'm making a serious point over the next two or three years to take in ALL of my country. While I appreciate St. John's and Halifax, I've lived in (or close to) both for all 23 years of my life. I need to be a bit more touristy here at home.

I must say though, coming to St. John's for the first time five years ago, I was very surprised at the general friendliness and attitude of Newfoundlanders. What a welcoming bunch. Another pleasant surprise came from the city itself. It's unfortunate, but prior to coming here, my only exposure to Newfoundland was from a "Newfoundland Culture" video we watched in my high school sociology class. The video didn't show a single image of St. John's, showed only outports and fishing communities, and I couldn't understand the things said by the majority of the locals in the interviews. It gave me a very unfair opinion of Newfoundland, and considering I was only 15 or 16 when I saw it, I didn't think too critically about how biased and unrepresentative that video was of the province as a whole. Didn't think much of it at all really, until coming to St. John's and thinking "well now, this isn't an outport at all."

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Copes

I've hit Boston, New York and Los Angelas in the States, as well as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Hague in Europe.

Great choices, though. I loved Boston. I can't help but feel a kinship with Boston. It's a difficult sort of kinship because they seem to generally know very little about the Maritimes and even less about Newfoundland. Many Irish Newfoundland families, including my mother's, settled in Boston before moving to St. John's centuries ago.

Originally Posted by Copes

It's unfortunate, but prior to coming here, my only exposure to Newfoundland was from a "Newfoundland Culture" video we watched in my high school sociology class. The video didn't show a single image of St. John's, showed only outports and fishing communities, and I couldn't understand the things said by the majority of the locals in the interviews. It gave me a very unfair opinion of Newfoundland, and considering I was only 15 or 16 when I saw it, I didn't think too critically about how biased and unrepresentative that video was of the province as a whole.

I struggled with that as well. When I first moved to mainland Canada at 17 I couldn't believe how different people's perceptions were from the reality. I remember being laughed at by friends in Moncton when I insisted St. John's is a larger city.

Oddly, it seems to me the farther west in Canada you go, the more realistic the general impression of Newfoundland is. And the less... intentionally provocative and mean... the small minority who insist on inflicting their misconceptions upon you are about them. When people told me a Newfie joke in Winnipeg, for example, they honestly expected I would laugh; but in Halifax, they did it with a s***-eating grin meant to put me in my place. But, all in all, these people were a tiny minority.

But I've come full circle. If I'd joined this forum 10 years ago I'd just post pictures of Scotia Centre and try to convince you St. John's was blocked with towers, hahaha. Now, though, I'm very comfortable with what we have. I've seen the rest, experienced it myself - and now I know we're not somehow less. And there's nowhere else I'd rather be.

My sense of home has matured to a quiet confidence.

Edit: Well, maybe not quiet: LOOK MORE PICTURES!!! SO PRETTY!!!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

I'm sorry but this is ridiculous. Montreal residents don't feel threatened by anglos. At least a third of my friends are anglos and I never heard stuff like that from them. Enough with those clichés. Half of Montreal's downtown population, if not more, is anglophones. Montreal is the only truly bilingual city in this country. HAve you heard of McGill and Concordia ? Both welcome thousands of anglo students in the downtown core. You hear english spoken everywhere, ALL THE TIME in Montreal. The mere idea that a Montrealer would feel threatened by english is utter bull shit.

While there is a lot of truth to what you say, Montreal is home to most of the French-language defence organizations, is where you have the biggest public demonstrations in favour of French, and where polls show francophones tend to be most concerned about the future of French.

As a demographic, francophone Montrealers also had one of the highest (if not the highest) Oui vote percentages anywhere in Quebec in the 1995 referendum.

I do not think it is a situation that is crushing or dominates everyday life, but it is certainly there and isolated incidents are certainly possible.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Gerrard

Until The Architect's output equals 3 civic insults per 4 posts. Decides a nuke would be the best solution for Montreal and its population, refers to Quebec as Crapbec etc., I wouldn't dare put him i the same category as Habfanman/Gibberoni.

I was more referring to the pattern negative posts directed towards Montreal while otherwise posting perfectly reasonable things in any other context. Probably not to that level but it makes me cringe just a little bit when I see the anti-Montreal/Quebecois stagnant backwater stuff.

But I digress - if you are visiting a place and expecting a certain experience or reaction it usually isn't too hard to find it. I could talk about the crust punk francophone roommate of a friend I stayed at in Mile End who had an unreasonable hate-on for Toronto - but at the end of the day there were no hard feelings and we all went out for drinks. It would be easy to take something else from that and discount every other experience.

Just as my stepfather from Calgary won't shut up about Toronto being nothing more than stuck in traffic in the 401. And even when walking around the Annex wouldn't stop complaining about how horrible everything was.

[flar]

This French-English thing is so tiresome.

As long as you can say bonjour, ça va and merci, you'll be treated kindly throughout Quebec, just like anywhere else.

[Gerrard]

I agree with you (niwell). It's not necessary to make every post about Montreal negative. Best to say nothing at all rather than stir the pot with boring stereotypes.

But it's a little much to compare him to that other real troll, or even the other one (no one has mentioned yet).

[KevinFromTexas]

Please stop trolling each other.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by flar

As long as you can say bonjour, ça va and merci, you'll be treated kindly throughout Quebec, just like anywhere else.

And occasionally you'll run into somebody who does not feel like treating you kindly. I'm not sure why there is a perceived need on this forum to come up with explanations when somebody said they were given a dirty look in a gas station in 1997 or whatever.

The obsession with "friendliness" is likewise suspect. Shouldn't it be seen as a red flag when somebody's impressions of Europe after a couple of weeks revolve mostly around how much attention they got from strangers? Instead many North Americans seem to expect that Parisians will be thrilled when visitor #485739807234 goes to the great effort of attempting to say something in French.

[harls]

When I moved to Montreal, I lived in the latin quarter, had a Jeep with sask. plates, and could barely string two words together in french. I never received any hostile treatment from the locals.

Maybe they snickered behind my back, but people in the west do that with the Frenchies too.

[patm]

Originally Posted by someone123

The obsession with "friendliness" is likewise suspect. Shouldn't it be seen as a red flag when somebody's impressions of Europe after a couple of weeks revolve mostly around how much attention they got from strangers? Instead many North Americans seem to expect that Parisians will be thrilled when visitor #485739807234 goes to the great effort of attempting to say something in French.

I've never been to Montreal but people in France are effing pricks. There's a difference between not giving high fives to everyone that says bonjour and outright being a dick because they don't speak your language fluently.

When I went to Nice and tried to buy anything, 90% of the time the clerks would be absolute asshats to me because of my terrible french/english mix.

I'm sorry, I'm trying to make an effort to be as clear as I can but there is no reason to be a douche canoe because I'm not perfect in your language. I worked in retail for most of my time in University and I could never imagine being rude to someone simply cause they couldn't speak english. Pointing and gestures are usually enough to answer any questions and make both people happy yet here I am at a McDonalds, in the middle of the EFFING Promonade in Nice, a city that exists solely because of tourism, and the cashiers are ignoring and rolling their eyes non-stop at the tourists who have poor french. It was like that almost every where I went regardless of what I was buying. Even the staff at my hotel acted like this. One time I went to buy drinks from a Subway for me and my girlfriend and I ordered them in French apparently well enough to convince the cashier that I knew french because he started speaking to me and when I said sorry I don't speak french he THREW my change at me. Threw it at me and most of it landed on the floor.

Now if I were treated like this in Montreal, in my own counrty, I would probably snap. However from what I heard, as long as you make an effort to say bonjour and merci and don't just walk into places and act like you're in an english city you should be treated fine. Like I said I've never been but if francaphones acted like the people I experienced in France, they can go to hell.

[freeweed]

My experience in Paris was similar - but mostly only at the Eiffel Tower. The people there seemed to really resent tourists. Everywhere else they just treated me like an American - not exactly hostile, but certainly not overly friendly.

I definitely would say that Montrealers are 100X nicer to visitors by comparison. The only thing the two cities have in common is that people who work for the Metro seem to be universally snarly when you speak English to them. Or maybe they're just jerks to anyone.

Contrast France with Mexico, where the local people seemed embarrassed that THEY didn't speak good enough ENGLISH. It was rather amusing. I expected to get a bit of "stupid gringo" treatment, but they were pretty much always oh-so-helpful with my incredibly limited Spanish.

On the actual thread topic: My 2 biggest surprises with Canadian cities?

Montreal - I did not expect the insane party atmosphere. Was awesome.

Victoria - I was utterly bored after half a day. I could not believe this was a major tourist destination that Canadians talk so much about. Other than endlessly walking around and looking at flowers, there's really not much more than a day of activities. Mind you, I don't think this is any different than Calgary-the-city, so don't think I'm just harshing needlessly. Difference is, I've never in my life heard someone say "oh man, you HAVE to go to Calgary, it's just so interesting!".

[MolsonExport]

what is a francaphone? Quebecois are exactly like French in France, don't you know? Just like people in Alabama are just like those in Alberta and Adelaide!

[patm]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

what is a francaphone? Quebecois are exactly like French in France, don't you know? Just like people in Alabama are just like those in Alberta and Adelaide!

I specifically said that I've been told that people treat visitors a lot nicer in Montreal...

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

what is a francaphone? Quebecois are exactly like French in France, don't you know? Just like people in Alabama are just like those in Alberta and Adelaide!

[logan5]

Originally Posted by freeweed

Victoria - I was utterly bored after half a day. I could not believe this was a major tourist destination that Canadians talk so much about. Other than endlessly walking around and looking at flowers, there's really not much more than a day of activities. Mind you, I don't think this is any different than Calgary-the-city, so don't think I'm just harshing needlessly. Difference is, I've never in my life heard someone say "oh man, you HAVE to go to Calgary, it's just so interesting!".

Gotta stick up for my sisters home town.

Victoria's pretty small (350 000), so you not going to get too many attractions that you would get with bigger cities. What you do get is a very beautiful city with a city centre that has lots of heritage and is more vibrant than cities many times its size. I'd take Victoria over Houston TX, or Phoenix AZ or any city like that.

I've never heard anybody rave about Victoria, maybe they do in the other provinces, I dunno.

[vid]

People in Thunder Bay often use Victoria as an example of something we should strive to be, or will point out that striving and say "Victoria has 500,000 people, we have 500 people. We shouldn't be like them at all."

The same latter group will say things like "Victoria has only 50,000 people and they have skyscrapers! We need skyscrapers!"

I am not sure why Thunder Bay even bothers to have schools...