A BRIEF GUIDE TO MONTREAL, CANADA

Kem Coba ice cream

Crudessence raw cafe

Airbnb Decor

Poutine, all day every day

Note tiny Scott on a bike, above. 

Above, the Habitat 67 apartment buildings: designed by an Israeli/Canadian architecht to "integrate the benefits of suburban homes, namely gardens, fresh air, privacy and multi-levelled environments with the economics and density of a modern urban apartment building." 

Clever design. 

Downtown from Mount Royal. 

Jazzy French-Canadian rock band. 

Breakfast at Farine. 

Notre Dame from the outside...

... and from the inside. Where Celine Dion was married. RIP Rene. 

WHERE TO STAY: In The Mile End neighborhood. It's like Williamsburg, Brooklyn before the Whole Foods moved in. 

WHAT HOTEL TO BOOK: What, are you made of money? It's not 1994, get an AirBnb. Stay here. 

WHERE TO EAT: Enjoy a balanced diet of poutine (Basquise is supposed to have the best but the line will be out the door, so go to Patiti Patata Friterie De Luxe) and almond croissants (from Farine, an Italian style cafe/absolute slice of heaven). Or, go wild and go raw at Crudessence with the Macao smoothie. 

WHERE TO SHOP: Leisurely browse through books and $8 pens at Drawn and Quarterly. 

HOW TO GET AROUND: Bring a bike. We stuffed 2 in the back of my Toyota Corolla. Or since it's a very bike friendly city, just rent one. 

RANDOM THING TO DO: Stick around for the organ concert at the Notre Dame Basilica. Experience "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" with a 7000 pipe organ. It's really something else. 

MONTREAL, CANADA

If a Parisian lady and a dirty Canadian hipster had a baby, it would be Montreal. 

Heaven, in the form of baked goods. 

We spent a weekend there in September, bicycling around each day fueled by poutine and almond croissants.

More soon.  

AROUND THE INTERNET #2

Because you haven't seen enough Bali sunset photos on this blog. 

Links for your Thursday/Wednesday (depending on what part of the world you're reading from): 

A good read: This interesting + witty article by Helen Kim whose author blurb reads "Helen S. Kim made her Korean immigrants' parents dream come true by graduating from from Harvard Law. She then horrified them by leaving her law firm job to write."

Untranslatable Words. My favorites: "eudaimonia" and "fika".

I'm not super into fashion but I do love me some street style photography... so this collection is a bit of a jackpot. 

With EditMate now on in full-force, the books + podcasts I've been consuming lately have all been in the "for work-related educational purposes" category. This Start-Up podcast is full of gems of wisdom if you're building a business, plus it's just wildly fascinating to hear how the start up world operates (Season 2 is proving to be particularly juicy). 

Videos of folks slowly taking off their clothes sounds like click bait but this series by StyleLikeU is wonderful, specifically this interview with an incredibly articulate Australian actress. 

Watching American current events from a distance (the other hemisphere and the other side of the world) has been interesting this year... this is baffling + concerning while this is horrifying. However, this gorgeous example of freedom of speech (while being a super hot jam) makes me proud to be an American. 

Speaking of which... while I do feel the Bern, I feel like everyone needs to remember this as well. 

I want to read this and this and this as soon as my "for work-related educational purposes" consumption phase takes a break. 

Made me laugh. 

Lastly, a song -- from me to you. 

MONACO

Took a day trip from Nice to visit Monaco, the second smallest country in the world (the Vatican is the first). 

A 2 Euro bus ride along the gorgeous coast and through little French villages got me there in less than an hour. Monaco was great for rich-people watching with the Monte Carlo casino and it's fancy cars, expensive stores and giant port full of massive yachts.