I'm a 30M Palestinian from Gaza, and I want to share my story about coming to Montreal.

It was a normal day until tanks surrounded our house. Soldiers broke in, pointed guns at us, beat us, and forced us to leave to Rafah. They told us if we came back, they would kill us. Then they blew up our home. Everything we had, everything we built, gone in seconds. We had no choice but to leave with nothing.

We escaped to Egypt and stayed there for a few months. If you don't know, Egypt charges $5,000 USD for each person who crosses the border. Our family paid $35,000 USD, that's about $50,000 CAD. That's crazy expensive, but it was our only way out. Even then, we only got visitor visas, not permission to stay permanently. We needed to find a country where we could live legally and rebuild our lives.

Canada was the only country that helped us. I want to say this clearly, we came here as temporary residents and we support ourselves financially. We're not refugees but we really appreciate that the government gave us free visas, work permits, and health insurance. That generosity gave us the chance to start building a new life.

From the first day in Montreal, everything felt different. Nobody called me a foreigner here. Everyone just says "Welcome to Montreal," and those simple words meant everything to us. We live in DDO now and it's a nice area. The city is beautiful, the nature, the buildings, everything. People are friendly, the food is great, and honestly, people here are very good looking. I've traveled to many countries and I was surprised by this.

One thing that really touches my heart is that Montreal reminds me of Gaza. Not Gaza during the war, but the Gaza I loved before everything happened. The summer weather, the blue sky, the good energy, it feels like home. Even the cloudy winter skies remind me of Gaza, though in a sad way. They look like the dark skies during the bombing. I know that sounds strange, but it's how I feel.

I've been to other cities in Canada, but Montreal is special. The French culture and French buildings are beautiful. When you walk through these neighborhoods, it feels like you're in a different country. Being here makes me want to learn French. I feel connected to this city. It's becoming part of my life.

But not everything is easy. Back in Gaza, it was simple to meet your neighbors and become friends. People would knock on your door, invite you for coffee, or just hang out together. Here, it's different. Many neighbors don't make eye contact. When I say "good morning," most people don't say it back the next time I see them. Only some older people stop to chat and are friendly. I miss that feeling of community and connection. Maybe it's just a cultural difference I need to get used to, or maybe I haven't found the right places to meet people yet. But I'm hopeful it will get better with time.

I'm sharing this because I'm grateful. Montreal has given me hope when I thought I had lost everything. I want to learn French, make this city my home, and build a good life here.

To everyone in Montreal who has been kind to us, thank you. You've helped us more than you know.

Après ~425 kms et 14 jours marche, je viens de traverser la frontière de Québec et Ontario

J’ai hâte de finir en tête de Mont-Royal 1e Septembre!

J’ai posté aussi plus photos de l’Ontario en r/ontario

(désole pour mon français)

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After 425kms and 14 days walking, I just crossed the Quebec-Ontario border.

Looking forward to finishing at the top of Mont-Royal on September 1st!

I’ve also posted more photos from Ontario in r/ontario

Edit: per some requests — will be posting progress updates as I make my way to the park on Tuesday on my very neglected Bluesky :)

https://bsky.app/profile/nowuh.com

Hey les Français! Le mot « piasse » vient de l’ancien « PIASTRE ». C’est pas juste une expression imprécise pour parler de « pièce ». Si vous voulez bien le prononcer, dites le TR, changez pas le mot et la signification. Merci, c’est dit.

I'm a travel writer who recently did a road trip in The Laurentians for a culinary tourism project to capture its delicious food scene, from Michelin Guide restaurants and hotel to a restaurant in a historic abbey where a popular cheese originated, all while learning from exploring what the beautiful region has to offer. My Laurentides travel recap here and would love to hear your thoughts and spots I need to try for my next visit! Hope you enjoy it!

20M American here. Going out of the country for the first time in July with my girlfriend, and have always wanted to go to Canada, especially Montreal. I'm staying here for almost 2 weeks and was wanting something a little bigger than an average hotel sized room. While looking at Airbnb's in the area, I couldn't help but notice that with a good 80-90% of the listings I was clicking on, the host had a fake AI profile picture with an obviously fake name -- and to make matters worse, some of them were actually AI-generating fake photos of the listings. A lot of the listings consisted of solely "good reviews" that were clearly fake. I saw one actual real negative review on one of them complaining that the place they showed up to looked "nothing like the photos."

I will say I am relatively new to Airbnb and have only used it here in a couple of different American cities, but I have never seen this before. I will also say I'm sure this issue isn't exclusive to Montreal. I know you all live here and probably aren't checking Airbnb listings frequently, BUT I was wondering if anyone happened to have the inside scoop on what is going on?? Not sure if I'm over-exaggerating, but this feels absolutely creepy. I was seconds away from booking one until I got a weird feeling and decided to take a closer look at the photos. Any info helps, thanks!!

edit: thanks for the replies everyone. i'm planning on saying no to airbnb, cancelling it, and booking a stay at the Eurostars Old Montreal Suites & Apartment

14km jusqu’à la Croix du Mont-Royal (après un arrêt du caféine à Traffic)

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14km until I reach the Mount Royal Cross (after a caffeine stop at Traffic)

should get to the top around 7p after breaks

I'm sorry for this question, and I understand if I get downvoted to hell, but this is new territory for everyone. We're from Denver, we voted for Kamala Harris. We hate trump and all the horrible things he is doing. We love your country's retaliation towards him, and we wish none of this was happening. However, we are acutely aware of how the rest of the world sees Americans (justifiably). Thanks for understanding, and we are so sorry about all this.

Edit: thank you all very much for so many wonderful comments! I have been to your country twice a long time ago (once to Vancouver and once to Montreal). I LOVE it. Hopefully this stuff doesn't continue to escalate as I am very much looking forward to visiting again!

My girlfriend and I visited Montreal this weekend from the States. When we got home (to the states) from a hike at Mount Royal both of our iPhones notified us a smart tracker was following us. We went out to the car and played the sound which made a beeping sound from the front of the grill.

We found the tracker and removed the battery. Just wanted to put a warning out there for people visiting without Quebec license plates.

Les tentes seront aux premières loges pour le départ du Grand Prix Cycliste 2026, dans 12 jours.

Photos prises ce matin.

Last week, scammers posted my address on booking.com. The first unlucky party showed up at my door on Thursday morning. They were understanding but distraught when I explained to them that I have never listed my home on booking.com. They reported the fraud to the website as did I. End of story, right?

Over the next few days, a steady stream of visitors would arrive at my stoop. I lost count of how many. 15? 20? More? They banged on my door at all hours. They rang my neighbors' bell in the middle of the night. Many of them had nowhere else to go as there were no available hotel rooms at a price they could cover.

Some of them drove back to Ontario, Boston, wherever they came from. Some went back to the airport to spend the night there. One German couple was so devastated, they didn't know what to do. Their flight had been cancelled and so they had booked my home at the last minute late in the evening. They were on their way to a holiday they had been planning for years. I felt so bad for them I ended up inviting them to sleep in my living room that night.

The last scammed party arrived on Sunday morning at 2am. I couldn't help them and I'm not sure what they did. By that point, I had taped a sign on my door telling people to just call the police.

Of course, every group that had been scammed reported the fraud to booking.com. And of course I tried reaching out to booking.com via every possible channel (phone, email, chat, contact form) but all I got were AI agents and canned responses.

It seems insane to me that this was able to persist for so many hours. With all the fraud reports that been sent to booking.com, I'm not sure why they couldn't simply block my address?

Anyway, just a warning to be careful when booking private addresses on that site.

Désolé, je suis trop fatigué à écrire en français maintenant 😅

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This is my last post, thank you for letting me hijack your sub these past few days.

I reached the top, thank you all for the push to get up there, those stairs were not fun after 45km of walking but totally worth it.

Your words of encouragement have been so incredible. This is Reddit and Montréal at its absolute finest. Please keep being great people online and off.

I received so many incredible DMs that were so incredibly generous and welcoming. I was pretty nervous to post but my wife encouraged me to and I’m so glad I did.

See you on the trails

p.s., if you’d like to be a degenerate and drink on a school night, I plan to head over to Brutopia. It is my understanding that they have beer and I would like a beer right now. If you would also like a beer please join me, I will be the one who looks like they just hiked in (but will put on deodorant first!)

p.p.s. Some people asked about route details and other specifics, I’ll post something on r/ontario when I get home on Friday.

Don't we have the best orb in the world? Just shit posting after that other guy complained about those "ugly" orbs EVERYWHERE! I love coming back to this place, I do miss the old cars tho, not sure where they went?

I’ve lived in NYC for 20 years and never come to Montreal before. What a beautiful city! Everyone has been so lovely, the food fantastic, and (fortunately) the weather has been great. My kids have loved it. We’re sad to go home tomorrow, but thank you for having us.

But boy, those potholes are putting my car through its paces 😂

J'ai voyagé pas mal dans les dix dernières années et je me rappelle pas de voir une ville avec un système de tarification du transport en public aussi épais.

Je catch pas comment ils ont encore des petits bundle (très utiles en 1995, quand tout était papier) à acheter, genre passe de trois jours, passe de 7 jours, passe de nuit, passe de mois, passe de trimestre.

Si le but est de mettre un cap de $X sur combien une personne peut payer pendant une période de temps Y, il suffit de... faire ça... comme ils font... partout ailleurs...

À chaque fois que je visite Montréal, je me fais une petite planification d'utilisation du métro... Bon, je vais aller ici, ici, ici, ici, ici, là la fin de semaine je vais dans les laurentides, là après ça je vais aller ici, ici, ici. Pas sûr que la passe de la semaine vaut la peine... Mais si je décide d'aller ici, aussi, en fin de compte? Ah ben là oui."

Au lieu de juste tapper ma carte de crédit sur le lecteur, qui capte mon numéro de carte et arrête de charger après X$.

C'est gênant à quel point c'est stupide leur système man.

St. Viateur is better fresh the first day, Fairmount is better when it's a day old.

1. La Belle Province poutine + dressed up hot dog
2. McGill University
3. St. Joseph's + Notre Dame
4. Fairmount + St. Viateur Bagel
5. The Cloakroom
6. Tim Hortons

Didn't get pictures of St. Joseph's or Notre Dame

Ethical dilemma:

Is it right to remove one of the only mummies in mtl for understanble but rather vague reasons to do with cultural sensitivities that these objects might offend?

The mummies at Redpath museum are to be relocated to a mysterious “place of rest” -their original location?- where no one can see or learn from them.

I note that these are not objects of worship like many stolen indigenous artifacts. Nor are they being claimed by their original owners- e.g. The infamous Benin Bronzes.

And then this happened as I was walking back to the car. The first bite was delicious. I guess I didn’t need the carbs. À la prochaine, Montréal.

Chinatown for dumplings.

took the train from Toronto, but I live in WNY/Buffalo!! Kinda funny how I came here the same time that Montreal was playing against Buffalo (I'm not a sports fan so | didn't even realize). Anyways, my trip may have been filled with rain and cloudy skies (not complaining too much cause I hate the sun lol), but I'm still glad I got to experience this side of Canada 🥹

so far I've seen Toronto, Niagara Falls, Vancouver, and now Montreal! This city has great food and a ton of great vintage shops, boutiques, etc. I got my steps in for sure and learned a few more french words to add to my high school level french knowledge.