By Rebekah Abel, Janet Agyeman, David Higuera
While in Montreal, we tried to take advantage of the museum passes and transportation passes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We planned the museums that we wanted to see each day, but towards the end of the week we decided to make a more rigorous schedule so we could go to as many museums as possible. On Tuesday, we started off by going to the “Space for Life Tour”, which included the Planetarium, Biodome, Botanical Garden and Insectarium. At the Planetarium we were able to watch both of the planetarium shows; the Chaos Show which was more of an artistic engaging experience, and the From Earth to the Milky Way Show, which was a traditional planetarium lecture, and was not as entertaining. Next we visited the Biodome, which was a very cool experience. It was a representation of the various ecosystems of Canada, and included both plants and animals from those ecosystems. The cutest animals in the Biodome were the puffins. Afterwards, we visited the Botanical Gardens and Insectarium. Many of the flowers were not yet in bloom, so we just enjoyed the wonderful weather. We also saw the exhibits at the Insectarium. We visited the Olympic Stadium, but were not able to see the Observatory because it was too expensive for our budgets. Afterwards we walked to Rue Prince Arthur, which was the Montreal equivalent of Haight-Ashbury, but is now basically just student housing for the University.
On Wednesday, we had several difficulties with our museum passes. We were not able to enter the McCord Museum, due to our passes not being activated. After being denied entry, we decided to come back in the late afternoon, when it was free. We then visited the Redpath Museum, which was part of McGill University. The museum was reminiscent of a Victorian Era museum, with taxidermy animals, and artifacts that were not behind glass, which made the experience more worthwhile. Next we visited the Museum of Fine Arts, which was a fabulous art museum. Unexpectedly, the museum included several buildings, so we were not able to see all of the exhibits. We did, however, see exhibits about Napoleon, Renaissance art, Victorian art, and Modern art. Our favorite was a statue entitled “Old Enemy, New Victim”, in the modern art exhibit. The statue was extremely strange, which is why we found it so interesting. Next we went to the Musee des Hospitallaires, which was a museum focused on the oldest hospital in Montreal. The hospital is still in use, and was located right next to the museum. It included many historic artifacts related to the hospital and medical field. One artifact was a historic staircase built in the 17th Century. On our way to the next museum, we encountered a public art project called “21 Swings”, which included several swing-sets that played music, as part of a collective musical production. The public was welcome to use the swings through June 1st, which actually ended up being fun and entertaining to experience. The last museum we visited on Wednesday, was the McCord Museum, which was free after 5:00pm on Wednesdays. It included artifacts from the ’67 Worlds Fair, and some art from a local artist. Overall, this museum was disappointing compared to our expectations. We finished off the day by visiting several historic churches in the area, including St. Patrick’s Basilica. We attempted to visit the so-called ‘Underground City’, which ended up just being a shopping mall that was closed very early.
Thursday, we started off the day very early, so we could visit as many places as possible. First, we went to the St. Joseph Oratory, which included a very cool exhibit of international nativity scenes. We also stayed for the morning mass. Surprisingly, the mass was in French, when it is typically in traditional Latin. Next we went to the Montreal Holocaust Museum, which was a very small museum. It was not a very hands-on museum, and the museum was very crowded while we were there. However, we did receive the unique experience of meeting an actual Holocaust survivor, Joe Fellner, from whom we heard several stories about his experience during the Holocaust. This was a very emotional experience, of which we won’t soon forget. Afterwards, we headed over to Chateau Ramzey, in Old Montreal. The museum was pretty small, but interesting. It had costumed interpreters, historic exhibits, and an exhibit about historic punishments. Next we visited Point-a-Calliere, which was an archeology museum. It had underground crypts where visitors could view the foundations and sewer of a historic building. It also included a special exhibit about the journey of Marco Polo, and included many historic artifacts from the 15th and 16th Centuries. One of our favorite exhibits was “Scandal! Vice, Crime, and Morality in Montreal 1940-1960”, at the Montreal History Museum. It included many of the crimes and moral issues that were in Montreal in the mid 1900s. The exhibit was very engaging, and interesting. The exhibit told a story as visitors walked through the exhibit. One surprising fact was that Montreal had a red light district. Afterwards, we attempted to visit Pied-du-Courant Prison Museum but it had already closed by the time we got there. On the way there, we acquainted ourselves with two girls from France, who accompanied us to the Margaret Bourgeoys Museum, which included going up to the top of the church steeple. While the French girls were with us, we asked them about the comparison of Montreal to France, and the Quebec-Quois language to French spoken in France. The last place we visited was the Cinematique Quebecoise, which was a museum focusing on the film industry in Canada. It included historic televisions, movie cameras, and a special exhibit about special effects. The special effects exhibit was cool, and showed how special effects are incorporated into films.
Overall, all three of us had a fantastic time in Montreal. We really felt enlightened by the language, art, and culture of the city, and enjoyed talking to new people, seeing historic buildings, and experiencing a new city. We are all three very glad we were able to have this experience, and are looking forward to studying abroad again in the future!
