paul mccartney in montreal

Paul McCartney played two shows in Montreal this week. I know he's an old man now and even John Lennon said that he didn't like "Paul's granny shit", but singing along to the 'na na naaaah's' in Hey Jude along with the guy who wrote it and about 17,000 other people is something I'll never forget. We had the best time and I'm still in disbelief that, at nearly 70, Paul McCartney is running around on stage with just as much enthusiasm and energy as he did in some of the old Beatles videos. Since I went to both concerts, I was able to be really present for the first one and so I took several photos at the second, and even a little video or two to be able to remember the night. These are just a few of the pictures from that evening and some photos of fans that we spoke to outside the venue.

- Mina 

A fan drawing. Paul pulled her up on stage and signed this for her.

A woman shows off her tickets to see The Beatles at The Maple Leaf Gardens in 1966. The price was $5.50! 

This arm belongs to a girl who was pulled up on stage last year and made the autograph permanent.

Ridiculously excited before the show. 

schwartz's delicatessen

It's pretty shameful that it took us nearly a year to make it to Schwartz's, a must-visit spot for pretty much every tourist that comes to Montreal. We had written off smoked meat as an unnecessary indulgence and didn't make it a priority to visit the popular delicatessen until nearly a year after living in this city.

We arrived before it got too busy and got quick and friendly service. Obviously, we each ordered a smoked meat sandwich. Alex added a side of fries and my side of choice was a pickle that was the size of my forearm…. and a black cherry coke for each of us.

I think I talked about how amazing the sandwich was for about a week afterwards. Dare I say it's better than Katz's Deli? Now we just have to see the musical (yes, there's a musical based on a deli, that's how big of a deal this place is in Montréal).

-Mina

on travel and other things

Postponing travel plans, to work on other projects, seems like a bit of a theme for us these days. Since we're clearly obsessed with travel, (enough that we've dedicated an entire blog to it) you'd think that we'd be upset... but we've been enjoying some of the other things that life has to offer and thinking about how we can travel in the future so that it includes more time for volunteering or community outreach - which we didn't discuss here previously because I didn't want to be a downer.

Lately, I've been finding it difficult to add to this "travelogue". There are a bunch of photos I'd like to share but I've gotten out of the habit of blogging. It's not the same routine as when we were on the road (exhausted from days of sightseeing, working on documenting our trips before bed was one of the only thing to do). Now we're busy. I've alluded to these projects in the past and, as usual, things prove longer to execute than I'd optimistically hoped for in my head. I may not mention them on here so, if you're interested (thank you), you can follow my personal twitter or add us on facebook.

The summer has been good to us. Long evening bike rides, kayaking, and dinners with friends has made the season even better. We intend to stay in Montreal and enjoy the weather while it's nice, with plans to travel in the winter.

In attempt to make travel planning easier, we've joined pinterest:

We realize that pinterest is usually used to "pin" random inspirational things, but I thought it might be an efficient way to gather resources for travel. It's more visual (read: prettier) than just having a bunch of boring bookmarks. It's also a lot easier to share - we can just direct people to our board if they'd like recommendations. I've been meaning to make one for our favourite Montreal spots for all the people who ask us what they should do when they come here. If you've got any travel related boards that you think we should see, feel free to share them, or if you feel so inclined, send us links to your blogs or articles about places you think we'd enjoy - especially if you've had a good experience.

Awhile ago, Rhianne wrote a bit about us for a Lomography Magazine article. It's been ages since we've used our lomo cameras, so this was a nice reminder to dust them off and take them to play outside. If you'd like, you can see all of our lomo + film photos in our flickr set.

This past weekend, Paul McCartney played at the Yankee Stadium in NYC. We were bummed that we didn't get tickets to that until... he announced that he was coming to Montreal. We couldn't believe our luck. I thought I'd definitely have to make the trip to New York (or at least Toronto) to catch him in concert and that he would quit touring before I got the chance. I still can't believe we're seeing one of The Beatles sing his old tunes (can't say I know too many Wings-era songs). I was so consumed with the idea of attending a Paulie concert that I even added it to our list. Now I don't have to settle for Ringo! We heard that he ends the set with the Abbey Road medley. I can hardly contain my dorky excitement!

-Mina