Montreal, Quebec

This past weekend was a reminder of how much I love exploring new places. A couple girlfriends and I took off to Montreal for the weekend and enjoy some of the warm weather we’ve been having.

Montreal for me is one of those cities that I’m always passing through, but never got to properly explore. This time though, things were different!

It was a nice drive up, and once there we unpacked and hit the road by foot to explore our neighbourhood. We went out to dinner and then explored some local bars. The atmosphere of Montreal is so alive and exciting, and reminded me *so* much of being in Europe.

The oldest street in Montreal

Throughout our trip we went to the Biodome, Saint Joseph’s Oratory, the gay village, Old Montreal and shopping on St. Catherine street. We saw a lot for our short time there and made good use of the subway system.

A tip to people travelling to Montreal, is don’t be too concerned about the language barrier because I was *so* surprised at how bilingual the city was. I spoke french whenever I wasn’t greeted in both languages (people often said hello/bonjour!) simply because it’s been forever since I’ve practised.

It was nice to be in a place where most of the time people are speaking another language and the architecture reminded me of my days in Europe! And an added bonus I dreamt in french last night after getting home 🙂

Spring has Sprung!

Hola! Happy Spring! It has been quite some time since I’ve written on this blog, and honestly, I feel like I overthink all of the things I want to post about. So, lets catch up! Since the last time I’ve written lots of things have changed in my life in terms of “lifestyle”. Firstly, I’m now working a Monday-Friday job which is a stark difference to the retail world I had been working in for years (almost 5?). It was a welcome change, and it’s really nice getting to plan my months around having actual weekends!

I’ve also started freelance editing/proofreading on Fiverr.com. The website helps you connect with people who are looking to have a wide variety of services such as, graphic design, voiceover, proofreading etc. done. My clients on there have ranged from students to medical doctors and it’s been quite the experience! I’d really like to write a separate post on this as it has been very lucrative and something that has the potential to be a successful “side hustle”.

The next “change” has been my attitude towards health and fitness. Over the last couple years I had always been really “into” superfoods and eating healthy, but I would counteract this with eating pizza and junk food all the time. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still eat pizza, but I’ve balanced a better diet with exercise now. I’ve really fallen in love with going to the gym and using it as a way to relieve stress. Again, this is something I’d like to write a whole post on. More to follow soon!

Lastly, and one of the most significant changes has been cutting meat out of my diet. Now, I eat an 80% vegetarian diet and do sometimes eat fish (technically I’m a pescetarian), but more often than not, I don’t. I started this “vegetarian” journey on January 1st this year and honestly haven’t looked back.

My journey began after in late 2015 watching several documentaries, following many people on youtube who advocated a veggie lifestyle. After learning so much about the meat industry, animal cruelty, and health impacts of eating meat, each time I went to eat meat I felt a pang of guilt, knowing the suffering the animals had gone through. I know some people may think I’m being dramatic about this, but seriously once you see the footage of the conditions the animals are put through, it’s hard to un-see, for a good reason.

I’ve been met with a lot of support by people around me, but honestly the hardest part about changing your diet is the social aspect of it (eating out, accommodations.. etc) I’d like to write more about being veggie because there really is *so* much to say.

I’ll end this very chatty post now, and will hopefully be back soon to touch more on these topics.

Until next time!