Montreal - a city to my taste

Montreal is a truly cosmopolitan city, a conglomerate of all sorts of things: neighborhoods, (sub)cultures, languages, 19th century buildings and postmodern architecture, quiet green parks and downtown city congestion. I absolutely loved the mix, and of all the east Canadian cities I've seen, I like Montreal the best.

I was especially fascinated by the cemetery. The Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery (and its adjacent burial grounds) is huge, in fact, it's the largest cemetery in Canada and comprises of 139 ha of land containing 1.5 million burials. When I couldn't find an entrance right away, I spontaneously decided to climb over the fence. Having done so, I was worried for a little while of being charged with the petty offence of trespassing, but since I didn't meet any other people, I enjoyed wandering around more and more. The cemetery is divided into different sections, based on origin/nationality, and it perfectly portrays Canada's history of immigration up to the present day. It was especially moving to find Jewish gravestones bearing German names and birthdays dating back to the 1910s and 1920s. I imagined those people being the fortunate ones who were able to leave Germany just in time.

Montreal is genuinely bilingual. Neighborhoods and their street names are either predominantly English or French, waiters and bar tenders speak both languages fluently and you hear both languages equally often on subways and busses.