When I was given my surgery date (first June 1, then settling on June 16), knowing that it is a Big Deal™, Kathleen and I quickly agreed that it would be best if we were to leave a few days early so that we could have a little mini vacation. We weren't going to have another opportunity to travel this year (between costs and healing) and, well, transition care isn't exactly inexpensive, so flights to Halifax or a hotel in Toronto won't be in the cards.
Friday, June 12
Our train pulled into Gare centrale on time at 12:17. Our first goal was to get our bearings and stand outside of the front entrance and look a little lost: it's a great way to get a cab! ...And not two minutes later and we were on our way up the Décarie (slowly: thanks to traffic) and to our hotel, where I would be staying for three days and Kathleen for ten.
Settled in, it was much too early for dinner and far too late for lunch and it was sunny and hot out. To my mind, this meant one thing (and one thing only): ice cream!
One of the reasons I got myself an Instagram account a few months ago was to better find local vegan options and one of the more enthusiastic users of the platform I found in Montréal was Iconoglace, who boast a significant number of vegan options.
So we hopped on the Métro and made our way to Mile End, where they have a popular location on Laurier. I had their weekly special sundae, Le double trouble (lemon and lime curd), and Kathleen had the classic deluxe sundae: both all vegan and both all delicious.
I think for the first time, Montréal's charms worked their magic on me almost immediately. I was filled with delicious ice cream, I had already made it through most of a roll of film, and we just strolled about, allowing photo-making and curiosity to be our guide.
Our next stop was Drawn & Quarterly, a lovely publisher and book shop on Bernard. Although Kathleen was a bit too toasted in the heat to activate her mind's book acquisition centres, knowing that I would need something for my recovery time, I ended up walking out with copies of Zoe Whittall's Bottle Rocket Hearts and Myriam Lacroix's How it Works Out.
We then continued our little ramble, chatting about how lovely it was, how hot it was, and subsequently, how thirsty we were. So we popped into a grocery store and sat in a park for a little while, planning out our next steps.
The nice weather meant that I was both in a colour photo-making mood and, in turn, that meant I was running out of the film I brought with me. Happily, we were also close to Studio Argentique, a film shop and lab that I have been ordering online from for the past few years and was all too happy to pay a visit to in person.
And walk out with three more rolls of Kodak Gold.
Refilled with film and hydrated, we continued our slow wander through the city.
With so many vegan options in Montréal, it wasn't actually all that easy to make a dinner decision. It turns out that when you have options when you're not used to it, it's a recipe for analysis paralysis. In the end, our wandering took us down to Ste-Catherine and so we decided that dinner would be Bloom Sushi.
Our dinner at Bloom was delicious and instead of choosing a number of rolls, we just chose the set dinner with the chef's choice of rolls. Following bowls of miso soup and dumplings, a plate of brightly-coloured rolls of all sorts was placed before us: a really tasty delight!
Full and very happy, it was a very slow amble back down to the Métro with a brief stop in at a pharmacy for sunscreen and acetone (I have to clear off my nails for surgery), and then it was back to our hotel to cool down and get ready for bed.
Saturday, June 13
The forecast promised lower humidity and clear skies and a high around 28C: a perfect sunny summer day for us to continue our wandering and exploration.
A good wander, of course, begins with a good breakfast, so we headed to Cass Café, an all-vegan cafe with inventive drinks on St-Laurent. You guess it, another Instagram find. Kathleen had the breakfast BLT and an oat milk London Fog, and I had the breakfast wrap and a Banoffee, a cold brew with a sort of banana creme.
All I really wanted to do was wander and make photos on Saturday. The sun was bright, the city quiet and beautiful, and all I wanted to do was commit it all to film. So we did.
...and once again, I did not bring enough film with me from the hotel, so I shamefully returned to Studio Argentique and purchased more film. In this case, feeling the good feels for Harman, it was two rolls of Phoenix I. Montréal's lovely, but one of my favourite things about it is that it's not antiseptic like Ottawa and Toronto have become. A little bit of humanity, to my mind, called for a film with a little bit of grit and imperfection too.
Our wander met its end at the Berri-UQAM metro station. It was mid-afternoon and we had plans to meet up with friends who live in Saint-Henri, so it was a good opportunity to get off our feet for a little.
We had a lovely visit, taking a walk down by the very popular Lachine Canal with their dog and had the opportunity to see their home for the first time, which was lovely. For dinner, we had a delicious dinner at Sumac, all of us choosing the falafel platter, but with different salad options.
Sunday, June 14
The city was given some relief after two days of sun heat (read: it was cold and rainy, causing me to freeze), so on Sunday, Kathleen and I decided on a more indoor adventure. After having breakfast in our hotel room (a kitchenette and a grocery store nearby meant that we could have the breakfast we normally do), we grabbed our umbrellas and headed back to the nearby Métro station and headed southbound.
Our destination? The Musée des beaux arts de Montréal. As we'd come to expect (save for Friday's problems on the Orange Line), the Metro quickly whisked us from our hotel's neighbourhood into the downtown and spit us out at Concordia for the very short walk to the gallery, but the cold wind and rain gave me a chill that I wasn't really able to shake until the evening.
Our visit to the gallery was positively lovely. While we enjoyed the current main attraction (the Torlonia Collection of Roman sculptures) was very interesting, I think it was the modern art and design collection stole the show for us. Between Chihuly's The Sun and a very delightful lamp that looks like plates with spaghetti and meatballs in the Decorative Arts and Design collection, we found no end to the delights.
This has been consistent for Kathleen and I. Whenever we visit an art gallery, invariably, we are most drawn in by modern art and design, with bonus points for mixed media. I suppose it should be no surprise, since one of my favourite pieces of all-time is Voice of Fire: the popular opposition to its acquisition by the National Gallery being a fun part of the story.
With tired feet and no more gallery to appreciate, we retrieved our umbrellas and braced ourselves for a return to the inclement weather. Since it was still a bit too early for an early dinner (and we were not interested in a lupper), we stopped into a nearby coffee shop for a nice warm beverage (Kathleen: oat milk London Fog, me: pistachio milk maple latte) and to chat about the art we loved.
After that, we made our way to Lola Rosa, a location of a chain of vegan restaurants, for dinner. I had Thai-style braised tofu and Kathleen had the "reuben", which were both delicious.
By the time we finished, the clouds had thickened considerably, so we settled our bill, and made a quick(er) dash to the McGill Métro station to get back to the hotel.
Admittedly, it took me a while to get to sleep, with the anticipation of the next 48 hours building!
Consistency in Experience
One thing I have found with Montréal is that, as a very clocky trans woman (i.e. it's quite plain that I am trans: very common for those of us who transition in our 30s, 40s, or later), being around the city doesn't feel any different than it does anywhere else I've been in Canada: that is, 99% absolultely fine and lovely, but with the same variety and proportion of stare-types: transquisitive ("is she?"), recognized ("yes"), disgust ("eww"), death stares, and intrigue.
There was one difference I experienced though: I don't think I was prepared for the levels of big chaser energy that I received. Whether it be lewd comments (one man-on-a-bench on St-Denis asked me something about my wild experiences, and I threw him a bone with a comment that seemed to make his day), amorous eyes (a young man on the metro was fixated until Kathleen held my hand), or attempts to communicate in some way (another young man enthusiastically waved at me without an attendant cruel stare I have come to recognize), I don't think I've ever been somewhere in Canada that had so much "yes, she's trans, and I like it" energy.
Not even really ewwphoric (and still uncomfortable), it's just something I noticed over the last few days. Perhaps a reason why other trans women I see here are a little more subtle here than elsewhere?
I don't know.
Three days is only three days, but those I've seen in Ottawa, Toronto, and Halifax seem to be a little more visible in the ways I tend to choose to be too.
Monday, June 15: A Time to Prepare, A Time to Comply
We stuck close to the hotel this morning. I wanted to finish the roll of Tri-X I began yesterday (mostly on too-perfect street our hotel backs on to: Trans Island Avenue), to get a little movement in, and so that we could visit the nearby grocery store to pick up a few things for today's meals.
Otherwise, it's a quiet day for us in the hotel, scroll our feeds, and maybe catch up on videos, all with the usual hotel-room fare on the television.
...and then at 4pm, the preparations officially begin.
As I recently wrote about, I have plenty of anxiety related to making sure that I prepare for Tuesday's surgery properly. My "upper brain" is reasonably confident that I will be able to deliver (show up at 10am prepared as instructed), but my "lower brain" keeps telling me that I'm not going to do it will and they will just send me home without so much as a scalpel's flash.
We'll see, but the time to make sure I do my best is here!
June 15, 2026