Friday, March 25, 2016

Sydney Travel Guide

Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds the world's largest natural harbour, and sprawls towards the Blue Mountains to the west. Residents of Sydney are known as "Sydneysiders". Sydney is the second official seat and second official residence of the Governor-General of Australia, the Prime Minister of Australia and the Cabinet of Australia.

The Sydney area has been inhabited by indigenous Australians since the Upper Paleolithic period. The first British settlers arrived in 1788 to found Sydney as a penal colony, the first European settlement in Australia. Since convict transportation ended in the mid-19th century, the city has transformed from a colonial outpost into a major global cultural and economic center. The population of Sydney at the time of the 2011 census was 4.39 million, 1.5 million of which were born overseas, representing many different nationalities and making Sydney one of the most multicultural cities in the world. There are more than 250 different languages spoken in Sydney and about one-third of residents speak a language other than English at home.

Sydney has an advanced market economy with strengths in finance, manufacturing and tourism. Its gross regional product was $337 billion in 2013, the largest in Australia. There is a significant concentration of foreign banks and multinational corporations in Sydney and the city is promoted as Asia Pacific's leading financial hub. In addition to hosting events such as the 2000 Summer Olympics, millions of tourists come to Sydney each year to see the city's landmarks. Sydney is also a gateway to Australia for many international visitors. Its natural features include Sydney Harbour, the Royal National Park, Bondi Beach, and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Man-made attractions such as the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge are also well known to international visitors.

Sydney is known as the Harbor City. It's the largest, oldest and most cosmopolitan city in Australia with an enviable reputation as one of the world's most beautiful and livable cities.

Brimming with history, nature, culture, art, fashion, cuisine, design, Sydney's set next to miles of ocean coastline and sandy surf beaches. Longterm immigration has led to the cities reputation as one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse cities in Australia and the world. The city is also home to the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, two of the most iconic structures on this planet.


Sydney has a compact city center surrounded by sprawling suburbs, all coming together to form a vast and diverse metropolitan area.




Central Sydney

Central Sydney districts
City Centre 
The busy centre of government and finance, but also home to many famous attractions, fine restaurants, and shopping.
The Rocks 
Just to the west of Circular Quay, now a cosmopolitan area, The Rocks includes the first colonial village of Sydney and the iconic Harbour Bridge.
Darling Harbour 
An extensive leisure and entertainment area immediately to the west of the Central Business District (CBD). See restaurants, boardwalks, aquariums, wildlife, and museums by foot.
City South 
The Haymarket, Chinatown and Central Station area is home to markets, cafes, Chinese culture and cuisine, and some cheaper accommodation and shopping.
City East 
Kings Cross, Darlinghurst, Surry Hills, Woolloomooloo and Moore Park. Busy nightlife, and coffee shops, fashion and entertainment by day.
City West 
An early morning trip to the fish markets, exploring the Powerhouse Museum, finding a maritime pub or hitting The Star Casino.



Greater Sydney

Sydney is a vast sprawling city, and the suburbs in the city metropolitan area spread for up to 100km from the city centre. The traveller visiting the suburbs will find less crowded beaches, parks, cheaper shopping, commercial centres, cultural festivals, and other such hidden gems.


Greater Sydney districts
Eastern Suburbs 
Between the City and the sea, includes the world-famous Bondi Beach and other city beaches, which are strong drawcards for visitors and residents in the city during summer.
Southern Sydney 
The area south of the CBD and north of the Georges River, including the areas surrounding Sydney Airport and Brighton Le Sands on Botany Bay.
Inner West 
Sydney's original suburbs are now bohemian and are a hub of cheap eats, shopping and inner-city culture. Also contains Sydney Olympic Park, the home of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, parks, cycling, and events.
Lower North Shore 
Over the Harbour Bridge are leafy residential areas stretching northwards. The North Shore also has major commercial and retail areas at North Sydney and Chatswood, many smaller boutique shopping areas, and many parks and gardens, and Sydney's famous Taronga Zoo.
Upper North Shore 
Includes leafy residential areas, national parks and waterways.
Northern Beaches 
From Manly stretching North along the coast to Palm Beach.
North West 
Contains the Northern Districts with includes Sydney's Silicon Valley at Macquarie Park, the northern side of the western reaches of Sydney Harbour, and the the largely residential area of the Hills District in the north-west of the city.
Parramatta 
Sydney's "second" CBD, with history, shopping, eating, all just 30 minutes from the city centre.
Sutherland Shire 
The district to the far south and east of the city centre including Cronulla and Captain Cooks Landing Place.
South West 
Contains the centres of Liverpool and Campbelltown are a large swathe of residential and commercial Sydney.
Outer West 
Stretching from Parramatta out to the Blue Mountains
The Hawkesbury is a semi-rural area to the northwest of the city, centred around the Hawkesbury River. Its main towns are Richmond and Windsor.

Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, Australia, identified as one of the 20th century's most distinctive buildings.

Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the building was formally opened on 20 October 1973 after a gestation beginning with Utzon's 1957 selection as winner of an international design competition. The government of New South Wales, led by the premier, Joseph Cahill, authorised work to begin in 1958 with Utzon directing construction. The government's decision to build Utzon's design is often overshadowed by circumstances that followed, including cost and scheduling overruns as well as the architect's ultimate resignation.

The Sydney Opera House became a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007.

The building and its surrounds occupy the whole of Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, between Sydney Cove and Farm Cove, adjacent to the Sydney central business district and the Royal Botanic Gardens, and close by the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Though its name suggests a single venue, the building comprises multiple performance venues which together are among the busiest of performing arts centres – hosting well over 1,500 performances annually, attended by more than 1.2 million people. A wide range of performances is presented in the venues, by numerous performing arts producers, including four key resident companies: Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. As one of the most popular visitor attractions in Australia, more than eight million people visit the site each year, with around 350,000 visitors annually taking a guided tour of the building.

The building is managed by the Sydney Opera House Trust, an agency of the New South Wales State Government.


Darling Harbour
Darling Harbour is a harbour adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is also a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central business district. Originally Long Cove, the locality extends northwards from Chinatown, along both sides of Cockle Bay to Darling Harbour wharf on the east, and to the suburb of Pyrmont on the west. Cockle Bay is just one of the waterways that makes up Darling Harbour, which opens north into the much larger Port Jackson.

The precinct and its immediate surroundings are administered independently of the local government area of the City of Sydney, by a New South Wales state government statutory authority, the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.
The Darling Harbour precinct is home to a number of major public facilities and attractions, including:

Harbourside Shopping Centre, which includes Kingpin Bowling Alley (the only bowling alley in Darling Harbour), M9 Laser Skirmish, as well as Australia's first retail Jet flight simulator.
Sydney Entertainment Centre
Paddy's Markets
Chinese Garden of Friendship
Tumbalong Park
Darling Quarter Playground
Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre
Australian National Maritime Museum (featuring museum ships including HMAS Vampire)
SS South Steyne
The Star Casino and Entertainment Complex
The Darling Hotel & Spa
Powerhouse Museum
Sydney Aquarium
Madame Tussauds
The LG IMAX theatre – the largest screen in the world
Sydney Wildlife World
Aboriginal Centre[clarification needed]
Sega World Sydney (closed in 2000)
International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney), due to open in December 2016.


Taronga Zoo
The Zoo is one of the major tourist attractions in Sydney. The best way to get there is by ferry from Circular Quay. Once you arrive at the ferry landing on Mosma, take the tram up to the Zoo. You get a bird's eye view of the park and of Sydney Harbor. I must say I was a bit disappointed with the Zoo.
Taronga Zoo is the city zoo of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and is located on the shores of Sydney Harbour in the suburb of Mosman. It was officially opened on 7 October 1916. Taronga Zoo is managed by the Zoological Parks Board of New South Wales, under the trading name Taronga Conservation Society, along with its sister zoo, the Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo.

Divided into eight zoogeographic regions, the 21-hectare (52-acre) Taronga Zoo is home to over 4,000 animals of 340 species. It has a zoo shop, a cafe, and information center.

The Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales opened the first public zoo in New South Wales in 1884 at Billy Goat Swamp in Moore Park, on a site now occupied by Sydney Boys High School and Sydney Girls High School. Inspired by a 1908 visit to the Hamburg Zoo, the secretary of the zoo, Albert Sherbourne Le Souef, envisioned a new zoo based on the bar-less concept. After realizing that the Moore Park site was too small, the NSW Government granted 43 acres (17 ha) of land north of Sydney Harbour. A further 9 acres (3.6 ha) were later granted in 1916.

Taronga is an Aboriginal word meaning beautiful view.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Montreal Travel Guide

Montreal  is the metropolis of the province of Quebec. Quebec City is the political capital but Montreal is the cultural and economic capital of Quebec and the main entry point to the province. The second largest city in Canada, it is a city rich in culture and history and a well-deserved reputation as one of the liveliest cities in North America. Montreal is the second-largest French-speaking (as a mother language) city in the world, behind Paris. The population of Montreal is about 1.9 million, with 4 million in the metro area. Montreal is sometimes referred to as The Paris of Canada.

Districts

Central Montreal

Montreal boroughs
Ville-Marie borough
Montreal is composed of 19 large boroughs. The most important one in central Montreal for visitors is Ville-Marie, which is further subdivided into neighbourhoods. From West to East, some of its neighbourhoods include:

Downtown — Skyscrapers, shopping, museums, McGill and Concordia universities, and the Parc du Mont-Royal.

Old Montreal — The historic and (dare we say it) quaint riverfront Old Town and Old Port.

Chinatown — The third largest in Canada, filled with numerous restaurants and shops.

Quartier Latin-Le Village — Restaurants, boutiques, cafes, pubs near UQAM in the Quartier Latin, gay bars and clubs in Le Village, and the working class neighbourhood of Sainte-Marie.

Parc Jean-Drapeau — The islands of Île Sainte-Helene and Île Notre-Dame and the Montreal Casino.

Plateau Mont-Royal district

The Plateau — A large, trendy district north of downtown and east of Parc du Mont-Royal noted for its quaint architecture, diverse mixture of cultures and languages, parks, music venues, theaters, restaurants, pedestrian streets, and the location of many summer festivals. Its attractions include Parc Lafontaine, the Main (Saint Laurent Blvd) with its many hotspots, St-Denis and Mont-Royal for shopping, eating and drinking. The Plateau includes several distinct neighbourhoods, including Mile End.

Mile End — The legendary Fairmount and St. Viateur bagel shops, Dieu du Ciel brewery, trendy restaurants and cafés, bookstores, thrift shops, espresso and soccer bars, the Rialto Theatre, St Michael and St. Andrew's church, boutiques and hipsters.

Other Montreal districts and Montreal Island towns

Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie — Little Italy and Rosemont, home to Italian, Vietnamese, and Latino communities, as well as the Jean-Talon market, one of Montreal's largest, most popular, and liveliest open-air markets. The section of St-Laurent Boulevard that runs through this borough has seen a recent (2015) resurgence in new restaurants and bars.

Westmount–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce — Westmount is legally a separate town from Montreal and is mostly residential, although it has a lively section of Sherbrooke Street and Victoria Avenue as its commercial hub. Greene Avenue further east is another tony commercial area. Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) is a diverse neighbourhood that includes leafy residential streets, a long commercial section of Sherbrooke West, gentrified Monkland Avenue, the Saint-Jacques strip, and the new MUHC hospital at Vendôme metro station.

Hochelaga-Maisonneuve — the "Espace pour la Vie" includes the Olympic Park, Botanical Gardens, Biodome and the Planetarium.

Côte-des-Neiges — Multicultural neighbourhood northwest of the mountain. NDG and Côte-des-Neiges are part of one large borough but have quite different vibes. Côte-des-Neiges is a vibrant street that borders on the academic world of the Université de Montréal and the Hautes Études Commerciales on one side, and the hospitals (St. Mary's and the Jewish General) on the other. Queen Mary Road is another commercial street of note.

Outremont — Upscale, francophone neighbourhood noted for its architecture, boutiques and restaurants, and its flourishing Hasidic community.

South West — Including the Lachine canal, Atwater Market (a must!), St. Henri, and the emerging culinary hot-spot, Little Burgundy.

Villeray/Parc-Extension – Parc Extension, one of Canada's most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods, is noted for its vibrant South Asian community and its family-run restaurants, while to the east, beyond Jarry Park and north of Little Italy, lies Villeray, mostly residential, but also home to a range of cafes and restaurants.


Situated on an island in the St. Lawrence River at the historically highest navigable point, Montreal has been a strategic location since before the arrival of Europeans in Canada. A thriving St.Lawrence Iroquoian town called Hochelaga was on the site of present-day Montreal when explorer Jacques Cartier first visited in 1535. A hundred years later, in 1642, the tiny town of Ville-Marie was founded as a Sulpician mission by Paul Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve. It soon became a centre of the fur trade. After its capture by the English in 1762, Montreal remained (until the 1970s) the most important city in Canada and was briefly capital of the province in the 1840s.

Prohibition on sales of alcohol in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s made Montreal a mecca for cross-border fun seekers from nearby New England and New York. The city built up a seedy, yet playful, industry in alcohol, burlesque, and other vices. In the 1960s, an urban renewal drive centred around Expo 67. The World's Fair in Montreal brought a subway system and a number of attractive urban parks and is considered to be one of the most successful World Fairs. Over 50 million visitors gathered to Montreal during this memorable summer. The 1976 Olympics left a strikingly idiosyncratic stadium and many other urban improvements.


St Lawrence river gateway
The opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959, though much lauded as an economic boom, spelled the beginning of the end for Montreal's economic dominance in Canada. Once the transition point between western railroads and eastern sea carriers, Montreal watched helplessly as some of this business moved farther west, up the now navigable Seaway, to ports in Ontario and on Lake Superior. The Quebec Sovereignty movement, which began to pick up steam in the 1960s, further chilled the atmosphere for Canada-wide businesses, many of which moved their headquarters to Toronto.
Following an economic depression in the 1980s and 1990s, Montreal became more secure in its place in North America and the world. It remains a centre of culture, arts, computer technology, aerospace, the biotech industry, and media for all of Canada.

Orientation
It has been said that Montréal is the only city in the world where the sun "rises in the south."
Montrealers use an unconventional compass, using the river and the mountain as cardinal points. When you are downtown, the St Lawrence River is “south” and Mount Royal is “north”; making the West Island and the East End correct in both their names and orientations. The dividing line between "east" and "west" downtown is the boulevard Saint-Laurent. In downtown, streets slope up "north" toward Mount Royal. This local compass tends to confuse visitors because the “East” End is really to the north and the “West” Island is to the south, and the St Lawrence River runs almost northeast-southwest at this location.

Most local maps use this convention as do the highways around the city. For example, Autoroute 15 north actually runs northwest and Autoroute 40 east runs northeast.

To underscore this fact, a Montreal map will show that the "south end" of Victoria Bridge is in fact further north than the "north end".


Gay Montreal
Montreal is an extremely inviting destination for gay and lesbian tourists. Canada's contributions to gay rights have recently become widely known, but Quebec was the first province in Canada to pass a non-discrimination law for sexual orientation and to provide same-sex civil unions (although Toronto was the first municipality in Canada to do so). Same-sex marriage is legal in Quebec (neither residency nor citizenship are required for a marriage license, but there is a three-week waiting period after you receive the licence) as well as in the rest of Canada. Canadian and Quebec immigration law allow residents to sponsor their same-sex partners or spouses.

Montreal itself is a very safe, open, and inviting city. The métro station in the Gay Village, Beaudry, is marked with rainbow pillars. Montreal's pride celebration, Divers/Cité(last week of July, first week of August) is the second-largest in Canada after Toronto's.


Climate
Climate Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Daily highs (°C) -5 -4 2 11 19 24 27 25 19 12 5 -2
Nightly lows (°C) -12 -11 -5 3 10 15 18 17 12 6 0 -9
Precipitation (mm) 74 71 80 77 87 88 106 101 101 84 94 102
See the Montreal 7 day forecast at Environment Canada
The climate of Montreal is a true humid continental climate with 4 distinct seasons. The city has warm, to occasional hot & humid summers, generally mild spring and autumn, and often very cold & snowy winters. Montreal gets over 2,000 hours of sunshine annually. Precipitation is moderate throughout the year, with around 2 meters of snow per season.



By metro or bus
Montreal is home to one of the three public subway/metro systems in Canada, the others found in Vancouver and Toronto. The public transit system, run by Société de transport de Montréal (STM) , is safe, efficient, and is overall pleasant to use. Tickets have been replaced by cards with magnetic stripe containing one trip, called an à la carte ticket. These are valid for one trip (including unlimited transfers in the same way for 120 min) on the metro and buses, costing $3.25 each (exact fare in coins is required on the buses but not on the metro) but are also available for less when you purchase 2 for $6.00 either from the metro agent, the automatic fare vending machine located in metro stations, or an authorized seller.

Unlike some subway systems you do not need the fare card to exit, but you can use the card to transfer to a bus, and you can be asked at any time by a transit cop to produce the valid fare card. So don't throw it away while you're still in the transit system or you can be fined.

Note that Montreal metro stations and train cars lack air conditioning, the Metro can sometimes get uncomfortably hot, in every season. It does however still exist as the best transport option in the city. The train cars are all old (original rolling stock) and will be replaced over several years starting in 2016.

Announcements are in French only as is the vast majority of signage. In addition, Montreal transit workers are not obliged to speak in any language other than French (with the exception of customer service representatives). While most transit workers are happy to speak to you in English and are generally friendly to visitors, it is possible that a question in English might be met with sign language or dead silence. It never hurts to begin a conversation with "Bonjour, est-ce que vous parlez anglais?" The customer service counter at Berri-Uqam (on the Orange, Yellow, and Green lines) have English-speaking staff. In addition, airport staff are fully bilingual.

When departing from metro stations in Laval and Longueuil, tickets and passes bought in Montreal can't be used. You have to pay a different fare inbound from those stations.

If you are using cash to pay your fare on the bus, it is important to have the exact fare since the driver does not give change; you will receive an à la carte ticket, which is your proof of payment and your transfer.

Passes are available which offer unlimited travel on the bus and metro for periods of 24-hours ($10) or three days ($18) and are well worth it to avoid fumbling for change, checking transfer times and restrictions, and worrying about getting off at the wrong stop and having to repay. There are also evening passes valid from 6:00 PM to 5:00 AM ($5) and weekend passes valid from 6:00 PM Friday to 5:00 AM Monday ($13). As with all fares, they are available everywhere there is an OPUS machine. Weekly ($24.50, week is from Monday to Sunday) and monthly ($82) passes as well as 10-trip fares ($25.50) are also available; unlike one-day and three-day passes, these fares must be loaded onto an OPUS card (see below) and are not available in paper ticket form. Only students (25 years and under) studying at a recognized academic institution in Montréal or seniors (65 and over) may benefit from reduced fares, and a special OPUS card must be obtained from the STM.

The OPUS card is a smart card with a chip that contains your fare and transfer information. The OPUS card can be purchased at all metro stations for $6.

OPUS cards can be refilled and paper fares can be purchased at metro stations using the automated machines or at the ticket booth (cash only). They can also be purchased from other authorized sellers. A list of sellers is here. 

Fare prices increase at the start of every year (although the expected increase for 2016 has been delayed). The current fare grid can be found here. 

The STM website offers an online trip-planner service on their home page and their smartphone app. Trip planning can also be done using Google Maps. Free bus and Metro system maps are available from the ticket booth at most metro stations. These are useful to find where you are on the island.

At each subway station, directions are not indicated by compass directions, such as westbound or eastbound. Instead, trains go in the direction of a subway line's terminus. The green line runs from Angrignon in the west to Honoré-Beaugrand in the east. If you were to travel eastbound, for example, you would look for Honoré-Beaugrand on the platform. If you were to travel westbound, you would look for Angrignon. There are four interchange stations at which commuters can change subway lines without extra charge: Snowdon (blue/orange), Lionel-Groulx (orange/green), Berri-UQAM (green/yellow/orange), and Jean-Talon (orange/blue).

Bicycles are permitted aboard metro trains outside of the rush hours such as: 10:00am to 3:00pm and 7:00pm to end of service on weekdays and all day Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays. Bikes are only allowed in the lead car of the train up to a maximum of 6. STM staff may deny bikes aboard the metro for safety reasons such as special events that might generate a high level of ridership. Lists of such events are posted on the STM website and at the entrances to metro. During festival season in Montreal, bikes are seldom allowed at all.

Bike riding inside stations or the Underground City is strictly prohibited.


By train
Montreal has a commuter train system run by the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT)  with termini at the Montreal Central Station (Gare Central) and at Lucien-L'Allier (both are accessible from the metro). Commuter trains are handy for getting to suburbs and neighbouring towns.

Commuter train stations are divided into eight zones that radiate out from downtown. Stations have automated machines from which you must purchase a ticket appropriate to the zones of the station you are traveling to or from, whichever is farther (for example, a trip from Zone 4 to Zone 3 or vice versa would require a Zone 4 ticket). In addition to the zone number, there are two types of fares: TRAIN fares (valid on commuter trains only) and TRAM fares (also valid on buses and the metro within the zone purchased). A prepurchased ticket card (SOLO) must be validated at the card scanners at the entrance to the platform. You can also purchase a six-trip ticket. As with the bus and metro, monthly passes require an OPUS card and reduced fares for students and seniors require a special OPUS card.

There are no ticket machines on the train and ticket inspections are random. Incorrect tickets sometimes go unnoticed because inspectors check only occasionally. However, it is best to avoid taking chances as if the ticket is not valid, the customer can get a fine of $400. Note that the ticket machines should now all be bilingual in English and French. The two downtown stations have staffed ticket booths Monday to Friday, but not in the evenings. Other stations may also have booths but generally only during either the morning or afternoon rush hour.