Doing Downtown

29th May to 2nd June 2006

After recovering from the delights of the marvellous wedding weekend we'd had, we hopped on the GO train into Toronto and headed for Darren's apartment, where he was kindly going to let us stay for free. Just as luck would have it, the local transport in Toronto that Monday was experienceing serious strike action so we had quite some trouble getting a taxi from the GO train station to the Runnymede part of Toronto. But we got there and had a brilliant time over the next five days. Rather than bore you with all the gory details, here's the highlights!

Lunch at the CN Tower

The CN Tower stands near the shorefront to Lake Ontario and dominates Toronto's skyline. You end up with pictures of it from every angle as it's visible from any other sight you go and see. It affords a view of all of Toronto and the islands, but seeing as the view is pretty much flat, it's not the most spectacular sight you'll ever see. Give me the Eiffel Tower any day! But, whilst the Eiffel Tower does have a horribly over-priced restaurant, the CN Tower has one that revolves. Oh, yes! The food was pretty good, service excellent, the only downside was the leak that had sprung in the ceiling. As it's a revolving restaurant, they couldn't just put a bucket underneath to catch the droplets. The waiters each had to follow it around with a napkin whenever the leak came into their section so at least we got some free entertainment!

Baseball Dreams

Very close to the CN Tower is another giant of a sight - the Rogers stadium, formerly known as the Skydome. I'm not much of a baseball fan myself, but when you've got the opportunity to go to a game and only have to pay $9 CAN for a ticket for a seat behind the diamond, you'd be silly not to take it. To be honest, it's worth going to the stadium alone just for the sheer size of it. I don't think I've ever been anywhere so big! The local team, the Blue Jays, were getting horribly beaten by the Boston Red Sox the night we were there, but it was great fun. Like cricket, it's fun once you understand the rules (and it really IS a lot like rounders!). We drank expensive beer, ate expensive nachos, and joined in the various audience rituals they seemed to have, one of which was screaming as loudly as possible during a break in play whilst the TV cameras went around the stadium trying to find the most ardent fan. If you were lucky enough to win the title, you got a "ringside" seat for the next match with free food and VIP treatment. Oooooh!

Local delicacies?

One evening, pooped from all the walking in the sweltering heat during the daytime, we decided just to go fo a meal in Runnymede and see if we could find a few drinks for afters. The meal was a lovely Italian restaurant, although the service was a bit haphazard. Very friendly, but when a big black beetle decided to fall in love with the light on the wall between our table and the next, the waiter felt the need to come over, thwack it as hard as he could and then stamp on it. The beetle made a horrible crunching noise, waiter wiped his foot along the paving stones to remove said insect from bottom of shoe, lovely appetising trail of innocent beetle left streaked next to our table... Good thing they were closing the outside eating area soon causing us to make a move inside. I didn't want to sit next to THAT all night! We later went to a pub that had the biggest beer glasses I have ever seen. It had to be recorded for posterity.

Another thing that had to be recorded for posterity was the fab Chinese meal we had in Chinatown on one of the other days. I miss real Chinese food so much and always complain when we have a takeaway or go to a Chinese restaurant that it's "not like the real thing" but in Toronto, I finally found the grail. A proper Chinese restaurant with proper Chinese people who cooked proper, unadulterated, unchanged, un-dumbed-down-for-stupid-westerners Chinese food. YUM! Pictured are my favourite dishes of Kung Po chicken and beef with green peppers. The place was filthy smelled of toilets. Perfect!



New and Old

Toronto is a pretty nice city just to walk around in. It's not too big and there's all sort of nice buildings. What struck me was the amazing mix of the traditional with the modern, as illustrated above. The amazing new Town Hall was quite contorversial when it was built, but looks amazing with modern-day eyes. It's very close to the original Town Hall with its clock tower and somehow, the two very different styles don't clash. Toronto was full of contrasts like this.

Country Living

On our last day full day in Toronto itself we took a trip over to the Islands. Depending on who you talk to (Darren!) it's only one island, but my guide book assures me it's 17 islands. So it must be true. Boarding a little ferry to take the short trip across Lake Ontario, you arrive at the Islands a short while later, depending which end you're starting from. There's not an awful lot to see and do over there, but it is a really nice way to spend a day doing something more relaxing than traipsing from one tourist site to another. In high season, there's a theme park, but we contented ourselves with a pedal car to explore the length and breadth of the main island. Those pedal cars should be introduced over here, they're so much fun! It would reduce exhaust emissions no end... There's also a frisbee trail that you can follow, with goals set up and certain points you have to reach, but we didn't have a frisbee and I can't throw, so that was the end of that! Algonquin Island (accessed by a small bridge, so maybe Darren was right - it is just one island...) is a pretty little secluded "village" where people come up with all sorts of quirky ideas for their gardens. We saw themed gardens, some examples of brilliant landscaping and a tree built from old gardening gloves. We also saw a snake, but don' worry folks, Gavin protected me. We stared at it for a bit, took a picture and then scarpered before it turned out to be poisonous. Finishing off with a picture of the Toronto Skyline (squint through the smog and you'll see it) and, yes! the CN Tower again, I think we were able to say we'd DONE the islands.

And there endeth the Canada Blog. We had such an amazing time, I've got so many photos that I just haven't got room for here and I can't wait to go back there some time. Mum's just been out there for a week (as of 24th September 2006) and loved it just as much as we did - it's an amazing place, made all the more amazing by all the fantastic people we met. Canada Rules!

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