Toronto Hotel Adventures

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In Toronto it seemed that I was a gypsy. I stayed in about 8 different hotels in 6 weeks. I never unpacked my bags, just kind of piled up my stuff in groups in the bags so that I didn’t have to dig for anything.

The reason I moved so many times was quite simple, the price of hotels went up and down. Of course the Hilton and Marriott’s were quite nice but when the price would go up over $120 then it was time to move.

I used Hotels.com mostly as the best deals were there but also used my free points from the Marriott. So what were some highlights?

I stayed at one Sheraton that I’ll never forget. Apparently it sold the week before I arrived but I’m not sure that it made any difference. This hotel was not in a bad area of town but it was iffy. Older and sort of refurbished.

So I got to the hotel and as I walked up to the counter a young woman, dressed a little skimpy outfit walked past to the elevator. As I got to the counter a man, who had been leaning on a table went to the elevator. And while they did not enter together, there was no one else in the lobby and I thought “oh my”.

I actually had a nice room on the 10^th floor, a 1 bedroom suite. If I sat on the couch in the living room, toward the window then I could look out over Lake Ontario. The tower in Toronto was visible during clear days.

That 1^st night I woke up to yelling outside. I looked out the window and here were 2 women yelling “stop”, walking down the middle of the street. There were no cars so it was not apparent to whom they were yelling.

One of the last mornings I was there the fire alarms went off at about 6am. Over the speakers/alarms the staff was assuring us that they were investigating and would update. I looked out the door but there was no smoke. Fire engines arrived on my side of the hotel, sirens blaring, the smoke alarms still going off and I made the decision to hike down the 10 flights of stairs. If there was a fire I wasn’t going to be stuck on the 10^th floor. I looked around at what I should take; I grabbed my camera bag containing the good camera and grabbed my personal laptop. I decided to leave the work laptop; not my property, not my problem.

Another couple was out in the hall trying to decide what to do; the woman could not walk well at all. I told them I’d take up the rear in the event there was a true emergency then I could help carry her. So down we started. As we went down more people joined us on the stairs. That was the longest 10 flights I’ve walked.

There was no fire, just a big adventure.

The place was sold and the new owners wanted to renovate so there were no rooms when I went to extend. Off to new places.

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