I made it to Toronto today!

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Today, Toronto.
Only here a couple of days.
I've been here before.

I didn't have the best nights sleep since there were some pretty noisy young girls on our floor. I think it may have been their first trip away or something. It seemed like they were in high school which begs the question, "Where the hell is the person in charge of looking after you??" Oh well, I listened to my music for a while and eventually fell asleep.

It wasn't too early of a start for me since I had most of my stuff packed up already. Quick check out, a walk up the stairs to the MacKenzie King Bridge and then across the street to catch the #95 bus that will take me back to the train station. The bus was pretty full but I was able to squeeze on without too much trouble. It was a short ride and that's a good thing because I tend to doze off if the rides too long. lol Not good when you have to catch a train at a specified time. 😊

As per usual I had plenty of time to spare so I found myself a seat and had some fruit and snacks for breakfast. Then 20 minutes before departure everyone seems to make a "mad dash" for the line up to get to our track. I guess since there is no assigned seating, people want a good seat. I figured it's only a 4 1/2 hour journey so it didn't really matter all that much to me where I was sitting as long as I had a seat to sit in!

Once I arrived in Toronto it was a piece of cake finding my hostel. Only a 15 minute (maybe less) walk and I was standing at the reception desk with my id, membership card and credit card all ready to go. Unfortunately check-in isn't until 4PM. Doh! Luckily they have lockers available for use for only a $2 charge. So being sensible, I stashed my stuff in a locker and hit the streets of Toronto after studying a map for a little while. I did know I didn't want to visit a museum or gallery today so I figured heading towards the Eaton's Centre/Yonge Street area would be my best bet...a little retail therapy. haha

I think I'm getting a little bit bored with all of the browsing in shops but I'm happy to report I didn't buy anything on this shopping trip. I guess because a lot of the shops are the same retail chains you can find across Canada it doesn't seem so exciting. Mind you I haven't really been in too many of them the last 10 months. Oh yeah, I forgot that there is also an H&M store here in Toronto and Urban Outfitters has more than just clothes to look at. There are a lot of little "junkies" as we like to call them to look at...Jac you'd love this place! So after a bit of aimless wandering I wandered into an internet cafe to rest my feet and to check my email. Plus the rates were pretty cheap in comparison to other stops the last couple of weeks so I stayed online a while to update some of this blog...as you may or may not have noticed. haha It's such a nice feeling to only be a few entries behind but we'll see how long that lasts after I leave Toronto since who knows what rates will be like West of here. But thinking about it, that's okay because I've got about two weeks left before I'm home so that's really not too far behind.

Anyhoo, I was on the internet for a bit when I realized I should get over to St. Lawrence Market to see if there's any yummy and fresh food to pick up before they close. So I logged out, paid my fee and got myself over to St. Lawrence Market. As predicted, there was lots of yummy stuff for sale. The aromas! So I first stocked up on a bit of fruit. Then I couldn't resist and had to buy a bit of hummus and then I bought some chicken, pasta and tomato sauce. Yup! I've been inspired to cook myself a meal tonight! I must add that there were quite a few stalls selling olives. So the aroma of olives seemed to be just about everywhere.

I got back to the hostel and was about to go in when I hear a "Hey you!" I turned around and it turned out to be Amelia from the Salty Bear tour that I took around Nova Scotia! How cool is that? Totally unexpected but a pleasant surprise. She was actually outside with someone having a smoke. They had just spent the day together in Niagara Falls. We chatted for a little bit before Lizzie (the 2nd girl) decided to head inside. That's when Amelia let out a sigh of relief. She said that Lizzie was a nice person and all but she'd had about enough of her. So seeing me was an equally pleasant surprise.

Amelia asked me if I'd eaten dinner yet. I didn't but was gonna make something. But since Amelia had to catch a bus later in the evening we wouldn't have time to cook up something to eat so I said I'd just quickly stash my food in the fridge and go over to the mall with her to pick up some grub.

It was cool to catch up and exchange notes on what we've been up to the last couple of weeks since we last saw one another in Halifax. Amelia's been in Toronto the last week taking it easy and will be heading to one of my fave places, NYC. She'll be there for a week before heading home to Australia. So many things for her to be excited about! We also talked about some of the people that we have encountered on our travels again. And we think we have some pretty good material for a good book. lol The latest traveller that we seemed to have encountered lately is the "Oh yeah...well I did so and so better." The person that always has to one up you. Amelia is also the person who coined the phrase, "Oh look, the movie's starting!" to get out of talking to your seat mate on the plane. I have yet to use that one. lol

Soon enough after eating and chatting, we had to start heading back to the hostel where Amelia picked up her huge backpack and instead of taking the metro decided to get a cab to the bust station. So I went outside with her to help her hail a cab. Easier said than done! It's like nobody wanted to pick up a fare or something! But in reality it probably took less than a couple of minutes. lol So we said our quick goodbyes and wished each other well.

I went back to the hostel to finally get settled into my room...9PM by this time! I was on the 6th floor so I felt like I was in and out of the elevator a lot...up to drop off my daypack...down to pick up my pack...back up again because I realized that I forgot the key to my locker...down to get my bag...up to drop off my bag in my room...down to drop off my hummus in the fridge (whoops I forgot about it!)...up to take a shower...whoops! I forgot to ask for a towel at reception so down again...one last time up and I was determined to stay there for the night so I didn't even contemplate whether I should borrow the hair dryer from reception. lol

Soon enough I started to meet my dorm mates. First was a Japanese girl who is just travelling around Canada for a month after having worked at the Second Cup in Banff. Then there were two Japanese guys that came in that are travelling about Canada as well. Their English wasn't the greatest so I didn't talk to them too much. Then there was the mother and daughter duo, Anne and Mikala. Anne, the mom is super friendly and talkative and lives in Adelaide. Ann's taken 5 weeks from work to visit her daughter who's been working in Banff at one of the hotels as a chambermaid. Mikala was actually born in Ontario but moved back to Australia with her parents when she was two. She was living in Sydney before coming to Canada to work.

I mentioned to Anne that I met one other mother-daughter pair in Halifax. The mom was hostelling for the first time. Anne said she didn't have much of a problem with the idea of hostelling but her daughter's boyfriend seemed a bit anxious for them and suggested they bring a his knife! What! Anne said that was her reaction too. What sense would having a knife make? Probably would be more of a danger to themselves if anything. Besides, where did they think they were travelling to?? Anyhoo, Anne just kept chatting away and I think her daughter was a tad embarrassed. Oh well!

When we went to bed the room was freezing. So we turned the heater on. Well, I had a top bunk and you know how hot air rises! In the middle of the night I woke up in a sweat. I already had kicked my covers off and I woke up to take off my polar fleece. I think Anne, who was also on a top bunk was feeling the same and was in the process of shutting the heater. Great minds think alike...plus that meant I didn't have to climb down from my bunk. LOL

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