Back to Canada

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The first 24 hours of my Canadian adventure have been up and down, but now they’re in the books. How did I get here? As most of you know, I like to travel when I get the chance, so I’m always on the lookout for cheap airfare to places I would like to go. In the summer, I like to go north to escape the hot weather in Georgia. Based on temperatures I’m seeing for this week, I’m glad I chose to go to Canada. Honestly, I wish I had gone last week, since it was even hotter in Georgia then. Nevertheless, here I am. It’s hard to predict the weather, and I normally have good luck in that area when I travel. But I’m seeing that I may have to alter some of my plans for this week due to one of the days being wet (supposedly). It’s not like I have to be anywhere on any particular day.

My journey began at 5:20 AM yesterday, when I left my apartment and drove to the Groome Transportation office in Athens – about 12 minutes away by car. I’ve used them before as airport shuttles, and they are reliable. One thing that I have noticed, though, is their increasing micromanagement of your departure times. Last year (or really any time before 2017), you could pick whatever time you wanted. They didn’t really ask any questions. When I went to Central America in March of this year, they had begun to ask about your flight time and airline, thus allowing them to recommend a particular departure time from their location. That was nice. But this time, I was not only asked those things again but also given an absolute latest departure time. I could still choose to leave EARLIER if I wanted, but no later than X. Which was pretty awful. Given no choice, I accepted their time of 5:40 AM, for an 11:00 departure. Everything went according to plan – I was at the airport by 7:35 and through security before 8:00. Boarding for my flight began at 10:30 (allegedly – it didn’t really start until about 10:45). So I had almost 3 hours to spend in the airport. Alone. And with none of the good restaurants open yet. That wouldn’t happen until 9:00.

This was the easiest security screening I’ve ever had – and I’m going with no checked bags. So all of my stuff – and I do mean all of it – is in a carry-on and a personal bag. Still, no hassle at security and no checked-bag fees for me. My main reason for that (beside the financial savings) is because I had booked a 2-legged flight: Atlanta-Toronto-Ottawa, round trip. Since I wanted to see Toronto, I thought it would be less time-consuming and cheaper just to skip the 2^nd leg of the outbound flight and then take a train to Ottawa, where I’ll happily take my 2-legged flight back to Atlanta. This meant that I couldn’t have any checked bags on the way here; otherwise, they would route them onward to Ottawa without me. Or I would have to pay for a round-trip train ticket from Ottawa to Toronto. Here’s a tip: round-trip tickets cost the same as two one-way tickets. So here I am, with a train to catch to Ottawa on the weekend.

Yesterday was probably the worst food day I’ve had in a while – and I don’t mean in terms of yumminess but in terms of healthiness. I decided to get some Varsity (at the airport!) before I left Atlanta, and it was so good. And so bad for you. Then last night, I went to the Toronto Argonauts game (part of the Canadian football (not soccer) league), where I enjoyed my first experience with Smoke’s Poutinerie on this trip. So good. I’m kinda hoping for a poutine-a-day, but we shall see.

The airport was boring, but I started reading one of my books, and by the time I got off the plane in Toronto, I was through 80 pages of it. Only 300 more to go! The flight itself was uneventful. Shorter than I expected. And a small plane – only 4 seats across, and with an aisle between seats 2 and 3. I had an aisle seat, despite being given a window seat at check-in. They had given me a seat in the last row of the plane, so they assumed I’d prefer a seat over the wing even if it meant being the aisle. They were right. I got off the plane in record time.

The Customs and Border folks were also very efficient. A machine, then a physical person to inspect the printout and ask a couple of questions (but not behind a glass booth if you’re American or Canadian), get your bags, and then turn in the printout before you leave baggage claim. If I hadn’t stopped to use the facilities, I would’ve been out of there in less than 5 minutes. America could take a lesson!

The airport in Toronto has an express train to the city center, stopping at 2 other places along the way. If you stop at one of these places, you pay basically half the price of going to the center. As it turns out, it was quicker for me to take the 2^nd stop and then subway over to where I’ll be staying – the University of Toronto. The train was clean and fast. The subway wasn’t in such good shape, but it wasn’t dirty. And finding the appropriate subway station after exiting the train station was an adventure. No signs, a good bit of construction, but it is findable. I bought a weekly transit pass, so now I’m good to go on any of the forms of public transportation around the city.

I’ve stayed at this dorm-stay before (last summer), and it was nice to find that they still had some rooms available. No frills – just a bed, a place to leave your stuff, and a community washroom (yes, we’re in Canada, so don’t say bathroom). It does have an a/c unit, so that’s a perk. And this year, my room has a view of the cityscape. I don’t intend to stay in it very much, but it’s good to have a home base.

The rest of my first day revolved around the Toronto Argonauts. First off – the Argonauts? Yep, they’re proud of their knowledge of ancient literature here. Their mascot’s name is even Jason – get it? Jason and the Argonauts? I saw no golden fleece, but I’ll let that slide. They play in BMO Field, which is also home to the local soccer club. My biggest gripe is that there was no time posted for the gate opening. The game began at 7:30, and I was there probably around 5:30. I had settled into my dorm, walked to the streetcar stop, taken the streetcar, and then meandered around the nearby Horse building (art deco!) at the Exhibition Place, a complex that hold all kinds of buildings for mass entertainment. So I had already taken my time to get to the stadium for the game. I was getting a little hungry, too, so maybe that had something to do with my growing impatience.

But 5:30 passes without the gates opening. Then 6:00. Meanwhile, the line to get in has been growing steadily since I arrived. Only a dozen or so people around 5:30, which is why I stuck around – why else would all these people be queuing up if they didn’t expect to get into the stadium soon. I guess “soon” is relative – 6:30 passed without being let in, and I was beginning to question my sanity. Was it now worth the $20 I had paid for the ticket to this game? Oddly, at 6:35, the gates opened. What a random time. Noted – 55 minutes before the start time.

They were giving away Doug Flutie bobbleheads at the door – I had no idea they liked him so much around here. But I quickly found out why: the festivities for the evening focused on the 1996 and 1997 teams, which were headlined by Doug Flutie, because they won back-to-back Grey Cups (the national championship) those years. Who knew? They knew. I did not.

The stadium wasn’t all that impressive, though maybe it was if you had only experienced Canadian football. That’s not meant to be a slam; I’ve just been to quite a few stadiums in my time. Anyway, I walked around, found some food and began to look for something with long sleeves. This genius went to Canada and brought no long sleeves. The temperature isn’t particularly low, but there’s this big lake next to Toronto, so the winds are fierce. The cheapest thing they had at the stadium was a sweatshirt for $70. No thanks. The hot food was sufficient, and once I got to my seat (3^rd row from the field), the wind wasn’t too bad. I sat next to this kid who looked just like Tye Sheridan, but I didn’t tell him that because that would’ve been creepy. On the other side of me was a fellow engaged in zoom photography of the game. I remember when I used to do that. But the fans were never rowdy (and there were Ottawa fans – the opposing team – all around our section). Some of the rules were weird to me, but once I understood that there were only 3 downs (not 4), there were TWO 50-yard lines, and that you can earn 1 point on a FG just for getting it into the end zone, things were okay. It wasn’t pretty exciting in the first half, but the second half was much more entertaining. The home team pulled off a last-second win with a FG as time expired, ending up on top 27-24. That looks like a normal American football score, but there was a time in the 2^nd quarter where the score was 12-1.



After it was over, I raced back to the streetcar, only to find the one I needed pulling away as I got through the gate. 10 minutes later, another one showed up, but I was accompanied by 300 of my closest friends. After imitating sardines for about 20 minutes, we arrived at my stop. While on the streetcar, two things happened of note: first, the streetcar lost power while we were waiting at a traffic light, so imagine a crammed tin can with people just wanting to get home around 11PM; second, three 10-year-olds were squeezed next to me, and once they saw my Doug Flutie bobblehead, they went in about how they didn’t get one, didn’t see where to get one, etc. One even did some over-the-top pretend waterworks, and some nice person gave him theirs. They had been aiming it all at me, but I kept mine. Until I got off the streetcar. I handed mine to one of the other kids and asked if he wanted it. I couldn’t really see keeping that thing for the next 9 days, lugging it around and then not doing a damn thing with it once I got back to Athens. So I was a nice guy, but it wasn’t entirely altruistic.

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