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Published: December 1st 2006
From the CN Tower
The sun bouncing off Lake Ontario, from up the CN tower...amazingSorry for the prolonged update. Is gonna be quite a big post, will try to update more often! I will put up some pics too, shortly...
Well I can honestly say I am having a fantastic time in Toronto! Its a wonderful city and I settled to it very quickly. I am staying in a hostel called Canadiana Backpackers, which is very nice and great fun. They serve pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast every morning, which was good at first but the novelty wore off quickly...my plan is to fly to Quebec on December 9th, then head to Montreal before Ottawa for Christmas. If the next 9 ½ months pf my trip is as amazing as the first it is going to be out of this world!
I had a quiet start, not doing much and just hanging around the hostel. Met quiet a few people, one of the first being a Scottish guy called Dougie, from Govan, who has been traveling for a while and keeps me up to date with the footie as he's a huge Celtic fan. There are lots of Aussies in the hostel, as well as lots of
Niagara at night
Great photo of the falls lit up at night (thanks Fabs!) Japanese studying English.
Went out on a pub crawl on my first proper night. Saw some nice bars but also quite expensive ones! So me and an Aussie guy called Fabs, who shared my desire to not pay ridiculous prices for beer, so we decided to buy some booze and head back to the hostel. I learned my first, in hopefully many, of international words for cheers: Kan Pai! (Japanese, pronounced Can Pie).
The next day went with Fabs (and Homer, my trip mascot) to Niagara (for the first of my two visits to the falls). We went with a tour company so saw some other sites, such as Niagara on the falls - the first capital of Canada - and a winery - Ontario is famous for it's ice wine, a very sweet desert wine produced from grapes picked at temperatures of -10 to -13. Ontario is one of the only places in the world where it is cold enough every year for this to happen, so I guess some good comes from the cold weather!
Niagara was amazing, we went 'behind the falls' and saw it both in the light and lit up at night,
The glass floor
The famous glass floor, took a while to build up the courage to step on to it! which was spectacular. Sadly it being out of season a lot of other attractions are closed, such as the maid of the mist. We learned about the high number of suicides and daredevils who go over the falls on barrels. Sadly, since we didnt have a barrel, we decided not to attempt it...
We went up into the village beside Niagara for dinner... Could not believe how 'Americanised' this place was! It was full of flashy lights, diners, tacky game shops, gift shops as well as towering Casinos and hotels! Very strange when you're seeing one of the most amazing natural wonders of the world!
At about 730 it was time for Fabs, Homer and I to head home. But not before I won the 'tacky gift' competition (that I had started amongst the tour bus) by finding a metal toothpick holder with a picture of Niagara falls on the front (and tooth picks). Naturally we went out for a few drinks after, where I would taste Rickard's Red - which to this point is still my favourite Canadian beer!
Met another Scottish guy called Gareth, who lives and works in TO as an actor, from Arbroath.
Toronto at night
The city is amazing at night when everything is all lit up, there are lots of possible pics like this... He has a flat in TO but visits the hostel often, and likes a drink or ten! A bunch of us from the hostel, Gareth, Fabs, Dougie, a German girl called Maria and Duncan (who plays the guitar) went out to a Blues bar, open mic night (Duncan played a little - very good!). I loved the live Blues music! I ended up buying the band's CD and pledged to go to more blues bars. I can now see where my love of the white stripes comes from.
The next day Fabs and I went to one of the most obvious tourist attractions in Toronto is the Canadian National (CN) Tower. It didn't take long to find it, given that it is the tallest building in the world - and one of the 7 wonders of the world. There is also the famous glass floor which you can stand upon. Fabs in his Australian confidence strolled onto it...it took me a little bit longer! But I did manage it, as well as the obligatory jump upon the glass to conquer the psychological side of this. Homer was last to make it onto the glass. Of course we asked the
Philthys
What a great name for a bar...! tour guide how much weight it was supposed to hold: '14 hippos' she replied. I meant to then ask how they got the hippos up in the lift...ah well. The lift, which goes up at 15 miles an hour was probably the worst part for me, its crazy having your ears pop in a lift. But it was worth it for the amazing photos of the sun bouncing off Lake Ontario.
Afterwards we went out for Karaoke night and Fabs last night in TO. (Will hopefully catch up with him in Aussieland later in trip) Another Aussie I chatted to on this night was a guy called Matt, from Queensland who has been traveling all over the world for a while now and is now working in Toronto. I took (and still do take) great delight in winding him up about the fact that Fosters use his countrymen in the UK to advertise a drink that they don't actually drink! Also met a couple of cool English guys - Chris and Si - who are both also working in TO and had been here for a bit. Also discovered on another drunken night out, with another cool Aussie girl
Homer
Bennie and Homer at Niagara called Laura, the Aussies love for the men at work song which goes 'Do you come from the land down under'...
I went out for dinner with Kate the next night, who lives in TO and who I met at Strathclyde when she was studying here for a year. Was good to catch up with her, and we went to see the Bond movie. Lets just say I think it is the worst 'Bond' (and I use the name 'Bond' grudgingly, as there was nothing Bond about this film) movie ever made and leave it at that...
Ive also been watching a lot of sports, as North America is obsessed with the 'Big 4' sports: ice hockey (which MUST be called simply 'hockey' in Canada), American Football, Baseball and Basketball. Ive already watched several Ice Hockey games on TV, hope to see one up front soon. Also been drinking a lot more coffee than usual, TO is obsessed with coffee shops and have a huge chain called Tim Hortons, probably the biggest company in Canada, or another coffee store on almost every block! But the hostel seems to have a never-ending supply of tea, which is good as
The Big Yin
Our view of the Billy Connolly gig, still as funny as ever... this is still my no.1 drink 😉
Then on last Thursday Bennie, one of my really good friends from back home, arrived! He managed to get a cheap flight from Tulsa as it was thanksgiving weekend. We went out for a couple of games of pool and a few beers. It must have been just after 6 and we were discussing where to go eat, when all of a sudden I remembered something I had spotted online. I was browsing online the night before, looking at what was on in Toronto before Bennie arrived and spotted Billy Connolly was in town, playing in the Massey Hall. Figuring we may be able to scrounge some tickets off a tout we decided it was worth a shot going along. We got a couple of tickets for a pretty decent price, not really that much more than face value, but as we were getting them we spotted that people were already queuing up! Thinking that since it was allocated seating, we wondered if they knew something that we did not know! So we decided to grab a quick bite to eat, as doors were 8 and it was around 7 by now..
Kiwi Matt
The New Zealand rock paper scissors champion (8th in the world)! The show was amazing! (We learned people queued up early as you could not take drinks into the theatre, although, being Scottish, we found a way 😉) Definitely a night I will never forget. The Big Yin was on top form, and Ill certainly always remember a couple of his sketches and various points in future, such as going through customs! The fact that both Bennie and I are huge fans, and that it was so out of the blue just made it that extra bit better. So after this we were definitely in the mood for drinks!
Aussie Matt had suggested we go to the bar where he works, called Philthy McNastys. With a name like that how could we refuse! We met some others from the hostel there and had a really good night.
Bennie and I also went to the National Hockey Museum, discovering the wonders of Canada's 2nd national sport. I find it funny that Canada has 2 national sports - Lacrosse and Hockey - where fighting on the field is allowed and controlled rather than stopped by the referees! Having discovered Canadians love of all things hockey, especially 'The Great One' Mr Wayne
Hooters
Me, Si, Kelvin, Salwa, Madeline and Aussie Matt (front) in Hooters! Gretsky and taken part in a variety of interactive games, in what I must say is a fantastic museum, we decided to head back to the hostel to relax with the folks there before the big Friday night out.
Back at the hostel we met an amazing guy, also called Matt, from New Zealand. Basically, Kiwi Matt's story is that one night he went down to his local pub with his mates and there was a rock-paper-scissor (rps) competition. They took part and Matt won. He then went on to win the regional finals and the national finals! His reward was a paid trip to Toronto where the world rsp championships would take place (www.worldrps.com) . Matt's tactic, he told me, was to get extremely drunk, so that it was purely random as to what he would pick and who would win, eliminating any effort to 'read' players others were making...luckily for him the event was held in the Steam Whistle brewery! He went on to finish 8th out of something like 500 competitors! I tell you, Dave Gorman would be proud 😊!
Naturally of course, I played him, beating him 2-1 in sets (a set is best of 3)...but he was sober and wanted a drunken rematch. In the rematch Matt showed his skills, absolutely hammering me 3-0! Hopefully I shall be able to play a rematch later in my trip when I reach New Zealand...
Of course, Bennie wanted to go to the CN Tower and Niagara, so I came along with him to see them again. We had dinner up the CN Tower, seeing TO at night, which was spectacular. 'The hippos are chopped into bits to make them fit in the lift' - the tour guide reliably informed me. We did a similar tour to Niagara and tasted Ice Wine again. The only down side was that Homer fell over the ledge at Niagara! Luckily it was a viewing ledge though, so he only fell a few feet and got minorly injured 😊 And our Hungarian born Canadian tour guide did inform us that Eggyshevada is Hungarian for cheers.
We also went to the Rogers Centre. This is a huge indoor centre with a massive retractable roof. It hosts many events, but is particularly known for being home to the Toronto Bluejays baseball team. There was an event held there, which looked to be geared towards native Canadians, so we watched for a bit but there were no tours.
One night we also did a centurion (I swear it wasnt my idea - it was Si's!). It wasnt quite a full centurion, with 'cigarette breaks' and I think only Si and I made it to 100, but it was still lots of fun! We also picked up another new word Na Zdravie (pronounced Na Stravie) - Slovakian for cheers, which is also very similar to Russian for cheers.
Over the course of Bennie's visit we discovered some other new words: Chuc! and Skull, which are, respectively, Vietnamese and Swedish words for cheers (spelt phonetically)! (Chuc! Is my favourite so far, sounds like your about to launch your beer at someone, rather than saying cheers!)
After Bennie left (hopefully I'll see him in Tulsa in January) Ive been a bit more relaxed and not done much. We went out for Karaoke the other night and Aussie Matt absolutely murdered Radiohead's creep, which was fun. This was Kiwi Matt's last night, but I shall hopefully meet up with him in New Zealand.
I also finally went to Hooters! Had been joking about it for a while, but one night Aussie Matt, Si, Madeline - a German girl moving to Canada, Salwa - an English girl, who lived in Beirut, but is here on on a medic placement and Kelvin - an Aussie traveler and I all went round. The food was ok, the novelty kind of wore off after about a minute, was the first time in Hooters for all of us!
Well that's me for the moment, Ill try and update my blog more often so that the next post isn't so huge!
Lots of love from Toronto,
Mich
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Kirsty
non-member comment
Can't wait to be travelling!!
Hey Glad to hear you're having a fantastic time on the first chapter of your trip. You're making me really envious and more excited every day for next September when I'll be taking off as well. Enjoy everything and I'll look forward to the next installment! Kirsty xxxxxx