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Published: August 18th 2008
So I ended up in Toronto (or Tronno to the locals) early because my plans for Washington DC and Boston kinda fell through. I’ve booked three nights in one hostel and two in another, because that’s all I could get. When everything is this busy, I’m taking what I can get!
What I didn’t realise until I got here was that my Greyhound pass ends on the day that I had originally planned to go to Toronto, so I’ll have to come back here then anyway, or pay however many hundred dollars for a ticket to Boston, then to Toronto. I was only doing Boston because I had time and someone had told me it was nice, so I’m not too fussed. I’m still going to Washington DC, so I’ll see the White House and stuff. Woo! So this update on Toronto will be pretty dull, because I am trying to save all the touristy stuff for the next time I come, which is for about ten days. Will be kinda nice to have a bit of a break from sightseeing for these five days!
So I took that bus from Chicago to Toronto, a 12 hr ride. One of my shorter rides! The bus was packed, I think they would have needed a second bus for the amount of people waiting. It was the midnight bus, so I thought there wouldn’t be many people on it. So wrong! There was a screaming baby on there too. He was so cute, but had a shriek that I’m pretty sure I’ll never get out of my head. I had just bought new earphones that seem to block out all the noise around me, but they were no match for the wailing that this kid was doing. Good god. Then on the last leg of the ride a guy sat next to me who had just cycled from Toronto to Vancouver, and had flown back over to this side. He was big on couch surfing, and had nothing but good things to tell me about it. It sounds kind of interesting.. For those of you who haven’t heard about it, there’s a website that you become a member of, and you put up your house, a room, a couch, whatever you have, and make it available for people to stay at when they come to visit your town. In turn, when you are going away, you get on the site and request to stay at people’s places in the town you’re going to. It’s all completely free, and you get to meet locals, which as I’ve found, is not so easy when you’re staying in hostels. You meet a lot of international travellers, but not too many locals. Will have to look into it I think!
The hostel I first stayed at was really nice, it was called Clarence Castle, and was more like a big house than a hostel. It only has 30 or so beds, whereas most hostels will have hundreds. The beds were the most comfortable I have ever been on in a hostel, good enough to have as your own bed at home. I was on the top bunk and I still slept well. It was really weird though when Carrie, the Welsh girl that I went out for dinner with in Quebec city, ended up being in my room. Such a small world! Was good to see her again. The first night I was there I met up with Erin and Vanessa for dinner. Hadn’t seen Erin since Calgary five or so weeks before, and Vanessa since Montreal 3 weeks before, so it was good to see them again.
The next day I didn’t do a lot, caught up on writing blogs, as I was pretty far behind. I walked down to the waterfront, and not much else. I found out that Lisa was in Toronto, which was awesome cause I didn’t think I’d see her again until Calgary in October. Good thing things didn’t work out with Boston/Washington! So we met up that night and went up the CN Tower. We were told that there was a 40 minute wait from when we bought our ticket to when we’d actually get up there, but that flew by. The elevator has a glass floor, front and sides, so it’s fun to go up and down in. Not so fun for those with a fear of heights though! It was a pretty cloudy evening, so we couldn’t actually see much from the top. The sunset was still pretty though. I had my camera set on the wrong setting, so none of my photos turned out exceptionally well. There’s a few levels to the observation deck, Lisa and I got the cheapest ticket, so had access to two levels. The first level was like a regular observation deck, with glass windows. The other level had a glass floor section, and an outdoor area where you look out through wire mesh. The Calgary Tower has a glass floor section, and I was told that the CN Tower is better, so I expected it to go all the way around. In reality it wasn’t much bigger than Calgary’s glass floor, but the tower is much higher. Lisa was scared to go on the floor at the start, but eventually got the guts up to do it. After the tower we were supposed to meet up with Erin for a free concert at Dundas Square, Hedley were playing. By the time we got there though, everything was packed up. Let down! So we just wandered the city then said our goodbyes. Lisa was moving to Calgary the next day, so now I really won’t see her til I get there in October!
The next day I had an even lazier day, just wrote postcards all day (another thing I was very behind on). I met up with Rodger at about 4, and took my newly acquired extra suitcase with me. Rodger had kindly agreed to keep it for me til I come back to Toronto in September. We went on a search for this concert that I had heard near my hostel, which actually turned out to be some pre-game party for an NFL game that was on that night, and you had to pay to get in. No thanks. So we went and had dinner and drinks. I had a few of the greatest Pina Coladas ever.. So yum. Then we went to the theatre to see a show called Evil Dead: The Musical. I had never heard of it but apparently it’s based on a trilogy of movies from the eighties. It was hilarious. Fake blood went everywhere, all over the audience too. We chose seats that were out of the “Splatter Zone”, where everyone gets covered in the fake blood. By the end of the show I wished we had have gotten seats there, because everyone that did was getting awesome photos with them covered in this blood. We then had a drink or two at the theatre bar, I had yet another delicious cocktail. Torontonians (?) sure know how to make cocktails! I told Erin that it tasted like sex, which confused her.. But I had just run out of characters in my text message, wanted to tell her it tasted better than sex. God, I can only imagine what she thought this cocktail might have tasted like!
The next morning I had to move to another hostel, as the one I was in was fully booked. Dang. I chose one that was right around the corner, Global Village. When Erin had told me that it was owned by the same people who run Samesun in Vancouver I was a little worried, because I hated that hostel. It’s not too bad. I think that’s because my standards have gone down slightly since staying in all these hostels over the last few months. You learn that not all hostels are going to be set out in the way you like them. When I stayed at the Samesun in Vancouver I had only ever stayed at the HI there, and that was an awesome hostel. I couldn’t check into the hostel straight away, so I went and got a little retail therapy. I held back quite a lot, because I need to save all my shopping for New York, I really don’t have the space in my luggage to keep shopping in the way I have been. I still managed to get away with a top, 5 pairs of earrings and a book though. So much for restraint! I also killed time by seeing Step Brothers. Pretty good movie! I’m so used to going to movies by myself now, it doesn’t bother me. 6 months ago I hated the idea of it!
I went back to the hostel and checked in, and a guy offered to help me with my bag up the stairs. I don’t quite know how it happened, but I tripped up the top stair. I think it was because I was slowing down to balance on the top stair, but the guy kept pushing my bag, and away I went. It all happened in slow motion and I didn’t quite fall down, nor did I hurt myself, but it was embarrassing as hell! I met one of my room mates, an older lady, maybe 50, from Victoria on Vancouver Island. She was effing crazy. I thought she was normal at the start, and we had a bit of a conversation about where we were from and what we were doing in Toronto, the usual. After that she took off on her own tangents, I didn’t need to mutter a word, she was quite happy having the conversation by herself. I told her that I had been to the CN Tower, but then she described it in detail to me. The same with Victoria, I told her I had been there and liked it, and she started rattling off what I should do when I go there. There was no point interrupting her, she couldn’t be stopped! Then she asked how long the flight from Australia was, and if I was tired from it.. Completely forgetting that I had arrived here months earlier. THEN she asked if I was Welsh or English. What the eff!? She talked at me for 90 minutes. My phone had gone off a few times and I had ignored the texts, to be polite, but in the end I forgot about politeness and started texting people back. She was a nightmare. An Irish girl came in the room and was friendly with me, but seemed wary of her.. She had obviously been trapped by her already. I had planned to go down to the bar, but when she said she might come I was trying to think of any excuse not to go down. She ended up doing her laundry instead, thank god, and I went down to the bar.
I guess it was still early, but the bar was not packed at all. People were in small groups, which can be intimidating, so I got a drink and sat by myself. Awesome! I went outside a few times and spoke with people, but always ended up back at the bar, as I do. The first person I spoke to for more than five minutes was Simon, who was from here. He seemed nice enough at the start, and bought me a drink. He then started saying some weird and inappropriate things, which was a little socially awkward, so I told him I was waiting for a friend when he asked me to go for a walk with him. I saw the guy who had played a part in my falling up the stairs earlier, turns out he is from Frankston, here playing in a band and working at the hostel. Pretty cool guy. I was then speaking to an older man from Zimbabwe for quite some time, then a guy from France who didn’t speak French? OK sure, liar! Then for the rest of the night I was speaking with this guy from New Zealand, who looked exactly like the lead singer from Nickelback. He was a nice guy, and we watched the AFL together.. He had a hard time understanding it. The game ended and it was bed time. Got to sleep at around 3am.
Crazy lady from the night before turned the light on at 7:30, and then had a go at me later for turning it off once she had left, because she can’t reach the cord to turn it back on again. It’s one of those old style ones attached to the ceiling fan, so there is a switch on the wall that will turn the whole thing on and off, or you can use the cords to control then fan and light. She basically wanted me to have both the fan and light on, or nothing at all. She’s going to be a pain, will have to avoid her from now on! Felt a bit hungover, so blogged, watched a movie and read my new book all day. I did leave the hostel to get some food, but came right back and changed into my pyjamas again. A girl that I had spoken with at Clarence Castle arrived in my room, so that was weird!
Around 5pm I finally decided I would have a shower and get a move on, I was meeting Erin, Vanessa and their friends for drinks. Erin originally said we’d meet around 8, but that soon changed to 8:30, then 8:45, then 9:10. By the time they got to where we were meeting it was about 9:25, hilarious. I didn’t mind, because my book is a little addictive, so I got to keep reading. We went to a restaurant with the cheapest food on record. It was nice too, and they had an extensive list of cocktails, which I set out to conquer. Didn’t quite get there, but made a go of it! I was expecting more of a pub/club, but still had a good night! Got home at about 2, tried to be as quiet as possible, which never seems to work.
Work up before my alarm the next morning, because Mrs Crazy turned the light on once again. I’m so glad I don’t have to stay with her any longer. If she arrives in another hostel that I am at randomly, I am changing. She’s so annoying. I packed up all my stuff and stored it. The boy who pushed me up the stairs checked me out, and I fell a little more in love.
I rushed to the movies, as I really didn’t feel like doing much (sore belly) and one of the theatres offers $6 movies before midday on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I saw Mirrors, which was supposed to be scary. I didn’t scream, jumped in some bits, but it was relatively crappy. They left it open for a sequel too, so I won’t be rushing to see that one! Then I dawdled around and went back to the hostel. Erin had finished work, so I met up with her, did a bit of shopping and gave her the peanut butter m&ms I had bought for her and Vanessa. My stomach became unbearable, so I came back to the hostel, and now I’m just killing time til my 11pm bus to Washington. It’s a little weird, I could get a bus as early as 7:30, and still get to Washington at the same time as I will if I get them 11pm bus. I’d rather wait at the hostel for a few more hours than have an unbearably long layover in a Greyhound terminal!
Will update from Washington
Kirsty xx
P.S Sorry about the lack of photos, will put more up next time I’m in Toronto, I promise!
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Kat
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Holy Blog Entry!
I like commenting on your photos on Facebook better. So keep them coming plzkthxbai. LOVE YOUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!! MISS YOUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!! xxxoooxxxoooxxxoooxxxo