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Toronto
I`m sure every one will tell you Canada is a great place and it is but there is a few annoying points about it (not all unique to Canada) that you should know:-
- In Ontario you can only by booze from government run outlets, not from corner shops or supermarkets and these places shut at 9 at night
- They never show prices including tax and they add a 14% or so sales tax to just about everything except water
- Like the US, tipping of 10% - 20% is expected, however unlike the U.S., Canada has a minimum wage of between $9 and $10 which applies to most bar staff, meaning they are not exactly badly paid in the first place whereas their US counterparts can earn as little as $3 an hour before tips
That`s my three gripes about Canada – otherwise it`s an amazing place with lots going on and where the people are good mix between American and British, which makes them fun but not as in your face.
After a slightly better experience crossing the border into Canada I checked into the Global Village Hostel. A hostel that could be best described as being a prison with a bar and beer garden. Luckily however it was Canada Day – Canada's equivalent of independence day. It is completely unknown outside of Canada but most Canadians get the day off work to go drinking during the day. Obviously I did my best to embrace the local customs. I met an interesting bunch of people in the back garden – Irish, Swiss, German, Belgium and Jordanian. The Jordanian was telling me some interesting stories about s***e and Sunni law, including that it is possible to enter into a contract of marriage with a woman for a fixed period which can be as little as 3 hours. The bar were also giving out what had to be referred to by law as free samples, which were gratefully received.
I didn't make it down for breakfast the following morning. My room was little more than a cupboard where the windows barely opened and I had to share a bathroom with a floor of 20 other rooms. Once I'd extricated myself from my cell / room, I took a walk down to the waterfront and had a coffee, soup and doughnut `combo`. (They don`t have meals in America – they are either Combos or `Triple Plays!`) I was then talked into a boat trip by an Irish girl (I was later to find out that the entire City was run by the Irish during the summer and has led to me calling the city To – be sure to be sure - onto). This was a tour around Toronto islands which were originally part of mainland and linked by a causeway. The tour was taken by an American girl who spoke in such an exaggerated fashion that it felt as though she couldn't control the pitch of her voice. Good tour though, and the barman also double as the entertainer as he treated us to some Dixieland clarinet. Then I spent some time wandering around the modern art museum. My favourite exhibit was a man who filmed himself pretending to be dead so his dog would lick his face. There was also a man dressed as a stag who went into a trance in front of 6 members of a Liverpool housing association.
Spent the next morning watching Germany give Argentina a good hiding which made me feel a lot better about the England defeat the other day. Then moved to the Canadian Backpackers, which felt like I had been given parole. It was quite a step up to get Air-conditioning and Hygiene.
From this point on I`m going to summarise what I got up to in Toronto as I spent a lot of time doing not a lot due to Weather, power cuts and general tiredness.
Went up to the most northern point of Toronto and up to Casa Luma. This is an old mansion / castle that was built for an English soldier Sir Henry Pellatt who was instrumental in bring electricity to Toronto and helped get Hydro Electric up and running an the falls in Niagara. Eventually he invested in one property to many and end up having to sell the place. I didn`t go in because the costumed Serving lady outside didn`t exactly convince me it was worth the $16, but I would say it looked impressive from the outside. Afterwards I went to Sushi bar on Bloor street for a spot of lunch - I could have actually been in Japan itself was it not for the fact they were playing Rod Stewart`s Disco classic `Do You Think I`m Sexy`in there. I had to stop myself calling out `Sugar...`in a gravely voice.
The CN tower was an interesting prospect. I think if you own a tall building in a major city you are pretty well set - just have to make sure the lifts keep working and to clean the windows once in a while and have someone on hand to collect the $23 entrance fee. You can of course pay extra to go a further 15 floors up, or dine in the revolving restaurant. I was satisfied with the basic package coupled with a Subway at the bottom. Having done the Empire State Building this was a box ticking exercise for sure, but I didn`t want to be the one to say I hadn`t done it. It was until recently the world`s tallest res-tanding structure at 53m, until it was dwarfed in 2007 by Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 828m.
On one of the warmer days I sacked off the idea of going around Toronto University and headed for the nearest outdoor pool with a few girls I`d met that morning one from Winipeg and the other from Montreal. They have a fair few outdoor pools in T that basically turn into skating rinks in the winter. As with anything free and outdoors it did seem to attract the local wierdos including a man who could well have been Father Christmas himself. I also discovered that my Micro Fibre towel that although highly portable and super absorbant offers little comfort for lying on. Had a BBQ at the hostel later and finished up dancing to some serious R&B with Lasers in the club around the corner.
The next day I got some cheap tickets to the baseball - Toronto Blue Jays vs Boston Red Sox at the Rogers Centre. The Rogers centre was an enormous multi purpose sports complex right under the CN tower. There was something of a gulf in class between the two as the Red Sox were up 10 - 0 after the 3rd (of 9) innings. Happily the Red Sox put out a load of youngsters in the second half to defend their lead so the Blue Jays did eventually score 4 home runs, which had previously looked like it might never happen. I made the decision not to drink at the stadium as beers were $10 a can.
Went for a Canoe trip to the Island which was a combination of around 2 hours hard work paddling in an 8 man Kayak and some of the most stunning views you will ever see of Toronto. The trip was across the lake to Toronto Island from the harbour, for the first 40 minutes, then we got an hour of lunch to explore the island. Unfortunately this wasn`t sufficient time to get the `clothing optional` beach (although such places are never what you hope for), however it did give us chance to get some island burgers from one of the fast food outlets - I would heartily recommend you get an Island burger if you go as mine was a taste sensation! It was the perfect day for it and although there were relatively calm seas in a Canoe the wake of even the smallest boats gets you moving around a lot. The trip back was the best as we paddled past the various yacht clubs on the island and got a great view of the Toronto skyline as we returned. After the trip I got back to the hostel just in time to see a healthy serving of justice being handed out to the Uruguayans as the Germans dumped them out of the world cup.
On my last night in Toronto I embarked on what was fast becoming tradition for me on the last night in a particular area – the one man pub crawl. I started off in a Jazz / Blues bar on Queen Street where one pint`s worth of Atonal Jazz was an education but probably enough for the evening so I moved on up town to a sports bar with the World Series on. Don’t let its name fool you – the World Series is in fact just an American baseball competition between the best players out of the `National`and Àmerican` leagues. I don`t know whether the rest of the world were actually invited and just rudely declined to attend or whether this was just America`s attempt to big up baseball. In the next bar (a Karaoke bar) I found some Torontonians who all worked at some other pub in town and had just headed out after work. After much messing around at the Karaoke we headed to an Àfter Hours`club, which was probably the best fun I`ve had in a while. After a knock on the door and a very thorough frisking this let club was immense fun – everyone and best of all it was probably the one place in Canada where you didn`t have to worry about sales tax - since the government didn`t exactly know it existed.
All in all I though Toronto was great, although I was a little glad to be moving on at the end one week. It felt as though it had tried to be the New York of Canada – tall buildings, harbour, Times square lookalike etc. but hadn`t quite got there. But nonetheless really enjoyed it.
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