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Well, Sarah and Graham have arrived safely and we are trying to pack in as much as we can. They arrived on Thursday - Sarah said she would text me when they got to the hotel and we could meet up. By 4pm i still hadn't heard anything and i had checked on the internet that their flight had got in on time - it was early! I had sent a couple of texts but i kept getting failed delivery reports on my phone. I was worried i was losing time with them so i walked along to their hotel to see if i could find them there!!
When i arrived the lady at the desk was really helpful and was able to tell me that they had definitely checked in. When she rang their room there was no answer so i thought they may be sleeping. I went for a cup of tea in 'Second Cup' and then went back to the hotel to ask the lady to ring them again!!! No joy!! so i left them a note and headed back up to the hostel!!!! As i was walking back up Selena rang my mobile to see where i was - she needed me to come back to the hostel because.........Sarah and Graham were there!!! haha!! they had been walking round the city for 3 hours trying to find the hostel so they could see me!!!! Not to worry - we were altogether in the end!
Thursday night we just spent a few hours catching up! My mum had sent a package of clothes and a lovely birthday pressie and a card from Lin. Adele and Nikki also gave sarah birthday cards for me and they were lovely - i have put them all up in my room!
On friday (14th) we met up about 11.30ish and walked up to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) to see the Dinosaur exhibition. I forgot it was March break over here so the museum was packed full of children in groups and on trips - it really was very busy!! We still got to see everything without any major queueing though. The guy controlling the queue as went in had obviously been there all morning without a break - he was losing his rag with all the parents that thought it might be alright topush in or just go in through the other door even though the rest of us were stood in line!!!!
The dinosaur exhibition was superb! Some of the dinosaurs had been entirely rebuilt from remains - and for the ones where they only had partial remains someone had done a superb job of making artificial bones to complete the skeleton. Some of the dino's that we saw - i never even realised had ever existed. There was a 'Giant ground Sloth' which was a particular favourite of mine - it made the T-rex look like a kitten!! Whats more the sloth was 3/4 built from real remains. Just one of its hind legs was as big or maybe slightly bigger than me..... i had take some photo's just of its knees aswell - the patellae were awesome Prof Selfe was at the forefront of my mind!! The anatomy of all the dinosaurs fascinated me - i really wanted to sit and study each dino a little more - the scapula of the T-rex were totally reversed in orientation to that of the human and were so much smaller in proportion to the rest of the body - and i guess that stands to reason!! I think Sarah and Graham though i was being goofy!! I would love to study pure anatomy though!!!
We then went down to the 'Darwin evolution revolution' exhibition - which was only on for march break. It was really interesting but it was more about the life of Darwin than it was about his 'Theory'. There was a copy of one of his books that he wrote in the exhibition though and a sticker that (was) and still is in canada placed on all his book - it read "....this book is based on a theory, not FACT and should be read with this in mind. The reader should make an informed decision about the content..." It was funny too because when i was looking at one of the display boxes at some fossils there was a little girl with her daddy and he was talking about evolution and what happened at first, showing his daughter all his wisdom; she then looked up at him and said "...but daddy - what about Adam & Eve???.." his response; "Ah well... erm.. well sweetheart - you see thats a different story. There are 2 stories and erm.. well.. thats a different one..." it was so funny!! haha! i love kids!!
After that we had a walk up to Mirvish village where 'Honest Eds' bargain store is - it sells everything!! Ed Mirvish was a huge figure in the performing arts and music world. He used some of his money to help out aspiring people and house them. He was a huge figure in Toronto, and was indeed the founder of Mirvish productions, which is the company that now produces all the big broadway musicals including...... Dirty Dancing!!!!!!
We then came back down to the hostel in nice time for pastalicious friday!!! It was so so so busy in the hostel, but we got served first so that was ok!!! haha!!! There was a trio of girls from Kentucky, they came and joined us for dinner about half way through - one of them sat down and with her dinner she had a can of Warsteiner - which somehow just didin't seem right. Anyway as everyone started saying what a nice meal it was she said "oh yeah its great - is the beer free too???" erm.... no!!!! everyone looked at her can of Warsteiner that she had helped herself to out of the fridge - it belonged to one of the germans!!! haha!! cardinal sin my dear girl!! I think it was Lennart's. "Oh" she said "im so sorry - i just saw you guys all had a beer so i thought it was from the fridge' Well it was but we put it there!!! Bless her!
After that just had a couple of drinks in the kitchen and then Selena came over to see if i wanted to take Sarah and Graham to see Trevor play. It was just at the top of the road and the 'Free times Cafe'. We went up with her. It was so so hot in there and we had been walking outside quite a bit through the day - so i nearly fell asleep when the heat hit me!!
Saturday (15th) was a beautiful day - once again the sun was shining and the skies were clear! I went to meet Sarah and Graham at 11am and think thet were pretty surprised that i was on time!! We headed straight down to the CN tower - i felt so excited about the weather and i have wanted to do the CN tower for a long time and I was going to share it all with 2 of my dearest friends. When we arrived at the Tower there was a huge queue - but we expected that after yesterday! As we got closer to the counter - Sarah noticed that.....the tickets were on BOGOF!! Hahaha! Brilliant! We got 3 tickets for the price of 2 and split the cost 3 ways! Oh how i love a bargain! Inside the tower the queues moved fast so we didnt have to hang around for long. I learned today that Graham is not too keen on heights - so in my mind going up the CN tower - which, stands at 553m tall and is the tallest free standing tower in the world - is a pretty brave thing to do!! We had all decided to get the tickets that allowed us to go right to the sky pod - which is at the very top!! The view was amazing and because the weather was so clear the view extends 100 miles (no joke). We then went down a level to go outside on the observation deck and also to walk on the glass floor - wow!! I loved it - all the cars and the rest of the city look soooooo tiny - even all the big business towers are totally dwarfed by the tower. Sarah and me even got Graham to stand on the glass floor and have his picture taken laying on it!!! what a dude! When we were outside it was so so cold and windy - but very refreshing!! haha!!
We cam out of the CN tower in good time to go for a hot drink, get warmed up and then go to the Hockey!! The game started at 4pm this week. I knew we didn't have time to walk along and i wasn't sure of the bus times so we got a taxi - but i felt like i was cheating!! backpackers don't use taxi's!!!!!!!
Timing was perfect - went straight to the ticket office, got 3 tickets and got to our seats just as the game was starting!! Perfect! As we were walking to our seats - there was a guy giving something away - little white boxes - naturally we all went to collect even though we were clueless as to what it was - we all like a freebie! When we sat down and opened the boxes, we had Toronto Marlies bubble head figures of one of the players! A perfect souvenir! The Marlies were playing the 'Hamilton BUlldogs" this week; the stadium was about 75% full aswell so the atmosphere was more 'buzzing' than last week. It was a good game all 3 period were pretty fast and again - there was a fisty fight!! haha! I think its part of the game. The Marlies won 4-1. There was a guy sat just behind us throwing abuse at the Hamilton Bulldogs goalie when they were defending from our end of the stadium - what a ronker he was!!! The Bulldogs strip is red with some blue on it. So theis guy was shouting stuff like "...hey Danis - you look like a lobster..." ".....hey Danis - you like a crab..that's got crabs.." Hmmm such abuse - and so relevant to the game he was playing!! Ronker - he was really loud too and kept shouting for the full 20 minutes of that period!
I hoped Sarah and Graham had enjoyed the game as much as i did - they seemed and said they were glad to have seen a real hockey match! I still can't believe they have been here with me and we've been out doing all this cool stuff together - it feels surreal! We got the bus and the streetcar back to 'downtown'. We then went to Pho Yung - the Vietnamese restaurant for tea - we were all starving! When the food arrived we weren't sure which dish was which and we also couldn't remember what we'd ordered!! One dish was a lot longer than the rest and we thought it was Graham's - however when it finally arrived we realised it was Sarah's and she had been eating Grahams!!!! hahaha!
Today we had a lazy Sunday morning - in as much as that we didn't plan to go anywhere - we said we'd meet up at 2ish and Selena had arranged for us to go to the movies with her and Trevor and Daniel and then go out for dinner. I saw Johann last night - he was keen for a sunday morning run so i said id see him at 10.30am this morning!! The weather was great today - again - we had clear blues and sunshine and it wasn't that cold. As Johann and me were on our way out - Trim turned up in his running kit - he was coming with us!! awesome!! i have started a running troop!! haha! Love it! It was funny because Trim had his 'Planet Traveler" hostel T-shirt on, i think thats what Johann and me should also wear!! It was a good run - although Johann was feeling particularly "good" so i got a more challenging run!!! I think Trim must be a natural runner because he didn't exactly struggle! He said he hasn't run since he left New Zealand! As we were on the way back i asked Trim how he found it - he said he was surprised but he was ok and his breathing was good (he has asthma) - at this point Johann cut in with".....oh - its just the bit between the ears - right?!.." He's funny but its so true! He continued "...everyone can run - its just getting off your backside and doing it!......This lady (meaning me!) got me off my lazy arse!!" I appreciate what Johann is saying, but i never did anything really - he wanted to come with me and he wants to do a triathlon anyway when he has finished his apprenticeship! But i do appreciate what he is saying! Im beginning to think there is a gap in the backpacking/hostelling market for Sport, fitness and activity!! Hmmmmmmmmmm...
Selena called me at lunchtime to say that the movie we were meant to see was no longer showing so i suggested going to the brewery as we weren't too bothered about sitting in the cinema anyway. We agreed that would work. Shannon caught me on my way to the Shower and asked me if i could work for an hour - i was more surprised than anything - if Shannon was asking then they must have been busy - she always seems to have everything covered!! Not that the others don't - but i think Shannon is maybe a little bit like me in that respect and she would rather do stuff herself if she can. Anyway - it wasn't a problem i had plenty of time to shower and change all the beds! Job done just as Sarah and Graham arrived - it was perfect timing.
In the end Daniel didn't join us at the brewery because he had gone to meet some friends in Guelph - it was a little bit annoying though because he never said he just didn't show up and we thought he was running late and so we waited for him. I decided that Me and Sarah and Graham would set of pronto because i didn't want us to miss the last brewery tour - we had to do a very fast walk down there!! As we got there Trevor was at the door - him and Selena had got a taxi down!! Anyway as it happened the tour was full and we couldn't do it!!! Pooh!! We did get free passes for the next time we go though!!
The weather was still bright but getting colder - so we all had a nice walk along the harbour front and took a ferry out to see one of the Islands. Toronto Island is split into 3 islands - in summer centre island is all open and there is a pier and a fare - but its all closed up until May and there are no ferries. So we just went out to one of the smaller islands where many people actually live - its cute. It was so so cold on the ferry though. Dinner plans went out of the window as we were all starving and so decided to get a proper Toronto hotdog from the street vendor!! It was very nice and just what i needed!! I was so hungry! From here we walked back up to Queen Street and went into a little bar - there was a live band on - they were a country band - very good. Although the guitar player was a little too keen on 'playing' the guitar!!!!!! I happened to mention that the guy behind the bar was kinda cute - so as we were leaving Selena decided to have a word - she said she has got me a date for the next time we go in that bar!!! aaaaarrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh!! I love Selena - she's great but she keeps trying to fix me up with people!!! 'Dating' seems to be a big thing over here - and its unheard of to turn up to social events without a date!! I must be a bit of an Enigma!!! Ah well!! After the bar Selena and Trevor went back to Trevor's and we went back up to the Hostel for a few drinks and some more food - we were all hungry - again!! haha!
Everyday of their stay so far has been perfect. Still thinking about everyone a lot and loving them too.
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