Sunday 24 May 2009

Toronto Day 2

Body clock adjusting, but not quite there yet, awoke at 04:30 still very tired, but obviously not going back to sleep again, now something that I didn't mention yesterday is that I came over without a plug adaptor, foolish I know, however Canadians like Statsians? seem to believe that not having an earth is good for the soul. So there am I with a need to be surrounded by sound without the ability to make it for more than two nights (thanks to the two walkmans that I bought with me).

So got up washed and brushed and nipped outside for a fag, on the way asking the reception desk if they had an adaptor I could borrow, yesterday this produced a "huh?" as if the idea of a different plug style were incomprehensible, today it produced a "no", now this is a big hotel, I would bet money that some Brit had been here and left their adaptor behind, and I would put more money on the fact that the hotel hadn't sent it back to them, I know I have been that idiot in more than one hotel in my time. Anyway it was suggested that I pop to "Shoppers drug mart" who may be able to assist. I asked the chappie when they would be opening and suggested a time of ten am what with it being Sunday, he aquiessed with this suggestion, however when I went for a walk (for something to do) I discovered that they were 24/7, and also looked at me as if I were insane.

I did however learn that if I had turned left instead of right I would have discovered a much nicer area of Toronto than I did last night.

Eventually I went back to the hotel to try their breakfast as Wendy's wasn't open and I didn't fancy Mickey D's. Now I have a rule that the bigger the hotel the crapper the breakfast, The Westin in Berlin proves that I am not always right, best breakfast I have ever seen, however in this case the hotel lived up to the rule. If there is one thing that Canada is famous for it has to be Canadian bacon, if I were Canadian I would have renounced my citizenship over what they served up, I was damn tempted to renounce my English heritage over the abomination they called an English muffin. I cannot tell you what the eggs were like as they "were not serving" eggs when I was there. Thinking back the Marriott in Paris was equally bad at breakfast, go to a fast food place at a tube station, and pay 90 cents for a fantastic croissant, pay 16 euro at a top hotel, and get something that is just terrible, it couldn't even in conscience be called a croissant. To sum up if you are ever at the hotel I am staying at in Toronto DO NOT eat breakfast there.

After that disappointment (and brekkers is my favourite meal of the day) I did a little more ambling, arrived back to the hotel to book a "tour of the city". When the chappie finally deigned to turn up he told us that this was the first time he had done this route with paying customers, and that he had only done it once as a practice. So what can I tell you about Toronto now? Well from what he told me Americans are all bastards, the British are worse and that it gets cold in the winters. I could almost tell you chapter and verse of his life, his wifes life, his father in laws medical conditions, his children (he made sure that we saw the colleges they went to), his grandchild (and his taking her to see Dora the Explorer), and not a sodding thing about the city itself. Normally I book myself on the double decker bus tour (or trolley car tour in Boston) because one can get on and off as one wishes, if one gets a duff driver there will be another one along, and you get a view so there I am in a minibus and he says look up to the left, well I have no f***ing chance of doing that because the structure of the B***dy van is in the way. Biggest waste of twenty five quid in my life (including taking whatshername to Ritzys in Kingston).

About oneish the "tour" finished, and I managed to get dropped off at the Eaton centre, walked through the door, and was enraptured by a fountain of water. On the level below the one I was on there was a medium sized fountain, and every now and again it shot a geyser of water about twenty foot in the air, it was gloriously beautiful. I then started to walk around the centre, which is most impressive, so many shops, so much to see, I didn't even manage to find the Canada Geese! Went to the food court and had a bubble tea (yum) and a portion of poutine from New York fries (huh?) which was not at all bad for a fast food place, I will be trying it again certainly. Then a watermelon something from a smoothy bar which was very nice sort of wish I had ordered the small portion though as the standard one was on the American model (24 fl oz).

Popped into the Sony shop to ask them if I could buy a Canadian plug for my lappie, they were happy to order one for me, but as I am leaving for London on Tuesday that didn't seem like an ideal situation, then I found an electrical shop, and they had a multi to/multi from adaptor :-) Thus I am able to write a rather longwinded and no doubt dull travelogue, bet no-one reads this far though.

Then up to Dundas Square which seemed lovely, more fountains which were very pleasant, but didn't geyser. Remembering what Kim told me I decided to try a terrace bar, and so took the tube to Bloor (yes Kim had told me to go to Bay) and walked around looking at the posh shops, and eventually ended up in Hemmingways, well after my lunch I wasn't actually hungry, although I know I will regret not having eaten the Eggs Benedict, so I just had a couple (OK three) of pints, Imperial pints too! Then I walked down the road a little to Sassafraz, where I had a "Brazilian Raspberry" cocktail, and a Caiprinha, I can see why Danya prefers them to Martgueritas, however to my taste a plain Martguerita just tips the balance, and also I decided to try some cheeses, about which they seemed very proud. My only negative point of the afternoon is that if they were in France the person who looks after the cheese would have been fired. I was served CaBrie la Buche, it would have been a good take on Brie if a) It had been left to mature for another couple of days, and b) if they had taken it out of the fridge more than two minutes before they served it to me. Noyan, which is that sort of not soft soft-cheese (think St. Paulin) which was pleasant, and Comfort Cream, which came up as a thin round thing still crumbly in the middle, I didn't hold out much hope... But it knocked my socks off, this was one of the five best cheeses I have ever had, I am so tempted to go back there just to keep ordering it.

Then ambled round a bit more, looked in the ROM shop, it was about a quarter of an hour to museum closing time, so I saved the ROM for tomorrow. Sauntered a little more and caught the tube to College popped into a Timmies where I ordered a double double, and some TimBits (5 cherry and 5 apple) very nice, the apple don't quite live up to the Dutch ones (Waves at DF) however that could be because the Dutch ones are served warm.

I think that is enough for one day! Supper will be a light affair, possibly fast. The plan for manana is to get up a little later, amble down Yonge to Queens (OK probably half of it in the Eaton Centre) then up Queen to Osgoode and lunch with some interesting people, then a little window shopping and a trip to the ROM, but I don't get to use the "Are you Frisky?" line :-( .

4 comments:

  1. I read that far and then some. That adaptor intrigues me cause I have some UK hair appliances that I would like to be able to use in Europe. I need to get one of of those universal jobbies so I can just take them everywhere and quit worrying about melting.

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  2. I read that far too - and I bet you're laughing about American women and their hairdryers! :-)

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  3. Sheesh... I've been there on the 'adapter issue' going to Europe once upon a time. Funnily, when I bought my current Blackberry, they included about four different adapters that can be used in Europe and Asia. Even if I never asked for it...

    We must have walked right by each other -- if I had seen your picture over on OT before we were in the Eaton Centre, I might have recognized you. We were at the theatre at 2 pm so we popped into the Eaton Centre beforehand at about 1 to 1:30 pm to let Pene do her usual window shopping (of note, we stopped in at the Pottery Barn which is immediately beside the water fountain you stopped at). I hope you weren't the dude that elbowed me at one point besides the Dairy Queen right off the escalator...

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  4. The Source who are a Canadian offshoot of Circuit City apparently. I purchased an everything to everything adaptor for about thirty dollars.

    Pepe, we may well have passed each other I was mainly on the lower ground floor trying to persuade Sony to sell me an adaptor for most of the time though! I didn't discover the Dairy Queen until the day after so it was not I who knocked you, which is a relief.

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