Travel Diary

Toronto

Well I've been here a day now and it's a great place. I forgot to mention that the flight was definitely the least busy I've ever been on, which did mean I managed to stretch out a bit. Unfortunately as it was a short haul AA flight there were only 'soft' beverages offered for free and no food whatsoever bar one mini bag of pretzels.

But I digress, I got into Toronto airport a little later than scheduled, baggage came out very quickly, just they haven't thought that some people don't have Canadian coinage (and neither provide exchange facilities nor accept notes) so you can't get a trolley to put your luggage on. Whilst waiting for my mobile to start working again, I noticed there was a free phone to my hostel, so I rung them up as foolishly I'd forgotten to make a note of directions from the airport. So I got a nice bus ride which was a lot cheaper than a miami taxi over a much further distance. The bus didn't itself stop outside the hostel, just a little more complicated. At the same time an Australian, Evan, got off the bus and we'd both been told different ways by the hostel to get from this drop off to it. Seeing as he had a map, we took his route, which involved the subway for all of one stop. We really shouldn't have taken this route as they had those massive barred exit turnstiles (like revolving doors) and my backpack got stuck. After about 2 minutes of contorting I managed to free everything and get out. Then it turns out there was more walking to be done and no street signs whatsoever, fortunately a local came to our assistance (Canadians now overtake American Waiting staff as my favourite people - as they're not being nice just to get a tip, they're just genuinely nice), and we eventually found the place. And given recent events it would appear they have special offers in the month of June, so my accomodation is even cheaper, and I now get into loads of places cheaper as they made me an HI member before I had to pay, bonza.

Didn't really do much last night except for checking out a pub with Evan, not sure how good $6 a pint is, but the place had no cover so it wasn't all bad. Then played a bit of pool in the hostel and talked to some of the other residents before getting a bit of kip.

Today I went to the CN tower which is well worth a visit, I decided to go for the ticket with extras, which really were a little naff (I forgotten how bad simulators were), but the first lift up to the first viewing area was amazing, you go up a glass sided lift which lets you see out as you're ascending. Then if you've paid the extra you can also go even further up to a much smaller viewing platform (still a way below the top) and an even better view, but no signs up there to tell you what anything equates to. You don't get to go in the rotating restaurant unless you're eating so I didn't. Also in my ticket was an extra to watch a film on the construction of the tower, however for some reason they sell this option but don't open the cinema until 3 in the afternoon. So I had a little wander around Downtown Toronto, and let me tell you, with a few other tall buildings about, it's very easy to lose sight of where the CN Tower is. I eventually went back about 4 to watch the film and was the only person in there, what made this even more amusing is before it starts a steward goes through this little speech with someone on the video.

Me in the skypod of the CN Tower

The CN Tower

Tomorrow I'm off on a walking tour of Toronto, then off to Niagara Falls on Sunday and a hostel organised Pub Crawl on Sunday night.

Posted by Alexis at June 6, 2003 11:32 PM