**EDIT: Here are the pictures from Toronto. More will probably be added later.
The Big Smoke
So, as you already knew from the previous post, I'm back from my 5-day trip to Toronto. I went there with my dad, who was there for business. I saw a lot of stuff while there - Hockey Hall of Fame, toured the Air Canada Centre, went to the CN Tower, University of Toronto, Queen Street, MuchMusic...While my dad was in meetings, I basically wandered from one end of downtown to the other, and I've come up with one decisive conclusion:
I like downtown Toronto a helluva lot more than downtown Vancouver. Sure, it's colder, maybe not quite as picturesque, but it's a lot more pleasant for someone walking around. I walked around for the better part of 4 days, and I probably saw only 4 or 5 homeless people. And those I did see weren't annoying, pushy, meth heads. They were usually pretty nice, and there were those I'm still not convinced are even poor, but more on that later.
Sure there are parts of TO that I'm sure are less than pleasant, but from what I saw (and I saw a fair amount), I can't say much bad about it...except for crazy taxi drivers who seem to honk at just about every person they see walking, and continue honking until you wave them off.
Some other observations about Toronto:
1. It's expensive to eat downtown but cheaper to drink. No matter where we went - from the pricey cajun restaurant, Big Daddy's Crab Shack, to various pubs, the food was pretty expensive. Probably not any different than it is in downtown Van or any other Canadian city, but since I don't eat at a lot of city restaurants here in Langley, it seemed to be more.
It was, however, cheaper to drink. I don't know why, but beer is just cheaper - not by a whole lot, but still cheaper. I think the most expensive beer I bought was $4.40 instead of the usual $5 or so. And in a lot of places in Vancouver you're looking at over $6.
2. The best food award: The aforementioned Big Daddy's Crab Shack and Oyster Bar. I'm not a huge seafood lover, but the jumbo shrimp was fucking delicious, and we had cajun fried Alligator for an appetizer...tastes like chicken, except more chewy. Also, while on the topic of food, some of the best fries I've ever had were at Wayne Gretzky's restaurant, which turned out to be about 15 steps from our hotel on King St.
3. what restaurant doesn't have free refills in this day and age?
4. There are a lot of business people-types on the streets of downtown TO. None of them have cell phones, apparently. I saw more than a few business people dashing to payphones to make important calls. I know they were talking business because I could hear them talking about things like "The Galileo Project" and things of that nature. I think that if you can afford a $600 leather overcoat, you can probably pay 35 a month for a phone. Just weird, is all.
5. Back on the subject of restuarants, the award for best name goes to the place down the street from our hotel called, Fred's Not Here. One afternoon while I was chillin' in the hotel, I decided to call them.
Me: Hi, is Fred there?
Girl: Uh, Fred?
Me: You know, the guy who owns the place?
Girl: Ooh, uh, he's not here.
Me: So then, it's not just a clever name?
Girl: Okay, bye.
(click)
Swear to God, that's exactly how the conversation went.
7. CBC's Coach's Corner tv studio(which is in air canada centre) is far far smaller than you would think. Probably no bigger than my living room.
8. The Hockey Hall of Fame is quite possibly the coolest place on earth. We were there forever.
9. Speaking of the Hall, I've scored more goals on Ed Belfour this year than any NHLer.
Two.
At the HHOF, there's a thing you can play where you shoot orange plastic pucks at a white drop-down screen. the screen has a projection of belfour on it, and he reacts to where the puck is shot. I got two past him. Maybe I've got a future as a replacement player.
But probably not.
10. On my way home Sunday, I've never been happier to be off a plane in my life. We were in the second last row of seats, right in front of this "Hardcore" Indian kid who would not shut the fuck up the whole way home. He started off my just talking loudly and non-stop to his buddy next to him about absolutely anything. And to make it worse, he talked really fast and constantly repeated himself.
Instead of just saying "Yeah." it was "Yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah!" or "Coolcoolcoolcool" or "Heyheyheyhey!"
I felt like I was in the middle of a fucking Outkast song for four and a half hours. Then, to top it off, this moron (after boasting for an hour about what a "hardcore" drinker he is) drank a whopping total of two Scotch-and-sevens before puking all over himself.
Two.
(also keep in mind these two were in those tiny, plastic, airplane cups.)
What a fucking pussy.
He also felt it was his duty to talk to EVERYONE that went to the bathroom, or walked past him for some reason. A typical conversation:
Idiot: Goin' to the bathroom?
Person: Yup.
Idiot: I was gonna go a minute ago but I let some lady go first. You know, ladies first right?
Person: Yeah.
Idiot: How bad to you have to go? Cuz you can go before me if you want.
Person: You aren't even in line, you're just sitting there.
Idiot: Yeah well I don't have to right now.
Guys like that are the reason the term "douchebag" was created.
And as for the not-so-homeless people I alluded to earlier, here's my story.
We ordered a pizza on Friday night, and my dad walked down the block to pick it up. While waiting for the light to change, he had this conversation with a homeless beggar.
Homeless guy: Got any spare change pal?
Dad: Sorry, I actually just spent it all.
Homeless guy: What you got there?
Dad: A pizza.
Homeless guy: A pizza eh? That sounds like a good idea, I think I'll go get myself one of those.
Then he proceeded to go get himself a pizza. Sure seemed like he was hard-up for cash. To further illustrate my point, I saw one homeless lady wearing jewellery and a fur coat that probably was worth more than my car. I don't know who she thought she was foolin'.
Speaking of furs, Spadina Ave. is the fur capital of the country, I think. In one 5-6 block stretch, there were the following stores: Alex Furs; Discount Furs; Spadina Furs and Wool; Uptown Fur Company; Yukon Fur; and my favourite, the clearly upscale establishment with the sign that said, simply: FUR.
I know it's cold there, but who needs that much fur anyhow? Other than homeless women of course.
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