Toronto, day 5

It's Friday now. Let's see if I can remember what I did on Monday, my last day in Toronto.

For breakfast, I'm pretty sure I went to Tim Horton's and got a croissant again with a bottle of OJ.

I probably just hung out at the hotel in the morning.

For lunch, I was going to go to that one place where I got that quasi-veggie sandwich the other day, but I opted the burger joint across the street. Mmm, hamburger. . . .

Afterwards I headed to Chinatown. I took the 510 light rail to the end of the line, then walked back towards Chinatown, about a mile and a half trek. It was a nice walk -- had to cut through the University of Toronto. I did some window-shopping.

In Chinatown (obviously), probably comparable to the Gate in Philly's Chinatown.

I grabbed an early dinner at a Northern Chinese restaurant. I ordered shrimp stir fry. It was interesting, to say the least. About two dozen shrimp, a little ginger, and about a dozen pieces of cucumber (they only served the outer edge, didn't include the seeds; seemed to cut one cucumber into five pieces) . . . all in a buttery sauce.

I then hit a souvenir shop and bought some stuff for my nephews for their birthdays and Christmas, and something for my mum on Xmas. Interestingly, it's the shop I went into first a few days ago. I checked out other joints, but this one had everything I was looking for.

Then, I dropped everything off at the hotel, did my back stretches, and headed down to the TIFF theatre again. I saw Honeyland. It was amazing! Didn't think a documentary could be that good.

Toronto, day 4

For breakfast I headed to the Tim Horton's again. Got a croissant and OJ.

Spent most of the morning at the hotel.

For lunch I went across the street and bought the same burger as I got one of my first days here. Chased it down with a can of Pepsi.

In the afternoon I went down to Chinatown. It was OK.

In Chinatown, outside Kung Fu Tea.

For dinner I walked down to an Italian restaurant, Vagabondo. I ordered eggplant parmesan and hot green tea. It was all right. Could have used more eggplant and less cheese & tomato sauce.

I then went back to the hotel and headed down to the area near Second City.

I stood in the longest line at Sweet Jesus for a vanilla cone. This time I got rainbow jimmies, or as they call them up here, "sprinkles".

Afterwards I caught the 8:35 showing of a movie from Mexico, Tigers Are Not Afraid. It's a horror flick that's two years old. I had trouble following some of it. Maybe some of it was lost in translation. Though, I can see why that Hellboy director gave it a blurb: Tigers is a lot like his Pan's Labyrinth where the fantasy element is probably not real and all in the girl's head.

The TIFF movie theatre, where I saw Tigers Are Not Afraid. Beautiful inside! I can see why, next to Sundance, it's a vanguard in indie cinema.

Toronto, day 3

On Saturday I ambled across the street to Tim Horton's. Been hungering for a cinnamon roll lately, so I picked one up and a bottle of OJ.

The rest of the morning I hung out at the hotel. Read the newspaper, showered and shaved, and wrote on this blog.

For lunch I walked around the neighborhood but nothing was really open because this is the Financial District and they're only in business on weekdays. So back at the hotel I ordered room service. Got mushroom ravioli with sautéed kale, tarragon vermouth cream, and roasted butternut squash. It was awesome!

The rest of the afternoon I just hung out at the hotel, reading the book I brought up from the Philly library, The Five by Hallie Rubenhold and a little of that Kids In The Hall bio I bought my first day here.

Around 4 PM, the hotel dropped off a bowl of fruit because I'm staying here five nights. I wonder if part of the reason they did it is because I paid $40 CA for a $32CA lunch.

Around 5:45 PM I hit the road for the Toronto FC match. The light rail was pretty packed, though I got a seat for the 25-minute ride.

That little festival was still going on. It was a pain in the ass getting in because my ticket at the stadium was Will Call. I had to pay to get into the grounds, then I got reimbursed once I picked up my ticket.

I was in a sour mood at the game because the ticket cost me $159CA. And it wasn't even a good seat. I was on the second level and people kept marching in 35 minutes into the first match, blocking my view. I think I just may have gone to my last MLS match. The tickets keep getting more and more expensive, and the quality on the field hasn't improved much since I started watching games in '13. How do you say: Cash grab?

The ride back to the hotel was horrendous. The light rail was jam-packed. I was starting to get a little claustrophobic about halfway through, but held out. Reminded me of working in San Francisco and going home at 11 PM, squeezing into a BART train with all the Giants clowns.

In hindsight, I should have booked my return flight for Monday instead of Tuesday. Toronto is as I feared: not a nice place to visit. Too expensive and not any worthwhile tourist sights. I can see why the rest of Canada hates Toronto. I miss Montreal!

Toronto, day 2

All right, on Friday morning I slept in until 7:30 after going to bed at 11 PM. I did breakfast at the hotel. Instead of the $30CA buffet, I just ordered five sausage links and a small glass of OJ for about $14CA.

Around mid-morning I headed to Union Station, which is where I got off yesterday. I bought nine tokens and hopped on a light rail to BMO Field, where Toronto FC play. It was a bit of pain making my way to the box office because there was some sort of underwhelming festival going on. In order to reach the box office, you had to pay to enter the festival. Luckily I spoke with a manager and they let me buy an "Exelunch" ticket for $20 and I got reimbursed when I left. It was all for naught, unfortunately. The box office is only open on event days. Oh well, at least I'll know how to get there on Saturday.

At Union Station I saw this, which is made up of little Lego stormtroopers.

Outside the Hockey Hall of Fame, a few blocks from my hotel, the Omni.

For lunch I hit some joint around the corner from the hotel. I got a Firecracker: corn, green peppers, artichokes, spinach, jalapeño, green onion & cheddar on onion rye bread. They warm it for ya. I chased it with, I'm assuming, freshly squeezed lemonade. Awesome!

In the afternoon I just hung out at the hotel. I was gonna visit Chinatown, but I'll do that tomorrow.

For dinner, I hit a Mexican place a block or two from the hotel. Quesada was more fast food than authentic Mexican, but it did the trick. I got a regular chicken burrito. Regular is about half the size of a Qdoba burrito. I ate it in my hotel room while watching the news. Apparently, Toronto has a high murder rate.

Around 6:30 PM I headed for Second City. It's less than a mile from the hotel, but I have a pocketful full of bus tokens, so no big whoop.

The two-hour show was awesome! It started at 7:30 and had about a 10-minute intermission. I think the first half was time-tested and the second half was improv'd and works in progress. Obviously, the first half was the stronger of the two. They crapped on the U.S. a fair amount with one joke going something like "We're far from perfect, but at least we're not a complete mess like down there."

My seat on the top balcony at Second City before the start of the show.

One funny scene had a guy being interviewed for Canadian. One question was to describe the CFL, and the interviewee replied, "What's that?", which was the correct answer.

Another funny skit was about the Climate Crisis and two performers on the stage, with one blowing into a blue balloon, which symbolized Earth. After every line they would say, "Do you see?" Eventually, the guy holding the balloon walked into the audience, and one of the other performers appeared on the top balcony, where I sat, holding a blue balloon. The gag being that the balloon could burst at any moment. It was a lot funnier in person, trust me.

After the show let out, I got a vanilla cone at this place. Don't think a name like that would play in the States, a.k.a. Jesus Land.

I enjoyed the ice cream and walked back to the hotel.

Toronto, day 1

So, Thursday I got up at 4:30 AM. I took the bus and train to the airport. Pretty cool, only cost $8.75. Take that, Uber!

I got at my gate in plenty of time. My flight took on time at 9:30 AM. We were only up in the air for a little over an hour. It touched down around 11 AM.

I took my time getting to the hotel because official check-in time was 3 PM. Unlike in the spring, when I was in Mälmo, Sweden, I made it to the hotel without getting crazy lost. They were cool to let me check in around 12:30 PM and upgraded me to a king suite with premium internet (both complimentary).

After dropping off my things in my sweet suite, I withdrew some cash from Scotia Bank and hit a bookstore for the Kids In The Hall biography. It wasn't on the shelf, so the clerk took the elevator to the basement.

For lunch I went across to some burger joint across the street. Got their Crafty burger, which had their special garlic mayo and more mushrooms than you could shake a leprechaun at. It was delicious!

From about 3 PM to 5:30 PM, I took a nap, probably going into a deep sleep for at least 30 minutes. Despite the food, I was really tired. I went to bed last night at 10:30, and for the six hours I laid there, I didn't really sleep that well (didn't want to miss my flight).

For dinner I walked several blocks to a seafood joint called Pearl Diver and ordered fish and chips. If has heavenly! Don't think I've eaten it since vacationing in Glasgow, Scotland all those years ago. If memory serves, the fish at Pearl Diver was haddock.

Thought this was pretty cool. Saw it Pearl Diver while waiting to be seated.

For the rest of the night, I just hung out the hotel. I was gonna check out Metric and some charity event, but a ticket was CA$90. Even though the exchange rate is good (CA$1 = US$.75), it looked like a ticket for Saturday night's Toronto FC match was going to be over $100 CA, so I thought I'd spend the mucho mullah on that, since that's the centerpiece of my trip. Plus, I'm pretty sure the Metric show was sold out because they had tweeted on Wednesday that only 150 tix were left.

Some sort of Space Needle I saw while wandering around, looking for ice cream.