Woke up at 7, showered, packed up, checked-out, stored my luggage, ate some good pancakes, and went out to explore Toronto! First, I bought a ticket for the CN Tower at the desk in the hostel, paid $21USD, or $20CAD... Speaking of, all of toronto is good with that... Everyone takes US $$... some places will accept US$, but give change in CA$, some will give you US$ back... I ate dinner last night at a "Pita Pit", and they gave me my change in USD... But I grabbed a slice of pizza at a random pizzeria, and they gave me change in CAD.....
The hostel is only 3 blocks from the CN Tower, so I just walked... it was a bit chilly, but i guess that's expected, because it is in Canada!! Toronto is a very nice, chill, city... basically I'd call it a mini-NYC... it's got chinatown, its got a theatre district, and its even got a lot of skyscrapers and all those neon and video billboards like in Times Square... but nevertheless, you can definitely tell you're in a foreign country, just a completely different atmosphere... Canada is right along with Europe in terms of recycling... on almost every corner there is a contraption with different receptacles, for glass, paper, and non-recyclables...
It's quite the adventure in itself just getting past security at the CN Tower... you go through this contraption which
looks like a metal detector, but lo 'n behold, it hoses you down with air... it blasts this air at you from every angle, your entire bodylength... damn well scared the bejeezes out of a little girl! You walk in, and doors close around you... I got in around 9:45, so there were no lines... especially nice since I bought my ticket right at my hostel, and it was reduced rate... I went straight up... its about a 40-second elevator ride, with windows facing the outside... When you get to the top, theres the look-out level... and a restaurant. There's also an outside section on the floor below, which was at first closed due to weather condtions, but on my way out, they reopened it so I went outside... and
after weather conditions settled down, it was still very windy ^^ On this level, there is also a section of the floor removed, and filled with glass, so you can walk on, the , uh, floor... it's really neat!!!
After this I just roamed around the city... caught the Subway north, andgot off and walked to the Eaton Centre, a verrrry large mall structure! Window-shopped, then headed back out on the street... Here there was a man who was making realistic chalk-paintings! Walked around some more, visited the University of Toronto, walked through Chinatown, ate some Toronto pizza, and got yelled at by a pedestrian! Get this... talk about culture clash... in America it's ok if you're at a crosswalk, and the light is green, to just go ahead and walk across the street if the street is clear! But I guess in Toronto you
must wait until the light turns Red and the little white hand in the light box begins to wave you on... because I just walked when the hand was still red, and they were not very happy! But they probably figured I was just a tourist, because walkin' down the toronto streets, all you hear is a variety of random languages, quite interesting!! Quite a multi-kulti theme. Then I walked around some more, and just worked my way back to the hostel and arrived back here around 2pm-ish... grabbed my luggage, and here I am! Just relaxing before I catch the shuttle bux at 4:45 to the airport...
PS: Toronto's Chinatown is very wimpy compared to NYC's!!
“Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation.” - Elizabeth Drew
