Getting to know the locals

9/1/11

Really getting into the ‘authentic’ Canadian experience now. On Friday Claire and I made plans to visit the Art Gallery of Ontario and then later make our way to Casa Loma, a castle just on the outskirts of Toronto. We walked to the gallery and got in free J for their special exhibit on Maharajas. From there we moved through the gallery, finding a whole exhibit from an artist from Hertfordshire, well I was thrilled by that, Claire actually fell asleep on the couch in that room and the security had to check with us if she was ok. She is still a bit jet lagged, but it works well for staying up late!

We ended up staying so long in the gallery that when we came out we just went for a late lunch in a pub and wandered. It had stopped snowing in the night and the streets were ploughed and sludgy, but as we wandered we came across pristine parks. When Claire and I see this smooth untouched snow our eyes gleam and we have to restrain ourselves from jumping in every perfect snow fall. But not always J It just feels so good, kind of like standing on a cloud because it looks solid but when you stand on it you just sink right though like there is nothing there! So lovely. On our wanderings we found the city we had been missing, we had wondered where all the people were the day before but apparently we had been in the wrong area. We found the city hall and another outdoor ice rink but we had also found our undoing. Jumping in all that snow was too much for our boots, our feet had been cold in general but us going out of our way to walk in the snow resulted in feet so cold that they were sore and we hobbled into a starbucks to sit until they warmed up. But before getting starbucks, we had to get in there. The stupid door said automatic and im sure it had worked automatically for the people before us but I was stumped and standing in front of it waving our arms resulted in a local behind us enquiring “What are you doing?”  She walked up and opened it, apparently automatic means it closes automatically behind you :S well duh.

We did some window shopping in The Bay (David Jones) and made our way back to the hostel  through the entertainment district which was buzzing. Our hostel conveniently stores bags for free ( convenient especially because my bag was re-broken on the flight L ) so we packed our small bags and went to the subway. Caught the train to the end of the line where Adriano picked us up. As we drove to the bar the area around us looked vast and spaced out. For instance their shopping centres, like the Towers, seem to have just as many stores, but they are all on one level, making up this huge flat building. The bar that we went to was called Vertigo and was in Woodbridge, the Italian area of Toronto. To give you a picture, we met so many people who struck me as fat toni, the mob guy from the Simpsons J it was awesome. We were also introduced to some of Adrian’s friends as “he’s in the mafia” love it.

Adrian’s band is called The Union and they played a huge set of 30 songs, whilst he was playing we (listened) hung out with his friends who were so nice and interested! (One introduction went, “CJ meet Gemma and Claire” “hi” “hi” “they are from Australia” “Oh wow you just got more interesting” lol) and they got the hang of our interests pretty quick.  “Come out the front guys, it’s snowing again!” We ended the night at 3am at Tim Horten’s, a HUGELY popular coffee shop, open 24hr then snuck home to sleep like logs.

We woke the next day at midday (Claire’s response “what, 12 like lunchtime??”)and were served a lovely European breakfast by Adrian’s parents. We didn’t take too long to get going and ski coats, pants and boots were dug up from around the house and Claire and I were rolled out the door. (A note on our clothing, Claire and I have not taken our thermal pants off, but Canadians seem to find them hilarious.) And then we went tobogganing. We had a cute wooden toboggan and our hill was a snow covered water reservoir.  It is not a skilled sport so once we got the hang of sitting forwards, all 3 of us, we tried standing, standing all three (fail), backwards and superman. When the toboggan zips down the hill it sprays your face with snow and at the end we pretty much always just fell off and rolled in the snow laughing. When we got tired of that we went to a nearby forest for a walk. Unfortunately when we got home Claire’s nose was bleeding from her body being too warm, as she said “trust me to get a heat bleed in the snow! “ the visual is – Claire stripped down to her thermals standing in the garage with snow on her neck trying to cool down. When people were walking in and excusing themselves and backing out I explained that it was ok, they weren’t her underwear, this was her dressed.

Our next Canadian experience (apart from the hot chocolate and cookies served by Adrian’s mum) was dinner. We were treated to Allstar wings, a huge sports bar COVERED by screens. The main game playing was Gridiron, but some of them also had ice hockey, basketball and boxing. Each booth even had its own screen! The place offered about 100 different flavours of wings, I obviously chose the one with maple syrup on it but all that we tasted were amazing. After we dropped in on a party with Adrian’s friends again and then made our way into the city and to Adrian’s brother, Marco. He took us to a local bar, tiny, dark and funny smelling but it was fun, and then back again to his place to crash.

Today the boys had to go home and to work so at the moment Claire and I are hanging out at the hostel working on our plans for the next few days, thinking we will go to Niagara tonight.

PS. Claire has a new pet hate. Taxes. Tax is not included here on the price tags of things, we think it is about 13% but its a bit of a lucky dip when you walk to the counter as to how much something is actually going to be. This is just stupid to us! But according to the locals it is just something that you know is going to happen so you get used to it.

Oh and driving on the wrong side of the road. Freaky.

Love, Gemma