Oot And Aboot
Today we wanted to have a really good look around Toronto and see all the things that had caught our eye on our first day here. The weather was forecast to rain so we thought it would be wise to visit the harbour front while the sun was still shining.
Down on the shores of Lake Ontario, we soon discovered we weren’t the only bright sparks with that idea and the queue for the boat was about a kilometre long! Oh well. We waited and enjoyed the sunshine and the atmosphere of the harbour front, which is a little like Darling Harbour but nowhere near as developed (or nice). There are restaurants lining the walk, with outdoor seating, called patios here in Canada. We are right in the middle of ‘patio season’ as a matter of fact, with people spilling out all over the sidewalk, sipping on beers and laughing in the sun! A bit further down the shoreline there was a little pond where you could hire paddle boats and a landscaped man-made beach, dotted with bright yellow beach umbrellas. Unfortunately, even on the hottest of Toronto days, it’s illegal to swim off this beach! The council outlawed it because it is too cold and too deep right off the shore and people were dying! We overheard some other tourists saying they’d heard people become paralysed from swimming in the water it’s so cold! Pity, we’d packed the cossies too.
The wait wasn’t too bad and once everyone had shoved and squeezed themselves into the small boat and it was busting at the seams, they marched us all down the pier to another bigger and even better boat. Our patience was rewarded. The boat, the “Oriole” was like a wooden ferry, complete with a café and upstairs viewing deck, which was where we plonked ourselves for the ride. It was a beautiful day with not the slightest sign of precipitation on the horizon yet. As we sailed off from the dock we got a picture postcard view of the Toronto city skyline. The first few blocks back from the mighty Lake Ontario used to be underwater but the city reclaimed the land in the 1920s. Just off shore are the pretty, sandy, tree-covered Toronto islands, which are home to a tiny airport and a historic lighthouse – Gibraltar. It’s the largest car-less community in North America (though only a few people actually live there) and everyone seems to get around on bikes. There are public moorings for boats and a cute little yacht club sits on the opposite shore to the airport. People were picnicking and filling the scattered deck chairs on the rustic docks.
The young Torontonian giving us the rundown as we sailed by the islands pointed out Hanlan’s Point, a hotspot for Toronto’s sunbaking community and “clothing optional” since 2002! I seriously thought the boat was going to capsize with everyone making a dash over to the beach side of the boat, cameras at the ready, to gawk at the nudies on the sand! The city council has said while it’s OK to strip down for a sunbake, it’s strictly prohibited to take a swim in your birthday suit. You’d have to be game anyway! With the water that cold, there could be appendages snapping off left, right and centre. No-one wants frost bite of the nether regions.
Next on our agenda was a ride to the top of the iconic CN Tower but again the queue was pretty ridiculous. We were told it would be a 45 minute wait but that in all likelihood would probably only get worse as the afternoon wore on. What can you do? It was Saturday after all. The wait was worth it and the view, as predicted, was pretty special. The lift rocketed up the outside of the tower with glass-fronted doors! We could see for miles all around and we met a gorgeous Canadian lady, Susan, who had lived her whole life in Toronto and was a great ambassador for the city she loved. She pointed out where everything was and gave us a crash course in Canadian history. She was great! There was a section of the floor that was made of glass and you could walk on it, feeling like you were strolling out into mid air and giving you the full impact of the lofty heights you were dancing on. There’s a similar thing at the Sears Tower in Chicago (a bit bigger there). It sure is freaky to step out and whatever you do, don’t look down! Sam and I both found it quite exhilarating! The photos don’t really do it justice. Rather than walk down the 1776 steps to the ground floor, we opted for the lift and zoomed down the 457m drop, feeling the g-force as we descended.
Our vigorous sight-seeing morning had left us feeling a bit peckish so we went in search of Tim Horton’s. Now Tim Horton’s is a chain of coffee shop/hamburger joints that are literally everywhere in Toronto. In fact we saw our first one at the airport. Tim (along with Starbucks) owns every corner in this town and wherever you look you see one. We’d wanted to sample their fare since we’ve been here and today was the day. Can you believe that today, out of all days, we couldn’t seem to lay eyes on one! It was Murphy’s Law! After a train trip and a lot of walking we eventually found good old Tim and the food was pretty good (so were the doughnuts Jenny!).
Our last destination for the day was Casa Loma, Toronto’s only castle, perched atop the hill on the outskirts of town. The subway here is excellent and really easy to use so we made it out there in plenty of time to see it in all its glory! It was beautiful, with a big fountain out the front and really nice gardens. Sam and I were cracking up at all the Asian tourists that pose for photos without smiling – not even a smirk dancing across their faces. Very funny (obviously not for them though)!
We heard a rumour a couple of days ago that Bruno Mars was in town but his concert was all sold out. We checked on Ebay and threw a modest bid on some tickets not thinking any more about it. Today Sam reminded me the concert was tonight so we checked to see if we’d won the tickets. We hadn’t but we managed to find some more, for $36 dollars each, and got so excited! Bruno was playing at the Air Canada Arena, just up the road from us. We headed down there with the thousand other fans that were showing us the way and found the area in front of the arena alive with buskers, scalpers and people selling cheap Bruno Mars t-shirts. One enterprising young man had made up his own white ribbon headbands, screen printing “Bruno Mars” on the front and then selling them off for $5. We saw so many people wearing them inside! Good on him.
As we climbed the never-ending stairs, the roof coming closer by each step and entering Colorado-like altitudes, we were shown our seats! They should have come with a free tissue to deal with the nose bleeds! We were in the second last row and were on the side of the stage but it really didn’t matter at all. We had some Canadian delights for dinner -“Molson Cadadian” beers, that came in really cool aluminium bottles, and some “poutine” – the mouth-watering combination of hot chips, melted cheese and gravy! Yum! The guy at the food counter was genuinely amused when I felt the need to clarify whether or not the “buffalo fingers” actually contained buffalo meat. I thought it was a fair question! (It turns out it’s just buffalo seasoning on the chicken fingers. Ohhhhhh).
The concert was fantastic and Bruno and his band put on an amazing show! There were 9 guys in the band all up and a great brass section, all dancing together with Bruno in choreographed formations. They reminded me of a cross between the Jackson 5 and the Village People! They were having so much fun and were encouraging crowd participation. Bruno Mars was cranking out some great solos on lead guitar and he also hit the drum kit and played it like a pro. He’s just so talented and is voice is unbelievable! We left there on a high almost as lofty as our seats!
Filing out of the arena we were quickly brought back down to earth when the 20,000 odd people that had filled the home of the Maple Leafs (not all of them were odd) entered the Union train station and crammed onto the very same stuffy, low-roofed platform that we were on. It was so hot and so crowded! That train could not have come any sooner! Relieved to have air conditioning at last, people were stuffing themselves in the carriages! It was like Tokyo in peak hour!
Thankfully we made it back in one piece!
