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Got back from Toronto last night. The train ride was uneventful, and this time the rest rooms were actually relatively clean, so score.
A quick recap of my time up north:
Got into Toronto Monday evening. Went to the hotel, worked out, grabbed dinner, vegged, slept. Met up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
darker_one Tuesday morning. We then went to the Royal Ontario Museum, the most eclectic museum I've ever been lucky enough to visit. In one room, dinosaur bones and fossils; in an adjacent room, artwork from ancient Greece. The wacky set-up definitely keep me engaged, if nothing else. After that we went to the Art Gallery of Ontario. The King Tut exhibit was a little disappointing, as there were few Tut artifacts and the sarcophagus cover that was all over the advertising for the show was not to be found (I should have known that of all things would not be making the rounds). The day was broken up with walks up and down Toronto, where I spent a lot of time bitching about how cold it was and darker_one spent a lot of time being nice and diplomatic.
Wednesday we went to the CN Tower, dubbed by someone somewhere as one of the Seven Man-Made Wonders of the World (most likely someone on the Canadian tourism board). The day was overcast and that prevented us from getting an unobstructed view from the top of the tower, but we still saw pretty damn far. And we got some great unsolicited but welcomed factoids from an employee of the tower. Turned out that January was not tourism season in Toronto (who knew?), and there were barely any other folks up there with us. The arcade at the base of the tower was empty, and that allowed us to spend some time playing arcade games (I officially reclaimed the air hockey belt for the U.S. of A.). The CBC Broadcast Center and Glenn Gould Studio were directly across the street, along with a somewhat disappointing CBC gift shop.
After leaving the tower vicinity we took the subway up to the University of Toronto area, where we walked around and located Glad Day Bookshop, a GLBT oriented store. The workers (two gents) pointed us towards the (clearly labeled) lesbian section and I found that a little off-putting (what, no browsing allowed? and way to define my sexuality for me) but it still was a neat space. Then we walked our way to a wonderful candy store, where I discovered the manna from heaven that are Jaffa Cakes (I burned through an entire box of these things on Friday...so good!). I picked up a couple of Canadian treats for the brolets as well. Then we went to the surprisingly informative Bata Shoe Museum. At $12 admission it felt like a steal. The exhibits were chockfull of information and the space felt intimate. This museum? Highly recommended.
Next came dinner, then we made our way towards Kensington Market, a place that turned out to be an unwieldy but nonetheless charming conglomeration of ethnic stores and pastry shops in the proximity of Toronto's Chinatown. I picked up my first nanaimo bar (I *love* sweet treats, but even I was overwhelmed by the amount of sugar in that thing. I still finished the entire bar, though) and gathered together a dinner of gingerbread and sugar cookies. We stopped in a Chinese bakery as well, and where I got bubble tea (what's a well-rounded dinner without taro?) and some sesame paste balls. On the long walk back to the hotel we passed by the The Rivoli, a well-known bar/performance space and one of the early homes of Kids in the Hall, and got our geek on in a comic store.
Thursday we made our way via public transportation and Greyhound todarker_one's hometown of Barrie (about an hour and a half outside of downtown Toronto), where she took me on a tour of the waterfront (stomping ground of a truly amazing Thunderbird ironwork) and we watched Spaced (new love!) until we went out for dinner with her brother and mom. Her entire family is into comics, which was great. I told her mom about the existence of Superboy, the lovechild of Lex Luther and Clark Kent. Good times. Friday we watched more Spaced and had lunch with one of her friends before I had to mosey back to Toronto and prepare for my return to New York.
Fastforward past the trip home and yesterday - and I'm here typing this entry up. I wish I'd had more time to spend in the city. I also wish it'd been warmer, because my poor New York blood could not handle the cold at. ALL. But I did have tons of fun. Just need more vacation.
( A couple of pics for those who have already 'tl:dr''d the above paragraphs )
A quick recap of my time up north:
Got into Toronto Monday evening. Went to the hotel, worked out, grabbed dinner, vegged, slept. Met up with
darker_one Tuesday morning. We then went to the Royal Ontario Museum, the most eclectic museum I've ever been lucky enough to visit. In one room, dinosaur bones and fossils; in an adjacent room, artwork from ancient Greece. The wacky set-up definitely keep me engaged, if nothing else. After that we went to the Art Gallery of Ontario. The King Tut exhibit was a little disappointing, as there were few Tut artifacts and the sarcophagus cover that was all over the advertising for the show was not to be found (I should have known that of all things would not be making the rounds). The day was broken up with walks up and down Toronto, where I spent a lot of time bitching about how cold it was and darker_one spent a lot of time being nice and diplomatic. Wednesday we went to the CN Tower, dubbed by someone somewhere as one of the Seven Man-Made Wonders of the World (most likely someone on the Canadian tourism board). The day was overcast and that prevented us from getting an unobstructed view from the top of the tower, but we still saw pretty damn far. And we got some great unsolicited but welcomed factoids from an employee of the tower. Turned out that January was not tourism season in Toronto (who knew?), and there were barely any other folks up there with us. The arcade at the base of the tower was empty, and that allowed us to spend some time playing arcade games (I officially reclaimed the air hockey belt for the U.S. of A.). The CBC Broadcast Center and Glenn Gould Studio were directly across the street, along with a somewhat disappointing CBC gift shop.
After leaving the tower vicinity we took the subway up to the University of Toronto area, where we walked around and located Glad Day Bookshop, a GLBT oriented store. The workers (two gents) pointed us towards the (clearly labeled) lesbian section and I found that a little off-putting (what, no browsing allowed? and way to define my sexuality for me) but it still was a neat space. Then we walked our way to a wonderful candy store, where I discovered the manna from heaven that are Jaffa Cakes (I burned through an entire box of these things on Friday...so good!). I picked up a couple of Canadian treats for the brolets as well. Then we went to the surprisingly informative Bata Shoe Museum. At $12 admission it felt like a steal. The exhibits were chockfull of information and the space felt intimate. This museum? Highly recommended.
Next came dinner, then we made our way towards Kensington Market, a place that turned out to be an unwieldy but nonetheless charming conglomeration of ethnic stores and pastry shops in the proximity of Toronto's Chinatown. I picked up my first nanaimo bar (I *love* sweet treats, but even I was overwhelmed by the amount of sugar in that thing. I still finished the entire bar, though) and gathered together a dinner of gingerbread and sugar cookies. We stopped in a Chinese bakery as well, and where I got bubble tea (what's a well-rounded dinner without taro?) and some sesame paste balls. On the long walk back to the hotel we passed by the The Rivoli, a well-known bar/performance space and one of the early homes of Kids in the Hall, and got our geek on in a comic store.
Thursday we made our way via public transportation and Greyhound to
darker_one's hometown of Barrie (about an hour and a half outside of downtown Toronto), where she took me on a tour of the waterfront (stomping ground of a truly amazing Thunderbird ironwork) and we watched Spaced (new love!) until we went out for dinner with her brother and mom. Her entire family is into comics, which was great. I told her mom about the existence of Superboy, the lovechild of Lex Luther and Clark Kent. Good times. Friday we watched more Spaced and had lunch with one of her friends before I had to mosey back to Toronto and prepare for my return to New York. Fastforward past the trip home and yesterday - and I'm here typing this entry up. I wish I'd had more time to spend in the city. I also wish it'd been warmer, because my poor New York blood could not handle the cold at. ALL. But I did have tons of fun. Just need more vacation.
( A couple of pics for those who have already 'tl:dr''d the above paragraphs )
