20th September - Monday
Up early and finished off what little packing there was that needed to be done and headed up to the station to get on the train for Montreal. Lucky us got to have our own little sitting area, with free coffee, drinks and wifi. Didn't have to wait for long - like all trains so far this trip, running on time. Travelled first class to Toronto which was cool as we had drinks amd food supplied. Was about a 5.5 to 6 hour trip but went relatively quickly. Only bummer was that the wifi did not work properly so I couldn't upload any of my photos. It started working in Toronto area but I needed about 60 minutes to download photos and only had 10. Arrived at Union and fantastic, our hotel Fairmont Royal York was directly across the road. No cab needed, just rolled our gear over. Talk about grand old hotel - lovely looking. But old it is, our fridge doesn't work, no ice making machines and no wifi supplied. So all photos and blogs will have to wait until we head off to New York (oh exciting too, I thought we only had 5 nights in NY but we have 6 - wahoo). We had a tonne of washing to do so Pete reminded me we needed to take it to laundromat. When in Montreal I did a google search and found one in Queen St Toronto. So we starting walking blindly in Toronto and had to ask once to find Queen St, but find it we did. And saw a bit of Toronto - I love it already! Queen St is cool, McCaul St is funky and Baldwin st is unreal. Kinda like Sydney's Newtown. Didn't find the laundromat that I thought I had found but we asked some girl and she pointed us out to Baldwin St. We found laundromat, and God bless the lady, she said she would do our wash and dry and fold in 3 hours. So we left her and found a pub (as you do) and had a few drinkies there, before finding another, The Village Idiot, and had some more there along with a lovely pub counter meal. Got a cheap cab ride back to hotel and I came up with washing, and left Pete downstairs so he could have a cigga. It is now 20 minutes later and still no Pete, I bet he has gone walking trying to find somewhere to keep having a drink - is cool, been a long day and I am happy to chill now and get up tomorrow and walk Toronto. Originally we had planned to do Niagara tomorrow but we both agreed we will do it Wednesday. So long day but good day all round!
21st September - Tuesday
This morning we were up and made the decision we needed to get a tripod. Initially we had breakky at Easy Over and Derek our waiter was fantastic. Gave us all these tips about Toronto and Niagara and we talked for ages about his love for Cate Blanchett and Australia (we love hearing good things about our country). Walked the waterfront, found Rogers Centre and CN Tower. Only by chance did we find this underground network of shops - unbelieveable, the whole city is basically joined by walkways between buildings. You catch a train to work and walk 6 or 7 blocks to your building and not wee daylight. And of course there are a million brilliant shops. I could have spent all day in there but I had to be mindful of Pete and understand he is not a woman and doesn't love shopping. Bought myself some little black boots, Pete a belt and most importantly a tripod. The people here are just lovely. We asked directions from one guy and he basically walked us the whole way, making his father wait for him whilst he did so. So kind:) The no eating all day continued, so by afternoon we were ready for a couple of drinks before we headed up CN Tower. We also made a reservation for 9.15pm in thed 360 degree revolving restaurant. Whilst having a few drinks at Casey's I downloaded some emails (only place we could get wifi) and got the awful news that Mrs Stewy's Missy had not survived her surgery (due to be3 hit by next door neighbour car) - so sad, I even shed a tear for MIssy (and Mrs Stewy). When having a Stella noticed all these people walking down the street in jerseys, that were NOT baseball ones. Asked the question, as I do, and found out that the Toronto Maple Leafs were having a fan's day where free tickets were being given away for the preseason opener. So we had a decision to make, NHL or dinner and CN Tower. We have never been to an NHL game, obviously, and CN Tower would be there Wednesday night, so Ice Hockey it was. But the horrible thing, when we got there (all of 1 block away), was you had to get on stage and do stupid things to win tickets. I wasn't about to do that, so I sidled up to the stage entrance and asked what you needed to do to win tickets. Was told what I just said so I said, well I am from Australia, we don't have ice, would that do. and God bless her, the promo girl said here take these and run! LOL, so I did - we were in! And what a night -we loved it!! Sat beside Dan and Steve (and their children, who incidentally just got married), and Dan was great, he explained everything to us - I actually think he enjoyed doing so. The poor old Maple Leafs got flogged by Ottawa 5 zip. One step up from our seat was an exit, that led to a bar, food and the cleanest public event toilets I have ever seen. The game was 3 20 minute periods but went for about 2 hours - the players were amazing athletes - so agile on skates and tough! They smash each other all the time and some players, although very good, specifically come on to bring on the biff - brilliant!! Got home about 10.30pm and decided we needed to eat (at 14 hours earlier). Ate and crashed.
22nd September - Wednesday
It had to happen - we have had perfect weather all buy one day so the day we go to Niagara the weather puts on a show. Never mind - Niagara is all about water anyway, right? Picked up by Courtney at 8.30am but due to weather and cars, we didn't really get moving for 2 hours - time lost on trip already. Rained the whole way but the bus was very comfortable. We stopped for coffee and met Aaron. Young Aussie boy who has been travelling Canada by himself for the last 4 months. He asked if he could tag along with us - of course we said. So chatting to him made the trip go quick and before you knew it we were stopping at the Flower Clock - very nice gift from the Canadian and US Hydro guys (apparently they share the Niagara River..). Next stop, for lunch, was the town called Niagara-on-the-Lake. Labelled prettiest town in Canada and it certainly seems as though it could be. In fact, the rain made everything so wet and highlighted the beautiful greenery and colour. Took some lovely photos. Next off to the Falls and they were great! Not has tall as we expected but great nevertheless. Did the Maid of the Mist tour and had so much fun gettng wet - who would have thought? Street up town was different - such beautiful nature down in the gorge such tacky touristy shops up top. We spent the last 30 minutes back looking at falls - much nicer. Oh though I did buy Purply his spoon he requested! Long trip back to town and I am said to admit, we were knackered. We didn't get to CN Tower - in fact we both ate, watched a movie and crashed.
23rd September - Thursday
So I sadly type this whilst sitting on a train bound for NYC. As excited as I am to be heading back to New York, I am very sad to be leaving Toronto - simply put - I LOVE TORONTO!! Hindsight is a wonderful thing they say - if I had it, I would have only spent the 2 days in Montreal (so we could do Lanterns and then last day walk in park) and the other 3 days tacked onto our Toronto trip. But alas I can't and so Pete and I head off to our last leg of our wonderful holiday. 6 nights in NYC, this time staying in Chelsea. We don't get into tonight about 10pm and am a little put out that this time, business class on Amtrak, does not offer wifi, nor food service - damn!!
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