Toronto, Part 1

So the flight goes well (ipods really are lifesavers in so many different ways) and I arrive in Toronto on time. Once there, I proceed thru Customs (try explaining that you're coming to Canada, don't know anyone and have never been there before to a Customs agent while looking like Grizzly Adams...luckily, he let me through after a few more questions). From there, I try to figure out how to get to the subway station, and find a volunteer information station. I talk to a nice older gentleman, who explains to me how to get to the express bus that will take you to the Kipling Station at the end of the subway route. He notes that I'll need exactly $2.75 CA. I hadn't converted any money yet, and honestly, hadn't done much studying on Canadian currency. So he offers to exchange $20 for Canadian (I didn't try to convert...at that point, the American Dollar was not worth much more than the Canadian Dollar). He explains the Looney ($1 coin), the "Two-ney" ($2 coin) and the various bills. They looked so foreign, but I guess that makes sense. So with $20 CA in my pocket, I proceed on the airport shuttle and make it to the subway, and then onto my stop at Spadina Ave.


So I get out, and start walking to my dorm along Spadina. So far so good, the city feels pretty clean, safe and urban. I get to my dorm, Wilson Hall as seen to the left:

Interesting Spelling...

So anyways, I get up to the 5th floor and find my room. Now, I guess I was a bit spoiled in College, as my dorm was a 2 person room, so it was larger. There was also a refrigerator, a sink, etc. This room...not so much. I was very happy that I had an ethernet connection (I had brought my laptop for researching, as well as transferring pics from my camera so that I didn't run out of space on the camera. But here's a couple of pictures of the room for good measure:

Now, obviously, there's not much for me to do in my dorm, so I set out to find some food and walk around for a bit. By this time, it's around 4 or 5pm, so not quite dinner time, but getting there. I'd done some research and found that there was a good strip of restaurants, shops, etc. on College Ave, which was only a few blocks away from campus. I start walking and come across some nice buildings along the way.In the picture on the left, you can see the CN Tower, which is the largest freestanding tower in the world. While not quite as scenic as the Space Needle in Seattle, it still is pretty awe-inspiring and serves a point of reference no matter where you are in the city. Now, I also must warn you that I'm sort of a skyline slut. I love big buildings, especially those that are unique and/or synonymous with a city (think Transamerica Tower in San Francisco, the Vagina building in Chicago, the Space Needle in Seattle, etc.). So this will not be the last time you'll see the CN Tower. In the center photo was an old, ivied building that was in the center of a little circle road near campus. I must say, the campus is particularly beautiful, and had an interesting mix of old gothic buildings and newer, ultra-modern buildings. More on that later.

So I make my way to College St. and start looking for the few restaurants I had addresses for. Now, College St. is probably approx. 10-15 blocks of various restaurants, stores, etc. Surprisingly, I didn't find a whole lot of super-interesting shops or anything that just really made me want to go in, so I mostly just stuck to walking and people watching. For some reason though, there was an overabundance of computer repair stores (I'd estimate 10-15 in a couple of blocks). Additionally, Ipod repair seems to be very big there. Not sure what that says about the product, but I paid no mind.

I'd narrowed down my restaurant choices to a place called Utopia Cafe (which was an eclectic mix of various types of foods, and one which I'd come to find highly recommended) and Duff's Wings. Now, don't judge me. I like buffalo wings...a lot and given the proximity to Buffalo (a city by which I hope I never have reason to visit), I thought this might be my best chance to get "authentic" buffalo wings (whatever that is). So, against my better judgement, I choose the wings. While they weren't bad, the place was very corporate like and didn't distinguish itself from any other places I'd ever been. It didn't help that when I ask the bartender (who was maybe 20 and blonde...no offense) what beers she recommended, she just kinda looked at me blankly and just named off the beers. I had hoped to try various Canadian beers while up there, yet I didn't know much about many of them. After Duff's, I still didn't. But so it goes...I did have a Guinness and some hot buffalo wings. While not great, it satiated me, considering I'd been living off airport food up until then.

So I continued walking and soon discovered if I'd walked further, there were numerous (probably better) options further down and maybe I should have waited, including Rancho Relaxo. Now, I was not going to eat Mexican food in Toronto, but I did like the idea of eating while at a spa (wait, that wasn't the same place Marge went to on the Simpsons? Doh!). From there, I wandered for a bit through the neighborhood, stepped in a few book stores, etc.

So it seemed that not much was happening that night, so I decided to hit up a local college bar (read: frat bar) on the north side of campus called the Madison Pub. I was able to catch game 6 of the Cavs/Pistons series, as well as game something or other of the Stanley Cup finals. While not the best place to watch a game, I was able to get a good seat to watch the American sport, while watching the Canadians go wild for their Canadian sport.

Overall, I have to say, I was a bit disappointed with my first day. Maybe Day 2 would be better...