By : Scott Muc - May 14-21st, 2003 (Created as an article on April 25th, 2004)
This is a reformatted version of the vacation journal that I made in the muc-central.com forums. Originally this text was submitted as a daily turn of events while I was in Toronto for my Uncle Grant's wedding. Since I may decide to take the forum down, I chose to extract this thread from my forum and put it here.
I made it to Toronto alive! Unless you think this is some h4x0r3d IRC bot posting this. Security was a pain at the Abbotsford airport. I had to take all my electronics out which cosisted of : laptop, cell phone, cd-player, digital camera. They even inspected the RAM chip that's on my key-chain. They also double checked my school bag and confiscated a fork! I guess I won't be "forking" any more processes now! Hardy har har.
The flight was mostly cloudy, but I manage to take a few pics of the clearcuts for Shaun. I never got a good view of Toronto coming in, so hopefully I will get some good shots when I leave. If I don't get any good pics, just watch the Rush video "Subdivisions"
My overall impressions of Toronto is "Concrete Jungle". Richmond Hill is probably around 50km from the downtown core, which I guess would be similar to being in Mental... err, I mean Maple Ridge in Vancouver. The only difference is that this place is surround by these massive 8 lane freeways all over the place. We took the 407 and had to put a funky toll doohicky thingy that keeps track of the number of kilometers that the car has driven on that stretch of rode. It beeps when you get off of the toll road, and you get billed monthly!
I just finished walking the dog (Tasha) and ate two helpings of lasagna and even downed a couple Canadians (when in Rome...). It's 10pm ET, so I'm going to have a hard time sleeping tonight. Probably going to end up doing some programming on the lappie. Perhaps I will checkout what bands are in town as well. The plan for tomorrow is to spend a good chunk of the day in Niagra Falls.
Music played during the course of the day :
Hope you enjoy this mini vacation journal and keep on stoopin to a lower level y'all!
Pictures of this days adventures!
1:55am here! I guess the time change really hasn't bothered me. I was up at 8am EST (which is 5am PST). The day started with the trip to Niagra Falls. It was interesting seeing all these places that we keep hearing as home towns for famous hockey players! We took the monstrosity of a freeway (407) all the way there pretty much. It ended up turning into a different monstrous freeway (the QEW). We went past Hamilton's harbour and it's safe to say it is the ugliest city I have ever seen. The waterfront is all smokestacks and smog. It almost looked like a scene from one of the "futuristic" movies where Earth has been destroyed and has been taken over by over-industrialist beings that hate anything that lives. Saint Catherines was a much nicer looking town (from what I could see). I was totally suprised when we hit Niagra Falls. Its population is ~76,000! I was expecting a village of some sort for some reason. Because of construction we had to enter the park area through the tackiest tourist crapola you have ever seen! I took plenty of pictures to prove this. It seems like the city is gearing towards the 13 year old market. The falls were everything I expected (a giant waterfall). Unfortunately the touristyness of the place left a sour taste in my mouth...
After getting back to Donna's and filling up with some incredible Chinese food it was off to downtown. I took the subway to downtown and got off on Bloor St. which was 1 block from Lee's Palace. After finding the venue I figured I had about 2 hours until the doors open (9pm). I wandered along bloor until I hit yonge st. Bloor really reminded me of W 4th except multiply it by 10. I meandered my way through QE park and the University of Toronto. I passed so many old buildings, but I witheld my picture taking for tomorrow when the weather should be nicer. It was off and on showers today and wasn't that warm. I wasn't really deep in the business sector of downtown but my impression of what I have seen so far that it is big and open. Vancouver's downtown has a more claustrophobic feel to it compared to Toronto's. I haven't seen one drug dealer yet, but I have seen a few bums wandering around. The city is extremely clean too.
Broadcast totally blew me away. The drummer was at a Peartish level. I ended up buying their CD as well. The Newf will be sad to hear that the British chap I talked to when purchasing the CD is not a fan of NME, nor Uncut... he trusts Mojo, but it usually has articles on older bands. Lee's Palace probably holds about 300 people max. It was a fun venue and I was amazed that not one person in the crowd smoked pot! Lot's of cancer sticks were lit up and consume at a phenomenal rate, but none of them smelled like "Otto's jacket".
The ride home was rather adventurous because I sat their waiting for the wrong bus for a bout 20 minutes... hmm... good band or song name "Waiting for the Wrong Bus"... anyways... Toronto has two different bus services, and I was waiting for the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) bus, when I should have been waiting for the GO bus. I made it home alive, and Mom probably went to sleep as soon as she heard me close the front door. It's strange how she doesn't tell me to be careful when walking through the down-town east side at work but in TO everything changes
Bed time for me! Good night!
Pictures of this days adventures!
Phew! What a day! I slept in this morning and got woken up by Mom and Tash (the dog). She (the dog) wanted a walk so bad, but she doesn't like the rain... and boy has it rained! It's been a steady down pour all day plus very heavy winds. So what's my plan for the day? Spend lots of time outside
After getting up and a quick breakfast I got onto the C bus down to Finch station to get on the subway. I wasn't keeping track of time but it took a fair amount of time to get to Union Station which is located on Front Street. Even though I was a couple blocks from the water, I couldn't see it. Union Station looked very cool, but because of the wind and rain I could not get a good picture of it.
Next stop was the Hockey Hall of Fame. It's two blocks away located in the BCE Building, which had a cool corridor to walk around in. I think I spent about three hours their. Took plenty of pictures and got to touch Lord Stanley's cup (the trophy you sickos). The best area was the Wayne Gretzy exhibit. Definitely worth the $12 admission.
I decided I wanted to walk to Bloor St. and see the rest of downtown before I head to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM, and yes I kept thinking Read Only Memory everytime I saw a sign saying "ROM"). Being a Vancouverite, the rain was not an issue. I got fairly wet, and missed many good photo oppurtunites, but I did get to see a whole lot with my own eyes. I followed University Blvd the whole way almost. It later turns into a street called "Avenue Road" but I decided to boycott traversing that road because of the rediculous name. I saw many notable buildings such as : Canada Life, Altimira, Zurich Life, TSE, Toronto General, and many other life insurance buildings . The road I was following was 6 lanes and had 2 center lanes for trolly buses! Seeing such a massive road in the middle of the business district seemed odd (yet so right). Too bad Vancouver hasn't learned anything. Toronto is definitely impressive in its size. The downtown area is at least 5-10x larger than Vancouvers. One thing I have felt though is that the city never feels crowded. Perhaps it's the bad weather or my timing, but I never feel like people are in my way all the time like it is in Vancouver.
Anyways... after my 2 mile jaunt throught the downtown core, I was getting mighty hungry. The mornings Muslix and coffee were definitely spent, so I had dinner at some pub on Bloor right by the museum. I was waiting for 4:30 to come around because admission to the museum is free after that! A couple pints and a chicken souvlaki, I was feeling ready to check out my next destination.
I got to the ROM and the coat lady was laughing at me for walking from Front St to Bloor. My jacket was dripping when I handed it to her. For the first couple hours I was reading everything... until I realized I've only visited a tiny fraction of the ROM. I started skipping stuff that didn't interest me a ton. The exhibits I enjoyed the most were : insects, dinosaurs, middle-ages, and the renaissance. I couldn't take many pics because the lighting was terrible. The had a power outtage and didn't have all the power going yet. Afterwards, there was a mini Baroque style concert in the entranceway! A string quartet, and a 20 person choir played some classical pieces. Not bad considering I didn't have to spend a dime for anything!
I was getting tired so I started to go back. I managed to find a book store and hung out there for a bit, then got some coffee at 2nd cup. Got on the subway/bus and got back at around 9:30ish. Met with Donna's son who is from Port Coquitlam (5 houses down from the pig farm)... We are going to have a BBQ with him and some of his friends on Sunday.
That leads me to where I am now. The wedding is starting an hour earlier than we thought so I've decided to lay low tomorrow instead of going to the Science Center. Tomorrow we're staying at the hotel for the night then having brunch the next morning. I want to see the rest of downtown so I will hang around Yonge St (the other major downtown road) and see what comes up. I don't have much time since I must be back for the BBQ, then I am going back downtown for the Stephen Malkmus (Pavement) concert at Lee's Palace again.
I know I had more to say, but it's not reaching my brain... or perhaps my brain isn't reaching my fingertips... who knows. Probably will give you another update on Sunday.
Pictures of this days adventures!
Day 4 = Wedding day! I didn't do any sight seeing today, but it was still busy. I spent the morning walking the dog and doing some shopping for thank-you cards. The next few hours or so was spent dealing with a stupid customer who accidently sent out 100,000 e-mails when he meant to send out 20. I can remotely access the servers at work so I was just keeping myself updated with the situation.
We stayed at a hotel called the Novetel which is in downtown North York. Considering all that I really experienced of it is the hideaway bed I slept on, I won't pass judgement on the establishment. Down south a bit near the intersection of Yonge St. and Yonge Blvd. was the church. It was a very small ceremony with only about 40-50 people. Like all weddings something had to go wrong though. Uncle Danny showed up 15 minutes late. This wouldn't have been a big deal except he was driving the flower girl (Brooke) and the mother of the groom! The photographer decided to take a picture of me holding the flowers while I waited for them... Once they arrived the service started and ended rather quickly as well. Lots of picture taking then took place...
After the onslaught of pictures the reception started. Like most weddings the food was very good. Also like most weddings, the music was very crappy. I did get in a few requests though : Neil Diamond (Sweet Caroline), Bonny M (Rasputin), and Johnny Cash (I Walk the Line).
The girls then found out that Chris's camera has the preview window. Thus a good portion of the night was spent taking a picture and having them all run up to see how it looked (rinse and repeat at least 50 times).
Brooke also had some sort of strange attachment to me! When we were driving to the pictures she requested that I sit with her... which seemed odd since I would expect her to remember me least of all from Chris & Tara's wedding. Needless to say, I got lots of good pictures of all of them.
We headed back to the hotel at around 11pm and we went to bed... I had to wind Mom down since she had 2 Smirnoff Ice's in her though
Music I listened too :
Pictures of this days adventures!
Got up at around 8:30 and watched F1 until brunch. I believe it was the Austrian Grand Prix, and yes Michael Schumacer one. Kimi Raikonnen isn't that far behind him though so it looks like it's going to be a good season. Of course you aren't reading this to be updated on current F1 news though.
I pigged out at the brunch to prepare for a busy day... of course pigging out didn't prepare me very well. The girls requested that I sit with them. During this time they told me that I am never getting married... well, they said that I can't get married while going to school, I have to have a job first in order to get married (the're convinced I don't work), and that I can only marry when I am dead. Where do these kids come up with this stuff? Since the hotel is on the subway, I decided this would be a perfect point to head off to downtown for more sight seeing. I said my good-byes, and shook the girls off of my legs to venture on.
First stop is CN Tower. The weather today is finally nice, and I got plenty of pictures to prove it. CN Tower was a bit too touristy for my taste though. It's amazing that they have a gift shop the size of department store just for a large phalic building.I pretty much paid $18.99 for an elevator ride. The view is specatular, but I got the same view from the airplane. At least I can say that I've done it now though.
Since I've already seen a good portion of the western side of downtown, I decided to go up Yonge Stree today (which deduction would lead to the fact that it is on the East side). I did zig-zag a bit between Yonge and Bay Stree though, just to get full coverage. First place I hit was Eaton's Center. I'm not sure if it has more store than Metrotown, but its layout is more impressive. I got a good picture of it so you can see for yourself. I bought a power juice drink to keep me going (I believe it hit somewhere around 20C today). The next site was the place Uncle Hank urged me to visit; The Zanzabar strip clup on Yonge. I was happy enough just to get a picture of the place . Aunty Loraine mentioned a store called "The World's Larget Bookstore" and I ended up finding it! I spent a fare amount of time there and found a book that I couldn't find in Vancouver, and picked up a Q magazine for the flight home. I finally made my way back up to Bloor St. and found a pub called "The Spotted Dick". I took a picture of the sign and hastily left the premises. I continued East along Bloor until I hit Jarvis. Since it was a recognizable name, I decided to follow it South for a bit.... later on I found out Jarvis is best compared with Vancouver's Burrand & Davie area. Luckily I didn't stay there for long and went Westward to Queen's Park and the University of Toronto area. Since the weather was nice I got to take pictures of all the places I saw the previous days. At around 4pm I got onto the subway back to Donna's place.
Since Donna's son was in town (Michael) she was having a BBQ for him and his friends. We had a few drinks (have no idea why I like beer all of the sudden) and ate way too much food again. That's when I found out about Jarvis. I was telling them about the route that I took until I burst of laughter came out when I mentioned Jarvis... oh well, seemed like a nice area. Everyone decided to leave around 9pm. It was also getting rather chilly too.
The Stephen Malkmus concert was tonight too. I had to do the 40-60 minute commute back into Toronto. I know the transit system rather well now; In fact I've given directions to 3 people now! Each person was trying to get to a place that I knew so it wasn't a problem for me. You would think people would read a map before going out into the city though, wouldn't you? Anyways... the Stephen Malkmus concert was great! He's an amazing guitarist and the encore consisted of a 10 minute guitar solo, and a song where he and the drummer switched places.
One thing I must say is that Toronto has the most hot dog vendors I've ever seen! The best part is that they are set up around all the bus loops too! I wonder why they haven't done that in Vancouver. They were cheap too!
I'm coming back home tomorrow night. I do not have anything planned for tomorrow, but I will put another post so that you know I am still alive
Good night!
Pictures of this days adventures!
I'm back! It feels good to be home! Didn't do much today so I will keep it brief. I walked Tash and installed a new cordless keyboard and mouse for Donna.
It was a beautiful day today, but I didn't have any time to go and do anything. We were dropped off at the airport by Michael who is coming back to Vancouver as well (flight left an hour before ours). Ended up reading the entire Q magazine along with the latest Popular Mechanics.
Music Listented to today :
Oh... and I also forgot my suit in Toronto
Scott Muc is a computer geek with too much time on his hands.