Toronto March 14 - 23

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Saturday, March 15, 2008

INTRODUCTION:  I made my first trip to Toronto in March 2007.  To say I enjoyed it would be an understatement - I LOVED it!  I was certainly going to return, maybe a few years later.  However, whilst idly surfing the net I discovered that the Air Canada Centre was hosting 2 concerts by bands I like, plus a hockey game and a basketball game all in the space of 1 week and tickets were available for all of these things.  It was too much to resist and gave me the perfect excuse to go back a lot sooner than I originally planned.  Here's a summary of what I got up to:



FRIDAY 14th: Things went swimmingly right from the word go.  No queues to check-in at Heathrow  and the Air Canada flight left on time and arrived early - A good start!  Then it was then into the Customs & Immigration hall.  Last year in Terminal 3 this part of the journey took nearly 2 hours as I had to endure a huge queue and then a grilling from 2 different immigration officers about why I had come to Toronto.   They had the remarkable ability to make me think I'd committed some horrible sin by daring to come and visit their city.  This time in the much nicer Terminal 1 there was no queues, the much nicer immigration officer didn't give me the third degree and I was through in about 10 minutes.  Definitely a good start!  On to the Airport Express bus and in no time at all I was checking in to the Strathcona Hotel.  I stayed here last year and whilst it has mixed reviews I have found it to be excellent both times.  Sure, the room was fairly small, but it was clean, the shower was powerful, the bed was comfortable and I was travelling solo and was only planning to sleep, shower and change there so didn't need huge amounts of space.
 
I had booked a ticket to see Chris Rock at Massey Hall that night so I walked up there to collect my ticket.  The show wasn't until 10 p.m. so I killed some time re-familiarising myself with the area. There had been a heavy snowstorm the previous weekend and there were enormous mounds of snow piled up alongside the roads. Some of the mounds were taller than me, it must have been some storm!   I couldn't help thinking of all the times the UK has ground to a chaotic halt after half an inch of snow. Toronto has a huge amount of snow and carries on just fine. Walked over to Nathan Philips Square which looked fantastic lit up at night  with loads of people skating on the rink beneath the arches.  It felt good to be back - even though I had only spent 5 days here last time I felt like I knew the place so well.  Lots of research on Trip Advisor and the Rough Guide book did the trick!  In fact, during this week, 2 different people stopped me in the street and asked for directions and I was able to give them!  Really enjoyed the Chris Rock show and then it was back to the hotel absolutely exhausted after a long day.
 
 
SATURDAY 15th:   Hockey Day!  I had booked a ticket for a Maple Leafs game that night so decided to theme the day around hockey.   I decided a good place to start would be the Hockey Hall Of Fame.  I bought a City Pass on the way in and had a good look about.  Certainly a very impressive place, and would have been even more impressive if I had done some research beforehand and known something about hockey or the players in the Hall Of Fame!  The Stanley Cup sure is big though.  
 
  One  player who I have heard of is Wayne Gretzky and it was to his bar/restaurant on Blue Jays way I headed to next for a decent Cheesesteak and a couple of beers.   Lots of hockey memorabilia in here as well, like the Hall Of Fame probably of more interest to an avid fan rather than a hockey newcomer.  Then onto the game at the Air Canada Centre where the atmosphere was superb but the performance by the Leafs was less so and they were beaten 6-2 by Buffalo.  A very poor performance with the fighting as well, with only one punch-up.   I am led to believe that the excellent Leafs fans are quite accustomed to the team losing in this manner and the season ending in disappointment.   Never mind, there's always next year!



 
 
SUNDAY 16th:  I was really looking forward to today as I was returning to the Air Canada Centre to see one of my favourite bands, Iron Maiden.   After a fine breakfast at Fran's diner I walked over to Dundas Square - last year there was a chap doing some amazing chalk drawings with some very humorous comments on the sidewalk opposite the square.  Well, he was still there! And he's even got his own website here  Next was a subway trip up to Bloor and Yonge to see the St. Patrick 's Day Parade which was noisy, colourful and great fun.  There certainly seems to be a lot of Irish people in Toronto or maybe lots who are Irish just for this day!  Then onto the Loose Moose bar on Front Street where hundreds of Iron Maiden fans had gathered for a meet up organised by the fan club.  I met fans who had travelled to Toronto from Sweden, Holland, Winnipeg, New York and there were several others from the UK as well.  The atmosphere in the bar was the friendliest, most fun and enjoyable I have experienced for a long time. The concert was fantastic as well - Iron Maiden just keep getting better and better and they never let their fans down. Back to the Loose Moose afterwards where many of the fans had gathered again - many beers were sunk and many new friendships formed.  Thank you Iron Maiden and Iron Maiden fans for a wonderful day and night!
 





MONDAY 17th:  Took it easier today after the heavy night before.  One of the many things that had stuck in the memory from last time was the Senator Diner and it's breakfast.  Happily I found the Senator was still there and the breakfast was still superb.  After refuelling I bought a weekly TTC pass and took the subway up to Bathurst and visited Casa Loma, the former home of Sir Henry Mill Pellatt who unfortunately was only able to live there for 10 years before going bankrupt.  Certainly an oddity, a strange mixture of castle and stately home it contains many beautiful rooms and an interesting museum of The Queen 's Own Rifles of Canada.  Unfortunately the main tower was closed for renovation and it was too early in the year for the gardens but otherwise a very interesting place.

 After Casa Loma I headed back downtown to buy some postcards and then walked back to the hotel via Nathan Philips Square where it was great to see 2 gentlemen playing chess on the outdoor boards despite the bitter cold. That's dedication! That evening I went up the CN Tower which looked great lit up in green for St. Patrick's day.







I went up the tower during the day last time so I thought I'd go up and see the city at night this time.  Well, it looked spectacular with all the lights blazing. Either a lot of people in Toronto work late or a lot of people don't turn their office lights out.  Don't tell Al Gore!













 TUESDAY 18th:   Took full advantage of my TTC pass today and made a trip out to Toronto Zoo.  Really saw how efficient the TTC is, took the subway to Kennedy and the bus from there to the zoo with no problems or delays at all.  Got to the zoo and wasn't sure if I hadn't managed to gain entry while it was closed, the place was empty!   Empty of people that is, there were still plenty of animals. My word, this place is big!

I spent hours walking between the indoor pavilions and all the animal enclosures.  Actually saw some people on my travels, so it wasn't closed!  Mind you, there could well have been hundreds of people there, it's that big it would be easy to spread the people all over.  Anyway, the zoo is superb - the animal enclosures were as close as possible to their natural habitat, all the animals looked healthy and happy and the keepers very knowledgeable and interesting to talk to








. The only gripe I would have is that the choices for somewhere to eat were Harveys Burgers or err... Harveys Burgers!  All the other high quality eateries such as Pizza Pizza (so good they named it twice?) were closed until summer.  I would highly recommend a packed lunch if you plan on visiting the zoo.  Anyway, exhausted again after walking many miles around the zoo, back to the city I went.  








 WEDNESDAY 19th:  There's a Tim Horton's opposite the hotel - I'm usually not a big coffee drinker  but Tim's French Vanilla is fantastic!  After one of these I took the subway up to the Royal Ontario Museum . A most peculiar looking building from the outside, an old style brick building with a huge glass structure skewered at a jaunty angle on the end of it.  I must admit I thought it looked ridiculous, I'm sure some "arty" types will find some deep meaning behind it, just as some people find artistic merit in the likes of Damien Hirst's work.  To me it's people trying too hard to be different and shocking rather than create something beautiful.      Anyway, inside was much better, with many fascinating exhibits, especially the dinosaur exhibit and the Egyptian area.  Well worth a visit.  












    I hadn't been to the Air Canada Centre since Sunday so I was well overdue another visit.  Luckily I had a ticket to the Basketball game that night. The Toronto Raptors easily beat the Miami Heat 96 - 54, in fact the report in next-day's paper said it was unbelievable that people had paid to watch such a one-sided contest.  Well, I had paid, and truth be told it wasn't much of a contest - a complete mismatch and no real excitement.  Still, the cheerleaders were nice!  If the Raptors had scored 100 points I could have used my ticket to claim a free slice of pizza at Pizza Pizza.  With it being closed at the Zoo, I was obviously never going to discover if it does deserve to be named twice.  After the game I went to a bar called C'est What? for some very nice hemp ale.  My last experience of hemp was many years ago and it wasn't in drink form.....I think I prefer it in Ale.




THURSDAY 20th: Made my first venture onto a Toronto Streetcar today - was fully expecting to end up miles away, but I needn't have worried - the system is ridiculously simple and the automatic voice notifying you of each stop is a godsend.  Anyway, I wasn't going far - just to the Distillery District -   which as the name suggests is where several distilleries were located - much of the area know had been redeveloped to include housing, art galleries, restaurants, coffee shops and cafes.  Very nice place, and nice to see part of the city with independent shops and food outlets not dominated by international chains.  No Starbucks here! (Yet)  It was another nice day so decided to walk back - had a look at the impressive St James cathedral and park and then the Toronto Sculpture garden which consisted of a sports car with a normal car's body (or perhaps it was the other way round?) Maybe it was my lack of an artistic side again or maybe I was missing something but I couldn't really work out the artistic merit of that.

  Earlier on in the day I had picked up a free Metro newspaper - how nice it was just to take it from the box on the street rather than have some rude idiot shove the paper into your chest as they do in London.   Anyway,  in the what's on listings I had seen that legendary English Ska band Bad Manners were playing at the Horseshoe Tavern that evening.   Well, I had to see this - and see it I did!  A Subway and Streetcar to Queens St. W and I was in the Horseshoe.  Buster Bloodvessel isn't quite as large as in the band's 80's heyday but he can still belt out the tunes.  A real fun night. 








FRIDAY 21st:   A bit of a late night at the Horseshoe last night so wasn't too quick out of the blocks today.  It was a nice day - really sunny but cold - my favourite type of weather so I decided to go to the park - High Park to be precise. The park looked terrific covered in snow which still hadn't melted from last week.  Didn't do too much here, just a whole lot of walking.

Spent Friday night back in the Loose Moose - I liked it in there, it's certainly not classy, but the food's decent, the  beer's cold and the people are friendly.   Anyway, the Moose had the Leafs game on the big screen TV - they were away to Buffalo - the team that hammered them on Saturday.  Well, the Leafs only went and won!  Why couldn't they do that at the game I go to?  Just my luck




SATURDAY 22nd:  My last full day in Toronto .  Started by walking to St. Lawrence market.  The market was absolutely packed, but I squeezed through to the Carousel bakery for a fantastic peameal bacon sandwich and then back outside to buy some Maple Syrup from the little stall by the North Market.  I then took the subway and streetcar to Kensington Market. Similar to Camden in London , it's home to people who are young, hip and trendy.  I am none of these things.  From there it was a short walk to Chinatown which was great - very busy, lots of market stalls and food stalls spilling out onto the sidewalk and the smells from all the food stalls and restaurants were out of this world.  Loved it!

Then it was time to go back to my second home, the Air Canada Centre - this time for a Foo fighters gig. Well, it's a shame the Foo Fighters weren't at the Iron Maiden gig, they might have learnt a thing or two.  Where Maiden show no signs of slowing down even as they approach old age, the Foo Fighters have got old before their time.  Too many slow acoustic songs, too much self-indulgent soloing and a pointless story by Dave Grohl about playing drums in Toronto with Iggy Pop during which time they could have played a song or two.  When they remembered they are a rock band it was great, but it didn't last.



 SUNDAY 23rd:  Nothing to report today, up very early for the uneventful flight back home.  Felt pretty bad to be back, I could have stayed in Toronto for a lot longer - like the rest of my life (which by the way, I'm looking into doing) It was a wonderful week in a fantastic city.  It was exhausting with many late, boozy nights and god only knows how many miles I walked during the days, but fueled by breakfasts from Fran's and The Senator and coffee from Tim Horton's I made it!  Thank you Toronto,  as Arnie would say - I'll be back!