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cherryVanity went out the window at three AM Friday morning. Modesty was to follow not long after. We just didn't quite have the energy to care and hey, it's just *us.* Although, I do have to say that people really have to stop walking in on me while I'm changing.
(It should be noted that getting up at three to catch your plane is a really good way to get yourself adjusted to a new time zone.)
There was much walking. There was much, much walking. It was a lot easier on me than it was on some of my friends, just because I'm in pretty good shape, but none of us are used to stairs and hills. I mean, we're from Saskatchewan. We weren't expecting people to put cities on mountains and build up instead of out.
I don't have the pictures I took pulled from the digital to the HD yet, but if anyone's interested I can link them through the site we were using to put picks up during the trip, though the pictures aren't all that many pics up. We were pretty busy.
And, err... It should be noted that this is a tad scattered. Just a tad. It does tend to concentrate more on the things than the people, but that's because I don't feel right naming name on the internet, and it gets darn confusing without them.
That, and we were small-town teens in the big city. Draw your own conclusions from that, but I haven't laughed as hard in a very long time.
Arrived in Toronto with dust masks firmly in place, sweltering and feeling like dorks. I was very impressed that the plane didn't get lost taxi-ing to the gate, because the runways are a maze.
We wandered. Sanitized hands every few seconds because they bought us the stuff and people back home were paranoid. I saw more homeless people in two and a half days than I had in my entire life. A few of the guys were chased down by a bum for a cigarette.
Disrupted traffic multiple times. We seemed to have a hard time catching onto the idea of 'walk-lights.'
Those shiny orange hands and yellow men? Decoration. If you're not being run down by a car, truck, or emergency vehicle, keep walking.
Toured Casa Loma (You know you live in a good area of town when your next-door neighbor is a castle), and got onto MuchMusic by standing there and hollering through the glass that we were from Saskatchewan, until they finally put us on to make us go away.
Queen's Street was neat, but they wouldn't let us go too far down because they thought we'd wander into Chinatown and get beaten up. Dragged a couple of people to try East Indian food with me, and was very impressed. Tried sushi the next day -- couldn't talk anyone else into that one -- and was less than enthused. I think it's possible that I just didn't like the eggs.
The Hockey Hall of Fame was not all we were promised, but the architecture or BCE Place was worth the visit. It's like a canopy of metal trees blooming above you. Toured the Skydome and the CN Tower, and discovered that my first plane ride seems to have cured my fear of elevators. In the gift shop, took pictures of one of the guys being attacked by a moose and mauled by a bear.
We went to a Second City show, and laughed our asses off when we actually got there. We spent some time wandering because our teacher got us off at the wrong subway stop and then we headed off in the opposite direction. Most of the time, people laughed with us... But when they said something about how clean Toronto was, and our group burst out laughing, everyone just looked at us.
Apparently, it wasn't a joke.
General thoughts: There are a lot of clowns in Toronto. Clowns in full regalia, clowns in power suits with full make-up and wigs. Also, I can't be the only person who finds something inherently wrong with the homeless begging outside of gold-plated buildings.
It had to have sucked for people on public transport with us. Twenty-four people pile on, gawk at people sleeping on corners and the sheer number of Starbucks (Saskatoon got its first one a few weeks ago) and obsessively clean their hands with water-less wash. That, and every time the subway pulled into a station, one of the guys would lean out the door and holler 'Allll Aboarrrrd!'
No wonder no one wanted to get into our car.
The entire trip bore a strange resemblance to 'The Beverly Hillbillies go East!'
It seems I was labouring under a few misapprehensions. Mississauga is not actually a separate city. Neither is Hamilton. I mean, they *are,* but...
I wanted to take a nap on the bus over. I think we all did, but we all ended up staring out the window, just waiting for the city to end and the country to kick in. Antsy-ness resulted, and the one guy who actually did managed to drop off had... things... happen to him. Which were, of course, revenged when we were down under the falls.
I've never seen real waterfalls before. They were, not to be melodramatic, breath-taking; and I imagine they must have been more so before they became so commercialized. There's something about standing in the mist in the sun, watching tons of water crash down...
Ours are better than the American ones, JFYI. :p Skylon tower was neat, and I got some really nice pics. Some scenic, some mock-up, most notably of people being blown away by the wind.
More will hopefully follow. Sometime in the semi-near future, as I am tired, and mis-spelling words like 'Saskatchewan,' 'emergency,' and 'hick.'. But that's about it for Toronto and Niagra.
(It should be noted that getting up at three to catch your plane is a really good way to get yourself adjusted to a new time zone.)
There was much walking. There was much, much walking. It was a lot easier on me than it was on some of my friends, just because I'm in pretty good shape, but none of us are used to stairs and hills. I mean, we're from Saskatchewan. We weren't expecting people to put cities on mountains and build up instead of out.
I don't have the pictures I took pulled from the digital to the HD yet, but if anyone's interested I can link them through the site we were using to put picks up during the trip, though the pictures aren't all that many pics up. We were pretty busy.
And, err... It should be noted that this is a tad scattered. Just a tad. It does tend to concentrate more on the things than the people, but that's because I don't feel right naming name on the internet, and it gets darn confusing without them.
That, and we were small-town teens in the big city. Draw your own conclusions from that, but I haven't laughed as hard in a very long time.
Arrived in Toronto with dust masks firmly in place, sweltering and feeling like dorks. I was very impressed that the plane didn't get lost taxi-ing to the gate, because the runways are a maze.
We wandered. Sanitized hands every few seconds because they bought us the stuff and people back home were paranoid. I saw more homeless people in two and a half days than I had in my entire life. A few of the guys were chased down by a bum for a cigarette.
Disrupted traffic multiple times. We seemed to have a hard time catching onto the idea of 'walk-lights.'
Those shiny orange hands and yellow men? Decoration. If you're not being run down by a car, truck, or emergency vehicle, keep walking.
Toured Casa Loma (You know you live in a good area of town when your next-door neighbor is a castle), and got onto MuchMusic by standing there and hollering through the glass that we were from Saskatchewan, until they finally put us on to make us go away.
Queen's Street was neat, but they wouldn't let us go too far down because they thought we'd wander into Chinatown and get beaten up. Dragged a couple of people to try East Indian food with me, and was very impressed. Tried sushi the next day -- couldn't talk anyone else into that one -- and was less than enthused. I think it's possible that I just didn't like the eggs.
The Hockey Hall of Fame was not all we were promised, but the architecture or BCE Place was worth the visit. It's like a canopy of metal trees blooming above you. Toured the Skydome and the CN Tower, and discovered that my first plane ride seems to have cured my fear of elevators. In the gift shop, took pictures of one of the guys being attacked by a moose and mauled by a bear.
We went to a Second City show, and laughed our asses off when we actually got there. We spent some time wandering because our teacher got us off at the wrong subway stop and then we headed off in the opposite direction. Most of the time, people laughed with us... But when they said something about how clean Toronto was, and our group burst out laughing, everyone just looked at us.
Apparently, it wasn't a joke.
General thoughts: There are a lot of clowns in Toronto. Clowns in full regalia, clowns in power suits with full make-up and wigs. Also, I can't be the only person who finds something inherently wrong with the homeless begging outside of gold-plated buildings.
It had to have sucked for people on public transport with us. Twenty-four people pile on, gawk at people sleeping on corners and the sheer number of Starbucks (Saskatoon got its first one a few weeks ago) and obsessively clean their hands with water-less wash. That, and every time the subway pulled into a station, one of the guys would lean out the door and holler 'Allll Aboarrrrd!'
No wonder no one wanted to get into our car.
The entire trip bore a strange resemblance to 'The Beverly Hillbillies go East!'
It seems I was labouring under a few misapprehensions. Mississauga is not actually a separate city. Neither is Hamilton. I mean, they *are,* but...
I wanted to take a nap on the bus over. I think we all did, but we all ended up staring out the window, just waiting for the city to end and the country to kick in. Antsy-ness resulted, and the one guy who actually did managed to drop off had... things... happen to him. Which were, of course, revenged when we were down under the falls.
I've never seen real waterfalls before. They were, not to be melodramatic, breath-taking; and I imagine they must have been more so before they became so commercialized. There's something about standing in the mist in the sun, watching tons of water crash down...
Ours are better than the American ones, JFYI. :p Skylon tower was neat, and I got some really nice pics. Some scenic, some mock-up, most notably of people being blown away by the wind.
More will hopefully follow. Sometime in the semi-near future, as I am tired, and mis-spelling words like 'Saskatchewan,' 'emergency,' and 'hick.'. But that's about it for Toronto and Niagra.
