The day I watched people

Today. Well, what can I say about today. Not great, actually. It all started after finishing breakfast. I started getting ready and put on my boots. The boot was cold. The boot was wet. The boot was smelly. Shit.

Yesterdays outing in the freshly fallen snow returning from the CNT was obviously too much for them. The snow had obviously melted on the boots as they sat overnight.

So, in panic mode I tried toilet paper to dry them, I tried taking the footbeds out and drying them with paper separate to the boots. I tried using the hair dryer, which cut out with heatstroke. This proved to be the better option, but I had to wait minuted in between minute long uses before I could use it again. Blah Blah Blah.

Eventually they were dry enough to walk out in.

So my intention - mission - for the day upon leaving the bandb was to go to Casa Loma, a huge castle north of where I'm staying. It didn't look hard, but I chose to take the supposedly easy route, and ind get a ticket on the hop-on-hop-off bus. The schedule looked easy enough - catch it just across from Allan Gardens at the hotel. There are busses every hour, so it should be a cinch.

You'd think.

I went around to the stop, and noticed that there was information about a shoulder season in the brochure. I actually found that Feb was in the shoulder season, and that I hshould go to some other page. It said the next bus would be at 2pm. It was now 12:30, and my boots were wet so I decided to walk down to Yonge street and then along to the Eaton Center to get some sealant for my boots. I pounded the mall, and founf very little. I then spent time looking at the map, and had to go outside the mall to get to Canadian Tire where I was sure they'd have sealant. Thank god they did. I then headed back into the street, and made my way towards the hotel again to pick up the bus for the trip around the city.

When I got to the stop, I noticed that it was about 13:55. I then got the timetable out again, and noticed that the tour actually started from stop 1 at 2pm. I was standing at stop 13, where the bus doesn't get here until 2:47 pm. What was I to do?

I decided to go into the Allan gardens conservatory, a great glass house.

The planting inside was intelligent, beautifully laid out, interesting and inspiring. They had many tropical plants, of all descriptions. This was somewhere that really loved what it did, and there were no weeds, there were many fresh plantings, there were exotic cacti, there were shade loving plants... it was endless, and beautiful.

I was really glad to go in there. I chatted to one of the gardeners, and everyone here seems to ask everyone else where they are from. I told him I was from the UK, and he started talking about plants. I'd originally started the conversation askling him how old this enormous bottle brush plant was, and he had no idea - and didn't try to guess. He said it grows really well, and he just cuts it back. A nice place, which I believe is frequented occassionally by street people looking for warmth (for it is heated by boilers).

So, the time for my bus came around. I headed outside, and to my amazement the bus was passing my stop, and wouldn't be around again until 4pm. Well, Casa Loma doesn't admit people after 4pm. Poo, but there must be a way to get there.

So I walked down to college station, and bought a day pass for $10. I then went to the Northbound platform, because Casa Loma is north, right? Childsplay.

Wrong! look at the map you dunderhead. The transit system I happen to be on is U-shaped. I am on the eastern arm going north, and Casa Loma is on the western arm ggoing north. In order to get to a station near Casa Loma, I would need to either ride the majority of the transit system south, and back up the other side to Dupont St., or I would have to negotiate the streetcars and travel west, then find the station to connect onto the last part of the western arm of the subway.

So far, I'm still heading north on the Subway, having realised this. I went quite far north, and decided about 5 stops in to get out and take the subway southbound again to get back to where I at least had started. By the time that happened, it was about 3:30 pm, and I had very little time now left to see Casa Loma.

I decided that, instead, I would go into a Diner called the Daybreak, and get some food. I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and it would be a good way to see what I should do.

Whgile I sat there, I watched out the big windows onto the street. So many different people from all over the world, so many different behaviours. I also thought about the smells of the street, and how the huge size of everything also makes everything really hard to maintain, and hard to keep full with people using the spaces. There is an odd juxtaposition of expensive accommodation, next to empty 40 story buildings. There are about 3 different chains that specialise in Pita breads alone. Everywhere looks seedy.

So as I ate at the Daybreak, I came to the conclusion that my day hadn't been wasted. I looked across at the Maple Leaf Gardens, once home to hockey games and a national institution, in its decrepit state thinking about how it was an education just to walk around Toronto and soak up the smells, the excentricities, the vibe. I had noticed so much, and it is poles apart from life in the UK. I still don't know if I like it, because it is overwhelmingly large. Even backstreets have skyscrapers.

I payed my bill, and left concluding that I should go back to my room and - I'm about to use a horrendous cliche - "regroup".

So tonight I am going to go to Second City thater and checkout the show about tweets.

I will report back on that when I return.

My flight is tomorrow at 12:00 noon, which is earlier than I expected. I was hoping for it to be at 2pm so I could get in some sights or some photography. I will now have to pack my bag tonight and make sure I have everything together for thhhe journey I need to make tomorrow.

I know that Kathrynn will be printing out these pages for mum, so I'd just like to say Hi to Mum! I hhope you enjoy reading these pages.