Mousse dribble

Today was an awesome day. Yuck - I've been in Cannnnnnnada for one day, and I'm using the word awesome.

I got up late, and had breakfast. It was really nice, and consisted of fresh fruit (melon balls, lychee, and banana); then there was a bowl of porridge cooked with chunks of fresh apple, which I didn't even add sugar to uncharacteristically. A pot of earl grey accompanied everything, and then arrived a plate of yummy eggs, ham and toast. This was all washed down with a glass of freezing cold orange juice.

I then talked to Nadia about the day ahead, and she recommended trying out the museum. It took about 25 minutes of fast paced walking to get there through some pretty chunky cityscapes.

The one thing I have worked out along the way is how to read the lights at crossings. You basically look at the crossing for the road at right angles to your own, and when the cross light there expires, you are good to go. It helps to try to fit in in a big city like this, so you don't stand out and become a target for any pick pockets or vultures.

So once I arrived, I was amazed by the architecture of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM for short). The building is like a series of cubes that have been struck into the ground at their corners, each intersecting. One fact though is that the cubes have no right angles.

It took me a while to get my bearings - everything in Toronto is so big, and either the signs just look really small or there aren't any. I didn't trruly know where to go, but I just wandered and eventually found a map.

The exhibits are incredible. It's like they've got the ultimate example of each type of exhibit. They had this trilobyte colony entombed in fossil form, dozens of trilobytes cast in stone atop eachother; they had one of the last two freight canoes to come from the time when the natives used them for transporting trade - the others were burned in a fire. This canoe is breathtaking in size, yet light enough for two men to portage.

They have one of the most complete sets of complete dinosaur skeletons. I took a picture of their TREX, and they had terror birds and giant scorpions; pterodactyls and gian tortoise.

I went into their cafe afterwards, and they only really had frappuccino in a jar out of the fridge for real coffee. It was ok.

After finishing up in the museum, I headed into the TTC subway, and payed 3 dollars to go to the union station, where the CN Tower is. I've said it before and I'll say it again - nothing is small in toronto. The station was enormous, and I walked around completely lost (I'd have liked to be a fly on the wall). I eventually found someone, and if you go to "Union station, you need to find the skywalk.

The skywalk is a surreal experience. It is basically empty at this time of year once you get beyond the edge of union station - or maybe it just appears that way because everything is so big. Anyway, as I got further and further out towards where the CN tower was, the number of people tailed off. Eventually, I came outside and found the CN tower - you can basically walk to the base of it. I tried to look directly up at the top of the tower, and almost couldn't. It is so bloody enormous. Have I mentioned that nothing is small in toronto?

After taking some pictures, I then headed inside and found a girl to talk to. I explained that I had a booking at 7pm,and what should I do. She explained that I couldn't go up until half an hour before because the cost of the ascent was included in the meal. I therrefore had over two hours to kill. I decided to check out the Rogers Center, which was an enormous building that seemed as though it had been abandoned. Dead as a dodo. I amused myself with some geo tagged photography (one of a maple leaf spray painted into the sidewalk - a guy coming down the stairs must have thought I was weird).

I then went into the cafe/shop area around the base of the tower, and bought some coffee. They had free wifi, so I used it to upload 6 photos from my camera direct to picasa.

They also had awesome cappuccino.

Once the time came to go up, I made myself known to the guy on the desk. They were so courteous, and they had the most awesome security system. You entered an airblade compartment, and I presume it was analysing particcccccculates that fly off your clothes for explosives. Another part of me says that all the bluster is just for show. Whooooooooo knows but it sure was cool.

I entered the elevator with a bunch of other people, and it is actually backwards. The doors of the elevator face the outside. You zip up to the top in 55 seconds, and your ears pop along the way. It is breathtaking.

On arrival at the top, the winds make their way through the gap between the building and the elevator, and it was really cold that night.

The graceful restaurant rotates very slowly. The staff are attentive, and the food is exquisite. I had their gut-busting fixed price menu, where I had a humungous prawn amuse bouche; an amazing crab chowder; a humungous pork tenderloin, and a chocolate mousse to dribble over. I also had an apple juice. It came to a gut busting $93.

But the view out the window! you will never dine like this anywhere else in the world. It is unbeatable. You are sitting in a comfy chair eating food at a height higher than the nearest sky scraper. It takes 72 minutes to rotate fully. I was there longer than that, and was impressed when the CN Tower had its own cloud deck for a while. The lights of the city at night are amazing.

I then went and stood on the glass floor, listened to the tower designer on the video, and then went down to the bottom. Here, I could partially see the lightshow of the tower. It must be incredible to see out on a boat in the harbour. I took video of the lightshow.

I didn't feel sick after all that food though. What did make me feel sick was the poor signage - again - on the way back to the subway station. But it was so easy getting home.

Even though toronto is big, it is easy to get to where you need to go.

So I'm back in my room now gasping for a cup of tea, and I'll have to make do with water.

In all, though, an incredible day. If I had time to, I'd write about all I have seen.