Toronto – Summer 2016 – Free write
Free Write 1
It was the end of July and I was sick on my family’s vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I had recently bought a new lap top for college so I was occupied while being bedbound. I remembered I had all these amazing plans in the beginning of the summer and that I had not accomplished some of them. One of them was to visit Toronto or Montreal in Canada. I contacted some of my buddies and, with the short notice I was giving them, I got Kaitlyn, Matt, and Dominica to come. We chose Toronto because it is a bit closer and we wanted to visit Montreal in the winter. Kaitlyn then looked up some hotels that were downtown and that rented out to nineteen year olds and she found Hotel Victoria so we were all set to go. I made the decision to leave Scranton, PA at four in the morning so we would get there around 11 and have all day to tour the city. We only spent 3 days and 2 nights in Canada so every minute was valuable to us. We arrive in Rochester, NY at about the four-hour mark and we ate some breakfast at a local restaurant. We finished up and I let Kaitlyn take the wheel so I could shut my eyes for a little bit. I woke up as we were approaching the border and I looked out to my left to see a skyline of what looked like Toronto with the CN Tower, but turned out only to be Niagara Falls. We felt like idiots after that one. We made our way through the border and immediately exchanged USD for CAD and felt rich with how much we got back. We then hopped on the Queens Express Way (QEW) and headed for Toronto. As we entered the city of Toronto we were amused by the massive glass skyscrapers and modern architecture. Immediately we knew we made a good decision on our trip.
Free Write 2
As I wait for our exit to come up I see the tallest skyscrapers I have ever seen in my life. The way the sun shined off the glass was spectacular. We exited the QEW, entered downtown Toronto and had Lake Ontario on our right and the city on our left. We followed the GPS and was finally introduced to Yonge St, the busiest street in the city. We sifted through traffic and eventually passed Hotel Victoria. We stopped and let Kaitlyn and Dominica out to check us into the hotel. There is little to no street parking in Toronto so we waited in a side alley and waited for the OK to pull up and unload, looking like a Chinese fire drill. Matt and Dominica took all the bags up to the room while Kaitlyn and I took the car to a parking lot. We park the car and finally touch our feet to the streets of the 6. As we walked from the parking lot to the hotel we kept our eyes peeled for good restaurants, bars, and just anything to do. We found some great looking Irish pubs, rooftop bars, and awesome cafés. We walked past the Hockey Hall of Fame which happened to be a few doors down from our hotel. We made our way up to the room and immediately thank Kaitlyn for choosing this hotel because it was so clean, modern, and classy. It was about twelve o clock at this point so we set out for lunch toward the coast of Lake Ontario only to find an Irish pub with outdoor seating and a view of Toronto Island in the distance. Our waitress came for our drinks and zero and I decided to get Labatt Blues, not knowing what the locals call it; Labatt’s or Blues. Our waitress immediately knew we were not from Canada and she started friendly conversation with us about where we are from and what we are doing in the city. We had a couple Blues while Kaitlyn and Dominica ordered their fruity drinks that are two times the price of a beer. We finished up our food and drinks and set out to explore Toronto, letting Kaitlyn lead the way. She led us to the Kensington Market, the hippie part of the city. This market is a glorified Salvation Army with the occasional “pharmacist” on the corner selling “whatever you need, man.” We started to wonder if Kaitlyn’s drinks were a bit too strong. I took over and changed the course to get to a Starbucks for some coffee to wake up a little bit. It turns out there was a Lush store next to the coffee shop so Kaitlyn went in and dropped fifty plus dollars on soap. We concluded that her drinks were way too strong.
Free Write 3
It was about three o clock at this point so we made our way back to the hotel for some rest before dinner. I went out like a light since I was up since four in the morning. We ended up going to an Italian restaurant, a few blocks up Yonge St., that was multiple floors high. Each of the floors had their own bars and dining rooms while the top one was outside with a beautiful view of the city. It was dark so the skyline of the city was lit up by lights from the skyscrapers. I ordered gnocchi with red sauce and a semi-sweet red wine. The meal was excellent and I cannot wait to go back. After dinner, we walked down Yonge street searching for a bar and found ourselves on another rooftop bar called the Cactus Café. They had a DJ playing great music for the crowd that was lower twenties and we felt right at home as the waitresses brought us drink after drink. After the bar closed around one I called it a night for myself and headed back while everyone else went to the Warehouse, which is another great bar, that was open till two.
Free Write 4
We woke up around nine or ten the next day and decided to take a ferry over to Toronto Island to bike ride, hangout on the beach, and take some nice pictures. Seeing the CN Tower, literally tower over every other building in Toronto was amazing. The width of the city is astonishing and it makes the skyline that much better. We walked off the ferry and headed toward the opposite end of the island to rent bikes. As we proceeded to walk we noticed the wide range of ethnicities of the tourists from Asians to Indians to Europeans. We eventually reached our destination and rented bikes and rode them up and down the boardwalk, along the coast of the island and Lake Ontario; which indeed looks like an ocean. I’ve never seen a mass of fresh water as big as Lake Ontario before. We rode around for an hour and a half until we got hungry and ate at a BBQ restaurant on the water which had an amazing view of the city. We ordered pulled pork, BBQ chicken and beer. I switched back to Bud Light along with Matt, as Kaitlyn and Dominica got their usual fruity drinks. We finished up there and hopped back on the ferry to head for the hotel. We arrived back in the city and made a pit stop in the Hockey Hall of Fame on Yonge St. We looked around, bought some nick knacks and were on our way. We walked out of the shop into a big indoor shopping center which had escalators leading to what seemed to be underground. We rode one down and it was like we entered an underground mall or airport with little shops and restaurants. We were unaware that underneath the city there are tunnel like passage ways to get around during the cold winters. Kaitlyn and Dominica headed back to the hotel so me and Matt walked around looking in random stores and bought some coffee. Our orders were wrong because the workers all spoke French, but we didn’t mind. We walked for a while only to find ourselves going back up some escalators that took us right onto Yonge St., a block away from Hotel Victoria. We made our way to the room and crashed for a few hours.
Free Write 5
We woke up two hours later and decided to head to Toronto’s mall. The mall is four floors and about half the size of King of Prussia in Philadelphia. We wandered into Canadian stores with souvenirs such as maple syrup, flags, and clothing. We hung out in the middle of the mall, mesmerized by a water fountain that spurt water up in the air. We left the mall and grabbed some pizza on the way to the hotel. We got ready and headed out to the Warehouse bar again. We waited in line for a bit due to how packed the place was and eventually got in. We were seated and we ordered our first round and told them to keep ‘em comin’. Last call sounded around two and we ordered our last round along with our tabs. We finished up and wobbled outside right into the back seat of a taxi that was waiting for a group of idiots, (us). We got dropped off at the hotel and hit the hay knowing we had to be on the road in a timely manner the next day.
