We do apologize for the delay in posting, we've had a pretty jam packed last couple of days in Toronto. So I'll give you the rundown since we last spoke:
As soon as we arrived in Toronto we decided we needed a little bit more hipster in our lives, so naturally we decided to head down to Kensington market. Funnily enough its actually not a market, but a suburb in itself. But think of it more as an aggregation of little funky shops that line the various streets. Its unapologetically hip; through its arty-ness, laid back sort of dirty hippie/hipster feel. Most shops sell some kind of organic produce or want to dress you in a kind of 80's look that is somehow 'cool'. I beg to differ but each to their own.
Nonetheless, there was some pretty cool stuff there. Some of the best op shops you've ever seen with actually trendy clothing which come with complimentary bugs, which I thought was a nice throw in. After a small purchase and plenty of second hand illegal smoke inhalation, we left Kensington market for a more civilized place. The Toronto Eaton Centre.
Its basically a massive shopping centre, or mall, with a fantastic food court, one in which we ate at the day before and had the best butter chicken poutine. They also have very cheap clothing as we found out later that day. Take a top Lauren purchased; it started at $10, it was marked down to $7, then $5, $3 and the finally $2. However once we arrived at the register, turns out this particular item had 30% off which brought the purchase down to $1.37. Lunacy. Shopping centres get boring very quickly though so we decided to move on to St Lawrence Market.
Now this IS actually a market, and its a damn good one at that (voted the best market in Canada for good reason). Some of the produce was sensational, full racks of ribs for $11, multitudes of sausages and every other form of meat you could possibly think of. But it wasn't the raw meat we were interested in, in fact it was the cooked variety that sparked our interest. Succulent pulled pork, tangy BBQ sauce and coleslaw all wrapped up in a nice bun, pure perfection. It was one of the best things I had ever eaten, photos are to follow showcasing this delicacy. Laurens lunch was equally as good, if not better, inch thick pieces of baked and/or smoked side bacon that had so much flavor it could literally blow your face off, in a good way. As I write this Lauren is literally salivating when recounting the bacon back to me, it was that good.
After the food had settled, we decided to upset it by shooting up the CN tower, basically the city's observatory tower. 58 seconds was all it took, no not to spew, but to get up the 80 or 90 odd stories of the tower in an elevator that had a glass floor. Naturally Lauren was ecstatic, in between mild heart attacks from the sheer height, her panic quickly subsided after a quick glance over Toronto. It was stunning, full 180 degree view over the city and surrounding suburbs, but pictures will give a better description than my mere words so I'll leave it there.
We were also lucky enough to catch the last regular season baseball game for the Toronto blue jays during our visit. At $9 a ticket, the value proposition was amazing, not to mention the free beanie we all received for being one of the first 20,000 fans to enter the stadium on what happened to be fan appreciation weekend (however we did get to the game 2 and a half hours early just to secure one). The initial stages of the game itself though was not looking so outstanding. The blue jays had beaten the rays 7-2 just the day before, so we were thinking we were in for a good game. Within 15 minutes of the games start, the rays were up 6-0 even before the blue jays had lined up to bat. But that didn't matter, as the crowd found better, more amusing things to do, such as the Mexican wave, over and over again, basically until the blue jays picked up their game. And so they did, just not enough, as the finally tally read rays 7 blue jays 6. Not that it mattered though, we were just enjoying the atmosphere and throwing our arms up to get a cool swoosh of breeze to counteract the harsh heat from the sun. All in all though a very good day.
So as you can probably already tell, Toronto is an amazing place. So much so we are already planning on hopefully coming back sometime after Pittsburgh. There is so much to do and see, the food is just so damn good, the extra 2 kilos on my gut is testament to that, and I haven't even gotten to the people yet. The people we've met are just a whole new ballgame. We were welcomed into Toronto by Laurens friend Andy who she had been pen pals with for over 10 years (but had never met), hanging out in the 'burbs and eating frozen yogurt and Milo (yes Lauren brought some with her). It was a really good thing.
Then you move onto our Air BnB hosts. Firstly they accepted our reservation with very little notice, which was a lifesaver as we pretty much had nowhere to stay. But Qevin and Asha were some of the friendliest and most accommodating people I have ever met. From the moment we arrived, to the night we left, we felt immediately comfortable, and their little dog Audrey made the whole experience feel a little more like home. From some of the later night chats, to burning my face off with some deliciously hot chili sauces (but thankfully following that up with a beer); we had an absolute ball, so much so we didn't want to leave, like ever.
By now I'd imagine you've probably lost most motivation to continue reading so I'll leave it for now and post about our visit to Niagara falls tomorrow, along with some much needed photos.
So I'll sign off this considerably longer post today by saying:
We love you Toronto, and we will see you shortly.
But off to Ottawa first!
Kristian & Lauren.
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