Toronto :: Canada
Appreciating the little things.
Places: Toronto.
Coolest thing I did: Managed to not get the chop from my contract when CIBC lost 2 and a bit billion dollars to settle with the Enron shareholders.
Coolest thing I didn´t know: There is a bit of the Berlin Wall under the middle arch of the Freedom Arches in Nathan Phillips Square..
Over the last string of Sundays I've had to do a couple of hours of work that I can't otherwise do during the week and it's had the happy side effect of letting me wander around the downtown of Toronto without the millions of suits that inhabit it during the week trying to crush me off the foot path and into oncoming traffic. When I first got here I didn't like the look of all the ultra modern glass phalluses that house the banks here but I've since decided some of them aren't too bad. I like the fact that nex to each one of them there is a neo-classical or gothic structure that has been left alone or incorperated into the new building, giving that cool blend of the old and new. I also have noticed a whole lot of the banks have either communist style heroic workers or classical gods and godesses carved into their fascades. What on Earth is that all about? Even in the 30s, when you could get away with saying the Nazis weren't such bad blokes in polite business circles in North America I'm wondering if people were still a bit wiered out by having Zeus staring down at them all day.
I'm also glad to see the old main railway station, Union Station could have been transplanted from Budapest or Prague, as smaller but no less fancy Grand Central. Also across the road is the Fairmont Hotel in all it's gothic glory and old world charm. While there's probably something wrong with thinking it's cool that the doormen still wear uniforms and white gloves I think there aren't enough of those kinds of places left (even if I won't pay what they are asking to experience it myself). I wonder where all these kinds of places went in Sydney, a contemporary city to Toronto. Why is Central station such a dump, don't tourists catch trains in Australia anymore?
When I first arrived here the Freedom Arches out the front of the town hall (in Nathan Phillips Square) were an ice rink and they have since been changed into a fountain. Though it's really non-obvious I did read quite recently a chuck of the Berlin wall is interned under the middle arch. I've been really meaning to see if I can see it before it all ices over again. I've also been meaning to find out a) why there is a great big statue of Winston Churchill in the square and b) why they chose to portray the great man trying desperately to hold his pants up. No one seems to know.
Sampling the obvious delights of College Streets Italian section, which happens to be walking distance from home, was an obvious thing to do during the summer nights but I've recently been introduced to it's real gem hidden in the back streets. Housed in what looks like a run down milk bar is California Sandwiches. It does what it says on the tin. Big fat sandwiches, no optional items, no table service for about $6. The Veal sandwich with hot sauce is as good as any single cheap meal I've had here. I've since had pale imitations but California is in a class of it's own. Highly recommended. Best meal I've had since we discovered Burrito Boys.
I've decided that the nightclubs in Toronto are very, very average. Our latest foray into one of the myserious-sounding-single-word-named venues was typical of the experience. Line up outside for ages with lots of unhappy people. Get inside and give anywhere between $10-$15 of your hard earned cash to an equally unhappy door bitch. Go inside and pay a stupid amount of money for bottled beer in a plastic cup. Listen to rubbish hip-hop and/or RnB. Leave and consume either a Burrito or hotdog (aka street meat).
While I had a good time at our last foray to one of these places, that was more due to the fact I was muy burracho before we arrived and there were so many cage dancers they even had to put one into the lobby to make them all fit. The music was crap by I chose not to care this time. It's funny to watch all these under age kids drive in from Markham and Streetsville to frown at each other and get into fights on the street. I guess its the same everywhere else in the western world, only usually with better music and the possible option decent beer being available.
To end on a high note I have to complement the city of Toronto on having possibly the best book shops anywhere I've been. After years of trying to find something worth reading down King Street or Shafstbury Avenue it seems impossible to do any wrong here. I don't usually bother with Chapters or Borders anymore as I can always find something worth reading in the musty stacks down Bloor, King or College Streets. I wonder if that's got something to do with all the time that gets spent indoors here? Winter must *really* suck, eh?.
Sorry.