17: Day 11/Getting Up for the Let-Down

Date: 5/7/10
Town: Toronto, Ontario
Time: 5:46pm
Timezone: GMT -04.00

Note: Okay I have a few days to catch up on. Leave me alone, I had no internet in Ottawa and I thought I did. Here's Toronto day 2, enjoy.

Hello chappies. Okay, so first of all it was so humid in Toronto you'd get out of the hotel, walk two steps down the street and have already lost half your body weight in perspiration. No joke. Unfortunately, we decided beforehand that we'd spend today at the zoo and shopping.
First of all, the zoo was crap. I always thought Perth zoo wasn't half bad but surely all of the zoos in big cities would be fantastic. By dreams were shattered. Toronto zoo was one of the biggest let downs of the journey for a number of reasons.
First of all, the stingray bay. If you didn't know this, I have a deep love for stingrays. They are one of my favourite creatures in the entire planet. So when I pay extra for a ticket to stingray bay and all of the stingrays are common reef rays, the exhibit itself is nothing but a shallow pool with rocks and no plantation exhibits or environmental accessories to make the stingrays feel more at home. This sickens me.
Unfortunately, much of the zoo is like this. It's less of a habitat for the animals to live in and more of just a place to keep them. It's also designed so it's easy for the zookeepers to get around, not for the tourists. So walking ten kilometers to see an exhibit, finding out that the exhibit itself is so terribly laid out that you can't see the animal anyway and then discovering you have to walk back up the hill in thirty degrees because there isn't a properly laid out walking trail all adds up to make everyone blistered, hot, bothered and shitty.
Perth Zoo is much better than I ever gave it credit for.
Without further ado, here is the few images I could get of the more-than-mildly disappointing zoo.












After that we went shopping. Far too hot for shopping, but we persisted.
And I got one shirt and a pair of shorts. Five hours walking with blisters for a singlet and shorts. Fan-freakin-tastic.
I guess it's not Toronto's fault it's so hot. But that said, it is their fault the zoo is terrible. No offense, guys, good effort and all. Still.
Here's some photos of Toronto town centre. Accidentally got the Lamborghini in this shot, only noticed afterward. Well done, me.




So that's all for Toronto. Slight let down, but still very enjoyable and very nice people. The people are always lovely.
Next stop, Ottawa.
Stay cool, people. Or warm. Depending on the weather.

P.S. it's sentimental music reference time.

When the sun came up we all found the meaning
If I could read my writing I could tell you now
I’m looking down Manhattan to the lady
And casting streetlight shadows in a cloud of rising steam

I miss you like I miss the skyline of my own hometown
And I love you like I love the familiar feeling of being homeward bound

There's an eagle hitching ice on down the Hudson
Through an early morning mist out on the bay
But nothing’s to me, as beautiful as you...

Beautiful As You - the Whitlams
(don't judge my strange love for old-man music, okie?)

16: Day 10/Toronto, Baby

Date: 4/7/10
Town: Toronto, Ontario
Time: 11.50pm
Timezone: GMT -04.00

Wow, okay, hello Toronto. This place is pretty freaking massive, something around 4million people in the city. Well, it's about the size of Sydney but it's way bigger than all the other little towns I've been to.

So I got myself a window seat on the plane (YEEAHHHH!) so here's some aerial shots I have taken for your viewing pleasure.


This is of Calgary on our way out of the airport.


And this is halfway through, a shot of farmland that could be Manitoba or Saskatchewan but I'm not sure.


And this is the first look we got of the mighty land that is Ontario!
So far, I like Toronto. It's pretty snazzy. But we had an adventure today. Adventure here having the meaning, went to Niagara falls, forgot it was independence day and every American and their mother and their dog and their dog's mother was at Niagara. And then every other person who was bored and had nothing to do was down there as well. So there seemed to be a billion people at Niagara Falls today, so the only photos I got were really crap.
It was kinda like Skyworks at Perth, but people actually live in Toronto, so you know.


And then on the way back to Toronto from Niagara, our GPS actually turned itself off because it was annoyed that we kept on taking different routes and not doing what it told us to do. We call him Nigel. Nigel is a bitch.
But we're home now and I'm tired and had an allergic reaction to a pizza (God almighty) so goodnight. Even though it's kind of early afternoon where you're at.
By the way, got all excited because I had heaps of emails. But they were from spam networks.
Funny.
Goodnight.