Toronto Trip June 2012 Day 3 Thursday June 5

UPDATED: February 1, 2021

This is the third of a series of posts dealing with my second and most recent trip to Toronto. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports.  Due to how recent the trip was, there are no updates to note below.

Insomnia last night. Woke up before 4:30.  Not ideal day to wake up early because today's another of the busier days.  Today is Hamilton, Burlington, and, time permitting, OakvIlle.

[NOW: The above was written in the morning; the rest I wrote in the evening.]

 

Took the Bloor-Danforth line to St George and from there transferred to the Yonge-University-Spadina line to Union Station. I crossed over to Union GO Station and bought a day bus pass.  I was going to have breakfast there but there was a huge line-up. I decided on check on an earlier bus to Hamilton. Not much of a line to I took it.  Just before the bus was about to leave the station someone showed up with bags and didn't tell the driver about there. The bus started to pull away and I decided to help the guy by calling out to the driver. That go taken care of and the bus made it to Hamilton, where I got off at City Hall on Main St.  

 

[NOW:  The Bloor-Danforth line is now Line 2 and the Yonge-University-Spadina lineis now Line 1; both TTC/Toronto Transit Commission.

I made it to James St where online it said that a number of convenience stores sold bus passes but none open had them in. I had breakfast at Subway, where I noticed my debit card was missing.  I finally got a bus pass at a convenience store that opened at 9. A little ways north I visited Copps Colosseum, ignoring a homeless guy who was made because he thought I was someone taking photos of him while pointing my camera a different direction. Copps on the TV show Power Play was the home of the fictional Hamilton Steelheads. I located a Scotiabank on James and got a new debit card.

NOW: Copps is now FirstOntario Centre.]

I got on the wrong 35 bus heading south; this one only went part way; I pointed out to someone else they were about to leave their gum behind.  Heading south on 5th, I got on another 35, but because it takes a roundabout route, got off too soon, thinking it was the wrong bus. I finally made it to Upper James St (because they’re up a hill, a number of south streets have the Upper prefix), where I visited Video Squared (gone) and The Beat Goes On (bought the blu-ray of the extended/Millennium version of the original Dragon Tattoo trilogy). Heading north and getting the 27 bus en route I visited Big B Comics (bought some comics) and the Upper James branch of Steel City Video (gone).

[NOW: All buses within Hamilton are Hamilton Street Railway, despite there not being any light rail.]

I realized too late I was the wrong stop for the next bus I wanted but probably missed it anyway, so finally took the 27 back downtown at the stop I was at, which I fund out te hard way had wet benches.  Not knowing when the express bus came, I opted instead to take the standard 5C bus west on King, which turned out to be the faster choice in this instance. I visited Bryan Prince Bookseller, Comic Connection, The Bookworm, Conspiracy Comics, where I bought some comics.  I dashed to Main St and got a bus east and headed back to King, where Reigning South and Puttin on the Ritz were gone. I visited Select Video, got a slushy at a store near it, In various places in the downtown area visited Mike's World of Books (gone? another book store nearby opened later than I'd be there), Video Store (gone; got another slushy nearby), Cheapies (where I got some DVDs last year; not this time).  En route to Allan Petterplace Bookseller, I ran afoul of someone else for taking phones of him while pointing my camera a different direction; this time, exasperated I told him he wasn't interesting enough to photograph. Allan was gone but they were filming something there. Under the Moon was replaced by a video store that did sell their DVDs, only he'd have to check prices individually; I decided it wasn't worth the time.  After a bit of a search to find the entrance I had lunch at the James St McDonald's.

 

[NOW: Bryan Prince Bookseller, that Comic Connection, The Bookworm, Select Video, Cheapies arte now gone. That McDonald's was probably actually on King St; also closed.]

I walked over to an area with statues and fountains that was being renovated.  I walked to a bus stop and I think I annoyed a woman who again thought my camera was magical and took pictures at different directions than the front.  Having by now realized that the entire downtown Hamilton was skid row (and like the homeless people in Victoria the ones in Hamilton thought they were some sort of celebrity that everyone wanted to photograph with magical cameras) I was quite reading to leave downtown.  I took the 3 bus east to Ottawa St where I visited Stardust Records and Under the Moon and had time to do a quite peak at the Main St E branch of Steel City Video before catching a 10 express to Eastgate, finally back on schedule.  There I took a 56 bus north to Van Wagner's Beach, wanting to get in some sun.  This was the point where it started to rain, with thunder, lighting, and light hail; worse, I realized that the unnumbered bus stop I was at was the wrong one.  I did quite the dash in the pouring rain, finally getting an 11 bus to Burlington; while still Hamilton Transit, I got a Burlington Transit transfer from the driver.  I visited Different Drummer, Book Nook, and Looney Tunes near Burlington Transit Center, then I took the 3 bus (this time Burlington Transit) to near Burlington Mall.

[The park is Gore Park.  Looney Tunes has moved.]

At Burlington Mall I visited Cinema 1, got some directions to a later stop at info counter, then visited Sunrise Records. I bought a drink at Dollarama then left a mall and took a bus east on Fairview.  I bought more DVDs at The Beat Goes On, then visited Appleby Book Ranch.  I planned to visit Conspiracy Comics but it was still rainy and I didn't want to miss my rain, so upon getting back to across the street from the mall, I instead waited for the westbound 1 bus and took it est to Burlington GO Station, where I took the train east to Oakville.

 

[NOW: Appleby Book Ranch is now closed. The train was the Lakeshore West train/GO Transit.]

I took a slightly roundabout route to Kerr so I could get some photos from a higher up road, thus better views.  I noticed I forgot to update my itinerary from last year, which still listed a few places that were gone; also some other places on the To Visit list were gone as well as expected even last year; but that was okay because I had a route I wanted to follow. I went to the now ironically named All is Well Bookshop (gone), got a drink at Happy Milk, noticed that my favourite place in Oakville, Comic Connection had moved too far out of the area I wanted to walk in the rain, then went past a few stores on Lakeshore that were probably also gone last year too, then went north along Trafalgar, doing a quick check at Bong's Variety (no pot as far as I could tell; lots of porno mags but didn't buy anything). I just missed an eastbound train so visited Conspiracy Comics and grabbed dinner at McDonald's.  

I took the GO Train back to Union GO Station in Toronto; at the second last stop, Exhibition, security checked everyone's fare (like the Skytrain, you can try to ride free, but eventually you get caught).

I took the Yonge et al train back to St George and transferred back to Bloor-Danforth train to Dufferin. I got some vanilla Coke and made it back to Aidan's place, where he was nice enough to make me some burgers. I also noticed that due to the elements I had done some literal and legal money laundering.