Toronto Trip June 2012 Day 4 Friday June 8

UPDATED: February 1, 2021 

This is the fourth 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.

First off I couple of things overlooked from yesterday: on the 10 bus in Hamilton a woman was on her cell phone swearing up a store as she casually talked and continued on after she left the bus.  I like to imagine that even now she’s on the same call still swearing up a storm.  Then the bus right after was packed as it left Eastgate; it reached Walmart and everyone but me got off!

 

[NOW: The 10 bus was Hamilton Street Railway, despite there being no light rail in that transit system.]

Today:

Slept in to 7:13 (yes, I know) and had to quickly dash to the bus.  I took the Bloor-Danforth line again from Dufferin to St George and again transferred to the Yonge Spadina-University line to Union Station and from there crossed to Union GO Station.

 

[NOW: Bloor-Danforth line is now Line 2 and Bloor-Danforth line is now Line 1; both TTC/Toronto Transit Commission.]

At the ticket counter I had quite the challenge getting the daypass I wanted. I told the woman at the ticket booth I was going to Oshawa and Milton today and wanted a daypass that covered both.  She told me I should get a one way to Oshawa and there get a one way to Milton. I explained that I was also visiting places like Square One but then she thought I was going to Square One instead of Milton.  I also had to explain that I didn’t want to one-way tickets because I was actually going back to Toronto from Milton as well as the Whitby and Square One trips.  She finally agreed to give me an Oshawa-Milton daypass, phrasing it as if she thought it was her idea. I gave her an exasperated thank you and went in search of breakfast.

There was a group of women dressed like the Statue of Liberty I think due to the Word Cup. A guy when then said to removed the robes; that turned out to just be a joke that they took in good humour. I ate breakfast at the McDonald’s there; pricey but saved me some time.

[NOW: That McDonald's closed due to Union renovations.]

I got on the GO train to Oshawa, where I took the 90 Go bus to downtown Oshawa.  Walking south on Simcoe I visited Morgan Self Bookseller (gone) and Star Records (not yet open; I glanced in the window and didn’t think i’d find anything. I went north on Simcoe and west on William, where Skyfox wasn’t open under 12. Heading north on Mary took me to Sunshine Variety and Video where I got some vanilla Coke and ice tea.

 

[NOW: The train was Lakeshore East. Star Records is now closed.]

I should have taken the bus to my next stop but was too cheap to pay extra or Dundurn Transit, so I headed each to Rithorn (now for the next few days the furthest east I’ve been in Canada) and north to Taunton, where I visited Gnu Books & Comics. I went east to Simcoe and went back south, noting that Video King was gone.  Because it had been uphill to Rithorn this little detour cost me 1.5 hour

[NOW: Gnu Books has moved.]

I visited Worlds Collide and Comic Alley; the latter had great deals last year but not this year.  Heading west on King I visited Mike’s Place (newsstand) and Deja Vu Discs.  I headed west some more and then took the 94 bus to Greenlight Video in Whitby; it arrived later than expected so as I went west on Dundas then south on Brock I realized I was going to miss my train.  Heading to Comic Book Addiction the deals were also not as good as last year.  Since there was an hour between buses I had lunch at McDonald’s before heading to Whitby GO Station.

 

[NOW: Greenlight Video is now closed. Comic Book Addiction has moved. ]

On the train back to Union a couple were arguing a fair bit. I got the 21B bus to Milton just in time; once it was time to leave it left other passengers there despite empty seats (in fairness, 15min wait between buses).

 

[NOW: The train was Lakeshore East; both the train and the bus were GO Transit.]

I got off at Milton Go Station and went across the street to ToyRatt, which was closed due to a family emergency. Ironically, heading west along main, some teens asked me if I knew where ToyRatt was. I pointed in the right direction but told them the problem. Kymbits on Charles was gone but by then i was practically at the downtown of Milton, which looked very nice; I felt very relaxed there.  I thought that Recycled Reading was gone (oddly, despite the fact that it and the store next to it were empty, a sign said Storefront Parking Only).  However, I decided to just wander the downtown instead of dashing everywhere and fund a new location for it; got two DVDs and a comic trade. I also got a pop at Shoppers Drug Mart. 

[NOWE: Kymbits is gone.]

I noticed earlier that the connection to my next stop didn’t work as well as on sat so when I got on the 21H GO bus I asked the driver for help. Thus at Streetville I transferred to the 45 Go bus to Square One Mall, Mississauga.  I had an address to Planet Hobby and wandered around for it; it turned out to actually be the mall; as much as I normally find addresses helpful, in this case it being in the mall would have been the relevant info. Having figured this one, I first treated myself to a hot dog and large strawberry Julius at Orange Julius, then visited Planet Hobby.  Oddly, my last mall stop proved to be Zeller’s because it was closing out.  I got a cheap blu-ray there.

 

[NOW: Planet Hobby is now closed.]

I considered getting the 19 GO bus to Finch but it was getting late, the bus wasn’t there, and a 21H back to Union was about to leave s instead I took that.

I felt that I hadn’t been using my Toronto Transit weekly pass enough so I took the Yonge et al subway line to Dundas Station (Yonge-Dundas Square).  I took some photos, visited the Baldwin branch of BMV (got some DVDs and a book), and returned to Yonge-Dundas Square.

I had trouble finding a place to sit and kids were running around like crazy. Despite my best efforts one tripped over me and fell but didn’t seem too upset. I took the Yonge et al line to Bloor Station then went downstairs to Yonge Station and took the Bloor-Danforth line to Dufferin. I bought some more vanilla Coke at the convenience store.  No one was home as I was freshening up, but Aidan got home soon after and we’re about to go for drinks. If something worth mentioning happens there it’ll be in a report tomorrow.