This is the 1st of a series of posts dealing with my 2024 trip to Eastern Canada. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports (typos, bits I don’t feel like making public). Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of a year later or to add further clarification. These are indicated by “NOW”.
As the cliche goes, it was an okay day today until it wasn't. I took a slightly earlier bus than planned (70 Victoria Transit) to McTavish Exchange, North Saanich. I was going to walk the rest of the way to the airport from there but it proved to be a Ride Free day so I transferred to the 88 Victoria Transit bus, which otherwise would have been a separate fare to Victoria International Airport (except for a small section in Sidney, it's also North Saanich).
I checked in. Because my original flight was cancelled, it took the guy at the desk a bit of time to find the proof that my check-in bag was prepaid. He also seemed confused when I wanted to verify that my window seat was not near a wing, insisting at first that it was a window seat, which wasn't the question. I had prebooked a particular seat on the old flight and when that flight got cancelled I had arranged a seat further back, but somehow that seat had gotten changed.
I grabbed breakfast from Tim Horton's and ate it outside the airport in the sun. Security went smoothly; my zipper didn't set off the metal detector like I thought it would. The plane was on time initially but late boarding. There were two windows at my seat. One had too much wing but the other was okay. I considered ordering lunch on the plane, but the hot meals were limited and given that chocolate bars were $3.99 I feared that the few more lunchtime meals would be small. The guy next to me kept elbowing me as he read, etc.
Clouds were present much of the trip, but not to the point of covering everything until the plane got close to landing. It finally landed at Pearson International Airport. I grabbed a sandwich at Tim Horton's and then went to the baggage area. The baggage had already arrived because it took a few minutes at Tim Horton's. The 900 Rocket bus (all remaining transportation today Toronto Transit) arrived as I was finishing eating. I was going to grab coins I’d set aside but was having trouble reaching them and I couldn't keep the bus waiting as I scrambled to grab them, so I used my debit card. Actually 5c cheaper but no transfer as souvenir. I took the bus to Kipling Station, where I took the 2 subway train to Spadina Station. There, I took a 510 streetcar to the University of Toronto's Wilson Hall.
I checked in to my single room there and dropped off most of my stuff. I walked back north to Bloor St, then east to Yonge St, then headed south. It was humid but I had expected that. I had started to relax since the weather wasn't as bad as I expected and most of where I'm travelling this trip I've been to before. But then I needed to change my camera battery and when I put the new one in I got a lens error. I tried another battery. No luck. I went to a McDonald's nearby hoping that by the time I left my camera would be working again. No luck. Since the lens error began I started taking cell phone photos, but my phone can't store even 0.1% of what a single memory card can. My backup camera was back at Wilson Hall, not expecting a breakdown this early in the trip if it wasn't raining. After a quick look at Yonge-Dundas Square I went to Best Buy at Toronto Eaton Centre to see if they had any cameras that use the same battery. They didn't. I returned to Wilson.
[NOW: Yonge-Dundas Square is now Sankofa Square. The Best Buy person believed incorrectly that another camera they could order used the same battery, but the point’s moot because it wouldn’t have arrived before my trip ended. Luckily despite weather conditions my backup camera survived the trip,]
I had trouble connecting to WiFi via Chromebook and enlisted the receptionist. She was having troubles too so I had a quick shower while she helped other customers. I realized I had forgotten to pack soap and a towel. I did the best I could and then went downstairs by which point she had gotten the WiFi working on my Chromebook. Tomorrow I will switch cameras. If that one breaks down too I will have to buy a new camera plus at least three more chargers plus at least 10 batteries because camera batteries aren't universal. So a bit on edge about the camera situation, especially this early in the trip.
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