Eastern Canada Trip 2024 Day 1 Wednesday June 5 Victoria to Toronto
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.
Eastern Canada Trip 2024 Day 2 Thursday June 6 Toronto, Markham, Vaughan
This is the 2nd 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”.
People who've received trip reports in past years may recall me referring to what I call "planned spontaneity" which means planning a framework for a day in advance and then changing it in ways so that the basic idea is still there but things happen entirely differently. That was very much in force today. If you look at the timetable you can see how I got from it to what I did but things changed quite a bit. Glad I booked a room to myself. Slept a lot better as a result.
I left Wilson Hall around 5:30 and walked through the University of Toronto a little. I had breakfast at McDonald's across from the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum, not to be confused with Rom, a Specknight whose comic book adventures are far better known than the original toy he was based on). I walked to Bloor-Yonge Station and got a Toronto Transit daypass, though I didn't use it right away. I walked north along Yonge St for around two hours, crossing over into Vaughan at Steeles Ave. I walked a little ways further and then crossed the street to the east side, which was Markham. I walked back to Steeles and crossed back over to Vaughan. I just missed a 960 express bus but a 60 bus was right behind it and possibly got me a window seat that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise (some of you may recall I tried to do this in 2019 but couldn't get a good seat). I took photos of the north/Vaughan side of Steeles. I got off at Pioneer Village Station. The bus stop is on the Toronto side but I suspect that where you get on the subway train is in Vaughan; you can enter the tunnel via either city. I took a 1 train south (thus Toronto) to St. Andrew Station. I took photos of Canada's Walk of Fame, but there's a lot of construction in Toronto and some of squares of the Walk were covered unfortunately the square where the Walk pays tribute to itself.
[NOW: All transportation this day Toronto Transit. I later saw the latter square; I may have missed it or maybe it was covered one day but not another.]
I met up with my friend Monica. We went for lunch at a place nearby whose name I can't recall (I could look it up but want to plow through this) and she treated me to lunch. We parted ways and I took a 1 train from Union Station to Bloor-Yonge Station. I walked east along Bloor St E, crossing the Prince Edward Viaduct where it becomes Danforth St. Many areas of Toronto are ethnic themed. In the Greektown area I visited Book City and Re: Reading, got a pop from Circle K, and walked to Circus Books and Music.
[NOW: I think we ate at Kellys Landing.]
I took a 2 train from Donlands Station to Kennedy Station, in the Scarborough area of Toronto. I was supposed to get off a stop sooner (Warden) to make my way to the Scarborough Comic Room, but didn't notice that in time. Also it would have added an hour of my time. I took a 43B bus to near Kennedy Commons where I got some shows on DVDs and Blu-ray, including the Blu-ray of the 1990s Superman cartoon series. It was after that that I realized that while I wanted to see the Comic Room, it was more trouble than it was worth to get there (I tried to get there in 2019 but they weren't open and there was a long wait for a bus). The 3 Line light rail had been demolished in preparation for expanding the 2 Line in a similar direction, so with more buses, it was too much of a time eater; I don't know if the number 3 will be used for a new line in the future. I took a 2 Line subway train to Dufferin Station.
Walking along Bloor St W, I got some DVDs at Eyesore Video, then visited Monkey's Paw Books, Zoinks! Books and Music, and Doug Miller Books (I miss its late mascot Bumpkin the rabbit). I took a look at what had replaced Honest Ed's and was horrified. I could understand not keeping the old them, but the tall building is so bland that it actually stands out from its surrounding buildings in its blandness. It was as if the designers were actively trying to be blander than the buildings housing the other businesses in the area.
I visited Seekers Books, the Bloor St branch of BMV (Books Magazines Videos) and Thunderstrike Comics. I left Bloor for Bay St Video (probably the last truly traditional video rental business in Toronto) then on Yonge visited ABC Books before having dinner at the same McDonald's as yesterday, I visited the Edward St BMV and then returned to Yonge-Dundas Square briefly. I walked along Dundas St to Spadina. I could have walked the rest of the walk to the hotel, but in case this is the last day I get to ride Toronto Transit this trip, I waited longer than I hoped for a 510 streetcar. The first one was packed but there was another one right behind it so I took that instead back to Wilson Hall.
[NOW: Yonge-Dundas Square is now Sankofa Square.]
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