This is the 12th in a series of posts covering my trip to Eastern
Canada in September 2019, adapting emails originally sent to friends. I
use NOW to refer to any updates since I did the trip.
Still a bit to go in the trip, but this was the last day to be *primarily* toronto focussed. The guy above me and a guy to my side had some sort of snoring duet going
last night. I got up before 6 and got some nice sunrise photos along
Bloor. Had breakfast at the McDonald's across from the Royal Ontario
Museum (ROM, no relation to the Spaceknight). It's an okay McDonald's
but the McDonald's that used to be there had a second story which had a
nice view of the ROM.
[NOW: I was staying at the Parkdale Hostellerie.]
I walked to Bloor-Yonge
Station and got a daypass. In the Bloor section, I took a 1
Yonge-University-Spadina train to Finch Station (all transit today
Toronto Transit),. I walked along Yonge past Steeles, where on the east
side I crossed over from Toronto to Markham. After about a block I
crossed over to the other side Vaughn and visited Galeria.
On
Steeles avenue a 60A bus I wanted arrived. Disappointingly, since I
wanted photos of that stretch of Vaughn, most of the seats filled on the
right side so I was on the left taking photos of Toronto instead. I
think the Vaughan side would have been more interesting, more
multilingual. I got off at Pioneer Village Station and took the 1 train
to Vaughn Metropolitan Centre for exterior shops before returning to
Pioneer Village Station again via 1 train. I took a 935 bus south to
Wilson Rd. I thought the address I wanted was 1701 but was actually
1700. Most cities that would mean right across the street but in Toronto
evens and odds don't always correspond So I had to doubleback to a mall
(Shepherd Centre, not to be confused with Shepherd-Yonge Mall a ways
east) a few blocks away. I found the store, Red Nails II on the bottom
level. I took a 35 bus (non-express version of 935) to Jane Station. I
visited another Red Nails II. As I suspected, 2 for 1 Movies wasn't open
for the day so probably won't get there again before they close down.
[NOW: I didn't get there again/]
I
took a 2 (Bloor-Danforth) train to Royal York Station and at Excalibur
Comics got a couple hardcovers. Back at the station I took another 2
train to St. George and transferred to a 1 train to St. Andrew Station.
David Mason Books proved to be in the basement of an office building.
The worker there didn't seem comfortable with my being there, though his
overweight cat was sweet. He made a remark about my leaving so quickly
as I left (it was all vintage books, nothing for me).
I
walked along Canada's Walk of Fame; cheekily Canada's Walk of Fame has
its own square. Some locals seem unaware the walk is there: I had to
wait as others walked over the squares, one guy stopped right on a
square to do something with his phone, and two people were having a
conversion with a square in between them. I visited Ben McNally Books,
partly obscured by construction.
[NOW: Ben McNally Books has moved.]
I tried to
find a bus stop to my next stop. part lof the issue was I put the wrong
number down (22 instead of 72) but things were confusing even after I
figured that out: there wasw an eastbound stop and a southbound stop,
both by Union Station. I thought the southbound stop was towards the
terminating stop so was waiting at the eastbound stop. I noticed at
least two southbound 72 buses. I waited about half an hour for the
eastbound bus, which stress me out since I found myself thinking of
other ways I could have gotten to my destination. The 72 bus finally
arrived.... and promptly looped around to the southbound side, letting me know I
had wasted half an hour for nothing. A couple of fair enforcement guys
got on the bus, but not to check fairs on that bus.Finally arrived at
Atomic Comics.
I hiked a ways, passing a cat
rolling around on a driveway, to what was supposed to be a a 505 steetcar
but was actually a bus; probably construction somewhere. I got off at
Yonge-Dundas Square, and remembering a good lunch I once had with Monica
in Oshawa, went to the nearest Five Guys. The staff were all women;
maybe the five guys are transitioning? Overpriced, and when my order was
up, the woman put fries in later orders (I skipped fries due to lack
of combo deal) and then napkins in all of them before offering them all
at once. Was a bit annoyed having to wait for fries for customers who
ordered after me. Also, as she listed a number of numbers at once, she called my number first, but someone who replied a bit louder got their
order first. Really good burger but I won't go there again.
I
had the lunch at Yonge-Dundas Square. I got an Asterix collection from
Edward St.'s BMV Books.I tried to find a DVD/music store inn the PATH
(underground city) but couldn't recall the name so couldn't ask around. I
checked out a nearby record store that sold DVDs. I took a 1 train from
Dundas Station to Union Station, the transferred to a 509 streetcar
(gentrified model) to Queen's Quay Station.
I did
a very long walk along the waterfront, seeing views of Billy Bishop
Airport on the Toronto Islands that I hadn't seen before. I also saw a
swan. My camera threatened to pack it in but then started working again.
I continued along the waterfront, crossing Humber Bridge over Humber
River and back. A guy asked if some place I couldn't make out try as I
might was very far. I did point out a large map but he didn't seem
interested in looking at that.
I
crossed from the south end of High Park to the North end, checking the
small zoo en route (bison, reindeer, emus, etc). I met up with my
friends Jan and Dave at nearby Keele Station and we revisited the park
(we saw a cormorant and a blue heron, as well as a few ducks; can't
recall what type). They were going to treat me to a healthy place, but
no meat options and most of the dishes have beans. so they ordered there
and treated me to the Queensway McDonald's.
We
were going to go to the waterfront but the sun had gone down so we sat
overlooking the highway instead. Mostly to be a tease, when I took a
photo of them as the end of the meet, that McDonald's was in the
background. while the main reason it wasn't the only reason: McDonald's
provided excellent night lighting for the photo.
I
was going to walk back to the hostel, but after a few blocks took a 501
streetcar back. While typing this, I heard a couple guys talking about a
crazy lady outside, likely the one from the night before last
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