LAST UPDATED: October 26, 2025
This is the fifth 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.
Aidan and I went to a pub on Bloor last night. It
was too noisy and I quickly got overwhelmed so we went to another roughly
across the street from it. It eventually became noisy too but only
gradually. We sat outside and early on a voyeuristic white cat watched
the patrons from above. I'd have liked to have taken a photo of it but it was
dark and to get a good shot I'd have had to have zoomed in with my camera and
be not at all discrete. It rained a little which cleared out a few
people. I got home a little later and it poured minutes after.
Today I'd probably be half on itinerary, half off. Part of it was covered on
Tuesday (which reminds me that I switched Fri and Sat around) and the rest
covers a relatively small stretch or if not small, quite linear at least.
But Toronto
all day today. Just need to check something else online and I'll be off!
[NOW: The above was written in
the morning; the rest I wrote in the evening.]
I had a smaller itinerary
for today than usual (both because I planned it that way originally and because
part if it was done on Wed; I also switched around Fri and Sat); so only part
of this day fell under the itinerary.
For all subsequent reports
including this one, BD=Bloor-Danforth subway line, YUS=the Yonge University
Spadina subway line.
[Now: The former is now Line 2, the latter Line 1; all transportation this day TTC/Toronto Transit Commission.]
First, off itinerary, I
walked along Bloor to the McDonald’s in front of the Royal Ontario
Museum and had breakfast
there. Then I walked down Avenue Rd (yes, that’s its name) to Museum
Station and took the YUS south to St Patrick Station. There I took a
westbound Dundas
streetcar to near Denison Square.
At the Square I got the photos of the Al Waxman statue. I noticed today that
the statue was near Kensington Market. Waxman played the lead character
in The King of Kensington (an old Canadian TV series). I took another
streetcar east on Dundas
to Yonge-Dundas Square.
[NOW: That McDonald's closed, though another one with not as good a view later opened in the same location.]
At Yonge-Dundas Square they had a lot of Volkswagens, one made to look like Herbie the Love Bug. I went down to
Danforth Station and took the northbound YUS to Finch and from there took a
600? to Yonge and Steele, thus finally connecting me with my itinerary.
That far up north, Yonge is in the 6300s in the evens side and in the 6900 in
the odds side. I was feeling relaxed so after a failed attempt to find
one store in Centrepoint Mall (I did check out another closing Zeller’s),
wandered back south to Finch, noting that the other stores north of Finch I
wanted to see were gone as well. I took the YUS south to Sheppard Yonge
and from there on a whim decided to check out the other subway line there
(Sheppard) and took it to Don Mills. This took longer than expected. I’d
planned to visit the HMV at Fairview Mall across from Don Mills Station, but it
proved to be in the opposite end of the mall and I decided I’d wasted too much
time there as it was.
[NOW: Yonge-Dundas Square is now Sankofa Square. HMV is now defunct. Sheppard line is now Line 4.]
I took that line back to
Sheppard Yonge and went to Sheppard
Square. I bought some pop at Dollarama and visited
Sunrise Records, then took the YUS line south to Eglington Station. I bought a
comic hardcover at Yonge St’s BMV Books, then took the YUS line south to St
Clair. I visited Book
City, the took the St
Clair streetcar west, skipping a few places I took tell from the window were
closed.
[NOW: That Sunrise Records is now closed. The streetcar was the 512.]
I visited the 2Q Video at
St. Clair and Oakwood and then took a 63 bus south to Ossington and Dupont, a
very boring stop. Unfortunately the 26 bus never showed up except the bus
going the other direction. I finally gave up after waiting around 20 minutes
and, never seeing the bus hiked around 20 blocks to my next destination, the
west side of Dundas St. I bought Smallville season 10 on blu-ray for
about $17 at Pandemonium. Hairy Tarantula had turned into a role-playing game
shop that did have some DVDs but no purchases. Also not at Dundas
West Pawnbrokers and the nearby dollar store which had a tine DVD selection.
[NOW: 2Q Video is now defunct. Not sure what store I meant by Hairy Tarantula but it was probably a different store.]
I got more DVDs at Big
Daddy’s and then visited Dencan Books and the Book Exchange. I headed south
down Clendanan to Annette, more than a little worried because it was time to
chance the 26 again. This time it arrived just after i reached the stop, so I
took it to Jane Station, where I took the BD west to Royal York Station in the
area of Toronto
formerly and still informally called Etobicoke.
[NOW: Big Daddy's DVD, Dencan Books, and the Book Exchange are now closed.,]
I visited Excalibur Comics
and had lunch a Tim Horton’s; a fire truck parked there for food. I took the BD
east from Jane to Lansdowne. where I walked to Aidan’s place and dropped off
some stuff and checked my messages. I saw Aidan’s sister there but she was
listening to music and I don’t think she noticed me.
[NOW: Excalibur comics is now closed.]
Now done with my itinerary,
I walked to Zoinks (I think it was en route that I saw the kitty in the window
for the first time since Tues; it was sleeping this time) and then took the BD
(entering the station at Ossington on the same side I did when I visited
Aidan’s old place last year) to Bathurst.
I visited Suspect Video before getting some DVDs at Honest Ed’s.
Honest Ed’s is a huge two building store with a bridge above connecting the
buildings. Lots of discount stuff’s of jokes in and out of the store poking fun
at Ed’s while praising the prices. Outside there’s flashing lights. If you only
visit one store in Toronto,
I’d make it this one because it’s a unique experience.
[NOW: Suspect Video and Honest Ed's are now closed.]
I took a streetcar south
from Bathurst
and Bloor. I kept seeing it go down Bathurst
so I figured I’d just get on and see where it went. It actually went down
to near the waterfront before turning west. I didn’t want to go that far west
so I switched streetcars, got some great waterfront shots, and got off at Union
Station. I wandered back to King St and got more photos of the Walk of
Fame; I wandered south to the CN Tower on a whim, thinking of going up it, but
didn’t feel like paying the $24. I wandered back to King and got a pop
from a street vendor (they tend to be a bit cheaper there than convenience
stores) I also passed the Walk again, this time more by accident than on
purpose.
I made it to Queen St and took a
streetcar east as far as it went, which turned out to be outside a pub where
some either live or canned off key karaoke could be heard outside. I took a
temporary shuttle (during construction part of Queen is closed to shuttles) to
Queen just north of Kew
Beach. I ordered a pizza
from Pizza Pizza, wandered to Kew Beach, wandered back have given it some time
to cook, wandered back to the beach. Not as packed as I thought it would
be. Maybe it’ll be more packed tomorrow when I visit with a friend. I
took a 93 bus north to Woodbine Station and took the BD west to St George.
It’s mainly used to connect people to the YUS so it was hard to get out of.
Walking west on Bloor, I
passed a really talented street performer (violinist?), got a Slurpee at 7-11,
visited Labyrinth Comics (another place I kept missing last year and so was
determined to get to this year. I crossed the street to BMV Books on
Bloor. I walked to Spadina and took another streetcar to Queen St. I
walked east and visited BMV Express. I went further east and saw a fountain
by the old and new City Hall. In March people were skating on it, and a
building did mention the rink, so it’s a mulit-purpose fountain. A woman
was singing on a sound stage.
[NOW: Labyrinth and BMV Express are now closed.]
I walked further east and
then turned north on Yonge, walking to Yonge-Dundas Square. This time part of the
square had water coming up from jets and there was a Latin American performing
group, so it was a completely different experience than the Volkswagen show
earlier. I have to say, while Victoria
gets street performers and many are talented, they’re talented on an amateur
level. However, the free live performers I saw today, especially the last
group were what I’d consider to be professional quality. I think this was the
first time I really appreciated the appeal of live entertainment of this
type.
I relaxed at the square a
bit longer (it’s probably one of my fav Toronto
places). Then I went back down to BD. On the other side of the tracks was
a crazy guy. I took the YUS to Bloor and from there walked downstairs to Yonge
on the BD line and took it to Dufferin and returned here. As with a few
other returned trips, it stayed a while at Christie; puzzling.
