Hello From Toronto!

I love Toronto! OK I have only been here a week but I love it. The city is so easy to get around as the transport system is easy, functional and on time!! Wow! So far all the people I have met have been so friendly and polite, Canadians are really polite which makes being here even more enjoyable. So far I've spent my time wondering the city and getting to know the geography and the sites. There are so many different cultures here, I know Melbourne and Sydney are very multi cultural but Toronto just seems different. Everyone just gets along and all the different areas just melt together to make this wonderful buzzing city.

I am staying at a hostel in an area called Kensington Market which is a very bohemian area with lots of great eating places that sell all organic produce and wine. It is an area where you can see yuppies, punks, hippies, mum's and dad's and just about any one hanging out. It is just around the corner from Chinatown and little Italy so as you can imagine I have certainly been enjoying lots of good food!

This week my goal is to get a job and a place to live ,which I already have a few leads on both so hopefully that all falls in to place with out too much drama. As you can imagine I am pretty happy with my choice of city to call home, I am pretty sure I won't get bored here. The ballpark and hockey arena are very close to downtown, there are numerous festivals coming up and not to mention the mountains are only an hour away so in winter I can learn how to hurt my self on a snow board :o)

I have some photos below of sites around the city and a few of the things I have been getting up to this week.... Hope everyone at home and around the world is well. Until the next ramblings... enjoy.

Toronto is a very green city, with lots of recycling bins, green and energy efficient buildings and even their cars turn into pot plants and street landscaping!

Augusta Ave the heart of Kensington Market! Great place for Mexican, Asian and vegetarian.

Fountain in the middle of town, was too lazy to go up and read the what it was all about but it looks cool. Not sure what happens in winter though.

A statue of Winston Churchill who apparently had a "thing" for Toronto, probably not the seagulls though.

Out the front of City Hall, this fountain turns into a skate rink in the winter. Can't wait to twist my ankle on that one.

Lake Ontario, which Toronto graces it's shores.

Oooo a Canadian Squirrel!

Oooo a Canadian squirrel running for his life. (I swear by the time my Visa runs out I will have a clear picture of a squirrel)

The Ontario Tower.

I have already made some friends and found a local bar. Thanks all to my Mum's boss Krista who is Canadian. Before I left she said to go and look up her sister Stephanie at the Crown and Dragon pub. So I popped in there, ordered a beer and introduced my self. Well, after that and after a lot of "No Way?, No way, see this girl here her Mum works for my sister in Australia" I became a member of the Crown and Dragon family and was taken under the wing of Stephanie and Mark. I think all i needed to do was to get smashed with them to pass the test, which of course I did. I think with this crowd my time here in Toronto is going to be a lot of fun....

After a couple.. OK several beers I had to pledge my allegiance to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the hockey team. So therefore I got draped in a hat and a French scarf hahaha.

Stephanie and I

Bob the polish guy. One of the locals at the Crown and Dragon.

The other thing I have fallen in love with is Baseball. I don't know why it's just a great game to watch live. The New York Yankees were playing the Toronto Blue Jays last weekend and well I just had to go. One because tickets were pretty cheap and two the ball park is only a 7 minute tram ride away. Unfortunately the Blue Jays lost that game but it was good fun. The Canadian fans are a lot like Aussies... yobbos ha.

The Rogers Centre where the Blue Jays play. (Rogers is a massive telecommunications network over here, it's not a centre where you get rogered haha)

The crowd hanging out of the Rogers Centre. It's actually a great ballpark not as pretty as PNC but certainly a lot better than the new Nationals Stadium. It's also very functional as when it started to rain they put the roof on!

There was actually 44 thousand people at the game the centre holds 50 thousand. I know nothing like the MCG but ballparks don't need to be that big and your much closer to the action.

The Pitcher throwing to 1st base to try and get a sneaky batsman out who was trying to steel to second. The batsman was safe, pitcher didn't throw fast enough!!

I reckon that catchers knees have got to be sore after squatting all day.. I certainly couldn't do that heck I'd be scared of getting hit by the ball hahaha.

4th of July

I am not sure how many movies I have seen that have a fourth of July reference but I am pretty sure in most of them the thing I learnt about how Americans celebrate their Independence day is with fireworks and BBQ's (or Grilling as the yanks say) and I can confirm that these movie reference are pretty much true. As I spent my first fourth of July doing just that, oh but ad plenty of beer to that equation as well! A group of Gil's friends joined him at the cabin up at lake Erie for the long weekend and since I was on my way back to Canada Dave and I decided that it was a good stop off before he took me up to Toronto.

The Beach packed with 4th of July party goers.

Some of the weekend crew.

Tim and Kathy (aka Kitty)

What Dave be sober by the end of the day? HAHAHAHA oh my god your funny!

Canoe Tim mixing it with the locals. (Tim brought a fantastic Canoe with him, which I made him take out and paddle with me on the lake, we actually had a bit of chop that day, he thought it was great he'd never paddled in "waves" before haha, was nice to get out there though and have a rest for an hour off the beer!)

Dave and Tim knocking back a few more beers.

The Result of Dave drinking all afternoon, unfortunately I don't have a photo of him falling out of the Hot Tub, but thankfully he was asleep in his tent by 7pm!

Gil the master of the Grill.

Can't let off fireworks with out a Bonn fire going as well.

The sign of a good weekend!

G'day from USA

So I moved to Canada... but am actually in the US mm yeah I decided to make a short detour into Pittsburgh and surrounding areas before getting the Canadian part of this journey started. When you all last heard from me I was on my way to Vancouver. I spent two nights there before heading over to Toronto, which I didn't see much of as my friend Dave drove up from Pittsburgh to pick me up as soon as I landed. I've spent just over a week in the US and well it's been interesting... to say the least.

I spent some time on Lake Erie at Sunset Bay with Dave and Josh when I first arrived, which was fun and I got to spend my Birthday drinking shots with the locals... Good night that one......

The Bar at the Cabana Bar!

Josh and Dave at the Cabana Bar at Sunset Bay, Lake Erie.

The beach!

Dave, slightly Sober......

Josh.... not sure if he knows what Sober means....

Josh enjoying the warmth of the hot tub at Gil's Cabin at Lake Erie. I know what your thinking Ladies!

Drinking in the Hot Tub... not a bad way to spend your Birthday!

So after a few days of relaxing at the lake we drove back down to Pittsburgh to catch up with a few other's there like Gil and Vero. Since Dave has been back at work I've done a whole lot of nothing other than hanging out in Shady Side (neighbourhood of Pittsburgh) I've sent off a few resumes for work but no serious bites as of yet. We did however spend a lovely Friday evening at a summer music concert in the park before driving up to Washington the next day....

Nut bags in the park, Gil, Vero and Dave.

Sunny Evening... I'm liking it!

Veronique

Listening to the relaxing tunes of Juliana Hatfield.

Ronald and oh yes here he is again that Josh fellow...

Chilling in the park!

Jay, Josh and Ched.

Just ad Dave

The Norwegian ponders to drink or to go home??? Difficult dilemma we have all found our selves in at one time or another I am sure...

There was a plan of just having a quiet night at the concert and getting up at a reasonable hour and driving down to DC to meet up with Harry, a friend of Dave's back from the UK. However as you can imagine that didn't happen so instead Dave and I took the hung over drive to DC. Well actually to Maryland, I did not see much of DC but I did get to experience the wonderful hospitality of Harry and his girlfriend Lillia. We also went to a Ball game at the new Nationals Park... which unfortunately did not meet all of our expectations as ball parks go it wasn't Harry or Dave's favourite but we did see the Washington Nationals pull off a win in the 12th inning....

The Washington Monument viewed from the beltway.. or as I like to call it America's Big Vibrator, Batteries not included.

Harry wears his sunglasses at night...

Dave should maybe consider wearing his sunglasses at night too...

Lillia and Harry!

The Drunken Dog Whisperer.

Nationals Park, the newest and the rudest ball park in the country.

Bit of Baseball Action.

A bit of Mascot Action!

At this Ball Park they have the Traditional Presidents Race. Where big over sized past president figures run around the field!!! Only in America!

Screech the mascot with the "plush white feathers" calling the end of the race.

After the ball game we headed down to Pirates Cove in Maryland for their local delicacy Imperial Crab and waitress's bitching about the Raw Bar Cook in the Kitchen.

Another beautiful evening to get drunk :)

After a fun weekend in Washington I am now back in Pittsburgh with the crew here. I am going to stick around for the 4th of July where we are all heading back up to Erie and then I am off to Toronto to really get this Canadian Adventure started!! But before I leave I must thank the guys in Pittsburgh for putting up with me. There is a lot about the States I find very screwed up and strange but luckily my friends here are the same so I know I am always assured to have a good time when ever I visit Pittsburgh :o) Thanks guys!