Tuesday, July 15, 2008

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.



















2 comments:

Dave McF said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dave McF said...

I don't like this whole Maple Leafs hat and scarf thing. Don't forget about your Pittsburgh connections and the Penguins!!!