A year before this trip I ventured all the way from my then-home in San Antonio, Texas to the Owl's Head ski resort in Québec to do a Spartan Super. Then the next day I pulled a volunteer shift so I could get a free race later. At the time I had assumed that my free race credit would work for any Spartan Race, but it turns out it was only valid in eastern Canada! So, of course, I had no choice but to cross the border yet again.
I scoured the map on the Spartan website looking for an eastern Canadian race that was not staged on a ski mountain, and got disheartened as I discovered they all were on ski mountains. All except one: the Ontario Beast. This one was being held at Highlands Nordic, a *cross country* ski resort. In other words, a flat area with very little steep grades. No question I'd sign up for that one.
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
So the race was free, because I volunteered at the Québec race a year earlier. I got my flight for free too; since Southwest doesn't fly to Canada, I got a free flight to Buffalo (with a layover in BWI) where I rented a car, a Nissan Versa--something I would have done anyway to drive to the race--and drove all the way from there to Toronto, a journey lasting just over an hour.
Well, it would've been a little over an hour without all the stops. First, I had to cross the border, and the crossing point was a little backed up. They closed two of the lanes WHILE I WAS WAITING for one of them, backing everything up even more. When I finally made it to the booth, the immigration officer seemed a little suspicious of me, this guy with a Texas driver license and a car with Virginia plates, claiming a Spartan Beast as his reason for visiting. "You came all the way here just for that?" "Well I'm gonna do tourist stuff in Toronto too..."
Then there was my dinner stop at a Tim Hortons in St. Catharines, a coffee stop at another Tim Hortons in Mississauga, me getting lost after missing an exit...it was pretty late at night when I finally pulled up at the Airbnb house I'd reserved a room in.
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
I stayed in a nice house north of downtown, near Yonge ("young") Street. The house, like those around it, was quite a few decades old, probably dating to the 1920s or so, but was still kept in great condition. This whole neighborhood reminded me of similar neighborhoods in Springfield, Ohio where I grew up, and another in New Jersey where many of my relatives live and we used to visit often. From the house it was just a short walk to Yonge Street which was lined with shops and restaurants, including a couple of Tim Hortons. About another ten minutes walking south led to the Eglinton subway station underneath a small shopping mall; I eventually found that many subway hubs in the city have such malls built right on top of them. (Why can't we design cities like this in the States?)
So, the subway took me to downtown, where the first thing I did was the most obvious thing for any visitor to Toronto...
For most of my life, the CN Tower held the title of world's-tallest free-standing structure until 2007 when it was finally topped by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. I'd been in similar towers before--the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio and the Space Needle in Seattle--and this one makes the Space Needle look like a thumb tack! Also, you see that little bulb near the top? That's another observation deck, called the SkyPod, and for an extra fee you can go up there as well as the main deck. I thought it was worth it, since I had no idea when or if I'd ever be back here.
Getting into the tower was just what you'd expect from any attraction like this. You buy a ticket, wait too long in line, and then ride a high speed elevator to the top. Then you can look out the windows and take in some breathtaking views of the city and Lake Ontario:
And while you're at it, stand on a glass floor and look straight down!
Much like Seattle's Space Needle and San Antonio's Tower of the Americas, there is a restaurant up on the observation deck. Unlike those two other places, this one has its own house beer called Tower Lager! I thought it was OK though nothing to write home about.
After the beer I went up into the SkyPod. The view is more or less the same though slightly higher up than the main deck.
Now, what to do for lunch? Toronto really is a global city, and I recall reading somewhere that it set some kind of world record for the number of languages spoken within its boundaries. Just about every part of the world is represented here. Even so, I was surprised to find an Afghan restaurant, and that's probably because I'd never seen an Afghan restaurant before, anywhere. This place was called Pamier Kabob and was on Spadina Avenue. It was a pretty upscale place, and it seemed to be frequented by office workers on their lunch breaks. The food wasn't too far off from what I've had at Indian, Persian, and Arab restaurants before; I had some kind of beef salad which was served with naan bread.
After lunch my next stop was Kensington Market. It's not really a market itself, more like a neighborhood that happens to be full of all kinds of shops and restaurants. Some of these shops are selling all the arts, crafts, and clothing you'd expect to find in a flea market, others are selling all the produce, cheese, and other such foods you'd expect to find in a farmers' market. It was at the food shops that I mostly stopped, buying some fresh fruit for myself for the next several days. After stocking up, I took the subway back to the Airbnb house to drop it off there.
Kensington Market
On the way back downtown I stopped at the Duke of Kent Pub on Yonge Street where, while drinking some Canadian beer, I made an interesting discovery. Sitting next to me at the bar was another American traveler. He was in town for something I had never heard of: TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival. Not only is this a big deal in the film world, but it's one of the few film festivals in the world that actually lets ordinary people like me in; most, like Cannes, are only open to industry insiders and journalists. Thus I decided I'd have to make time in this trip to see a few films at this event.
Probably the last stop I made on Wednesday, after dinner, was the Office Pub downtown, where I had one one of these:
I like Molson, it's real smooth.
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