After a bit of confusion – the first cab we came upon didn’t have enough room for our luggage – we got in a cab and were on our way to our hotel. We arrived just before 9 PM.
I think that we were spoiled rotten by the brand new Embassy Suites in Niagara. The Courtyard by Marriott immediately struck us as more dirty. Benny didn’t like the guy that checked us in, and the construcion and layout of the place was so odd that it struck me as accidental. Our room is on the 9th floor – the top – of the North Tower. Only one suitcase rack, no little mini kitchen, and you have to press yourself up against the bathroom wall to close the door. But at least we’ve got in-room internet access, right?
Wrong. Neither hte wireless nor the wired worked that first night. So, after a few minutes of fiddling, we gave Amy a call up. It turns out that she’s two blocks away from us, tops. She’s not up and around, so we go and grab some food. Amy says to just walk down the block, and we’re guaranteed to find something that we’ll like. Tht’s what’s great about our hotel. Location, location, location!
So, we just cast our glance up and down the street, and: two fast food joints, a pizza place, a Japanese restaurant, and an Italian pasta place. OH! And a sub shop. Amy wasn’t kidding. So, we went to Sushi Sky. Benny had a sampler and I had a sushi special. She decided to try sushi once again, and she ended up liking it this time. I think that she loved all of the different dipping sauces that she had. I also had some gyoza, and the outer layer of the dumpling had been cooked well done enough that it was crispy. That was a first for me, but it was tasty nonetheless. The bill came, and it was only CAN$22!! An authentic Japanese meal, and it was cheaper than in the US! I just about had a cheap-gasm. Anyway, we called Amy back, and she said she’d meet us in the hotel lobby.
We waited on a couch there for her, content in our post-sushi coma. When she arrived, the three of us hopped in a cab and were on our way to the FunHaus Club. It was a pretty cool goth joint, and the DJ played only good tracks. The playlist must have been downloaded straight from my subconscious. Two shots of Jager and a Red-Headed Slut rounded out my drinks. Benny had an Amaretto Sour and this cranberry vodka drink. We ended up – okay, I ended up getting sleepy around 2. So, the three of us hopped back in a cab and ended up parting ways by the hotel. Benny and I crashed hard.
We woke up just in time to get our free breakfast. We’d made the mistake of closing the curtains all the way, so no light came in to wake us up. The hotel smelled a bit funny, so we opened up a window to let it air out. I even tried a little bit more troubleshooting – I even called tech support – all with no results. Wiring problem in the room, they said. We took the laptop down to the business center and got our bearings a bit. Subway map, streetcar map, and just a general map. We confirmed our findings with the hotel desk clerk, and got more specific directions to the closest subway station.
We went down a level, and then compared our map with the one on the wall. Everything looked kosher, except for these route transfer numbers. We took some time trying to figure it out, and then a random lady asked us if we needed some help. I was floored! We said yes, and she basically told us to ignore the route numbers and we’d be just fine. So, since we didn’t know how many attractions we were going to visit, and how many times we were going to use the subway, we bought a day pass for each of us. We were also instructed that we should smile when we showed our pass. Way cool ticket-master.
The subway was a subway. Much like the above-ground trains and their stations in Japan, right down to the acceleration and deceleration.
Oh, wait, I forgot a critical part. I had the hangover from the 9th level of hell. Dizziness, flashes of vertigo, dehydration, and migrating headache. After only three drinks! Goddamn cranberry juice. Or schnapps. Whichever.
Anyway, so the subway was sweet. I could totally get used to this public transportation schtick. Actually hailing a cab from the street. So, we got off at the Museum stop, and completely toured the Royal Ontario Museum. Besides struggling through the hangover, the exhibits were extremely cool and engaging. Benny called me a little boy when I wanted to go through the dinosaur exhibit, and took a great amount of fun in pointing out my “relatives.” We stopped a bit for refreshment at the deli in the basement, and I marvelled at how the museum was continually being added on to. Not only that, but there were kids and teenagers throughout the entire place. And they were enjoying themselves. At a museum! Well, I can’t begin to see how Canada isn’t a stronger superpower than the U.S.
From there, we debated returning to the hotel for a rest or continuing on to the CN Tower. We decided to continue on. We took the subway to the Union Station, which was also where our train had come in to the night that we arrived. We took the Sky Walk over to the CN Tower, and used our City Pass to get in. That gave us access to all three levels of the tower.
By this time, Benny was starting to get a headache. I don’t know if it was a delayed hangover or from dealing with my whining. My knees and back were protesting by this point. Anyway, we went up the tower in an elevator that was going 15mph, and explored all three levels. I marvelled that even in a city with so much convenient public transportation, the highways were still gridlocked at 5:00 PM. The red of thousands of brake lights shone clearly up to us. Filled with our share of vertigo, we went down the tower and searched through the gift shop. Eventually, we got so lost in this circular, modular place that we had to ask how to leave. The clerk, joking, demanded to see what we had purchased before letting us out. After a couple of nervous laughs, she pointed the way and we were on our way back to our hotel through the Sky Walk, subway, and two blocks of street. We were both hungry, so we stopped in at the Italian pasta joint. Location, location, location!
It was, of course, fantastic. I had fetuccini alfredo and Benny had linguini in chicken pesto. And, drum roll please, the bill came to only CAN$14. Toronto is clearly the place to eat.
We headed back to the hotel and realized that we weren’t going to be able to do the whole DarkRave thing that we’d planned with Amy. We were both feeling like ass, so we cancelled, and laid around on the hotel bed all night long. There was some Pocohantas, some Back to the Future, and some coffee. Oh, and of course, chocolate. We are so never going to be able to finish all of the chocolate.
And now we sit across from each other, in the Second Cup coffee shop, and I’m about to finish my apple cider. We’re going to brunch with Amy, and then hopefully meet up with Joy somewhere. How amazing is that? She’s in Toronto the same weekend that we are!