Toronto

It’s been far too long between updates, so I thought it was about time to get into it!

When last we left u, we were just about to move into our apartment, which we have now done so. The place is great, if you check out the photos, there’s a few photos showing the inside. We’re located about a 3 min drive from the CBD, and about a 15 min tram (street car) ride. We’re on the 7^th floor and look out over lake Ontario along with a whole bunch of other buildings. It’s a pretty cool spot, everyone that we’ve spoken to has said that it’s a great spot, so we’re not just bias. So we’re settled in now, and have become pretty familiar with the surrounding area. My brother Craig is living 3 apartments down, and my other brother Tony lives about 15 min away, so it’s been a great opportunity to catch up with them.

I won’t bore you with all the details of the past 6 weeks, rather I’ll let you know some of the more interesting aspects.

New Years; we had dinner at our new place, then headed out with Tony to a friends’ house – Chris, we spent the evening meeting new people and more or less drinking in the new year. After midnight struck we ventured out into the cold and found a cool bar nearby to continue our adventures. ‘Twas a low key evening but enjoyable.

Australia day this year was a bit weak, but we made the most of it. We headed to an Australian and Kiwi bar, however it wasn’t exactly pumping like we thought it would, so I think we were both a little home sick that day. The following days after Australia day Alison got really sick with the flu, which was made worse when she went to get vaccine shots for her next leg of the trip – so she was more or less bed ridden for a week or so.

We have done some pretty typical tourist excursions, Tony took us up the CN Tower which is a must in Toronto, I’ve done it before but never in Winter so it was quite different. We also went to visit Casa Loma, which is a castle close to the centre of the city, it was quite interesting but is probably best viewed in the summer time.

Niagara Falls; Tony had a weekend squash tournament at Niagara on the lake, a district not far from the falls. So headed up and stayed the weekend in the 5 star hotel. Friday night involved watching a bit of squash and enjoying the bar and restaurant facilities. Saturday, Alison and I borrowed Tonys car and we drove over to the falls. It was cold that day, so we didn’t spend a huge amount of time viewing it, but it’s quite spectacular. Check out the photos. It’s starting to freeze over, but was still running freely. The Niagara district is also well known for it’s wineries, similar to the Hunter Valley, so we cruised around testing the quality of the wines in the area. We went to 4 or 5 different places and were very impressed with the set-ups. The reds are not quite up to Australian standards, but their specialty ice wine, is amazing. We had a great time checking out the places and getting to “taste” free wine – always a crowd pleaser. The rest of the trip was pretty relaxed, checking out more squash and socialising with some of Tony’s buddies.

It’s definitely cold enough here, but apparently it’s an unusually warm winter. We’ve had one day that was -19 degrees, but it’s mostly been teetering around -4 or so. There also hasn’t been much snow at all, at most an inch or 2, it’s snowing today though and is supposed to continue for the next week or so, which will at least give reason to me spending good money on snow worthy boots. You may see in some of the CN Tower photos that the lake is beginning to freeze over, we didn’t skate the lake, but the next best thing was skating at Nathan Phillip Square which is kind of like Martin Place in Sydney. It was quite cool skating about and not being the worst skaters there, all those birthday parties at Macquarie Ice Rink finally did some good.

We’ve had many nights out at several different spots, we’re about a 3 min walk to Queen Street which kinda gives a Newtown vibe so there’s loads of interesting bars, restaurants and shops. You’ll see in the photos a couple of photos from one particular night at a 50’s themed night which was a lot of fun.

We’ve/I’ve had a number of visits with Philli and Jen; Philli’s family have been family friends for many years so we it’s good hanging out with another familiar face. One such excursion with Philli and Jen also included a couple of guys that they had met on a Contiki tour last year, 2 Aussie guys from Sydney – I thought somehow I would have to know one of them, low and behold, I did. I actually worked with one of the guys when I was with AW Edwards at the airport. Small world!

As some may be aware, we’ve both been looking for work here and have not had a huge amount of luck. As I sit here, I’ve actually got a meeting lined up with someone at Tony’s work tomorrow which sounds positive, so if all goes well I should be starting up there for a few weeks very soon. Alison however has had no such luck, she decided a couple of weeks into our Toronto stay that she would quite like to head down to South America to meet up with a few of her friends (Tamara, Georgia and Claire). So she flew down to Brazil on the 10^th February to enjoy the warm weather, so she’ll be sure to write all about it when she gets back. So I’ve been a lone wolf the past few days, but I’ve been keeping myself busy, hanging out with my brothers, as well various friends. I’ve also been visiting the gym across the road, I’ve been trying to keep in shape as best as one can in North America – it’s not exactly the weather that encourages a jog outside.

So this portion of the trip may seem slower paced than the first 3 weeks of our trip, in some ways it is as we aren’t living out of a suitcase but we’ve still been keeping very busy, and it’s been super enjoyable. I feel like a Toronto resident now, and it’s going to be sad to leave – but that won’t be till early April, we have to stay till then cause Vampire Weekend are playing here on the 31^st March. I think the plan will then be to head to Vancouver, then to Europe, but I’m really not certain just yet, still lots of planning to be done.

So hopefully work will start soon, Alison will return safe, and we can embark in the next leg of the adventure!