The drive from the US border to Toronto was really long. The fact that we had to make quite a few pit stops along the way probably made the leg seem all that much longer. When we were just outside of Toronto, Thomai glanced at my Mapquest directions and noticed that I hadn’t run a complete map to our hotel. In fact, the map and directions that I had generated basically took us from our own front door to some random point in downtown Toronto with no further directions or landmarks. Adding to our predicament was the fact that both of us had neglected to print out the address or phone number of our hotel. Once we figured out how to change our cell phone to digital roaming (I can’t wait to see our cell phone bill) the bill for that), we were able to get some help from my sister back in Ohio. Eventually, we got in contact with our hotel and we got some decent directions on how to get to our final destination. By that point, we were rather horribly off course, so we got to see a fair amount of downtown Toronto neighborhoods on the way to our hotel. We even passed through a couple of spots twice.
While walking through Toronto's Chinatown one evening, Thomai and Kalliope ducked into a souvenir shop while I waited outside with Zoya, who was fast asleep. While we waited for them to come out, a woman walked up to me and asked me for directions. I apologized and told her, “I’m not from around here.” She looked surprised and said, “You’re not?” It was a proud moment for me, as I had clearly been mistaken as a Torontonian. Luckily, a real Torontonian was passing by around the same time and he was able to give the lady proper directions. As she walked away, she looked back at me and said “Thanks.” I’m still not sure what she was thanking me for, but I think I said “You’re welcome” just to be polite.
Toronto is far and away one of the most politically progressive and ethnically diverse cities we have ever visited. On a typical evening, we saw street performers performing along side of political and religious lecturers. One particular evening, we passed a booth featuring information on civil rights atrocities in Iran. The booth’s operators were affiliated with Iran Civil Rights Committee. I stopped for a chat and we had a short and friendly talk about politics,quickly arriving at common ground.
We visited some of Toronto’s most famous attractions, including Casa Loma, the CN Tower, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ontario Science Center and the Toronto Zoo and we made stops in Greektown and Chinatown. We had great meals at Superior Restaurant and Thai One. We also stopped at Atticus Books and Uprising Books where I made some acquisitions for our burgeoning home library.
I have included some of our favorite pictures in a new gallery. I hope everyone can tell that we enjoyed our time together!
