toronto adventures

Well and so, my Toronto adventure has been interesting so far. I've spent a lot of time wandering around in the cold, waiting for and riding the public transportation, with a little bit of shopping thrown in.

I got on the train in Windsor just before 6pm Thursday night. I enjoyed the train ride - it was my first time on a train. It's a much smoother ride than the bus - and faster as well. They had electrical plugins, so I was able to plug in my laptop and play some Freecell and write and whatnot. That made it more interesting. I arrived in Toronto at about 10pm. Nate met me at the train station and we then took the subway and street car back to his apartment, where he was letting me crash on the couch for the weekend. So that was pretty much that. I got a taste of the big city public transport, enough that I was then able to find my own way the next day.

The next morning I was awake at about 7:30, but just kind of took it easy, did the email thing and whatnot and hung out at Nate's until about 10am or so, then I headed out to wander the city and see what I could discover. I got the streetcar and headed downtown - about a 15 minute ride or so. Once downtown I got off and started to wander - went down underground along "Path", which is 27 miles of underground walkway, shops, connections to the subway and other buildings. Pretty intresting. I walked along that a bit, then decided to go check out the Eaton Centre, which is supposed to be this huge underground mall. It was pretty neat. I managed to find my way on the subway to get there, walked in and almost immediately found "my store". It's called Lush. I had never seen a Lush store before, but I loved it!!! It's all handmade cosmetics - made with natural herbs, essential oils, that kind of thing. From bubble bath to soup to face care products - I was in my own little heaven! I love that natural skin care kind of stuff and am always on the look out for something good for my skin and body. I really like the whole idea of using natural stuff on your skin instead of man-made chemical processed stuff. It's got to be better for you, right?

So I spent a bit of money at "my store", then did some more wondering, found a Mega Wraps in a food court for lunch, then headed over to the Bata Shoe Museum. Yes, a whole museum devoted to shoes! It was pretty interesting. I'm not a huge shoe freak or anything, but when I heard about it I decided to go check it out just because it was something unique and out of the ordinary. It had the whole history of the shoe, and the different styles and whatnot in different cultures, right from the shoes worn by "cavemen", made from bear hide and "weeds" to the blue pumps worn by Princess Dianna, to the huge shoe worn by Shaquille O'Neile - a size 20ee that was at least as long as two of mine! There were examples of the itty bitty shoes worn by chinese women who bound their feet - at small as two or three inches long, and some pretty cool looking sandles from other cultures like Egyptian and African. They had a whole exhibit on shoes in the Roccocan era, like the 1700s and stuff, about how the shoe styles changed with the different rulers and influences and how it corresponded to the changing of the views of the roles of men and women in society and whatnot. Then there was another exhibit all about shoes in the native culture - the beadwork on the moccasins was incredible! Overall, it was a pretty cool place to wander through.

So by the time I was done wandering there I'd had enough of being on my feet for the day and headed back to Nate's to relax for the evening. We had dinner, watched a movie, had some nice red wine, and then it was time for bed. Today was a bit more relaxed. We went to Walmart, then took the streetcar and subway and bus over to the Ontario Science Centre. That was pretty neat to wander through there and play with some of the exhibits. Felt a bit like a little kid again. I liked the Space exhibit - and the meteorite rocks. Pretty cool to think of that stuff being from out in space. Do you ever stop and really think about what it's like out there, or what it would like to be able to travel to other planets and stuff? I do. Especially when I read that kind of science fiction. It facinates me, and makes me feel small.

Well, that's all I have the concentration for tonight. More later... I'm going to watch Family Guy now...