So, I lied about when I’d post this. I do, however, have a perfectly plausible reason.
My second illness since arriving in Canada has stricken me with a chesty, burning cough, a throbbing headache, and a constant shiver. Who knows how I survived work the past two days. I was freezing, despite wearing a thermal top underneath my work top.
Today, I do feel better, but my cough still lingers, and I get a painful headache if I turn my head too quickly.
But enough about my personal wellbeing. You want to hear what I’ve been doing since my last post. I am pleased to say that I’ve done plenty, so there is also plenty to talk about.
Thursday dawned with Gemma arriving. For those of you who don’t know who Gemma is, she is a friend from back in England, who’s been studying in Quebec the past couple of months. So it seemed silly if she didn’t come and visit me, as we are in the same country.
Our Thursday started with a trip to Bacon Nation, which, I’m sure, you guys have guessed revolves around bacon. It was a great start to the day. I’m struggling to remember what I exactly had, but I do know it was smothered in bacon and maple syrup. That, and we had a bacon cheesecake for dessert. I can’t say it really tasted like bacon, but it still tasted good!
The afternoon involved a trip to Casa Loma. Definitely a highlight of Gemma’s visit.
Casa Loma (Spanish for Hill House, I have just found out) is essentially a castle. It was constructed from 1911 to 1914, which is about the only bit of information I retained from our trip there (I also had to check this on Wikipedia before posting, just in case). There’s a lot of history behind the house/castle/thing.
But the most exciting thing about Casa Loma is the amount of films that have been filmed there (you can tell history isn’t my thing). The halls feature in the X-Men films as Xavier’s School, Scott Pilgrim also has a scene filmed outside Casa Loma. It was Hogwarts briefly, for the 7th and last film. Hemlock Grove was filmed there for a bit, and the Mortal Instruments as well. Finally, the TV film re-imagining of the Rocky Horror Picture Show was filmed there.
As you can see, it has a vibrant and diverse amount of films to boast. We must’ve spent several hours wandering around the mansion. I mean, it’s big. Very big. Funnily enough, the owner went bankrupt and was forced to move to his country estate. Because everyone has a country estate to move to when they run out of money. There were even false wall panels that led to secret passageways! Though, they’re not very secret anymore as it is a museum and there are signs pointing to the secret passageways… Still, I found it very exciting.
I don’t really remember what else we did on Thursday. We walked (a lot), something I seem to do a lot of in Toronto. It still has not started snowing, so, for now, the walking is quite nice. It is meant to snow tomorrow so we’ll have to see how much snow there is. Might be time for me to start using public transport!
And then we have Friday. Where we did the most touristy thing possible to do around Toronto. Niagara Falls. Which still confuses me, as it’s pronounced Niagra. Like Viagra (is that inappropriate to say?).
Anyway, yes Niagara Falls. We booked a tour that picked us up at 8:30 (I didn’t have a choice, okay?) and ended up getting back to the hostel at about seven in the evening. So a long day.
I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t convinced by the tour, particularly the price we paid. For one thing, the trip on the boat wasn’t included, so we had to pay an extra $20 on top of what we already paid for the tour. It would’ve definitely been cheaper and probably not much different just to catch a bus to Niagara by ourselves and do the boat tour there.
I mean, the tour included a lot of information about Niagara and surrounding area. But I was asleep for most of that. Some old man had checked into my room and took the bed right above mine. And is snoring was the most majestic thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I don’t even know how to describe it. All I know is that I had two nights of next to no sleep and have now changed rooms. Where I’m sleeping like a baby. Usually at about eight because I’m ill and need my beauty sleep.
Back to Niagara. The tour also included a stop-off in Niagara by the Lake, a small, touristy village, where we were told Prince William and Kate Middleton had their honeymoon and tried some ice-cream that instantly became famous. I forget the name. Never rely on me for information. My memory is like a sieve.
There was also a wine tasting, but a very quick, un-sophisticated one. It involved trying three wines (a chardonnay, a rose (imagine the accent is there), and an iced wine) in very quick succession, in the space of about five minutes. They didn’t even clean out the wine glasses for us between wines! The iced wine was quite nice, though. Again, I’ve forgotten the name (sorry, Uncle Mark).
Going back to Niagara once more, let’s talk about the actual Falls and the boat trip. It was quite fun. I mean, we got soaked in our very fetching ponchos (I’m afraid I do not have any pictures of the poncho), but the Falls are impressive. Apparently, in the winter, they turn the Falls down. They were still pretty strong, so I’d be amazed to see them in summer. A benefit about going in the winter, however, is the lack of people around Niagara. In the summer, it’s heaving. As in you have to physically jostle people out of your way. When we went, there were people, but moving around was so easy. It made taking pictures so much easier.
There’s also a really tacky resort town in Niagara that I can only compare to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. It’s very tacky. There’s a ferris wheel, haunted houses, wax museums (where they look nothing like the people), novelty toy stores. Think of anything tacky you can find at a resort town and Niagara probably has it.
I sadly had to work on Saturday, so I can’t say there’s very much to tell you about that day. And then Gemma left on Sunday. We went for brunch at Auntie’s and Uncle’s – an amazing all-day brunch place where the queues can be up to an hour wait (we got there before the rush) – then she left and I have no idea what I did for the rest of the day. My brain is very hazy at the moment. I blame being ill.
But yes, I can’t see anything exciting happening over the next few weeks. We should be moving into a flat on Saturday for over Christmas, but there’s a small chance that’s about fall through. Hopefully not, as having my own space is very appealing right now (particularly when ill).
I will keep you posted!
A Weary Traveller 