Victoria Day in Toronto

The previous night we saw something that shouldn’t really happen. Someone got hit by a car getting on the street car. When the street car stops and opens its doors the drivers can see the stop sign. They know to stop as people will be getting on and off. However, this time the car kept going and while I didn’t see the accident Dave told me the girl did get knocked to the ground. She got up and seemed ok but it was an odd time. The street car driver had to call the emergency services, fire, police and ambulance. The traffic was backed up a fair bit trying to get around. The major issue was that other street cars can’t move around the parked one. Everything had to be rerouted. It was odd that the woman was perfectly fine. She was very lucky.

So the real day started at the Eaton Center. We went to the Apple store where I bought a white iPod Nano and a belt hook case for it. Its so light that I can wear it all the time and never notice it. The belt hook makes it really accessible and frees up pocket space. After about an hour in the Apple store we went to the Hard Rock Cafe.

They make a mean Vanilla milkshake.

Its a really cool place inside. They play great music and have lots of music related items on the walls.

A standard issue waitress.

So I ordered what appeared to be steak and fries. It said it was lightly brushed in BBQ sauce. I asked and the waiter confirmed “lightly.” It arrived covered in it. I’m not exactly great with BBQ sauce but I attempted it. I managed to eat about a quarter of the steak. The fries were orange too. Orange! I found them to be ok but there was just something a little odd about them so I couldn’t finish the meal. However the best thing was that they didn’t charge me for that. They took my food off the bill. I was rather impressed as was Dave.

So we left the Hard Rock and went for a walk up Younge Street, the worlds longest street at 1,800 miles. Its longer than the UK.

The rather cool Sam’s Music store. Way cooler than HMV or any such brand.

Its nice to see these guys getting a long

The 2nd weed store I’ve seen.

She was waiting that long to cross that she fell asleep ;)

Taking a trip on the subway. Rush hour aside its really quiet most times of the day, which is nice. Even when its 34c outside its never hot in the subway, unlike London.

A quiet trip on the street car.

No entry / exit. So er what the hell do you do? Hover over it and hope for the best?

I’ve seen this guy and duck a few times. I guess they’re close friends.

Queens Quay. The building to the right of the CN Tower is where I’m staying. How cool is that!

Because it was Victoria Day they had some fireworks at the beaches. We had to run / walk at least 2 miles to get there because the traffic was just so busy. I do find it funny that Canadian’s celebrate Queen Victoria and us Brits don’t really care.

They were quite nice fireworks but I’ve seen better at the Southport Musical Fireworks competition.

As good as they fireworks were the people playing with sparklers were so much cooler. You don’t really see that much at large firework displays in the UK.

Now heres an interesting thing. You see in the background the fireworks going off, well they were bought by the public. The public actually bring their own fireworks to a public gathering. They also fire them at any angle. I really mean any angle. They fire them at each other too. The really interesting thing is the comparison between Canada and the UK. Despite everyone shooting each other with fireworks no-one got hurt. There were no ambulances screaming around or firemen putting kids out. In the UK fireworks aren’t available to kids, but they get their hands on them. Sensible people in the UK grow up hearing about how dangerous fireworks really are and we know not to play around with them, yet here theres no danger and no injuries. There was nothing on the news the next day either. I guess that says a lot about society in the UK.