Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

I woke up pretty early, about 8am, having slept for 12 straight hours. Oddly enough, I felt lots better :) I tested out the shower and concluded it was Very Good when the pressure of the water plastered me to the floor of the bath. Ahh, I remember having a shower that did that *glares at her own*. Once. Hmf. Anyway, once I was washed and dressed, I ventured out to find the room where the continental breakfast was served. This was all included in the price and was pretty good value. I had a large bowl of cereal and a gi-normous croissant with Philadelphia cheese. Mmmm! Oh, and coffee, because I was too dim to work out how the hot water dispenser worked. *hangs head*

Thus fortified I dashed over to the internet place I'd found down the road. I'd had to send Jenni a quick email the day before, asking her for the name of the tour company we wanted to use for the Niagara Falls trip. She'd answered, bless her, so after catching up on the cartoons, I headed back to the hotel to speak to the nice folks at reception. I have to say, all the hotel staff I dealt with the whole week were really helpful and seemed to go that extra mile. Anyway, I gave them the name of the tour company and the lady just rang them up and booked it all for me, I didn't have to do a thing. Very efficient.

With that sorted out, I headed off to the CN Tower using my new-found Subway skillz. I caught the subway to Union Station, a massive station that is a pretty stunning building in its own right.

I should pause here to mention two things. First is the PATH system in Toronto. The whole downtown area is linked by tunnels and walkways and underground shopping malls. By going into a building with the PATH sign, you can access lots of other areas, and not just by taking the train, there are walkways too, if I understood the system correctly. So below lots of main areas, like the Eaton Shopping Centre and the station are these sprawling networks of shops and malls. It's pretty impressive. The second thing I'm going to state here is my feet proved to be well and truly blistered and didn't really recover until the Wednesday. However, I'm not going to mention it every single time but just assume that there was much hobbling on my part. I was ok when I was moving but if I'd been sitting down for a while, it took me a couple of minutes to get going again. Bah! Anyway, I refused to let it spoil things though it did curtail some of the touristy stuff and slowed me down.

However, Big Mistake Number 2 occurred today and really did knacker my feet. Having prowled round the station, I found the Skywalk, which is the loooooong covered walkway that connects Union Station to the CN Tower and the Skydome. The Skydome is the home of the Toronto Blue Jays (Baseball) and also the football team (whose name I can't recall). There was ooodles of people around, all seemingly heading in the same direction. On the walk there, I was offered tickets twice by touts. Clearly I must have been a tad jet-lagged still because it wasn't until I reached the base of the tower and the Dome (they're slap bang next to each other) that I realised there was a game on that day and the crowds were flocking to see it. I was tempted to get a ticket but that would mean missing out on the Tower and I had no way of letting Rik and Carol know what I was doing.

( The CN Tower )

By now it was 4pm and I was seriously hungry. Carol, however, was being hit hard by delayed jetlag and so we decided to head back to Union Station first and get caffeine and maybe a snack. This we did and sat outside the station scoffing Snickers (me) and something even more sugary and sweet from a place called Cinnabun (Rik and Carol), and slurping large amounts of tea and coffee. During conversation, Rik and Carol rather unwisely mentioned that just two blocks from their hotel lay an emporium known as "The World's Largest Book Store". We agreed that that was probably just the name of the shop as we're fairly sure Foyles could kick its arse around the block a few times in terms of "largest book store". Fortified by caffeine and fuel, I introduced them to the joys of the Subway and we headed up to Dundas where, a short walk later, we found the store.

( Oh dear.Oh deary deary me )

Staggering out with our haul, we stood and looked at each other for a bit and tried to work out what next. Neither Rik or Carol were really hungry yet and I was totally starving. Noting that at least I had something to read, I said I didn't mind eating on my own, so we said goodbye with them heading back to the Delta Chelsea and me heading back to the HRC. Well, it was nearby and I really couldn't be arsed to walk around any more :)

I ate while watching some of the football (Miami getting pounded by the Jets *sobs*) and then once more toddled back to the hotel via the Subway. Another bath was definitely called for and I soaked happily while reading the Spenser. Then I channel surfed the TV for a bit and ended up watching "Cold Case" (very good series, I hope it gets released on DVD soon. It stars yet another person who I know from Xena episodes and who I can say "Hah! Knew her when!", Kathryn Morris) and "Law and Order: Criminal Intent". This show's really grown on me and I thoroughly enjoyed the new episode.

I ended up reading until 2am, finishing the Spenser novel, before finally crashing out yet again. A most successful day :)