Toronto: The start of our Canadian Adventure

A discovered prior to our trip into Canada that she has a lot of Canadian relatives. In fact, her grandfather was born in Toronto before moving to Scotland. Armed with this new information, A and S were ready to find out more about this great nation.

We got off the bus in Toronto and made our way onto the main thoroughfare called Dundas Street. Always nice to find a street that makes you feel at home. Toronto is the most ethnically diverse city in the world and we got a feel for this as we walked along Dundas Street to our accommodation. The food places looked amazing; burritos, falafels, pizza, noodles. We were sold.

We found our hotel, dumped our bags and had a shower to wash away our 12 hour bus journey. We decided to explore downtown Toronto and grab something to eat. After a delicious dinner of noodles and cocktails we headed into Toronto’s bustling Chinatown and experienced our first ever Tim Hortons.

Now, we were unaware of this very popular Canadian coffee chain until we were told about it by our Canadian chums at teacher training college. A had visions of sounding like a true Tim Horton’s veteran by asking for a double double but the nerves got to her as she approached the counter so she chickened out and asked for a plain coffee. Oh well, better luck next time.

We were feeling pretty tired after the bus journey so we decided to go and watch the Dark Knight Rises which had just been released. We booked tickets and went for a quick drink in the classiest of all establishments; Hooters.

It was our first time in the ‘delightfully tacky, yet unrefined’ bar and eatery. The girls were gorgeous, the beers were good and we left ready to be suitably entertained by Mr Bale and co. They did not disappoint and the film received a round of applause at the end of the screening. This was a good reminder for us as to what continent we were on.

After a long lie the next day we had some brunch at Fran’s Diner and visited the Harbour. Dundas Square was also having an Eco Festival and S noticed that none other than Fefe Dobson (?) was playing later that night. More of that to come.

We decided to take in Toronto’s sights by taking a trip up the CN tower. This is the highest building in North America measuring in at 553.33metres high.

We waited around an hour to get the lift up to the viewing platform which also had a glass floor. We managed to keep ourselves entertained during the wait……..

Once we reached the top S sauntered onto the glass floor as if he was John Travolta walking onto a dance floor. However, A had developed a case of vertigo and couldn’t bring herself to step onto it. She looked around at other tourists who were lying sprawled across the glass floor posing for photos. Jordan aka Katie Price could’ve picked up a tip or two.

With S’s encouragement and support A managed to back onto the floor backwards. No Michael Jackson style moonwalk here, it was more like a baby’s first steps in reverse. She took a few snaps before she returned to the safety of the glass-less area. After taking a few photos of Toronto’s skyline we headed down and made our way to meet another Moray House survivor for dinner.

We met CS at Union Station complete with a Tim Hortons in her hand. A true Canadian! We headed to a restaurant on our favourite of streets, Dundas, and had a lovely dinner of fish tacos and steak. After dinner we returned to Dundas Square to witness none other than Canadian pop star extraordinaire Fefe Dobson (you can Google her). She was well up for it and gave a good show. We were sad to see her go go go like a ghost ghost ghost at the end of her set (if you’ve Googled her you’ll maybe get this)

After we bid a fond farewell to CS, we headed to the gay village. S was keen to check out Woody’s bar which was used in the US version of Queer as Folk. We managed to find it and had a few beers. A was fascinated with what was being screened on the TVs in the bar. All we will say is that it wasn’t the Wizard of Oz.

Time had flown and by the time we had got home from Woody’s, after a trip to a 24hour pizza place, we had only 4 hours until we were up early to visit one of the natural beauties of the world.

We rose early on Sunday about 6.30am and caught the bus to Niagara Falls. We were a little naive in thinking that the Falls were in the wilderness on their own à la Yosemite. We discovered on our arrival that a short distance from the magnificent natural wonder was a strip that would rival Blackpool’s tackiness.

We were a little disheartened by this as we felt it took away the beauty of the Falls. However, we chose to ignore this and concentrate on the magnificat sight that lay before us. And you know what?! It was totally fricking awesome.

We saw the two most visited sets of Falls, the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls which are on the Canadian side. Niagara Falls is separated by the US/Canadian border.

We took some photos from numerous vantage points and went on the Maid of the Mist, a boat that takes you even closer to the action.

Our dignity soon came crashing down like the water as we were soaked by wave after wave of Niagara mist. Luckily we had our bright blue ponchos. It was fantastic being so close to the Falls and experiencing first hand one of Nature’s most spectacular shows.

It turns out that Nature wasn’t quite done with us for the day. After having some lunch and deciding to relax in the sun with our books, the heavens decided to open. We were witness to a huge thunderstorm that decided to soak us once more.

Unfortunately our ponchos couldn’t protect our feet which were now sodden with beautiful Canadian rain. A quick trip was needed to Tim Hortons to dry off before the 1 and a half hour journey back to Toronto.

Toronto has given us a good first impression of Canada and we look forward to seeing if Montreal can continue this.

Much love,

S&A

Sin City

We have been debating about this blog post. After-all, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas right? So, we are gonna leave you with the following picture and a brief Top 5 (in no particular order). The rest of our experience can be freely created by you, dear reader.

Top 5

1) The Venetian Hotel. Gondola rides. Venetian masks. Fake blue sky!
2) The Szechuan Button and the party it created in our mouths. Twice.
3) S’s Rihanna t-shirt getting quite the attention. Who knew he’d been wearing the devil?
4) Visiting Egypt, New York and Paris in the space of 60 minutes.
5) The luxurious Wynn Hotel.
And a bonus 6) Meeting A’s friends in Vegas. Scots abroad!

And I guess we could share a few photos!

Much love,

S&A

Prison and Wine in San Fran

We’ve been in San Francisco for the last 4 days and our time is unfortunately coming to an end. The last time we left you we had arrived and were heading to Alcatraz for the night time tour. We made our way to Pier 33 to catch the ferry to ‘The Rock’. We walked there from our hotel near the Civic Centre and experienced some of San Francisco’s famous steep inclines. Edinburgh is relatively flat in comparison! We made it to Pier 33 and joined the queue (line) for the ferry. In the queue we had our photo taken by a photographer to buy on our return. Let’s just say the subsequent photo would put Al Capone’s mugshot to shame.

We boarded the ferry and made a very windy 10 minute trip to Alcatraz. San Francisco’s climate is similar to Scotland bar the rain. We were glad to be kitted out in jeans and hoodies. We docked at Alcatraz and were greeted with a sign that told us we had arrived at one of America’s most notorious high security prisons. The buildings are wasting away and run down but this all added to the atmosphere. After a history free start to our trip in LA S and A were glad to have an overdose of facts, anecdotes and trivia which they are sure to bore their nearest and dearest with on their return. Did you know that a pig’s gestation period is 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days? Now you do!

We were met with our enthusiastic tour guide who led us up a steep path to the main prison. She regaled us with a story of a prisoner who tried to escape, drowned and was eaten by crabs. Not sure if we ever will fancy crab from the San Francisco area any time soon.

We then embarked on an audio tour of the prison which was fascinating. We don’t want to give too much away as we would thoroughly recommend the tour. It was totally awesome!

Our ferry trip back was windy and cold but the nighttime views of the San Francisco Bay made up for it. We then decided to take a gritty walk back to the hotel through San Francisco’s downtown where A was asked by a homeless man if she could buy him a cheeseburger. A pretended she was poor and quiet, the latter requiring all of her acting skills to pull off.

After our walk on the wild side we headed to bed to rest before our trip to check out the rest of San Francisco in the morning.

We had definitely been bitten by the tourist bug as our second day in San Francisco was an explosion of sightseeing, wide eyes and compulsive photo taking. We took in the Castro district which is decorated with rainbow flags that celebrate its LGBT roots and culture.

We visited the shop that Harvey Milk set up in the 1970s before he was assassinated and bought some items from the Equality for Everybody shop that has now taken its place.

After some more exploring of the shops in Castro we had a spot of lunch and headed to the landmark that is synonymous to San Francisco; the Golden Gate Bridge. S drove like a true professional over it and we parked on the other side to take a walk (and numerous photos) over it.

It was every bit as good as it looks. It was fog free and we managed to get fantastic views of the city. It was one of those surreal moments when you can’t quite take in what is in front of you. We also had a reminder of home with the blowing wind.

Keeping with our tourist behaviour we visited the zig-zag street at Lombard street and S drove perfectly down it. We then headed to Fisherman’s Wharf where we dined at Boudin’s Bistro. We shared a goats cheese starter and S opted for fish tacos and A had clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Delish!

Our waiter, Carl, was great and even treated us to a pint of San Francisco Ale as well as two glasses of Napa Valley’s finest Cabernet Sauvignon. A was in heaven! He also gave us directions to Napa Valley so we could go and check out the vineyards in person.

After our meal we decided to go and check out the nightlife of the Castro and headed for a nightcap. By the time we got to bed we were zonked. It had been a busy day.

We had a bit of a long lie the following morning and didn’t wake until 10.00am. We decided to check out Napa Valley which is an hour’s drive from San Francisco and famous for its vineyards and winemaking. It was cold as we left San Francisco but as soon as we were over the mist enveloped Golden Gate Bridge the temperature began to rise. By the time we reached Napa Valley it was 102degrees, about 38degrees celsius. It was hot! What else to do but taste some wine at one of the vineyards that line the main road of the valley. We opted for Beringer Vineyard which is just after the town of St Helena at the top of the valley. We took a tour of the wine cellars and caves and tasted 2 beautiful wines. A and S felt they had won the lottery and forgot their teacher salaries for a while. They were brought back to earth with a bump when they discovered the delicious wine was $30 a bottle.

The grounds of the vineyard were perfectly groomed and home to a spectacular house built by one of the first owners Frederick Beringer who was an immigrant from Germany.

After our wine tasting we headed back to San Francisco and checked out China Town. We got some food in one of the restaurants and decided to hang out in the most Chinese of all places-Starbucks. This, may we add, was to get free WiFi. While we were engrossed in our phones a homeless man came in and poured milk all over the floor. Cue a confrontation between him and a sassy Starbucks employee. We were oblivious to all of this until we were asked to leave as they decided to shut early. Another reason for us to love the grittiness of San Francisco.

Yosemite was our next call. Blog post imminent.

Much love

S&A

Little Mexico and Hollywood

We’re finally getting a chance to post a blog update. We’ve been in LA two days now and having a blast! Those that are Facebook friends of ours will have seen more status and photo updates than they probably want…

Anyway, LAX Customs and Border Control took ages and is a lot more tiresome than either Newark or JFK, which we’ve also both experienced. However, we did it! And we collected our car. We had to resist the temptation to upgrade to a fancy convertible for an extra $300 (S kept thinking of A doing a ‘Katy Perry’ in the Teenage Dream video…which is no bad thing) and settle for the compact Toyota. After a shaky start, with S turning a corner headlong into a massive truck but calmly cutting across the road to make it to the right side whilst A screwed her shuts and hoped for the best, we were riding the LA roads like locals. It’s fair to say that we would now pass the CA driving test with flying cars.

Cruising around for an hour or so, totally on purpose of course and not lost at all, we found our motel, complete with a No Prostitution sign. Think quintessential American motel in a part of town we’ve nicknamed Little Mexico and you’ve got it. Probably a part of LA not many people would want to visit. However, it has character and is all part of the experience!

Anyway, we hit the sack pretty early that night to be energised and refreshed for Day Two – Hollywood! Yesterday was pretty amazing. We drove to Hollywood Blvd and grabbed a great breakfast at Denny’s Diner to fuel up for the morning. S had a delicious pancake breakfast topped with strawberries, blueberries and cream, with eggs and sausages on the side and A had a steak omelette with toast. We climbed up a track to get amazing views of the Hollywood Sign and the city at large. We met a family from Arkansas at the top who kindly took a picture of us (otherwise there was gonna be a lot of dodgy self-portraits) and who’s son told us we had the Scottish accent, which is always good to know. The picture below isn’t us, as that one is on the camera.

After the Hollywood Sign we headed to our lunch reservation at The Ivy on Robertson Blvd. We wish we could say we were sat next to Lindsay Lohan passed out in a drunken stupor at the table next to us, but alas! We were not. The meal was nice, particularly the Bellini and Scarlatti drinks; the atmosphere very relaxed; and the day glorious. Watered and fed, it was time to find the Walk of Fame. S was only after one true star – Britney Spears – and A had developed a recent obsession with Arnold Schwarzenegger. She found no star but did find his handprints! He has big hands, and you know what they say… This part of town was true Hollywood style and pretty amazing. The on-street actors looked great (most of them!) and we were particularly impressed with one busker who needed money for his entry fee to Hogwarts so we chucked him a couple of $s. He better send a thank you card by owl when he gets there.

Driving home at night, it finally sunk in we were in LA and the bright lights met us on the skyline as we cruised along the freeway. We’re ready for today – July 4th – to celebrate America’s birthday! We’re gonna bring some Brit action to the house party we’ve been invited to 🙂

Until next time.

Much love,

S&A