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

Farewell California

After our breathtaking day out at Yosemite, we headed back to LA along the far less scenic route of I-5 and HWY 101. The drive was incredibly boring but we were working against the clock and had to return our car at 3pm that day. Arriving back in LA, it felt like a little part of us had returned home. We had heard, from various sources, that LA was dirty and less enjoyable than other cities in California. Turns out, we loved it and it was nothing like had been described to us. LA is a city of its own, and without a car and willingness to explore, you wouldn’t experience it to its fullest. It helped we had great and accommodating people to hang out with (thanks SB and PMD) and show us parts of LA we may not have discovered. Every single person we met in LA were so friendly, so helpful and so willing to chat away to you. This was perhaps best demonstrated by our new BFF, Shana, who saw us outside SB and PMD’s apartment waiting for SB to get home from work. She invited us into her apartment and plied us with wine. Shana, thanks so much for the randomness of it all! Good luck with the move 🙂

Our last night in LA took place in a bar called The Basement. We had a lot of laughs with SB, PMD and one of their friends who was visiting from San Fran. Our graffiti on the walls are particular works of art worthy of display in The National Gallery of Scotland or Tate Modern Museum.

We even gave the room an inspired musical performance on the bar piano. We may be exaggerating that performance just a little but in our heads it was one of sheer brilliance.

We bid farewell to SB in the morning as he headed to work and we set off to catch the 33 bus to downtown LA to then get the bus to Vegas. $20 for a one way ticket. You wouldn’t get that back home.

So, we have left California and have also bid adieu to Vegas. Blog post about that is forthcoming. S is already plotting his move out West. Since Britney was outta town he HAS to come back and stake out every Starbucks until he spots her in all her coffee glory. We’ll miss the city, but other parts of the US call. Chicago, talk to us.

Much love,

S&A

PS. This is always good advice. Thanks LA!

Yosemite

Yosemite National Park lies about 200 miles east of San Francisco and we thought while in Rome………let’s go and see the Half Dome.

It is a long drive so we decided to leave San Francisco early to take full advantage. We woke early for us this trip; 6.30am and got ready to hit the road. On the route we crossed San Francisco’s other bridge, the Bay Bridge. S and A feel that this bridge needs a revamp to compete with its much more famous cousin along the Bay. We thought it could maybe be painted an appealing pink or purple colour to stand out. Or maybe both? Your thoughts on this would be gratefully appreciated.

Anyway the drive was not all that interesting apart from a very friendly man at the petrol station who was from Saudi Arabia. He had interesting views on learning about the two world wars ‘it’s all done, get over it!’ not sure if the history teachers in us agree with him.

We made our way to the Yosemite National Park boundary and were met with a nice ranger, hat and all. For those of you unsure, Yosemite is one of the world’s most dramatic geological spectacles. Its valley is the most spectacular and is 7 miles long and less than a mile wide. It’s walled by near-vertical three-thousand-foot cliffs, streaked by tumbling waterfalls and topped by domes and pinnacles that form a jagged silhouette against the sky (A would like to thank the Rough Guide for this description).

The reason it is a National Park is all down to a Scot. You can almost hear A’s mum’s heart exploding with pride at this fact. John Muir who was originally from Dunbar campaigned to protect Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove and as a result Abraham Lincoln decreed this as America’s first protected wilderness in 1864. You would think fighting a Civil War would have consumed a lot of Abe’s time in this year but obviously not. Us pesky Scots always have a way of getting what we want.

After we said goodbye to our welcoming ranger we made our way down to Yosemite Valley. It’s about 14 miles of long and windy roads with spectacular views to reach the valley floor. Once we had reached the floor the views were simply incredible. We took in the El Capitan and parked our car in the shadow of the Half Dome. We walked a short distance amongst sky scraping trees to the visitor centre and explored a replica Native American village. When white Americans and Europeans flooded the area due to the Gold Rush in the 1840s and 1850s the Native Americans in the area refused to move from their native homeland of Yosemite which they had inhabited for 4,000 years. Gradually over the years their settlements have become less and less and nowadays Yosemite is inhabited more by tourists than anyone else.

We took a short shuttle bus to Yosemite Falls, a phenomenal waterfall that flows off one of the sheer cliffs. We walked up the trail and came to a fantastic vista point that allowed for the more adventurous to scramble up the rocks to a lagoon directly underneath the waterfall. We decided to get cool in the water pools and submerged ourselves. S could’ve been mistaken for Daniel Craig a la James Bond when he came out the water if it weren’t for the Rihanna T-shirt.

A applied another generous application of sun block as soon as she was out of the water. We all can’t be gloriously tanned like the native Californians. The temperature was 36degrees in the valley and the sun was fierce. A didn’t want to look like a Brit abroad.

We decided to scramble the rock to the bottom of the waterfall and gained spectacular views of the Valley and the Half Dome. We sat on a rock near the lagoon, soaking in the views and admiring the amateur divers. All we’ll say is the divers for Team GB have nothing to worry about come the Olympics.

We made our way back to the valley floor and walked amongst the giant trees. Words and images cannot describe Yosemite Valley. If you are ever in California we would highly recommend a visit. A could’ve stayed another week but she would’ve had to ship the sunscreen down by the lorry load.

We are currently driving back to San Francisco, ready to be smacked in the face by the mist and the cold. We’ll have to do it in 3 weeks anyway when we return to Edinburgh so we’re getting in some practise now. Although when we post this we will have finished our drive but A needs to keep her idle thumbs busy.

Until next time,

Much love

S&A