Look below

When you're way up high, and you look below, at the world you left, and the things you know

When you're way up high

After my somewhat late arrival into Toronto I was up early and saw David before he went to work. I apologised again for my late arrival. David asked me if I have booked my travel for getting to Montreal yet, a comment he assured me was not linked to me knocking him up in the early hours. He told me to check out the VIA rail website as the train is a nice way to travel between the places I plan to visit in Canada.  As luck would have it there is a 50% sale on business class tickets, so I book myself a ticket to Montreal and one from there to Ottawa.

After a strong coffee I went for a walk to get my bearings. I’ve noticed that this is becoming a habit for my first morning in a new place. I find it helps to walk around the area I am staying to get an idea of where exactly I am and what is close by. It’s also important to do it while sober so that if on the off chance I have a few drinks I can remember how to get home.

I walked through the financial district, lots of tall office buildings but not much of note and make my way towards Church Street and the gay village. I’d decided that it was time to brave getting my 1st haircut of the trip, something I have a mild trepidation about having had the same hairdresser for the last ten years.  A friend had recommended Ho’s Place and I duly headed there. It was fairly quiet and I sat in an empty chair. My palms started to sweat. I could also feel beads of sweat forming along my brow. I explain to Can, the barber, that it is my first time with someone new in a decade. He understands, then proceeds to pretty much shave my entire head. It takes me a while to get used to the length (or lack of) but I guess it means I won’t have to worry about getting it done again for a while.

I take myself out to lunch. I am also getting used to dining out alone and don’t really feel the need anymore to have a book to read or some other distraction. I grab a table outside the Village Rainbow café and enjoy a rather large club sandwich and a local beer while watching the people walking up and down Church Street.  The village has a nice feel to it and lunch passes quickly. I make my way back home & take advantage of the sunny afternoon and the pool on the roof of the place I am staying to relax a little.

And you look below 

The evening looked like it would be a sunny one so I headed to the CN Tower, only two blocks away, got a ticket and took the very fast elevator to the observation deck, over 1,100 feet up.  The views of Toronto from the top are stunning. You get to see the whole area, the built up downtown, the harbour, the islands and across the lake. The observation deck includes an outdoor deck that I duly checked out. The wind was so strong I could only walk round in one direction and I got myself back indoors at the earliest opportunity. Had I been in Toronto a month later I would have had the opportunity to take in the newest attraction, the EdgeWalk “the world’s highest full circle hands-free walk on a 5ft wide ledge encircling the top of the CN Tower’s main pod 1,168ft above the ground”. I think not!

The observation deck also includes a section of glass flooring allowing you to stand on it & look straight down at the ground 1,122 feet below. The sensation is extremely strange and made me feel quite dizzy. I would have gone for a strong G&T (for purely medicinal purposes of course) but the bar was closed for a private event. After that I headed up to the SkyPod a few hundred feet even higher to watch the sun set.

The ROM

The next day I was up early and looked out of the window to see that the mist and clouds had rolled in. I couldn’t see the observation deck of the CN Tower. The weather looked like an indoor attractions day was in order so I took myself to the Royal Ontario Museum. I’d been told that the new part of the building had caused a lot of controversy with the locals but wasn’t quite expecting the jutting crystal shaped building attached to the old brick building. The contrast was striking and maybe overshadowed the collections inside which I spent a good couple of hours looking round.

At the world you left 

Casa Loma 

Having had my fill of screaming schoolchildren and art I headed up to Casa Loma, a huge castle like house build on a hill overlooking Toronto. It took three years to build & was completed in 1914. The cost at the time was estimated to be $3.5million. The guy who built it went bankrupt a decade later, was forced to sell the house & all its contents and he died shortly after, penniless. The house and the gardens were a great way to spend the afternoon. The gardens include a metal sculpture called the Dragon Tree, which if the local legend is to be believed will see the dragons come to life and fly off should someone pure of heart ring the bells on the tree. I rang the bells. Nothing.

The evening I do something that I haven’t done for about a month and actually cook a meal for David so we can spend some time together catching up. He is a vegetarian so I use the one non-meat recipe in my limited range & rustle up a nice mushroom risotto and some salad. Chatting with David and cooking dinner gives me a reminder of being back home and it feels nicely comforting. I have an early night ahead of an early start in the morning, a day trip out to the Niagara Falls.

“When you're way up high, and you look below, at the world you left, and the things you know”

Lyrics from Giants in the Sky from the musical Into the Woods