Friday, June 10, 2005
Day 15: Toronto, Canada
June 10: Okay, so it's now stinking hot and very humid in Toronto, with overnight temperatures around 24C.
As a group option, we walkted down to the Sky Dome, the home of the Baseball's Blue Jays team. Did a tour of the moderately new stadium, saw how they put together a baseball field, an explanation of how they open and close the (4-part) roof, the view from a private box and the restaurant... as well as hotel rooms that overlook the field, and their Blue Jays hall of fame and memorabilia. Now know as Rogers Centre due to sponsorship. As much as I love sport, the tour was very average.
We then headed up the CN Tower (next-door practically). CN stands for Canada National, but used to mean Canadian Networks as it was owned by a telecommuncations company before being handed to the government. Views were brilliant but a little hazy from the top. Still, it's the tallest tower in the world (approx 540m I think)! On the floor below there was a glass floor you could walk on and look down to the street. Too chicken to lie down on the glass floor, but was able to psych myself up to breifly walk along it... there's a similar one of these at Sky Tower in Auckland which I did a few weeks ago.
I then headed off to do my own thing on our day off. Went to the Hockey (ice) Hall of Fame, but it didn't look like my thing and the hall of fame was closed due to an awards ceremony using the auditorium next to it... so instead I went to the Bata Shoe Museum. There, they had an exhibition on the history of footwear and shoes as well as religious beliefs associated with shoes (eg Judaism - remove shoes when mourning), a temporary exhibit on how Inuits make shoes and more. There were also hundreds of pairs of shoes belonging to famous people including Tiger Woods, Princess Diana, Ronald McDonald, Marilyn Monroe, Shaq O'Neill, Fred Astaire, Pierce Brosnan and more. Anyone who loves shoes would love this place. On the other hand, I was dying of heat exhaustion so absorbing the information was a little hard.
I then headed back downtown by train to meet up with a few people down at the Harbour front to catch a ferry over to Toronto Island - Centre Island stop. View of the city skyline was amazing, and it was nice relaxing for a hour.
Heely, you must know exactly what I'm talking about - is it bringing back any memories?
In the evening, I met up with Brenda - someone who did work exchange at the ABC for six months on Lateline, who works at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Nice catching up with her at a local pub for dinner, and eating a decent meal!
I then met back up with the group to go clubbing at "Republik". Was very tired after a full-on day, so didn't stay very long, but it was great seeing where the locals go.
Tonight, we also said goodby to the Contiki people doing the Grand Canadian tour - they now fly to Calgary to see the western side of the country.
Unfortunately one of our tour members also had to go to hospital today. I think he was a little overwhelmed by everything.
As a group option, we walkted down to the Sky Dome, the home of the Baseball's Blue Jays team. Did a tour of the moderately new stadium, saw how they put together a baseball field, an explanation of how they open and close the (4-part) roof, the view from a private box and the restaurant... as well as hotel rooms that overlook the field, and their Blue Jays hall of fame and memorabilia. Now know as Rogers Centre due to sponsorship. As much as I love sport, the tour was very average.
We then headed up the CN Tower (next-door practically). CN stands for Canada National, but used to mean Canadian Networks as it was owned by a telecommuncations company before being handed to the government. Views were brilliant but a little hazy from the top. Still, it's the tallest tower in the world (approx 540m I think)! On the floor below there was a glass floor you could walk on and look down to the street. Too chicken to lie down on the glass floor, but was able to psych myself up to breifly walk along it... there's a similar one of these at Sky Tower in Auckland which I did a few weeks ago.
I then headed off to do my own thing on our day off. Went to the Hockey (ice) Hall of Fame, but it didn't look like my thing and the hall of fame was closed due to an awards ceremony using the auditorium next to it... so instead I went to the Bata Shoe Museum. There, they had an exhibition on the history of footwear and shoes as well as religious beliefs associated with shoes (eg Judaism - remove shoes when mourning), a temporary exhibit on how Inuits make shoes and more. There were also hundreds of pairs of shoes belonging to famous people including Tiger Woods, Princess Diana, Ronald McDonald, Marilyn Monroe, Shaq O'Neill, Fred Astaire, Pierce Brosnan and more. Anyone who loves shoes would love this place. On the other hand, I was dying of heat exhaustion so absorbing the information was a little hard.
I then headed back downtown by train to meet up with a few people down at the Harbour front to catch a ferry over to Toronto Island - Centre Island stop. View of the city skyline was amazing, and it was nice relaxing for a hour.
Heely, you must know exactly what I'm talking about - is it bringing back any memories?
In the evening, I met up with Brenda - someone who did work exchange at the ABC for six months on Lateline, who works at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Nice catching up with her at a local pub for dinner, and eating a decent meal!
I then met back up with the group to go clubbing at "Republik". Was very tired after a full-on day, so didn't stay very long, but it was great seeing where the locals go.
Tonight, we also said goodby to the Contiki people doing the Grand Canadian tour - they now fly to Calgary to see the western side of the country.
Unfortunately one of our tour members also had to go to hospital today. I think he was a little overwhelmed by everything.
# posted by mishij @ 7:06 AM 
