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Sunday, 3 April 2022

Book V ~ Chapter 2 ~ Trecking Through Toronto

3-Oct-2021 - 22-Oct-2021

Table of Contents One way or another, and without me even planning it much, things happened, and now, just like that, I ended up in...


Canada is a big country, quite possibly the biggest one I've ever been to, depending on whether you count water areas, of which Canada has quite a lot (otherwise, it's second to the USA). Within this big country, I am now in the province of Ontario - the southernmost province of Canada - which at over a million km² is already as big as Bolivia, and about three times as big as Germany. Despite this size, there's only about 15 million people living here, which is about the same as Somalia, and a little more than Bavaria. Put together, that amounts to a population density of roughly 16 people/km², which is about that of Norway, and actually a little less than New Zealand.


Now, for historical reasons, Ontario has the most curious territorial subdivisions. Ranging from districts the size of Paraguay to municipalities small enough to cross on foot in a day. I am now located within the Regional Municipality of York, which at 1762 km² is one of the smaller ones.


Within York, I am staying in the city of Markham, which with a population of about 340,000 is ranked the largest in York, fourth-largest in the Greater Toronto Area, and the 16th-largest in all of Canada.


And in Markham, I am staying near the southern border. As in: literally only 300m further to the south, and I would be Toronto instead of Markham. In fact, apart from the town signs, there's no visual way of telling where the extensive Toronto urban sprawl ends, and where Markham begins. So effectively, even though I'm technically in Markham, it still feels like I'm in Toronto.


Now, latitude-wise - and this is where it gets a bit surprising - one would think that Canada is further to the north. However while the majority of Canada certainly is more boreal, I am actually in the "tropical south" of Canada here. In fact, in terms of latitude, Markham is about on the same level as the Riviera. Comparing it with my travels in New Zealand and Japan, this puts it at roughly the same level as Christchurch in Canterbury (see Book 1 ~ Chapter 11 ~ Christmas in Christchurch) and Asahikawa in Hokkaido (see Book II ~ Chapter 6 ~ A Hokkaido Homerun).


As for the climate, this particular area qualifies as humid continental, and around this time of the year is actually not all that different from Germany. The days are mostly relatively warm, and sometimes rainy. Wolfgang and Tobias have told me of massive snowstorms, but since those typically only hit in November, I should be good for the duration of my stay.


So much for the big-scale overview of where the winds have taken me. Now, let's have a closer look at...

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The Place

This time around, I am staying in a hotel. I am still not sure exactly what it is called though. We always referred to it as the "Courtyard Hotel", but it also has "Townplace Suites" written on it, and then there's also something about "Marriott" in there. Clear branding is something different.

It is a pretty big hotel with a total of 14 floors, excluding the 13th floor because apparently some guests are suffering from triskaidekaphobia. Also, an interesting thing about the elevator is that you have to hold up your key card to a sensor before being able to select your floor. A security feature that should annoy me greatly over the next three weeks.

Owing to its size, the hotel is reasonably spacious, though on account of the Green Shnolz being a thing, they're still pretty empty.

Though honestly, the hotel's lack of guests might very well also be due to the fact that it's located in the middle of several square kilometres of industrial and commercial barrens. I sincerely wonder who other than visitors of one of the surrounding companies would choose to come here.

The hotel also has a pool. Now, the good news is that the pool is almost always empty. The bad news is that that, too, is on account of the Green Shnolz, for while the pool is technically open, use of it is subject to strict conditions that make it impossible to jsut hop in when you feel like it. Not that I did bring my swimwear anyway...

Next on our tour through the Town Suites, the amazing and fantastic Bistro. This is where I should get all my breakfasts here, though not my dinner, because due to the Green Shnolz the Bistro, unlike any nearby restaurant, can't serve dinner due to reasons. Also, we're not allowed to sit together and eat our breakfast together there, but have to take it up into one of our rooms and eat it together there.

Now, regarding the great and powerful Bistro, there's actually two more things that I want to address. First off, the Bistro doubles as a Starbucks, which means that one can get great coffee here... or at least one would be able to get great coffee here, if the coffee machine was not broken. Turns out it has been broken already for three weeks, and it should not get fixed during the whole three weeks of my stay either on account of spare parts being scarce due to - you guessed it - the Green Shnolz. Not that I drink coffee, but Wolfgang and Tobias are positively furious about it. And the other thing are the opening times, for you see, while the Bistro is open from 7:00AM to 9:30AM on weekdays, on weekends and holidays it is instead open from 7:00AM to 9:30AM. What a palpable difference!

But now enough about the Marriott in general. Let's talk about my room, which is clearly the biggest I've ever had.

It has a big, comfortable bed easily big enough for Emilious and me, a small couch...

...a proper laptop-friendly workspace...

...as well as a little coffee machine. Now, I don't drink coffee, but one day I do have a run-in with the local room keeper, and after telling her that I prefer tea over coffee, little bags of tea magically appear next to the coffee machine, which thankfully is also able to produce simple hot water.

The room also has its own bathroom but unfortunately, that's where things start going downhill.

The most harmless thing is still the faucet, who has a kinda unusual handle that is not only difficult to adjust to a certain temperature, but also doesn't dispense a lot of water.

The shower continues this trend. Now, from my travels I am already used to fixed shower heads, but this one dispenses water at such a low pressure that it is spectacularly undeserving of the name "shower". "Light drizzle" would be more like it.

By far most annoying, however, is the toilet roll holder, which is not only placed to the right behind the toilet, so you have to twist your arm behind your back to get it, but also is of a make that almost guarantees that you'll knock the toilet roll off the holder when trying to rip off a few leaves.

One kinda embarrassing flaw that becomes clearly visible when coming from the bathroom at night is also that there's a gap between the room's door frame and the wall, which means that I'm able to clearly hear every single person walking on the hallway - an issue that is further augmented by the fact that my room is just outside the elevator, so I hear everyone who passes. Fortunately, this drawback is somewhat mitigated by the aforementioned shortage of guests.

Also, noise from the hallway is also not really all that bothersome this time around... on account of me having a room that is right above the noisy kitchen exhaust chute. That thing is on day and night and fills the entire room with a constant moderate hum of background noise. Not exactly nice, but at least I can get used to it on account of it staying at a constant volume 24/7. Still, if given the option, I'd still opt for shooting in one or two proton torpedoes.

And then, there's the garbage truck that regularly picks up the rather extensive garbage containers that are also right below my window. Fortunately, the truck only makes its rounds at times when I'm awake anyways, so it's not much of a bother. It's quite interesting to watch the heavily mechanized machine do its work, actually. Operating on forklift, technology, the truck is able to do its work without anyone having to exit it. However, there's also the issue that sometimes a bit of garbage ends up on the ground.

A general drawback of living in a hotel is that I don't have a kitchen to cook for myself, and with the cool and wonderful Bistro not serving dinner due to reasons, I pretty much have to go out every night to dine. That, or use the convenient "Pizza"-button on the room's phone.

Another issue is that of laundry. For Wolfgang and Tobias, this is not a problem since they're only staying for one week, but I couldn't very well bring three week's worth of clothes. Dragon, I don't even own that much underwear. Now, in most of the AirBnbs and hostels that I stayed in there was either a washing machine that I could use or a laundry room, or a laundry hall somewhere nearby, but not this time around. Instead, there's a laundry service, which naturally costs extra, but since the company is covering all my expenses, that's not an issue. Still, it is always a bit of a hassle, having to fill out a laundry sheet every time, and all in all, it doesn't even save that much time, so I think I prefer doing my own laundry. Plus the fact that they plastic-wrap everything feels kinda wasteful.

And now, a little bit about the area. There's actually not all that much to say on account of this being a typical industrial/commercial barrens area, but there is one thing that stands out: The fact that everything here is in Chinese. I don't know the exact cause, but this entire neighborhood is packed with Chinese companies. There's generally a lot of Asian people living here - and with a lot I mean at least 80% - and most of those are Chinese. It's interesting, really, since I can read some of the Kanji from my Japanese studies, so I am a bit reminded of my journeys through Japan (also, that's how I can be sure all of those places are Chinese, and not, say, Korean). The area is still missing Shrines and Temples though.

So much for where I'm staying. Now, since we arrived on a Saturday, Wolfgang, Tobias and I have all of Sunday to first sleep in, and then still make a short trip to...


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Day Trip 1: Downtown Toronto

3-Oct-2021
Distance: 3.0km
Ascents: 20m
Duration: 2.75h

On the first morning after our arrival, Wolfgang and Tobias learn the dread news of the broken coffee machine, and since both of them are suffering from jetlag, they are positively horrified. However, not one to be easily discouraged, Wolfgang comes up with a daring plan.

Okay, so maybe not quite that daring, but at the very least, our quest for coffee should take us all the way to downtown Toronto. Now this is where boring old me would check how far it is to walk, recoil in horror, and then check the public transport options, but apparently, that's old world thinking. Here in Canada, Über is the way to go, and before long, Wolfgang has ordered an Über to take us to the city.

A short time later, we are picked up, and are en-route to downtown Toronto. The way to get there is pretty straightforward, too. We basically just get on the 404 Highway Not Found, which magically turns into the Don Valley Parkway just after crossing the 401 Highway. We then continue on there all the way to Corktown, then exit west, and are basically already in downtown Toronto. Our ultimate destination for the trip, however, is the one and only Yonge Street.

So begins our trip to downtown Toronto on a day that is regrettably rather rainy. Now by daylight the speed limit on the highway becomes all the more apparent, but I still think it's good. Also, it becomes pretty obvious why the second part of the highway is called a "parkway".

After about half an hour, we the arrive at Yonge Street, the one and only. Named after Sir George Yonge - an expert on ancient Roman roads - Yonge Street is the longest street, longer than any other street ever™. Well, maybe not, but it is still mega-freaking long, starting at the shore of lake Ontario and then running in an almost perfectly straight line for close to 60km, meaning that if you were to walk the length of this road, you'd need two days at least. It is also the lifeline of the region, and you can clearly make it out on any map by simply tracing the centre of the linear urban sprawl. As a result of this, the house numbers on this arterial road go up to crazy heights! Whereas in Germany house numbers are mostly double-digit, the house numbers of Yonge Street - while still starting at 1 at the Ontario lakefront - keep increasing until they are OVER 9000!!! Way over 9000 actually: The last house I know of is 21193 Yonge St, whereas 9000 Yonge St. is "only" at the height of Markham.

On this long road, we get out at the Yonge-Dundas square, which is located at about 300 Yonge Street. Interestingly, there seems to be a demonstration underway, and lots of people are demanding to Kill Bill 124, which apparently is something that is bad for nurses. I'll venture a guess and assume that this, too, is related to the Green Shnolz.

So, here we are, in the heart of the city, a bustling metropolis with countless skyscrapers, the likes of which I haven't seen ever since leaving the Radiant Metropolis behind (see Book II ~ Chapter 4 ~ Action at Akihabara). All the huge buildings around are pretty impressive, and we can even see all the way to the great CN Tower... or at least we would, if it weren't for all this rainy weather today.

As such, and also because Wolfgang and Tobias are not quite as crazy as me, today's stray should end up being rather short. We pretty much just end up walking once around the block, with a number of little detours and back-and-forths, but that's already it.

That may not sound like much, but actually... the reason why we're here of all the places is that this is where Toronto's top tourist attraction is located: The Eaton Centre, which is North America's busiest shopping mall. Attracting close to 50 million visitors in a good year (aka, not this year, and probably not next year either), it is a busier place than even the Central Park of New York. Spanning most of the block on several floors, there's a total of 235 shops and restaurants in here. As such, we figure this is a pretty good place to spend a rainy day at.

At one turn, we run into a really orange bench, and Wolfgang stops to say that he absolutely has to take a picture of me on that bench. I figure I fit right in there.

Apart from that, there really isn't all that much to say. "Record-holding multi-floor mall" pretty much already conveys a pretty good picture. There's a big glass hall in the middle that is effectively a roofed pedestrian's street, but that's about it. If anything, the mall is actually smaller than I would expect of one that gets well over 100.000 visitors on good days. I can only imagine how crowded it must get in here, so I guess visiting it during the Green Shnolz actually isn't all that bad of an idea, unless you're into huge crowds.

Anyway, it goes without saying that Wolfgang should find a good coffee in here, even if some of the shops are closed for the duration. In the end, he settles for a coffee from McDonald's, which naturally ensures that we run straight into a Starbucks jsut around the next corner thereafter. Meanwhile, in a clothes store, there's this handy little "alterations while you wait" booth that I'd think would be really cool to have back home as well. Here, you can just buy some pants that almost fit you, and then have them altered to fit perfectly before even walking out of the store.

Eventually, however, we have covered all the floors, and are also slowly getting tired of having to wear our masks - what with us having had to wear them all the time during our flights, the Über-rides, and all over the hotel with the exception of our rooms, and now in here too - so we leave the Eaton Centre by means of a tunnel-bridge through the outside that starts as a square and ends as a circle.

Once outside, we can take off our masks and breathe easily again. We then walk around the block and run right into the old city hall of Toronto. Built in 1899, it used to be the largest and most imposing building in Toronto back in its day.

Presently, however, it almost looks tiny in contrast to all the skyscrapers surrounding it.

Skyscrapers like this one, which I've lovingly dubbed the domino tower.

Arriving at Nathan Phillips Square, with its fountains and big "Toronto" sign, Wolfgang and Toby call for a break and sit down at a conveniently placed sheltered bench, giving me some time to explore the immediate vicinity.

The first thing I find is a handy guide post monument that displays a 5 minute and a 15 minute walk radius. Turns out the waterfront is only a little over 15 minutes away, so I suggest walking there to Wolfgang and Tobias. However, Wolfgang isn't feeling up to that today, so that budding plan is already axed for now.

Next, I notice a number of stairs named after animals leading down beneath the square.

Turns out they are entrances to a big underground parking lot. I can imagine naming them after animals makes them easier to remember. However, even with the map I am only able to find Wolf, Salmon, Porcupine and Geese. The other eight entrances remain a mystery. Also, I don't want to spend too much time exploring this geofront while Wolfgang and Tobias are up there, potentially waiting for me to return. Since I am not an Über-User and am as of yet unfamiliar with the public transit options of Toronto, I really don't want to risk getting stranded.

Moving on, we soon come past a really cool solar-powered charge-and-rent station for E-Bikes. Wouldn't that be a great idea for German cities as well? The only possible problem I can see with this design is that the times when the solar panels produce most of their energy probably overlap with the times when the fewest bikes are at the station.

Next, we head for the Labyrinth. Admittedly, that is a rather spontaneous decision on my path, and Tobias and Wolfgang are against it at first. Clearly, they have no idea what's in store for them. Meanwhile, although I've never been here before, I still have a pretty good guess of what's a-waiting, and can't wait to see their faces. It takes a bit of work, but eventually they come along.

The Labyrinth is located on Trinity Square, named after the Church of the Holy Trinity that is standing there, and of which the first rector was the esteemed Reverend Henry Scadding, who wrote many famous books, such as "Toronto of Old", "Toronto: Past and Present", "Toronto: The Future", "Toronto II ~ The Torontening", "Toronto: Origins" and "The Torontinator".

And then there's the Labyrinth, which turns out pretty much exactly how I expected it. Tobias and Wolfgang are quite surprised, though. How about you? What did you expect? Something more a-maze-ing?

Following that little detour, we briefly don our masks again as we perpendicularly cut through the Eaton Centre again to reach Yonge Street, the one and only, where we then find ourselves right across from Giovanna's Psychic Studio. It can't be that good though if you need to call to make an appointment.

By now, it's already well after noon, and although we had a late breakfast, we're still getting hungry about now. Fortunately, there's a food place nearby that I can recommend, and which neither Wolfgang nor Tobias know yet: A Five Guys, which happens to be a really great burger venue. We actually have a few of those in Munich by now, but they're not exactly well-known yet, so I am happy to introduce my two co-workers to this, and they are open to try it out.

I'd compare it to a SubWay for burgers: You get to order your very own burger. You need to bring a bit of time though, since the burgers are freshly made while you wait. And while you wait, you can actually watch the burgers being made since another typical Five Guys feature is an open kitchen. The burgers taste absolutely amazing, but here's a word of caution about the fries: The portions are absolutely HUGE! One small serving of fries is easily enough for the three of us.

After that, we decide to call it a day. Tobias and Wolfgang are still suffering from jetlag, and I for my part don't really feel like doing much straying around on a gloomy day like this either, especially since there seems to be another wave of rain incoming.

And so, Wolfgang orders another Über to take us back to the Courtyard.This time, we spend a bit more time cruising through the city before making our way onto the Don Valley Parkway. En-route back to Markham we make our way past a number of rather diverse skyscrapers in the neighborhoods of Wynford-Concorde and Pleasant View. And after that, we're back at the Town Suites again.

For the rest of the day, we retreat to our respective rooms, me working on my blog and other stuff, and Wolfgang and Tobias resting. Might as well, because tomorrow is my first day on..


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The Job

Now for the actual reason we're here. Markham is where most of the company that I work for now - QBuild - is located, and now is the week of the yearly meeting where all the people from all the branch offices all over the world come together and meet with the main staff. The office is located in one of the many buildings making up the industrial/commercial barrens around as, and so it's only a pretty short walk of about 8 STEPs to get there from the Marriott.

On our walk to work, we always pass across the parking lot of a stylish, Italian, but also abandoned restaurant by the name of Frankie Tomatto's. I do like the style, but from what Wolfgang and Tobias tell me, it apparently wasn't very good. That would also explain why it ended up closing.

But anyway, here we are, at the headquarters of the world-spanning QBuild Corporation in Markham, Canada, which is situated in a flat but sprawling one-story building. Great for people who don't like stairs.

I could go about describing it now, but fortunately, I was able to get permission to take a video of the office from Craig, the very approachable CEO of QBuild, so I am now proud to present you a full and proper walkthrough of the QBuild headquarters, with all its twisting pathways, office spaces, areas under construction, as well as fully equipped gym.

While Wolfgang and Tobias have taken up residence within the two Conference Call rooms for the duration of the week, I have been placed in the dark developers' den, which is quite to my liking, what with me being photosensitive and all.

There, I have my own spacious desk where I can place my work laptop, and attach it to one of the two monitors there. I say one because the connectors of the laptop are kinda funky, and we'd need a special adapter to connect the second one, so I'm stuck with only two screens for now. It's quite interesting, actually. Back on my trip around the world, all I had was the one screen that my trusty laptop Liete had to offer, and yet after returning I've gotten so used to working with three screens that even "just" two screens feels like somewhat of a setback to me now.

Oh, and speaking of the work laptop that I was given... I am actually not happy with that at all. Not only does it make obnoxious "cool" noises that can only be disabled temporarily, but it also lights up the room even in sleep mode with rhythmic pulsing. However, worst of all is the time when it locks me out entirely due to failed sign-in attempts (because I still occasionally get my password wrong on account of this being a new job, and me thus having chosen a new password for security). Then it says to use a different sign-in option (there are none) or keep the laptop powered for at least two hours (which doesn't work). To add on top of that, I can't log onto my windows account to unblock it because that uses the work e-Mail and the work e-Mail has another weird password that I forgot, and when I finally remember it deep at night, it was already reset by our sysadmin, who sent me the new password to my work account, which I can't access due to my laptop being locked. In short: Use wrench to break glass to get rock to break glass to get wrench.

This neat windows security blooper costs me almost a full one of the nine effective work days that I have while here. But enough about the annoying things. Now to something pleasant: The first day of work here is actually my 34th birthday, and since I have to celebrate it far away from my friends and family, Craig thought of a little something to lift my spirits.

The song alone is already enough to greatly lift my spirits, but on top of that, there's also cake, so, yay!

Now, one slight curiosity about this place is the area under construction, which is marked off as "Restricted Area ~ Keep Out". That is, among other things, the area where the big meeting room and the toilets are located, so people actually go through there on a regular basis. There's a historical reasons for that, though: You see, this is pretty much the QBuild Expansion Pack which is currently under construction, and due to the Green Shnolz (yes, again), construction stalled at one point. And so, as nothing was actively being constructed anymore in that area, people eventually started going through, and no one bothered taking off the "Restricted Area ~ Keep Out" signs.

Eventually, hover, construction resumes during my stay there, and you're not supposed to go through again. Now how do you make sure that people no longer walk into the "Restricted Area ~ Keep Out"? Well, here's how we ended up solving that particular problem.

At the last day of the first week (and thus the last day of the yearly team meeting) we do a special team building event: An escape room game! Those seem to be pretty popular in Canada, and there's one venue quite close nearby. Incidentally, that place also serves as a board game meeting spot, and I actually know quite a few games in the shelves.

Naturally, I signed up for "The Kingdom of Cats". However, since that didn't end up getting enough players, I ended up on the "Project Sphere" team in the end. There, we try to follow the tracks of a missing scientist, making our way through a secret lab of sorts. This is actually my very first escape room game, and it is quite unlike what I imagined. Instead of just trying to get out of the room that we're led in blindfolded, we make our way through several interconnected rooms with secret doors and all. It's a proper little adventure in its own right, and the presentation and special effects are top-notch amusement-park grade. The only drawback is that some of the riddles are not really all that fun to solve. However, as a team-building experience I think it's really great, because I end up paired with several random people from the company and we have to work together to find our way through this maze. I for my part really shine at the logic puzzles, and me being a Game Designer definitely helps too, but there's also a number of situations where my teammates come up with the solution to a puzzle. And then, there's also a bunch of times where we have to ask for a hint via walkie-talkie on account of the puzzle being either too hard or too far-fetched.

Work wise, the first week is mostly meetings with the team from all over the world catching up with one another. This is actually a good start for me, since it gives me some insight into what the company is doing and how it all plays together. However, it is also a bit overwhelming. The week passes by quickly, and at the end of the week, Wolfgang and Tobias depart back to Germany again, leaving me here at the main office for two more weeks of on-site training. From now on, it's just me here at the Courtyard.

The next two weeks at the job end up being a bit bumpy. From Wolfgang, I got the directive to soak up as much information as I can while I'm here, but all the developers are super-busy, so no one really has time to give me two weeks of full-time training. Instead, I get some basic instructions and explanations, and beyond that am more or less left to my own devices. It's a good thing that I already have a lot of programming experience, and am able to work independently quite well, because otherwise I would have been completely lost. In the end, I do my best to get as much out of my stay here as possible, both work-wise and non-work-wise, and while the weekdays are committed to working, I dedicate my weekends to seeing the sights in my surroundings. My first destination is:


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Day Trip 2: Nearby Niagara

10-Oct-2021

Remember my trip to the Iguazu Falls (see Book III ~ Chapter 2 ~ Brasilian Bolero)? Well, once again the winds have taken me into the vicinity of some rather famous falls. Now, the Niagara Falls are still quite some distance away from Toronto, but it's still nothing that can't be covered by a dedicated day trip. And so, on the Sunday right after the departure of Wolfgang and Tobias, I leave the Town Suites shortly before 8:00 in the morning and set out on what should end up being a rather time-intensive journey.

For starters, I'm naturally not taking an Über. For one, I'm more of a humble public-transit fox, and for another, I am also curious to try out the public transport system of Toronto, and possibly find out just why Wolfgang and Tobias have been avoiding it like the Shnolz. Conveniently, there's a bus stop just 3 STEPs away from the Marriott, and I have looked up that I should be able to get to the central station of Toronto, from where a train to Niagara Falls departs, by taking this bus to the Finch subway station, and then the subway from there. So much for the plan.

Naturally, I end up missing the first bus, which departs just in front of my nose. However, it's no big deal (or so I should think at that time), because the next bus departs only ten minutes thereafter.

The next challenge is getting a ticket. I've tried to look into it, but am still a bit confused about the payment methods, so I ask the bus driver. After a bit of a misunderstanding I learn that this is a modern country like New Zealand or Japan where everyone usually pays the fare using a special card. Not having one, I instead have to pay by cash, and here's the next great thing: Instead of the fares I'm used to from other places where the basic rule is "the farther you go the more you pay", here in Toronto the system is quite different: You have to pay $3.25 to enter a vehicle ($3.20 if paying by card), and are then allowed to ride that vehicle for as long as you like, plus you can change vehicles as often as you like within a two-hour period following the initial payment, and then still complete your ride on the last one you boarded. In effect, that means you can get pretty much anywhere in the whole network of the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) for as little as $3.20 (which is about 2.35€), meaning that public transit so much cheaper over here compared to Munich.

Anyway, the buses are more or less the same, with two exceptions: First, soem of the seats are marked off-limits on account of the Green Shnolz, and second, there's these pull-strings, which may or may not be used to trigger an alarm. I didn't check.

The bus route to Finch is pretty straightforward: First we head west along the Steeles Avenue East - named after the legendary Canadian super-Mountie Major General Sir Samuel Benfield Steele from the North-West Mounted Police and head of the Yukon detachment during the Klondike Gold Rush - for pretty much exactly 6km until we hit Yonge Street, the one and only, and then turn south on that for another 2km until Finch Station. It's interesting to see that the regular square grid cells into which the perpendicular main roads divide the area are always roughly 2x2km big, so you could also say that the route takes me three cells west and one cell south. Notably, Finch isn't actually the closest rail/subway station from the Courtyard: The Old Cummer train station is only one cell south and one cell west, and the Don Mills subway station is about two cells south. However, since there's a bus running directly to Finch Station and none of the others, this route is still the fastest to go downtown.

Ride Duration: 21min
Approximate Distance: 8km
Average Speed: 23km/h

The bus ride to Finch first takes me through three grid cells of residential areas, and then, as we turn south on Yonge Street, the one and only, it's suddenly commercial districts all the way to Finch. Apart from that, there's not really much to note along the way.

Arriving at Finch Station, I find the bus terminal (which is connected to the subway) to be large and rather empty. probably again due to the Green Shnolz.

However, making my ways down into the bowels of the station I note that apparently here living with the Shnolz has already become somewhat normal, as there's dedicated mask vending machines standing around, where one can purchase their favourite brand of Shnolz-mask.

A bit later, I manage to locate the subway platform, where two trains are waiting, and without any obvious displays on the platform to tell me which one of them is the right one, I just enter one of them at random.

The subway of Toronto is a bit old-style, but not too old. Maybe a bit rustic, and also suspiciously empty.

That is when I notice this sign at the station.

Since Finch is the terminal station of this subway line, I quickly figure that I'm in the wrong train, and amazingly even manage to make it over into the other, correct train before it departs. And while this one is still far from full, at the very least there's some people in it now, making me more confident that I'm in the correct train now.

For the most part, the subway is pretty old. There's no fancy screens or anything, however, despite its age, it still has a really, really cool feature, and that is the live subway map: Using colored lights, the subway map makes it so much easier to see where you currently are, and also highlights transit stations. Overall, the subway system of Toronto is fairly small, featuring only four lines, of which the one I'm riding now is not only the longest, but also the most interesting: Going in a U-Shape, the two terminal stations of Subway Line 1 are actually only 9km apart, despite the whole line being about 38km long.

Anyway, whereas my bus ride to Finch was mostly straightforward, my subway ride now is extremely straightforward, for the route to Toronto Union Station - the central station of Toronto - pretty much leads straight south beneath Yonge Street, the one and only, with just a little right turn at the end, and little more in terms of  lateral movement.

Ride Duration: 31min
Approximate Distance: 16km
Average Speed: 31km/h

Altogether, it takes about an hour in total to get from the hotel to Union Station (discounting me missing the bus), which isn't really all that much longer than taking an Über, especially considering you have to book the Über in advance and then still wait for it to pick you up. Also, it is just so much cheaper, so I think I'll keep preferring public transit. However, there naturally is one disadvantage of taking the subway: Apart from the stations, there's not really much to see along the way.

And even that is not entirely true, since the subway actually has a few above-ground segments near Davisville and Rosedale.

Arriving at Union Station, I briefly hesitate at the automatic ticket gate, unsure about how it'll work with me having a paper ticket, but then I see someone else leave and realize it's actually super-easy: Due to the convenient flat-rate, you don't even need a ticket to exit and can just walk straight through (unlike in Japan where your fare only gets deducted when leaving).

With that, I'm now within the Union Station, which is, quite frankly, a contemporary dungeon made of underground walkways and crossing bridges. It does take me some time to find my way towards the main tracks, but I manage to make it in the end.

Eventually, I manage to find myself a vending machine, where I am not only able to buy a round-trip ticket to Niagara Falls...

...but also get myself a Presto-Card to use the local buses and subway more easily (also, it makes for a nice souvenir to go with the cards I already have from Japan).

Next, I need to figure out which train to take. Now, unfortunately, I learn that I've just missed the direct train to Niagara Falls, on account of me missing that bus earlier, and the next direct train to Niagara Falls doesn't run for another three hours. However, fortunately, there's also a more indirect route using the Lakeshore Line, and since that one commutes every half hour, I'm good to take the one that departs in 15 minutes.

But before that, I help myself to a drink from one of the fountains that are readily available everywhere around these parts (including bottle refill stations!).

My train departs from platforms 25 and 26, which seems kinda strange until I arrive at the platform and understand.

The train arrives shortly. Around these parts, the primary long-distance operator is GO, which operates trains and buses. The GO train that I take seems kinda bulky, but that may also be due to the fact that it is a double-deck train. Good panorama view, here I come!

On the inside, the train is quite modern, featuring plexiglass Shnolz-screens between the seats, outlets and charging stations, as well as functional free WiFi for all passengers. I wish Germany had trains this advanced.

On account of the strategically placed Lake Ontario, the route to Niagara Falls is remarkably triangular, with both the train segment to Burlington and the bus segment from there to Niagara Falls being roughly as long as the direct line across the lake. Now, the first segment takes me southwest towards Burlington along the shore of Lake Ontario.

Ride Duration: 58min
Approximate Distance: 51km
Average Speed: 53km/h

I've now travelled a lot by train, through Germany, Japan, and even New Zealand, and yet, Canada is still different. At least in this area, there's not a lot of open fields, but rather mostly forests with residential areas. We also pass by Grenadier Pond and cross over the Credit River. And then there's this stretch where the names of all sorts of companies are planted in greenery alongside the embankment. Unfortunately, I only manage to capture the last few of them as we pass by. And then there's also a kinda unsightly yard of metal garbage, and a whole depot of school buses. What about farmland? Not in this area, baby!

Roughly an hour later, we arrive at the Burlington GO station, which is the major local crossover station servicing both GO buses and GO trains.

There, I have to wait for a bit before the bus to Niagara Falls arrives, and when it does, I can already tell that it's going to be crowded, despite this being a double-deck bus and all.

Just like the GO train, the GO bus is also pretty modern on the inside, featuring plexiglass Shnolz-screens, free WiFi and plane-like lights and air conditioning nozzles. I wonder why we can't have modern stuff like that in Germany? I figure there's gotta be some massive corruption and/or embezzlement running in the DB or something (since other private train companies do have nice things like these even in Germany).

And then, I'm finally on the fourth and final segment on my trip to Niagara Falls. This one is once again pretty straightforward, with the bus taking the Queen Elizabeth Way to Niagara Falls while occasionally turning off the highway to stop at bus stops located at nearby rest stations and crossroads.

Ride Duration: 1:35h
Approximate Distance: 78km
Average Speed: 49km/h

Oh, and don't even think about throwing away cans here, or else you'll get hit with the $500 mallet (or the $40,000 warhammer for repeat offenders).

The route along the Queen Elizabeth Way is a lot like the train ride, but with slightly less towns and industry, and slightly more forests. There are a few fields which I figure may serve as pastures at times, but I still don't see any typical crop fields or anything around here. Instead, there's the lake-like Jordan Harbor, which is actually connected to Lake Ontario through a narrow inlet over which the highway passes, and the Welland Canal over which ships can get from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, because they obviously can't go over the falls... or at least not more than once.

And then, after a journey of over 150km in just a little under five hours, counting all delays and stops, I have arrived at the Niagara Falls Bus Terminal. It is now 12:30, and I am just about ready to start exploring.

Or actually, let's have lunch first. Now the good thing is that my breakfast today came with a banana that I brought along for lunch so I won't have to spend much of my already scarce time on that. The bad news is that I carried that in Krevyasz' pocket during this whole trip, and apparently that wasn't such a flash idea. Oh well, it still tastes okay.

And before I leave the bus station, I also stroll over to the nearby train station and take note that the direct train to Toronto departs at 17:45. That should give me plenty of time to explore the town.

Now for my trip. The bus station is still a few kilometres away from the falls, and while I suppose there's public transport available, I prefer to walk this distance and see a bit of the city along the way. Walking both ways, along with an unexpected extension, I end up walking quite some distance.

Distance: 16.0km
Ascents: 80m
Duration: 4.5h
7/12🎁︎

But before I head towards the falls, I absolutely have to pay a visit to the temple north of the railroad tracks. Unfortunately, unlike with Japanese Buddhist temples, entry is prohibited, but it still looks quite impressive from the front. This one is known as the 萬佛舎利塔寺, or Ten Thousand Buddhas Sarira Stupa.

Also, I should probably mention that I am quite close to the USA now, which is just across the river flowing through the canyon below. Incidentally, the state on the other side is actually New York. I didn't know that it stretched this far west, did you?

From there, I follow the cliffside road south for a while. It's not particularly scenic per se...

...but occasionally, there's a gap in the trees and I get a nice view on the Niagara river with its turquoise waters.

Eventually, I leave the road behind and venture through a green park alley that at one point was used to carry the Olympic Torch through Niagara Falls.

Taking the scenic route, I also come by quite a number of interesting homes, such as this neat, castle-like home...

...or this home covered in Tyvek HomeWrap.

And I suspect that the prices for such a home are actually quite affordable too, for you see, Niagara Falls is plagued by swarms of noisy steel hornets with a varying number of wings soaring the sky all the time, which quickly starts to annoy me and be glad that I'm just passing through.

Anyway, for now, I proceed through some idyllic backstreets...

...and even get to cross over a little open field in the middle of the city...

...before reaching the "tourist district" of Niagara Falls, starting with Hershey's Chocolate World. Hershey's is pretty much the Milka of North America, though from what I hear it's nowhere near as good as good old central European chocolate.

Just across from that are the Rainbow Gardens, which not only have nice trees and beautiful flowerbeds...

...but also offer the first view on the Niagara Falls from the Oakes Garden Theatre.

Also, there's the disappointingly monochrome local Rainbow Bridge nearby. It's amazing how many places have one of these yet fail to color it appropriately.

But anyway, back to the main reason I'm here for: The Niagara Falls. Founded in 8,100BC at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation, the falls were originally located at the edge of the Niagara Ridge, between present day Queenston and Lewiston. Sinc then, they hae gradually carved a canyon through the ridge, migrating south at a leisurely pace of a little under 1m a year until they reached their present-day position, where they are now turning a maximum profit, not only in terms of tourism, but also as a source of hydroelectric power. Today, the falls are separated into three parts: The biggest cascade is clearly the horseshoe falls, measuring a fallline of roughly 700m in a characteristic U-shape. Separated from those by Goat Island are the about 300m wide American falls, which in turn are separated by the tiny Luna Island from the tiny, 16m wide Bridal Veil Falls. They are a great sight to behold (even if they can't measure up to the outright supernatural Iguazu Falls), but whatever you do, for the sake of global safety, do not attempt to funnel them through a straw.

Naturally, there's quite a few people around crowding the balustrade...

...and some of them don't even seem to mind waiting long hours in line for a chance to get on an overcrowded boat and wet their faces in the falls - and that in times of the Green Shnolz. This questionable experience is probably also quite expensive.

Speaking of questionable experiences, there's also the opportunity to ride a zip line towards the falls. Not at breakneck speed, but still... I for my part prefer to walk the cliffside path.

And then, I arrive at the Horseshoe Falls, where you can actually walk right up to the edge.

Naturally, there's quite a bunch of people around here too.

This is also as far south as I get in Canada. Crossing the road, I start making my way back up north through the Niagara Parks...

There, I come across a wireless statue of Nikola Tesla, who among other things was involved in the establishment of the first hydroelectric power plant at the Niagara Falls.

Walking up the nearby hills, I follow some signs advertising a scenic view on the falls...

...only to end up being greatly disappointed with what the people who put up these signs reckon qualifies as a "scenic view".

Instead, the last glimpse I get of the falls is from a pedestrians' bridge spanning Murray Street near Fallsview Boulevard.

On the other side of the bridge, there's a nice walkway taking me back part of the way...

...and before I know it, I'm already back at the Courtyard again.

Unfortunately, it turns out that not only the Marriott is one of a rather large series, but they also haven't researched the Gateway technology yet, so I can't just activate the portal here and teleport back to the Markham branch. Instead, I have to continue walking back towards the station through the streets of Niagara Falls.

As a result, I get to see a few more interesting sights. For one, I get reminded of the typical North-American All-Way Stop signs (which I last encountered during my exchange semester in Indiana many years ago). Instead of one road having priority here, there's stop sign on all roads. So, what then happens if two cars arrive at the intersection at the same time? Well, I suppose they'll just keep standing there... forever. That, or they have a deathmatch.

Next, there's this kinda unusual half-a-house...

...and then, there's the Return of Trollface Junction.

Also, despite the occasion still being over half a month off, some houses already have stylish Halloween decorations prepared.


Eventually, I reach Queen Street, and with it Ye Olde Walking Malle of Niagara Falls.

There's all sorts of stores and places to be found on this road, some of which one might even find at home, such as another escape room venue.

Others meanwhile are definitely something you don't find everywhere, such as this backyard axe-throwing place.

Oh, and did you know that cannabis is perfectly legal in Canada? Just be sure not to take any of it across the border.

And then there's Daredevil Alley, which stand testament to all the daring and foolhardy things that people have accomplished or died trying against the backdrop of the Niagara Falls, such as crossing the falls on a tightrope, going over the falls in a kayak, crossing the tightrope with a wheelbarrow, flying beneath the bridges on a biplane, crossing the tightrope while carrying another person on the back, crossing the falls in a barrel, or crossing the tightrope with a portable stove while stopping to cook a meal in the middle.

And with that, my slightly less daring Niagara Falls circuit comes to a close. It is now 16:05 and time for me to learn that apparently the train connection posted at the station is no longer in service due to - you guessed it - the Green Shnolz. Instead, it looks like I'll have to take the same old bus-and-train combo back to Toronto, with the bus departing  at 17:28.

With over an hour to spare until then, I spontaneously decide to extend my stray by a short northern arc, following the cliffside road north past the temple. Incidentally, that is also when the sun finally comes out... for the first time since I've been here. Come to think of it, that means that Wolfgang and Tobias didn't see a single second of sunshine during their entire stay here.

By now, I am near a part of the Niagara River known as the rapids. Following a relatively calm stretch right after the falls, the waters get quite rugged and turbulent around here.

Further to the north yet, there's another tourist attraction: The Whirlpool Aero Car. A cable car spanning the unusual fluvial cul-de-sac known as the Niagara Whirlpool, this is another of these spots where there's way too many humans standing in line for me to be comfortable with - especially in times of the Green Shnolz.

My northern turning point is somewhere around there too, though I have to wing it a little bit on the way back on account of there being no sidewalk for some reason.

On the last stretches of my walk back to the combined bus and train station I unexpectedly face some danger due to reversing equipment...

...and I guess I also have to watch out, because apparently it's parasite season.

After that, it's 17:00 and time for my second return to the bus stop. I find the place where the bus is scheduled to depart from quickly, and then set out to find something to drink, because for some strange reason there wasn't a single drinking fountain to be found anywhere in all of Niagara Falls, including the parks, and my throat is absolutely parched. Now the good news is that there's a drink vending machine inside the station building... the bad news being that for whatever reason the station building closed at - you guessed it - 17:00. Guess I'll have to go thirsty for now.

After a bit of waiting (and further fruitless searching for a drink vending machine), the bus arrives, wishing us a Happy Thanksgiving as it turns towards the stop.

And with that, I'm on my way back to Burlington, literally riding the bus into the sunset. The route is the same as before, but this time around, I manage to snag one of the seats at the very front of the upper deck, giving me a totally different perspective on the highway.

By the time we arrive in Burlington, night has already fallen completely...

...and thirsty though I may be, there's no time to look for a vending machine here since the train to Toronto is just about to depart.

On account of it being night already, there isn't really all that much to see on the train ride to Toronto (and here I was looking forward to taking some shots of the Ontario lakeshore)...

...but I do note the interesting emergency-alarm system inside the train. Instead of handle or a button, this train has a bright yellow strip above the windows, and apparently just touching that triggers the alarm. I wonder how often someone triggers it by accident.

By the time we finally arrive at Union Station again, it's 20:15 in the evening, and I am now both thirsty and hungry.

Fortunately, ample remedies for both these problems are nearby. I am not yet really familiar with the area, but I just know that Yonge Street, the one and only, is going to have a selection of food venues for me to choose from (and I already know that I'm going to run straight into the first one). As it happens, that is a Hero Certified Burgers, which is a franchise I've seen around and wanted to try anyway during my stay here in Canada.


There, I order an Action Hero Burger Combo, which most importantly comes with a drink, and since this is North America, drinks also mean free refills. As such, I thirstily empty two whole cups of Minute Maid lemonade (which should end up becoming my favorite) before the burger and fries are even ready, and a third one during my meal. After that, I'm a happy fox again.

Also, the ketchup packs here are kinda cool, in that you can use them in two different ways: You can either peel off the lid and dip, or you can tear off the front and squeeze, whichever way you prefer.

Following that dinner, I keep on walking north along Yonge Street, the one and only, until I reach the Dundas station in front of the Eaton Centre, which Wolfgang, Tobias and I visited a week ago, thus making another connection.

There, I get to inaugurate my brand-new Presto card at the ticket gate...

...and then I'm headed back towards Finch on the subway.

Having noticed this before on the train, I now also notice the yellow emergency alarm strip in the subway, though this one is not continuous. Interestingly, the fine for misuse here is only half as expensive as in the train ($500 as opposed to $1,000 on the train).

At Finch, I then transfer to the bus, noting how this one also seems to serve as a bicycle carrier...

...and after a totally uneventful ride and a short walk, I am finally back again at the Courtyard around 22:00. The right one, this time.

What a day! I've been on the move for over 14 hours, the majority of which was spent on trains and buses. But I've also seen a lot, so I daresay it was a good day. But now, let's take a short break from exploring and instead talk about...


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The Food

My days here should routinely start with a breakfast from the staggering and awe-inspiring bistro at the Town Suites. And for once, there is no irony intended, for the breakfast here is really, really good... at least when they don't make it up. I think my favorite is the Bistro Breakfast Sandwich, which might as well be called the Breakfast Burger. However, instead of a burger patty, there's scrambled egg, bacon (or ham, when they run out of bacon) and salad inside, and there's a small bowl of chopped fruit as a side dish. This actually makes it into the benchmark category for what qualifies as a really good breakfast in a hotel for me.

It goes without saying that since I'm here for three weeks, I should make a point out of sampling the breakfast menu up and down. Next is the Avocado Toast, which is effectively one poor slice of toast crushed under the weight of a whole avocado innards, salad and an egg. It's super tasty, but the toast in the name is more of a side dish here.

Next is bacon and eggs, with a personal choice of how the eggs are prepared (I prefer sunny side up), and more toast than in the Avocado Toast.

And then there's the week that the bacon and fruit fail, so the bacon & eggs with a fruit side dish instead transmogrify to eggs & some sort of ham-ish thing with fried potatoes as a side dish. Unfortunately, the fried potatoes are not very good, so I mostly pass them up when they mysteriously end up in my breakfast in lieu of me ordering fruit.

We also have classic oatmeal, which comes with aforementioned banana. This should not become one of my favorites, so I only have it once.

Then there's pancakes with some sort of cream cheese and blueberry jam plus the traditional maple syrup. Those range somewhere in the middle, I'd say, and so I have them more than once.

Finally, there's the Egg White Frittata. This also features avocado and salad, and it's not bad, but it narrowly misses my taste on account of it being egg white firttata, and my favorite part of eggs is the yolk.

Also, every breakfast comes with a choice of tea and coffee, so I always order a large cup of tea, until that fateful day when they run out of the next thing, namely large cups. From then, it's only a medium-sized tea. However, the tea, and that has to be said, is really, really good, and since it comes with two tea bags it usually lasts me the whole day if I refill it with hot water at the office. Also, some breakfast menus also come with a bottle of orange juice.

Lunch... this is where things start to get interesting, in pretty much all the various meanings of the word. During the first week, when Wolfgang and Tobias are still here, things are mostly good, with someone regularly asking me if I would like to come along for lunch. That is actually quite important, as there are no food places nearby, even the closest venue being about 6 STEPs away, meaning just getting there and back on foot is usually a half-hour trip or so. Fortunately, when people do take me along for lunch in their cars, I get to see all sorts of interesting food venues nearby, such as the Fat Bastard Burrito...

...or the Sumilicious, which sells smoked meat sandwiches. The sandwiches even come with fancy German bread, which is a bit of a rarity around here, so the locals really go wild over it while I'm all like "but this is what I have for breakfast every day where I come from".

On one day of the team meeting week, the company hosts a grilling party right outside the office on the parking lot, and while I'm not that big a fan of grilling, the atmosphere is pretty jovial, and the food is good, if a bit on the charred side.

Another team meeting week lunch we have on the parking lot is an all-you-can-eat Indian cuisine lunch. Now this is much more to my liking.

Now, I've already noted that there's a lot of Chinese and other Asian people around, and that naturally has consequences as to the available catering options. For one, there's a Vietnamese Pho shop that sells tasty and plentiful noodle soup. The takeout version comes in two plastic cups: One full of "ingredients", and one full of broth. It's actually impossible to fit all of the broth into the ingredients bowl all at once, so I always end up doing it in several goes.

Then there's the Deer Garden, where you can sort of mix your own Chinese soup: You get a sheet with different soup bases (and modifier options for those), toppings, extra toppings, extra extra toppings, and noodles and can select your own combination. Altogether, there's 15*16*32*31*16*10 = 38,092,800 different combinations, and that's just if you stick to the basic set of two main ingredients. Also, the size of the dishes here is in the category of "if you can actually finish this, then you may have a problem".

Oh, and speaking of Chinese soup, one one of the days when no one thinks to invite this poor, lonely, rideless foxy out for lunch, I end up ordering a Chinese soup using a delivery service app. And on account of that app not accepting either one of my credit cards or PayPal accounts due to fancy security features they built in, I actually end up having a colleague from marketing & sales order them for me and then just pay them in cash.

You see, after Wolfgang and Tobias left, it quickly becomes painfully obvious that unlike the rather merry marketing & sales department, there's no real camaraderie to be found in the programming department that I am sitting in. Everyone pretty much just takes care of themself and doesn't mind the others. I eventually come to terms with this and either try to attach myself to someone from sales & marketing as they go to lunch, or take a hike to, say, the nearest food court, which has a selection of for example Korean food.

I do much prefer it, however, if other people take me along. No only does that appeal to my Flirial nature of "take care of others and be taken care of by others", but also do they take me to all sorts of interesting places with interesting food, like the Tai Ping Hsiang BBQ that sells traditional Chinese Popcorn Chicken.

Yet there's one bit of great solace, and that is in one of the two food places within walking distance. That, namely, is J-Town: A little shopping block with all-Japanese shops.

First among all, there's the Café Green Tea, of which I should become a regular customer in my three weeks of presence. Not only am I able to converse in Japanese with the owners, but the style of the place is also genuinely Japanese, so I feel right at home from the moment I walk in.

And they sell Kitsune Udon! Granted, it's not the best I've ever tasted, but it is still so much better than anything I've found in Munich. Yum!

At first, I take my meals from there to the office, but since I just end up eating alone at my desk there, I eventually take to eating at the Café Green Tea instead, preferring the homely Japanese atmosphere there to the lonely office feeling. Also, there's jsut so much tasty food to taste and sample here! Like Tenpura Udon!

Udon not your thing? Fine, we also have Kitsune Soba! I don't think there even is a place in all of Munich that sells Kitsune Soba!

By the way, becoming a regular there does have advantages. Perhaps most notably, I don't have to show my proof of vaccination every time I want to dine in. That is actually one thing that the Canadians are much more strict about than the Germans: Pretty much in every single last venue I enter, I have to present my proof of vaccination and ID, and they check both very thoroughly. Guess the Canadians are more strict in regards to enforcing their Green Shnolz regulations than the Germans.

But anyway, back to the food. If you don't feel like having soup as a primary dish, you can instead try out the Otousan Lunch Menu...

...or maybe the Tonkatsu Menu.

Shifting from lunchtime to dinner, I also occasionally rely on the Café Green Tea for that as well, but only if I make it out of the office in time, for the Café Green Tea closes at 18:00. But if I do make it out in a timely manner, I like to drop by and pick up a tasty dinner to take back to the hotel, such as a box of Tonkatsu Curry.

And then, there's that time I bring home some Oyakodon, yet forget the chopsticks. Fortunately, being a fox I am resourceful, and so I manage to improvise a solution, which - while not elegant - somehow works out.

Now, that was only the Café Green Tea. Apart from that, there's also other food places around, such as the Tanuki. This one carries mostly, uhh... "experimental Japanese-inspired food", so I don't exactly become a regular here. But I do try it out a few times. They usually also do have a late-night Kitsune-Friar event with all sorts of fried food, but due to the Green Shnolz that's cancelled for the duration.

Anyway, one of the dishes I try from there is the Gentle Blade Omurice...

...and the other being the Chicken & Fries Sando skewer.

Then there's the Izakaya Ju, which among other things sells tasty Sashimi, such as the Surf Clam Sashimi... and Natto! Tasty, tasty Japanese Natto!

And one my last evening in Canada, I also allow myself the expensive, yet super-tasty Chirashi Sashimi set, and do not regret it in the least.

Finally, there's also the Heisei Mart nearby, which carries an assortment of typical Japanese goods.

Among the tasty snacks and drinks I find in there are Lemon Tea, Melon Soda, Suppa Muucho Umeboshi Chips, and Umeboshi-flavored Kaki-no-Tane. The former three are things that I haven't tasted since leaving Japan, and the Umeboshi-flavored Kaki-no-Tane have been out of stock at Munich's one and only Japanese foods store ever since the pandemic started.

Leaving J-Town behind but staying within the domain of experimental Japanese-inspired foods, there's this place somewhat nearby Makirrito which sells... well... Makirrito, that is, a Sushi Maki rolls the size of Burriots. It is a thing that I try once, but not more.

However, in addition to Makirrito, the Makirrito also sells Unagidon, and since it's been a while since I've gotten to eat Unagi (eel), I am happy to try it out. Unlike the Makirrito, this one is actually quite good.

Also, one night during the team meeting week, the company sponsors us a fully-fledged Yakiniku dinner at an expensive place in downtown Toronto. Naturally, that place - like everything else of import - is located on Yonge Street, the one and only.

And moving on from Japanese to general Asian, one night, I take a detour over the closest shopping plaza to take home some Chinese Dumplings from a place that is so Chinese that it makes me feel right out of place...

...while on another night, I try out some Taiwanese beef noodle soup from a place with the creative name of Zen-Q. Unfortunately, the "beef" turns out to be mostly bone and tendon, but the rest of the soup is tasty.

With that, I believe I have an "East Asian Food Bingo" (Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese and Korean). So now let's move on to some non-Asian dinners. Incidentally, all those should occur during the team event week, because if I'm eating alone and there's so many tasty Asian food places around me, then I might as well eat Asian. For starters, there's this place called The Owl, which is a Frickin Pub... sorry, a Firkin Pub that especially Tobias likes to frequent, right next to the Courtyard. On our first night, this is where he, Wolfgang and I go to dine, with me having a Shepherd's Pie. Note to myself: Never order Shepherd's Pie again.

Another night of the team event week, we go out to an Indian food place, which boasts itself for offering the Omega Death Curry, Canada's hottest curry, hotter than any other curry ever™. This one is so dangerous that they do not allow it to be eaten outside of the restaurant, probably so they can call an ambulance in case the curry manages to defeat a challenger.

One last joint dinner of team event week is done at the Italian restaurant Scaddabush, where I end up being served some salmon with beans and capers, along with lots and lots of antipasti shared around the table. Also, this place serves a really interesting oval variant of pizza the likes of which I have not seen before.

And that's it for the food. Now let's proceed with...


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Day Trip 3: The Free Lunch Day Stray

11-Oct-2021
Distance: 26.0km
Ascents: 120m
Duration: 9.0h
5/12🎁︎

They say "There's no such thing as a free lunch". However, every once and so often, life throws something free and good at you after all. In my case, that is thanksgiving. Following the Monday after which Wolfgang and Tobias have left, there's Thanksgiving Day over here in Canada, which is a public holiday, and thus I get one whole extra day to explore. Yay!

It's only just been yesterday that I've been to the Niagara Falls, and yet, since that effectively was mostly train and bus rides with a little bit of a stray in between, I feel both ready and willing for a real stray today. I briefly consider doing a one-way hike to downtown Toronto and then taking the subway back, traversing the Don Parklands along the way, but somehow I feel more like doing a round trip through the more immediate neighborhood instead. So I end up doing a hike through the northeastern corner of North York instead passing through Hillcrest Village, Bayview Woods, Bayview Village, Henry Farm, Don Valley Village, Pleasant View and L'Amoreaux along the way. Actually, that last one is already in Scarborough, which lies just east of North York.

Since the Marriott is located in the middle of industrial/commercial barrens, I naturally first have to walk some way along the roadside before I can reach greener pastures.

But soon enough, I reach first a significantly more pleasant residential area...

...and then the first park on my stray today. Also, the weather is really nice again today.

For the next bit, I come across a prime sample of typical Canadian (and also USA) infrastructure: A plaza. These commercial areas can easily be distinguished by a big parking lot surrounded by storefronts, and stand as testaments to the central importance attributed to cars in this society. The most basic shape of a plaza is a square parking lot with an L-shaped single-storey storefront on two sides, but there's also more creative designs around. In fact, pretty much all of the food places that my co-workers took me to were on such plazas, and they were quite surprised to hear when I told them that such things don't really exist in Europe. Or New Zealand. Or Japan. Or Brazil. Or South Africa. Or pretty much anywhere else I've been to apart from North America. Anyway, they're normally quite busy, but since it's still relatively early in the morning and Thanksgiving Day, this one is about as empty as it gets.

Next, I enter something else that I didn't know of yet: A community safety zone. Not only is there a speed limit of 40 (km/h, I hope, because 40mph wouldn't be much of a speed limit), but apparently the fines for traffic violations are higher while in this area. So remember, kids: Breaking the law is bad, but breaking the law here is especially bad.

After a walk through mostly residential areas, I eventually reach Duncan Creek Park, which is also my major park for today. I should stay within its boundaries for quite some time for now.

Also, there's a public drinking fountain around. Not knowing when I might next get a chance to satiate my thirst again (and wary after what happened in Niagara Falls yesterday), I drink amply before moving on.

Duncan Creek park, named for the narrow creek running through it, is an idyllic green oasis, standing in stark contrast with the extensive suburban sprawl around it, thus balancing it nicely.

Wading in said creek, I find a bird that I am not familiar with. It's bill and and long legs are somewhat reminiscent of a crane, and yet it looks distinctly different. Does anyone know it's name?

Eventually, Duncan creek flows into the much larger German Mills Creek, which is coming from the German Mills neighborhood to the north.

Crossing over from one section of the park to the next, I have to cross a road featuring not only a pedestrians' signal, but also a bicycle signal, the purpose of yet could yet be made more obvious by including a QR-code linking to a short, animated video explaining the purpose of this signal in excruciating detail.

This next park segment - which is already part of the rather big East Don Parklands - begins with a veritable forest of signs formulating a code of conduit of sorts. I particularly like the "No E-Bikes" sign.

And then, there's this recycling tutorial, which I actually find quite informative. Did you know that plastic products in Canada have to be color-coded based on whether they can be recycled? As such, black plastic products go into the garbage, while plastic products of other colors can be recycled. Also, blue bins (which are only for paper in Germany) are for all sorts of recycling here - including paper, plastic and cans - and that convention also applies to colored garbage bags.

But back to the stray at hand. The East Don Parklands are as serene as the Duncan Creek Park, and follow the course of the East Don River south for quite a while. Named after the river Don in Yorkshire, England, the native name for this river is Nechinquakakonk, Wonscotanach or Waasayishkodenayosh, depending on whom you ask.

And although it's hard to see with all the trees, the entire park is situated in an over 10m deep valley cutting into the surrounding area - a fact that becomes apparent by means of the railway bridges occasionally spanning the valley.

That fact, in conjunction with the "Caution ~ Beware of Flooding during and after rain" and the fact that there's life saving equipment provided every few hundred meters makes me make a mental note to never set foot in here after heavy rainfall (not that I'm likely to get that chance anyway, mind you).

Next, I cross an imposing electric thoroughfare, which cuts through the cityscape like a knife. Roughly a hundred meters wide, this swath reaches from the eastern border of the Toronto metropolitan area all the way to the Richview Transformer Station near Toronto Pearson International Airport and beyond. It also makes for a great wildlife-highway and is probably good for insects too, never mind the steel-giants looming above.

Moving on, I pass by an area that is, uhh... "cordoned-off" due to the occurrence of a plant known as Giant Hogweed beyond. Originally native to the Caucasus, it eventually migrated all across Europe and was eventually brought to North America in 1917 because introducing species to new continents is never a bad thing. There, it soon managed to "break out" of the arboreta and Victorian gardens which it was originally intended for, and by now is widespread all over Ontario. It's sap is phototoxic, which means that it can cause serious skin inflammation in combination with sunlight, since it inhibits the skin's natural ability to protect itself from sunlight (aka: it temporarily turns you into a vampire of sorts). Thus, if you happen to touch this plant, it's best to wash it off immediately and then avoid sunlight for 48 hours. Fortunately, none of these sneaky giants are anywhere near my route.

Now, my original intention was to follow the East Don Parklands all the way south to my turning point, but at one point there's a fence in the way, closing off a part of the path due to constructionless construction...

...so I have to make my way through another residential district, walking along a sidewalk of extraordinary magnitude along the way. But hey, who needs sidewalks? We have cars!!!

Once back in the parklands, I take care to keep off the unsafe ice...

...and then proceed to make the rest of my way through this tamed wilderness.

The park is briefly interrupted by the crossroads at the Leslie subway station, which is kinda unusual in that the whole big crossroads is situated on top of the Don River (or put another way, the Don River flows diagonally beneath the crossroads).

After that, there's still a short stretch of parklands left before the trail passes under the 401 Highway, which is the one that Wolfgang, Tobias and I came along on our way from the airport. This is also my declared southern terminus for this stray, since I figure it makes for a distinctive line.

From here, I head eastwards, and soon find myself within a residential area again. This time, however, they have sidewalks! Now the question is, does that mean that this is a rich area (aka: they can afford sidewalks) or a poor one (aka: not everyone can afford a car)?

There, I come across the tree with the kinda unusual roots...

...before passing by the colorful spires of Don Mills near the terminal station of subway line 4.

It is now 13:00, and I am by now quite hungry. Now, the good news is that Fairview Mall is right on the other side of the crossroads.

The bad news is that despite being open on all days of the week, it is closed right now, and there's not even a sign explaining why. In fact, I am not the only potential customer turning around in front of its closed doors in frustration right now.

While crossing the extensive... well, "parking lot" seems to small, so let's call it "parking district"... of the mall on my way out, I also come across a creative new zebra crossing: This one is black on black. Somehow I don't think that this will become a thing.

And so, I hungrily venture on, passing by an interesting playground that I'll just call the 5d12 playground.

Also this playground has a modern water fountain, so hungry though I may be, I at least won't go thirsty.

Eventually, however, I find some food at Peanut Plaza. There, the scores of cars communicate quite clearly that the places here are open, and so I now jsut have to decide on where and what I want to eat there.

A short stray around the plaza reveals its own set of curiosities, such as the Bank of China (Canada)...

...as well as this very thematic car, which I doubt would be legal in Germany.

It actually takes me some time to locate the whereabouts of the food place I've been looking for within the plaza, since it is cleverly hidden in a rare indoor area, and thus has not outdoor store front: It is the Popeyes Luisiana Kitchen, which was also a place that picked my interest and that I had wanted to try out for a while, and certainly not only because it's so very orange. No no! The very idea is absurd!

You see, not only is this place the official restaurant of the famous Toronto Maple Leafs, but it also has a great sense of humor.

So, what do they serve here? Well, chicken, mostly, so I have a 3 Chicken Piece Tender Combo with a selection of sauces, and tasty Minute Maid lemonade. The spicy sauce is also really good, because it is not just spicy, but also has an interesting taste to it.

After filling my belly and thus recharging my batteries, I am on my way again. Before long, I come by a bus stop which I do not only want to highlight due to its "10 minute or better" service policy, but also for the interesting approach that there's a system in place where you can send a text message to a number to learn when the next vehicle will arrive at this stop.

Moving on, I next cross back over the 404 Highway Not Found, and stand in shock and awe as I see just how many cars are on this massive road. This can't be good for the environment. I think we may have a problem. Also do you see the separate lane on the right side? That's the express lane for cars with two or more passengers. Now what does that tell you about all these other big cars?

I really don't get what humans see in cars. I for my part am not only grateful that I don't have to pay buttloads of cash for a way to contribute to destroying the sky, but am also quite happy not to have to deal with, say, daily traffic jams. Also, didn't cars use to come in colors at some point?

As I continue down the road - north this time - I soon realize that I'm in Canada at possibly the most iconic time, because at this time of the year, the maple trees are all ablaze in a brilliant red. And thus, it does not take me long to find a perfect Canadian red maple leaf lying there on the sidewalk.

I am now walking along Victoria Park Ave, and it is there that I come across a long row of very artistic murals just waiting to be admired.

And then I pass back north across aforementioned electric thoroughfare again, roughly 3.5km east of where I crossed southwards over it in the East Don Parklands. This time around, there's no path leading through, making this even more of a natural sanctuary (although they clearly keep the grass cut short for some reason).

I could have just followed my route north from  here and arrived back at the Town Suites, but since there's still some time in the day and my feet are not all that tired yet, I instead turn a few blocks to the east and then continue heading north through a perpendicular park and power line combination.

Soon thereafter, I pass by a public toilet...

...and eventually walk along a sidewalk where some maple leaves have immortalized themselves in concrete. Is it accidental? Is it intentional? At any rate, it looks kinda cool.

At the very end, I take yet a little bit of a detour, and finally approach the Courtyard from the west again.

By now, my feet are finally reasonably tired, so the first thing I do once back in my room is to fall backwards onto my bed and cool off, thankful that I won't have to do much walking these next four days. And that's it for today's stray. Next, let us talk about...


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The Flair

A new land means curiosities, and quite a few of them. For one, there's much more wildlife around than in Europe, like lots and lots of cute grey squirrels everywhere you look. Sometimes, entire scurries of squirrels can be seen squatting in the grass.

Now, if squirrels ain't your thing, we've got wild geese too. Canada Geese, to be exact. They, too, are literally all over the place. Not quite as often as squirrels, but in much larger groups.

On another topic: School buses. Did you know they have a special design with doors at the rear end of the bus here? Apparently, that's supposed to increase safety because no one would ever rear-end a school bus, right?

Now, you've probably noticed that there's a lot of tall buildings in and around Toronto. Every city has those. However, what I note is special here is that many of these buildings have really, really cool and futuristic designs. This, I feel, is what a city of the 21st century should look like.

Related to that is the fact that many utility boxes are also painted with colorful motifs.

Occasionally, there's also these butterfly bicycle stands. Unfortunately, I never actually see one of them in use. Did I note that cars are regrettably popular over here?

As for pedestrian signals, they work mostly the same as everywhere else, only that green is white. They also have a neat counter for the remaining time to cross, and sometimes there's a button to press. What the button does depends on the exact location, so it's actually a good thing that they often come with instructions.

I also really don't get what Wolfgang and Tobias have against taking the public transport here. After all, it is not only cheap and convenient, but they also have blizzard-proof bus stop shelters, which I imagine are especially convenient during the winter. These shelters are closed on 3.5 of 4 sides, leaving only a door-sized opening at the front.

Staying on the topic of roads, if you're a big enough company, and have both the money and the influence, you can actually shape the very road design in your favor. For example, on Steeles Ave, there's thr IBM ramp right in the middle of the road that leads down into a tunnel headed for the nearby IBM campus, because why ever should IBM employees have to use traffic lights like normal people?

Oh, and you know how in Germany gas stations sell various different sorts of gas? Well, here in Canada, there can only be one.

Another curiosity are these tiny little red, yellow and blue flags by the roadside that indicate not doggie poop, but rather where lines for water, gas and electricity are buried. Maybe there's also green flags, but if there are, I didn't manage to spot any.

I figure it's good that these are marked to ward off any danger caused by careless digging. And on top of that, there's also the danger due to the fence.

STOP!!!

Search engine optimization.

Next, there's all sorts of bogus posts by quacks of all trades to be found on public billboards. The quality and content of those posts ranges from "hazardous to one's wallet" over "hazardous to one's health" to "hazardous to the future of the planet".

I'd really rather that the people pay heed to the large-scale vaccination campaign - both over here as well as back home - so we can soon leave this whole Green Shnolz situation behind us.

In the heart of Toronto, late at night while returning from the Yakiniku place with the guys, I have to dodge two people playing chess right there and then, without a care, on the sidewalk of Yonge Street, the one and only.

And on the way to the office, I regularly walk past this colorful Soul Mutts van. I wonder what it used to be for, because right now it is just standing in the same spot, and doesn't move an inch during all of the three weeks that I am here (and neither does the bland, silver car next to it). Did I mention that we clearly have to many cars yet?

Back at the office, Craig has this kinda cool split keyboard...

...plus on the toilet, there's this cute little notice.

Finally, that's not a Post-it...

...that's a Post it!!!

So much for the flair! Now, my stay here in Canada is just about two-thirds over, and I still have a weekend to spend. Time for...


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Day Trip 4: A March to Markham

16-Oct-2021
Distance: 15.0km
Ascents: 70m
Duration: 4.25h
5/12🎁︎

This one should be my lowest-priority stray, and only happens because I end up having enough time this Saturday after taking care of my Japanese learning in the morning. Though the weather looks a bit gloomy, I decide that I'd rather risk going out and getting wet over sitting in the hotel room all day and doing nothing noteworthy. So, I set my sights onto the civic centre of Markham (because as you recall, the Courtyard is located near the very south) and am on my way. Another afternoon-stray, this one should match my stray in Niagara Falls in almost all aspects, including duration and distance. First I head north until I head the civic centre of Markham, then a little bit east, then back south again, and finally back west to the Town Suites along Steeles Ave.

And so, it happens that I get myself an early lunch at the Café Green Tea, and then depart northwards on Woodbine Ave beneath a threatening sky shortly before noon.

After a bit of walking, I pass by K-Chon, the Korean alternative to J-Town. Unfortunately, it's a few STEPs further away than any other local dining options, and so I should not get to try it out.

I also walk by the Omescape venue, which is the place where we had the company escape room game. Naturally, we did drive there by car, but it's actually close enough that we could have walked there in, say, 30 minutes or so.

Crossing a bridge, I walk over a loooong straight railroad line, which I have to note is regrettably not electrified...

...and after that, I just keep walking by the roadside for quite some distance without any interesting things to see along the way.

I guess I should have been thankful for the existence of sidewalks, though, because soon enough, I have to walk along a reasonably long stretch of road that doesn't even have that.

That is right before crossing over one of these typical North American super-wide highways. Both of these boil down on the topic of cars once again, and since I'm sure I'm already boring you with that by now, I will say no more about it.

It is only on the other side of that highway (the 407 this time) that things slowly start getting interesting. For one, there's the First Markham Place, an iconic shopping centre that looks almost like an amusement park from afar.


After that, I pass over the Rouge River, not to be confused with the Rogue River, which is located roughly 500km to the west in Michigan.

And then, there's the St. Maurice & St. Verena Coptic Orthodox Church, which sports an interesting design.

Next, I pass by a whole field of Omega Death Thistles...

...before crossing the Town Centre Boulevard of Markham next to the futuristic Hwy 7 / Town Centre Station.

With that, I have now already reached the civic centre of Markham. It is located in the middle of a small park with a pond, and there's naturally quite a few wild geese around.

Moving on, I pass by the Markham Town Square Mall...

...noticing some very interesting cycling lanes as I cross the road thereafter.

Next, I hid a bit of a roadblock as a road that I intended to take is closed for construction.

And it's not only the road, but also the sidewalk that's completely closed. Fortunately, there seems to be an alternative.

However, after crossing over to the other side of the road to use the other sidewalk, I then find this.

Neat, huh? Someone clearly put a lot of thought into this. Fortunately, I'm not a mouse who would now get stuck bouncing back and forth between the two arrows. Instead, I chart out another route which eventually takes me to the other side of this unsightly obstacle.

Now, remember how I said I wouldn't go on and on about cars anymore? Well, I lied, because right there and then, I come across a car lugging another car around as a showcase object or something.

At that point, I kinda snap. I mean, seriously, what is wrong with humans? Several million years of evolution, thousands of years of human history, all without cars, and then, within a single century they get so dependent on cars, structuring their whole lives and societies around it to a point that any major religion can be jealous about it. Why...

...and then, instead of doing the sensible thing and sharing the rides where they are already complaining about the expensive gas prices, they instead buy ultra-large SUVs and clog up both streets and parking lots by riding in them one person at a time, with four to six seats empty on average. All the while there are dozens of cars just standing around on the side of the road for, like, 22 hours a day, taking up space. I really hope self-driving vehicles become a thing soon, because even with only a very rough estimate I can already tell that we should be able to cover all of humanity's transportation needs with only about 10% of the cars if we go about it smartly. Now if only...

Okay, sorry about that, but I really needed to get that one of my chest. Now, where were we? Oh right, my stray to the Markham civic centre and back. I have just found and alternative route around the road blockage, and am proceeding on my way, past some apartment buildings that, while not extraordinarily creative, are certainly not boring either.

Afterwards, I cross back south over the Rouge River, which is actually rather green for its name.

Up until around now, the weather has been pretty good for me. But it is now that the sky finally breaks, and rain starts to fall. Fortunately, it's no too strong, but if it keeps up raining like this all the way back then I'll still arrive pretty wet.

Fortunately, I soon enough come across the Pride of Canada, which is a roofed carousel ride. Doubly-roofed, actually, because both the carousel itself and the square that is standing on has a roof. Here, I sit out the rain while searching for a geocache, which I would not have found if not for the encouragement of the carousel attendant who spurs me on just as I was about to quit.

Also, right across from the Pride of Canada, on the other side of the Enterprise Boulevard, there's this building a corner of which is held up by what Kevin Kelly calls a DodecaCaryatid Totem Pole. Personally, I think the name "11d12 Column" is more fitting. I wonder if this Kevin Kelly person is also the mastermind behind aforementioned 5d12 playground?

By now, the rain has mostly let up, and so I move on past a nameless pond beneath another high voltage line. There seem to be quite a lot of these around.

On my further way back south, I come past this Awesome Music Studio...

...and then I make a short side trip into the Clark Young Woods in search of another geocache.

Eventually, I find myself back in a typical residential area, where I am surprised to find a not-so-typical green string cross both the lawn and the sidewalk. I wonder what this signifies.

I subsequently make my way though Risebrough Park...

...where I find and unusual, chandelier-like tree standing by the side of the path.

Moving on through the Milliken Neighborhood, my heart skips a beat as I come by what must be by far the most terrifying Halloween decoration yet.

And then, I'm already back at Steeles Ave, and with it the border to Toronto. From here on out, it's pretty much just walking west for about 2km or so.

Along that way, I come across the imposing St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, which is yet another Coptic Orthodox church. There seem to be quite a few of those around here.

And then, maybe 15 minutes before arriving back at the Town Suites, the sun finally breaks through the clouds, and the remainder of the day promises to be clear. Yay. Great timing!

So much for this stray. With that, I have now done almost all the things I planned to do, with the exception of one last trip that I have saved for tomorrow. But before I get to that, let's briefly focus on...


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The Retrospective

Since what I'm rating now is a combination of a hotel and work place, it's kinda like the work & travel places I've been staying at, and yet also kinda different. First off, the accommodation: I had a big room with all to myself, which is pretty good, but does not quite reach the "own apartment" level. The food, meanwhile, was top notch, owing primarily to the fact that J-Town exists and has Kitsune Udon and other tasty stuff, but the company dinners weren't half bad either. I have to deduct some points in this category, however, for all those bloopers that the stupendous and unparalleled Bistro allowed for itself. Meanwhile the work... ohhh, that's a heavy topic that I'm going to cover in more detail in a later chapter. But do you remember the door to the restricted area and how that was handled? Let's just say that this mindset also persisted in the code base that I was expected to work with, and I wasn't at all happy with that. Next, the atmosphere. At the hotel, it was pretty standard, while at work the sales & marketing people were nice, but I felt pretty lost and alone in the development department. Finally, there's that issue with the noisy duct outside my window, and the fact that the area is industrial/commercial barrens, so this does not score all that many points, added up. The facilities, meanwhile, were overall pretty good, but I never had a stove or oven to cook for myself, and the bathroom in the hotel also had some room for improvement. Recreation-wise, there were a few events, but for the most part I was left to make my own fun. It was maybe a bit lonely, but oh well. With this being a full-time job, the weekly work hours were about as much as expected, with me putting in a bit of overtime on account of having not much else to do on work days and also wanting to make the most of my time here. However, since this is now an actual job, and a development job to boot, that means that I'm getting paid amounts that I could not even dream of during my working holidays, so rating this experience by working holiday standards, even with full-time hours, the Work-Value Ratio is absolutely through the roof. Overall, that makes this a pretty solid experience, ranking about equal with my last working holiday experience at the Kerama Backpackers on Tokashiki (see Book II ~ Chapter 16 ~ Tropical Tokashiki).

And that's it for the retrospective. Now, there's one last free day at my disposal while I'm here, and I should end up spending that one...


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Day Trip 5: Walking the Waterfront

17-Oct-2021

Today is my final stray day in Canada, and it is the second big thing I had planned, right after visiting the Niagara Falls. Most importantly, I needed this to be on a day with as sunny conditions as possible. Keeping constant tabs on the weather forecast, I settled on today, and even though the weather doesn't look all that good when I depart from the Town Suites at 8:15 in the morning, I am confident it will soon clear up... hopefully.

First off, I need to get downtown again, so I ride the bus to Finch Station once more. This time around, I am the first at the doors when I get off, and thus notice for the first time the interesting mechanism for opening the doors: Instead of a button that you need to push, you instead push on a handle at the doors to trigger the opening mechanism.

Then, from Finch Station, I take the subway, intending for it to take me all the way to Union Station, however...

...turns out I chose an interesting day to travel, because due to maintenance work, the subway only runs to Lawrence today, from which point there's shuttle buses running to St. Clair, from where the subway traffics normally.

Now, since I'm haling from Germany, this is where I expect the worst. Being used to the shabby way that public transport is being handled in my home country, I expect confusing guidance, crowded and delayed buses, and other inconveniences. However, the truth here in Canada looks quite different: Friendly assistants and clear, well-placed signs guide the people to the shuttle buses in a well-organized way where I'd say it's absolutely impossible to get lost along the way, and even if you miss a bus, they run on an almost minutely schedule, which makes sense considering that the buses need to replace a whole subway service running on a 10-minute schedule.

As such, the buses aren't even that crowded. All in all, that adds up to another "how cool is that" and "why don't more people use the public transport here?".

And thus it happens that I get to ride for maybe 15 minutes above-ground along Yonge Street, the one and only, as the bus takes me directly from Lawrence to St. Clair, past many many shops and also through two parks (the Alexander Muir Memorial Gardens and the Moore Park). Also this way I get to take note how it seems to be common practice for shops to just "occupy" parts of the road for their needs. Now there's a good practice if I've ever seen one. Also take note of the many buses going the other way. On average, we pass one every minute or so.

At St. Claire, all passengers are then guided back down towards the subway...

...where I take note of the many ways in which the Green Shnolz has affected the very design of the station: In addition to many, many billboards, there's even a number of pavement-marking grade "stickers" permanently adhered the very platform itself every 2m. Talk about dedication to the cause!

Soon enough, the next subway arrives and this time takes me all the way to Union Station for real. There, I once again make my way through the bowels of the extensive Union Station dungeon, fortunately without any random encounters...

...and eventually emerge out into the open, at the bottom of the extensive glass and steel ravines that make up downtown Toronto.

From there, it takes just a few turns for me to get a glimpse of my ultimate destination for today.

The CN Tower, Toronto's iconic trademark vista. One of the world's tallest towers, it ranks on place three after the Tokyo Skytree which I visited together with my best friend Robert before (see Book II ~ Chapter 5 ~ A Trip Together) and the Canton Tower, which I'll probably never get to visit. At a total height of 553m, it is almost twice as tall as the Olympiaturm in Munich, and over one-and-a-half times as tall as the Sky Tower of Auckland, which I've also been on (see Book I ~ Chapter 2 ~ Absolutely amazing and astoundingly awesome adventures at Auckland). Come to think of it, I actually don' think that I've ever been on the Olympiaturm in Munich yet...

But that is then. Now, I still have a day full of straying along the waterfront of Toronto in front of me. As such, I should end up hiking all the way west to the island-park known as Ontario Place before turning back towards the city, and then also still do a bonus round back inland to Yonge-Dundas Square before making back towards the lakeshore. The CN Tower comes only at the very end as the grand finale. And yes, the CN Tower icon on this map is to scale. If the CN tower were to topple over in one piece, it really would reach almost to the lakeshore, and might even touch the water if it were to topple towards one of the nearby docking bays.

Distance: 19.0km
Ascents: 60m
Duration: 6.75h
4/15🎁︎

My first stop on this stray is the Roundhouse Park. Originally a train roundhouse with a turntable, this has since been turned into a park with the roundhouse housing the Toronto Railway Museum as well as a number of restaurants. Also, there are toy train tracks now running all around the area, though I don't see a train running on them.

Oh, and because I don't think I mentioned it before: In addition to bus, train and subway, Toronto also has a tram network criss-crossing the inner city. With that, it pretty much offers all the different common modes of public transportation.

A short walk later, I reach the shore of Lake Ontario, making this pretty much the first time I've properly seen the lake. On a clear day like today, you can even see all the way to the other shore.

Just kidding. This is actually just the Toronto Bay, and what you can see on the other side are the Toronto Islands with the Toronto Island Park. The other shore of Lake Ontario is actually a whole order of magnitude further away - roughly 50km, in fact - meaning that there's no way you could possibly see all the way to the other shore, unless there's very special weather conditions, or you were to stand at the top of, oh say, the CN Tower or something.

Originally called York Harbour, this once natural area of aquatic expanse gradually changed over the course of many decades of landfill lasting from the 1850s to the 1930s. In addition to many docks and piers, there was also an airport constructed, because what better place is there for an airport than on a small island archipelago in front of the city?

The next place I visit on my stray is the Toronto Music Garden, a little park the plants and pathways of which have been lovingly designed to follow the flow of many musical movements. The plaques describing each movement, too, follow this spirit, and describe the wavy twisting designs both in words, as well as musical themes. Now if only I'd brought my private orchestra with me... Also, there's the Toronto Music Outhouse nearby.

After that, I come by a pirate ship, which I quickly realize serves as both an adventure trip and an escape room venue. Those things sure are popular over here.

Now, I did mention the airport earlier, and that's what I'm now approaching. As such, it comes as little surprise when I see a propeller machine en route to land, making its way across Toronto Bay.

Continuing along the lakeshore, I next run into Ireland Park. And no, that is not an Irish theme park, but rather a memorial commemorating the tens of thousands of people who fled Ireland during the Great Famine of the 19th century. In 1847 alone, over 38,000 Irish landed on the shores of Toronto, which back then housed only about 20,000 people itself. Nonetheless, the refugees were welcomed with open arms, though in the end, over 1,100 of them ended up dying as a result of the Typhus epidemic striking in the same year. The names of those who died are engraved in the stacks of limestone blocks, not on the sides, but rather in the gaps, where they are hard to read.

Right across from that, there's the Billy Bishop Airport. Well, technically, it is also right next to it, since an outrigger building of the airport is also located on this side of the 120m wide Western Channel, which is one of the two channels connecting Toronto Bay with Lake Ontario proper. From there, a ferry regularly makes its way across to the actual airport, and that's actually the only official way for getting to the airport (though a back gate to the Toronto Island Parks exists, but there's no road connection to that from the other side).

Subsequently, I make my way through Coronation Park, which not only has a designated dog run area...

...but also offers my first view on Toronto's one windmill. Come to think of it, the city does seem rather lacking in that department, doesn't it? But then again, I hear a lot of power comes from hydroelectricity in this area. In fact, Canada is one of the world leaders in hydroelectricity, covering about 60% of its demand that way.

And then, I unexpectedly run into an annual event that I didn't even know existed: The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. A charity event organized by Scotiabank, it offers full-marathon, half-marathon and 5km options. Assuming the whole marathon is a back-and-forth route along the same road, that would make the turning point Port Credit, and assuming it's one way, then the people would have to run all the way to Appleby. I assume it's back and forth, though, since I can already see the first runners returning. Also, probably due to the Green Shnolz, the runners are always sent on the road in groups of roughly two dozen people every five minutes.

A little further along the way, I pass through the Toronto Inukshuk Park, where someone apparently read the instructions on their Stonehenge Construction Kit quite wrong.

By now, I have finally reached a point where I can look out across Lake Ontario and not see a shore on the other side. Instead, a fantastic cloudscape stretches all the way to the horizon, quite literally. I wonder if I should be concerned about the evil UFO cloud though.

It is here that I reach the first turning point of my stray in the form of Ontario Place, the front half of which is also known as Trillium Park. Altogether, it's a combination of a peninsula and a tethered island joined by a pier and a series of five "floating" pods.

Trillium Park is a relatively recent addition. First opened to the public as recently as 2017, it's 7.5 acres of green space pale in comparison to the boundless expanse of blue that it borders.

Conveniently, Trillium Park also offers what is clearly the fanciest water fountain I've seen thus far. This one does not only offer fountains in two slightly different heights and a bottle refill station, but it also has a drinking bowl for dogs at the very bottom.

And on top of that, Trillium Park also has some of the best-designed garbage bins that I have ever seen. Not only do the big, funnel-like designs actively tempt you to throw stuff into them, but they also clearly communicate in both words and pictures that anything you go into them goes straight to recycling, compost or the landfill respectively.

Next, there's this long boat... wait... that's not a boat!

Having spotted this interesting boat-pier, it goes without saying that fox makes me go there. Not a bad idea, as it turns out, because you can actually climb the upper "deck", from where you get a nice panorama of Trillium Park, Ontario Place, the lake, as well as the nearby shoreline.

Perhaps most impressive is the view on Humber Bay Shores that I get from here. It's pristine skyscrapers have a distinctly futuristic flair to them.

And staying on the topic of futuristic design, here's these "floating" pods that I mentioned earlier. Originally part of an amusement park, they have since been re-dedicated as event venues and exhibition halls. In terms of construction, each pod is situated atop four pipe columns rising up from the seabed, and nothing else.

Also, it is near there that I come across this sticker reminding us all to take it easy once in a while, lest our world grow even more hectic than it already is.

It is now about noon, and time I sat down and had a bite to eat. Fortunately, there's a bunch of inviting chairs standing just nearby on a little hill overlooking the ocean.

Unfortunately, the nearby Fork in the Road is closed...

...but that's okay, because I brought my own lunch anyway. This time it's a Yakisoba Roll I brought from J-Town. However, regrettably it turns out to be quite a disappointment indeed, nothing like the super-tasty Yakisoba Rolls I got so addicted to in Japan. Oh well, at least it fills my belly.

Continuing on my way from there, I come across this amazing bilingual fence...

...and then I finally find a place where I can go down all the way to the actual shore of Lake Ontario and actually touch the water.

This is about as much west as my stray is taking me today. With that, I now leave Ontario Place via Bridge N°6...

...and promptly find myself confronted with whatever in Lerra that is.

Right thereafter, I cross the Lake Shore Boulevard West, where the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon is still ongoing, and runners pass by beneath me. There notably don't seem to be any more outbound runners, but there's plenty of fans standing by the roadside and cheering, holding perspirational signs like "There's only sweat between you and the finish line" or "Your Perspiration Is My Inspiration".

From there, I take a leisurely stroll back towards downtown. As I do, I meet a lot of medalists coming my way. Wearing numbers like "2840" and "3020", my guess is that everyone in the whole event gets a medal and a goodie bag for participating.

Following the Princes' Boulevard, I soon enough reach the Princes' Gates, a Triumphal Arch named after the princes Edward, Prince of Wales, and George, Duke of Kent, who opened the structure in 1927.

After that, I quickly find myself surrounded by tall buildings again, and eventually end up on the Granovsky Gluskin Path... I mean The Bentway... I mean The Landing... oh... let's just call it That Thing, okay? Basically, it's a path beneath the Gardiner Expressway that suffers from somewhat ambiguous nomenclature.

Nearby, there's also the Fort York National Historic Site, which might explain all the cannons.

Next, I cross the great railway thoroughfare of Toronto by means of the Puonte de Luz ("Bridge of Light"), which is thankfully quite solid...

...and also offers a nice view both outwards-bound - where the Liberty Village Apartment skyscrapers part the railroad tracks - and townwards, where the CN Tower rises high above all the other skyscrapers.

Tall though the buildings may be, it's not all grey in grey here. Every now and then, there's also a park adding some green, such as Clarence Square with its many squirrels.

Approaching the CN Tower, I take note of the unique, three-dimensional facade of the Rogers Centre, a roofed baseball stadium of considerable size.

However, since it's only 14:05 by now, I figure I can go for another lap. So I turn east until I hit the handcar...

...and then north through valleys of increasingly presidential skyscrapers.

There, I come across what turns out to be not only the entrance to the St Andrew subway station, but also to PATH.An extensive underground network spanning all the way from the Eaton Centre in the north to RBC Water Park Place at the Central Waterfront to the south, this network can rival, if not surpass some of those in Tokyo in terms of size (Tokyo has more of those though). For reference, PATH connects a total of 5 subway stations of the same line. Normally, I'd be tempted to take a peek inside, but with the Green Shnolz restrictions that'd mean I'd have to don my mask again, and since I'd rather avoid that, I stay outside for now.

Eventually, I make my way all the way back to Dundas Square, cross Yonge Street, the one and only, and a bit further along pass by a building of monochrome residents that has been occupied by the Alley Jams of Downtown Yonge. This is also where I turn back south towards the waterfront again.

It quickly becomes apparent that I'm in the really old part of town now, since there's still quite a few old churches and church-like buildings to be found around.

Going from old to rather new (yet still with an age-old tradition) there's also a lot of Cannabis places to be found, starting from the iPot, over the Spiritleaf, and ending with The Loose Moose 2-hour Cannabis delivery. All things considered, that last one is probably one of the more harmless posts I've seen sticking around on my stay here.

Moving on, I pass by a an old-cargo-crate-inspired playground...

...as well as the Grim Grinder Road Razer.

Eventually, I arrive at the lakefront again at Sugar Beach, though really, by my definition, a beach ought to actually touch the water at some point, and not be located atop a 1m-high concrete promenade.

By now its about time I head back west towards the CN tower again. Doing so at the lakefront inevitably takes me past Yonge Street, the one and only. That's right, being at the very beginning, this is the only place within 50 km where you don't have to cross it. Also, there's this strange thingie decorating the beginning. I wonder what they have at the end.

Passing through Harbour Square Park, I come across a somewhat oversized picnic table...

...and then, I get overtaken by the very Green Shnolz friendly party paddle steamer, the music on which is so loud that I can hear it across the wind all the way to the shore. Actually, this is a comfortable distance for me.

Finally, I walk across a bit of pier experiencing undulations...


...before arriving at the foot of the CN tower at around 16:00.

There, I am a bit confused at first as to the proceedings, but eventually manage to secure myself a ticket to the tower for... oh... 17:00, so I still have quite a bit of time to kill after all.

Being quite thirsty again by now, I use that time to take a walk around the nearby Roundhouse Park once more, looking for a fountain. And while I do find one, regrettably, it's out of service.

However, by now, the evil UFO cloud from before has reached me and provides me with a fair amount of water from above. So much for today being sunny. At least I get to see a faint little rainbow caused by the setting sun's reflected rays.

About half an hour prior to the scheduled time, I get in line, because there's also a queue. It is also there that the vaccination certificates and personal IDs for all those who wish to enter are being checked.

After that, me and all the other guests gradually get guided through the somewhat extensive bowels of the base of the CN Tower. We get mandatory souvenir pictures taken, pass a Lego CN Tower model, and eventually reach one of the three elevator shafts.

The ascent up the tower takes just a little over one minute aboard the high-speed elevator. Along the way up, we - that is, the 6 people in the elevator - pass the tallest tower tops after roughly half the time, and subsequently get our first great view on all of Toronto. Incidentally, we are in the northwards-facing of the tower's three elevators.

And with that, I am at the top of the CN Tower, but what does the CN stand for anyways? Well, you see, this tower was actually built by the Canadian National railway company (because what else would a railway company realistically do? Run trucks and planes? Don't be silly...), thus also explaining why the tower is located right next to the Union Station and the Roundhouse Park. Eventually, it was transferred to the Canada Lands Company, but the original name for the tower still stuck. Thus, the full name of the CN Tower is actually "Canadian National Tower". A fitting name, I'd say, considering that it is not only the tower in Canada, but of the entire western hemisphere.

Now, for the main thing I came here for: The view. Being this high up naturally gives me a great view of the surroundings, and lets me see just how far Toronto is sprawling in all the directions. Also, fortunately, the cloud cover does not interfere with the panorama al l that much.

Like any proper tall tower, this tower, too, features a glass floor section, though getting to the bottom part of that section is just a little bit tricky.

Standing on that floor is nothing for people with any kind of Acrophobia (aka: me), even though I rationally know that the floor should be able to support roughly 3,000 foxes.

Even so, it certainly does offer a lovely aerial view of the nearby Roundhouse Park, where now even the real railway wagons look like model trains.

Now, remember when I said that the elevator took me all the way to the top? Well, as it turns out, you can actually go even higher, much as in the Tokyo Skytree. A shrewd marketing scheme, but since it's only 15$ and I don't know when next I'll get the chance (plus I also have the time), I decide to go for it and get myself a Skypod ticket for 17:40. By the way, that price - like pretty much all prices in Canada - is pre-tax, meaning that when it says 15$, it actually ends up costing 16.95$.

While waiting for my time slot to go to the Skypod, I take my time looking at the city below and spotting the places I'be already been to. Like, here's Ontario Place where I was just a few hours ago...

...and this stair-like building to the north is clearly the Scala Condominums, which I came across on the Free Lunch Day Stray near the Leslie Subway Station, so the Town Suites should be roughly somewhere in that direction as well, even though I can't make them out from this distance. However, it is impressive to note just how much green there is in Toronto, despite all the urban sprawl. A lot of the residential districts actually look more like forests on account of all the trees totally obscuring the houses in between.

Also, do you remember the nearby Billy Bishop Airport? Well, if you combine the fact that this airport is only a little over a kilometer away with the fact that I'm currently at about 350m above ground, that adds up to me getting the rare chance to observe plane landings from above.

After that, the time arrives for me to go up to the Skypod. As it turns out, this is a rather cramped space with a low ceiling and a narrow one-way walkway around the tower, which makes me immediate question whether it was really worth the money to come up here.

I mean, sure, it's even further up (at 447m, to be exact), but at this height, the view is mostly inhibited by distance fog and not obstacles or the horizon line. Also, the windows here are not exactly panoramic.

However, it does certainly give you a nice top-down view on some of Toronto's "large" buildings, like Union Station and the nearby Fairmont Royal York hotel.

Also, I suppose this is as good a chance as I get of catching a glimpse the far shore of Lake Ontario. However, due to distance fog, there's not really much to see here.

In case you want more Acrophobia, there's a pendulum up here to indicate how strongly the tower is swaying in the wind. Fortunately, today seems to be a somewhat calm day, so it doesn't really sway at all.

For the remainder of my stay up here in the Skypod, I look for more places that I've been to today, like the Toronto Musical Garden, the Bridge of Light, Clarence Square, or one of the great churches I came across.

I briefly consider staying up here to watch the sunset, but since there's not really much in terms of benches or even space to move around, I soon decide that the normal observation deck will do. Also, I am quite thirsty by now, and the Skypod doesn't feature any vending machines. Neither, by the way, does the main observation deck, but at least here one of the two bistros are still open, so I get myself a bottle of Minute Maid lemonade and sit down on a bench while waiting for night to fall.

Due to the clouds on the horizon, the sunset should end up being just a little bit anticlimactic...

...but at least the night panorama afterwards is quite worthwhile.

Also, I think I can barely jsut make out the lights of the cities on the opposing shore, though due to my new camera not supporting any kind of proper long-time exposure mechanism, the pictures I try to take of that turn out kinda wonky. The bright light might be the Port Weller Lighthouse on the mouth of the Welland Canal that I crossed over on my trip to and fro Niagara Falls last week, which would mean that all the lights that are see actually still belong to Canada.

With that, I've done all I came up here to do, and thus get in line for the next elevator down, passing and interesting unisex bathroom along the way.

Be it by chance, or maybe because this is currently the only elevator operating, I end up in the northwards-facing elevator again. Interestingly, the trip down is slightly shorter than the trip up. Gravity probably has a say in that.

Once out of the elevator, I still have to clear the strategically placed souvenir-shop gauntlet...

...and then, by 19:45, I'm finally out in the open again. Looking back up, I can see that the tower is partially illuminated, and the glass floor segment is clearly visible. Also, I can see the two elevator cabins of the northwards-facing purple elevator shaft moving.

After a long day, I now have few priorities other than "eat" and "sleep", so I take the Skywalk - which incidentally is also a part of the PATH network - and make my way back to Union Station.

There's not really many people along the way at this time, and thus, it's probably not a problem that the seats in the halls are kinda fail.

Without any major distractions, it's about 20:00 when I arrive at the Subway station, ready to take the train back north. It is at this opportunity that I also note how this station, too, has two-meter spacing marker on the floor. Also, here at the Union Station, the funny thing with the subway line is that both directions are northbound, so you have to make sure you enter the correct one.

Now then, there's actually still one thing that I want to do today. Do you remember the frickin pub... sorry... the Firkin Pub next to the Courtyard, The Owl? Well, on the occasion of the company Yakisoba dinner, I also noticed one called The Frog on Yonge Street, the one and only, and on my bus trip this morning we also passed The Bull. Turns out that each of these pubs is named after an animal, and by now you can probably already guess where this is headed. However, there's one problem, and that is that my destination is near the Eglinton Station, which is one of the two stations between St. Clair and Lawrence, the segment in between which is still closed.

However, fortunately, the shuttle buses are still running...

...and even more fortunately, they stop at the stations in between, so even though it takes a little bit longer, I still manage to make it to Eglinton.

Thus, I end up spending the last dinner of my last day trip at The Fox, where I also end up having a nice chat with the barkeeper about my travels.

There, I have a tasty and satisfying dinner of roast ribs and mashed potatoes. Unfortunately, they don't have any lemonade, though, so I make do with some ice tea.

Then, there's only the way back to the Marriott, which consists of a sequence of shuttle bus, subway, regular bus and regular way.

By the time I finally arrive back at the Town Suites, it's already 22:15, which is even later than it was on my trip to Niagara Falls. As such, I am quite happy to just fall back into my bed and rest... after updating my stray list, Geocaches and plans naturally, mind you.

All in all, this has been a satisfying last stray day here in Canada. Exhausting, sure, but definitely satisfying. With that, I can now look forward to...


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The Road Ahead

After three weeks in Canada, most of them spent in Toronto and Markham, it is now time for me to head back home. The trip back to Munich should have its own sights to see, and its own stories to tell, but since this chapter now has stretched on for long enough already, I am going to tell them in the next chapter. So until then, stay tuned, and be of great cheer!

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