Water, Water Everywhere..

Gotta love Canada...

     Your friends will make sure you're entertained while  you're staying with them on vacation. Your best friend will offer to take you sightseeing around Ontario. Only your brother will wait till you're in the car and seat belt fastened to tell you that it's a TWO HOUR DRIVE. Keeping in mind, I can leave my house in Kingsland, take the highway to River Bay, grab a bite in Moon Town and take the scenic route back home, all while maintaining the speed limit. Ah well, not much to do about it now. Time for my first Canadian road trip!

     Took us a bit of time to get out of Toronto, but once we got going the time flew. Can't have a road trip without music, right? Should have just played the music from my phone. If you thought Love 104.1 FM was bad, I swore the only songs we heard were "Royals" by Lorde, "Anything" by Hedley, "Roar" by Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" (which I'm actually a fan of). It makes for good background noise, anyway. Nothing beats good conversation on these trips. Before I knew it, we were driving over Lake Ontario. Seriously, Canada. You guys could use a couple drops of bleach and a little Lysol in there. It looks and smells disgusting. I don't know how people can stand the odour. We picked up the speed and quickly passed over. Sadly, we still have to go back over it to get home. There was a brief moment where the car almost got picked up by a breeze. Not fun at all. Not nearly. By this time, we're deep in conversation and didn't even realise that we'd actually made it to Niagara. In less than two hours! Actually, less than an hour and a half. Colour me impressed! Time to park and walk around.

*queue "crisp, fresh" breeze*

     Or.. just a thought.. how about we stay in the car? That's nice as well. The worst part was that we were still some way off from the actual waterfall. Woah. There was quite a bit to see down here as well. 

     Let me just say that I can see myself owning one of these during my midlife crisis. Gonna start saving towards that from now, thanks. Besides, I couldn't resist taking the picture. The seat literally said "Have A Seat" and "Take A Picture"! Who am I to argue with Mr. Harley B. Davidson? You would do it as well. Kept on moving and saw a couple other stores and attempts at horror houses, but after last night I think I had my full share of that mess. We went and paid a visit to a guy who is apparently a big deal here in Niagara!

     Alright, alright, alright! Enough teasing! Time for the main attraction, eh? Let me just say first, if you're gonna go down there you wanna may look into wearing a couple extra jackets. Not a pleasant feeling. We were fairly far from the actual waterfall, yet could feel that air hitting fresh off the surface of the water. Mix that with a couple high winds and it's enough to make you wanna turn back and walk to the car. But we got this far, why turn back now? So I sucked it up and got a few shots standing "close" to the scenery.

Absolutely gorgeous. It's scenes like this that make me seriously taking up photography as a hobby. If not for the temperature, I would have spent some more time down here. It is quite a relaxing sight. We inched closer and closer up to get better shots and to get closer to the actual water. Eventually it got too cold for my Caribbean skin and we called it a day. Mission accomplished. Now we head back home. If you've been reading my posts, you'd know what's up next.

     This was actually supposed to be one of the earlier stops on the list, but due to the convenient branches of everything else, this got nudged to the near-bottom of the list. Better late than never, though. Got to go in alone and order my food like a big boy today!

     Not quite the spread that I was looking for, but it's enough. Grabbed the food and ran because it's definitely gonna be closer to 2 hours heading back down with all the traffic. Good thing I wasn't the driver because my stomach throws tantrums when it sees food and can't have it immediately. Unwrapped this bad boy and went in!

     Beef burger with lettuce, tomato, onions, hot peppers, cheese, bacon, pickles, ketchup, mustard and mayo. It was rather poorly put together, but in their defense it was put together in front of my face so extra points for that. It wasn't a bad sandwich. Still #TeamBigMac though, but it served its purpose. That, and it was relatively small. Still, not too shabby. That's one more thing crossed off the list. All that's really left now is probably the poutine, but I still have my reservations about that. Made it back home in decent time. The end of another adventure. I feel a Sabbath coming up...

Walkin' In A Creepy Wonderland

*sigh*

     If you ever feel the need to confess something you did wrong, if you want to let someone know you love them but you're afraid to say it, if you just need to think about everything you've done in your life so far, I recommend Canada's Wonderland.

     The fact that we went during their annual Halloween Haunt had nothing to do with the fact that this was by far the most terrifying experience I've ever had. We went during the night for the whole Halloween "scare" (and to avoid the mass of minors) and it didn't help that outside was foggy for the entire day. Small issue, right? We're all grown people here. From the time we got through the gate, we were "met" by characters in costume following us, randomly jumping out and screaming at us, magically appearing right in front of our faces, as well as machines set up to do their own bit of scaring. Like the troll under the bridge and the mental patient violently shaking while strapped to the table. 

     I keep forgetting how big these places are and how much walking I'd have to do. Gotta deal with it, though. I had never been to an amusement park (not even Coney Island) so I was willing to do whatever I had to. Well. Almost. The major attractions were the rides and the haunted houses, both of which I felt compelled to do just for the experience. Better to start with a smaller roller coaster, so we took a couple quick ones. No more than 45 seconds each. Easy, right? Wrong. Dead wrong. If it wasn't being turned inside-out or going backwards or speeding through dark tunnels, it was the inevitable feeling of weightlessness and the terror of seeing your life flash before your eyes! And the sad part? These were the small rides that had us all shaken up! Time for the big boys. Enter: The Behemoth!

     Now imagine this.. at night. With the park covered in fog. I think it's safe to say that this left all of us a bit weak. My legs and my head more than anything, because I had my stomach set on a Big Mac on the way home. We took some time for everyone to get settled before the next ride, and what's better at settling your stomach than a haunted house? Props to the people who designed these things. My scares came more from the unexpected than actual terrifying sights. The plan was to stick close to a group of random people and let THEM take the scares and I'd just sneak by while the "monsters" went back to their hiding places. A couple of them caught me off-guard however, but in my attempt to scream I could not get sufficient air out of my lungs to make the desired terrified shriek (which was probably a good thing). A couple more rides, took in a couple sights and when everyone was finally settled, we went for the big one. Ladies and gentlemen, the Leviathan!

     Once again, this badboy, 11:30 pm, the entire place taken over by fog. Yes, I screamed. Yes, there were tears running down my face afterwards. But I did it! Of course, my main issue wasn't getting on the ride, I had a fear of getting off. Walking felt so refreshing, yet so unnatural afterwards. A couple of us took one last trip through a haunted house and then we decided to call it a night. And quite a night it was! I'm pretty sure I got my money's worth on this trip. Time for my Big Mac and then home for some rest.

     p.s. Do not try to sleep in a moving vehicle after you've just come off of one of these rides. You will end up with a headache. Such as the one I have right now. Can't say I didn't warn you!

Looks Like I Made It!

*throws streamers and other decorative mess*

Thank you! Thank you very much! You're all far too kind! 

     I'm sure by now you've figured it out. What my blog's name means. This whole trip was planned to coincide with my 23rd birthday which was on Saturday (October 5th). Funny enough, not much happened leading up to the specific date but this entire trip has been one satisfying experience so it was still a fairly decent day. Yeah, I know I missed a day so I'll start from Friday and fill you guys in.

Day 7

     An entire week in Toronto. Wow. It's honestly felt like forever with the amount of things I've done, the places I've seen, the food I ate, all brilliant. What's on the cards for today? Nothing. Not during daytime hours, at least. We've been building hype around this Lil Rick concert that was gonna go down over at Centennial College and my poor, naive mind was under the impression that it would be an all-soca event. Made sense, right? If only.

     We pretty much spent the entire day lazing around, as bachelor life should be... except for the fact that I'm the only single man in the group. TV, food, sleep. What else do you need when you're on vacation? Besides, these late sunrises are excellent at throwing off your internal clock. Since bro had to work and was gonna miss the show (poor lad), the plan involved a bit of early moving. Grab some food, stop over by the part-time residents' actual home and then catch the bus from there to the school. Out of all of that, the only thing that initially caught my attention was food. Those glorious calories. Where are we gonna try today? McDonalds, Wendy's, Dominoes, Pita Land have been all crossed off the list. 

     Let me just be clear and state upfront that nothing on this menu contains or consists of spinach. Yes, I checked the entire menu at least twice because I was curious to see if the restaurant was related to the cartoon. Long shot, I know. 

 Slight disappointment? Yes. Did they make up for it? Brilliantly. See that poster right in the middle of the glass? That's this stuff right here:

     Dip'n Chickn. I need to bring this concept back to Barbados for Haloute to run with it. This stuff is fantastic! And initially had my doubts about the cajun chili garlic sauce, but that was spectacular as well. The fries were good as well. An 8*/10. Overall pleased. Now we wait for the show.

     Remember earlier when I asked about it being an all soca show? Stupid question. The poster was on the bedroom dresser the whole time and I never bothered to look at it! Chris Martin and Wayne Wonder opening. ...huh? Call me bougie, but the only Chris Martin I knew up until a couple months ago was a lead singer in a band. Then to find out it's the guy who is popular with women for his song - and I quote - "Oh Lord, don't let me cheat on my girlfriend. Cause as far as I can see, she loves only me. Oh Lord, don't let me cheat on my girlfriend. But Lord if you can't stop me from cheating, then don't let me get caught." ...er, pardon? And I'm the one that's single? Alright. Moving on swiftly. Not swiftly enough, sadly. I guess the folks who came for him enjoyed his set. The Barbadian massive knew what was coming and wisely conserved their energy. Chris finally left the stage. Thank you! Wayne up. Dude has a handful of decent songs. Sadly for him, I'm not sure the crowd knew many of the ones he sang. I wasn't moved by his performances, but he was winding down sooner than I expected.

*you know when you're at church and the pastor is praying, you can pick up in his voice and his speech pattern that by all rights he should be coming to an end, yet he finds a burst of energy and starts fresh? That's what this guy did. *yawn*.

     Dude proceeded to stitch together covers of other songs, threw in a couple of his "newer" pieces and generally did what he felt like. Not here for this. Kindly vacate the stage for the headline act to come on, why don't you? Lucky for me, all good things must come to and end. Time for the real deal! Chihuahua Business Man. Board Face. Hypa Dawg. Rickey Reid. Lil Rick. T-111 Untreated! Rick knew we were waiting and he came to satisfy. Even the people who had no concept of soca music were able to enjoy his performance. In the name of discretion and to protect the character of those involved, there are no pictures to be included, but I will limit my review to 5 words:

============================================================

MASHED. UP. AND. BOUGHT. BACK.

============================================================

     Seemed like his set was shorter than those other two. Oh well, such is life. Rick leaves the stage and the DJ decides that it's appropriate to follow up that performance with some hip hop! No. Just.. no. We decided to go check the other room. They seemed to be rocking. We were in and out in a matter of 15 seconds. Let's just say it's not what we were expecting. Our ride eventually came and we got something to eat, picked up our stuff and headed home. Time to put the Sabbath back on the Saturday. Thanks for reading, guys!

Let's Ride The Rocket!

Going For A Ride!

Day 5

I thought I had this sleeping thing in the bag, yet I'm writing this at 2:58 am. Makes no sense getting breakfast now because I'll be empty by 10:00. Let's try this again.

So I crashed after 3:30 and somehow still managed to make it back up by 6:43. That's not the weird part, though. The weird part is that outside is still PITCH BLACK! So when I got up, I was like, "don't tell me I only slept for an hour!" and Asha's battery 

was dead as well. Gonna put her to charge and check Tiffany while I start my early morning tea ritual. Not much sense going back to 

sleep now, since we're supposed to be roaming today. Maybe I should have bet him money that he'd still be unconscious at 8:30. Ah well, some other time. Kettle's done!

  Getting dressed and I realise that I'm actually a medium and not a large. Also, my pants should be a 32, not too sure what I was thinking when I said 34. Ah well. Small issue. Someone's finally up! Gonna let him get ready and then head to the zoo catch the bus? err... pardon? I guess it can't hurt..

Barely missed one, but the next one wasn't too far behind. Had to resist the urge to stick my hand out to signal the bus lol. 

Ok, we're off! Head down to Lawrence West Station then going down below for the train! You can't go wrong with the train because they're no more than 5 mins apart, you can ALWAYS FEEL it coming and there's this handy mini live map over the door to let you know where you are and where you're going.

It was kinda awkward seeing the car in front of mine turning the corner while I appeared to remain straight, so I buried my head in my phone till we got to the stop. Dundas Square!

This was a bit much to take in in 2 seconds. And this is just one shot! For a panorama shot, look over here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zb2hf3ae3r7cl8l/20131002_104908.jpg

Enough talking. Look what I saw!

Scotiabank! Discover what's possible!

Nearest mall was Eaton Centre. Why not head in and see what they have to offer? Some nice stores in there. Quite a walk, too!

Interesting fact: geese are protected animals here in Canada. You're not allowed to hunt them, attack them, chase them or startle them. Just let them do their own thing.

Walked around Eaton for a bit more, but by now it was my favourite time of the day! Food! Let's head downstairs to the Urban Eatery. There was SO much to choose from! Greek, Chinese, Japanese, American, Thai, Mediterranean, French and so much more! Ok, no fast food today. We're gonna head over to Bourbon St. Grill and have some "cooked food". Decided to stick to what I know and get the pasta with a chicken leg and some veg. Rob went for the bourbon chicken and shrimp with pasta. He somehow convinced me that I should try one of his shrimp.

PAUSE.

Let me take this time to mention that I'm a simple guy. Chicken. Fish. The end. I've dabbled in beef and lamb, I've had my time with pork. As it stands right now, my livestock protein sources do not require expansion. Ok, let's continue.

So he put one in my container. In the name of trying new stuff, I thought "what the heck" and went for it. Bleh, Not a very convincing initial encounter. Thank God for soy sauce, right? Maybe I shouldn't have doused the entire packet on the one shrimp. But it made it bearable, so whatever. Ok, so it was fine ok alright decent passable not awful. Not in a rush to have any more...

Made it halfway through the meal and decided not to pig it out. Let's put it in a bag and take it home. Always time for food back at the apartment. As bad as it sounds, this bus-to-train-to-bus thing is exhausting! Gonna try for the zoo tomorrow, so stay tuned!

When In Rome...

Day 4

7:23 is officially the latest I have ever gotten out of bed. And everyone else is still down for the count. I feel like I'm doing something wrong here.. 

Stepped out on the balcony for my usual lungful of "crisp" Canadian air, then my stomach whispers to me that it might be time to turn on the kettle for a cup of Lipton.

Let me just add here that my mental clock has been thrown WAAYYY off since I've been here. When it's 10:00 am my mind still convinces me that it's somewhere around 6:00. See how I would lose my job?

11:35 and NSE is stirring out there somewhere. Rob still refuses to move. Old age, the poor lad. Gonna watch some CSI and Criminal Minds till he moves. Wanna head over to Yorkdale Mall today.

11:45 and the driver is still down. Maybe this is what I was doing wrong? Time to take a page out of the Canadian booklet. Back to bed!

Didn't get back out of bed until 2:00 and by then it was too late to do anything. Hey, even Jesus took a rest, right? Today has been officially declared "Sabbath". 

Breakfast #2 time! Yes, at 2:30 in the afternoon. Omelet with bacon, tomato and thousand island dressing on sesame seed toast. Yes, it's as good as it sounds. This was about as good as the day was gonna get. Hit the couch to catch the Celtic vs. Barcelona game and chilled it out for the rest of the day. Definitely gonna hit the road tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Let's Go A Little Further Today...

Day 3

Up at 5:00 and everyone is pretty much comatose lol. Perfect time to start a blog, right? Open up the patio door and look outside to see it's been raining overnight into the early morning and still had a slight drizzle. Know what goes well with cold, rainy mornings? 

Tea. Bless your heart, Lipton. 8:38 am and everyone is still asleep. Good thing too cause it's gonna be a long day today.

9:30 and people now start to wake up.. Better late than never, right? Domino's in the microwave and time to make plans. Let's check the weather channel. Rain. Dammit. Ok, so no zoo or safari. maybe Orfus Road. We'll stick to indoor shopping today.

Lemme just say, I should have taken the term "Orfus Road" more literally. It is an entire road of stores. A fairly long road. Didn't even make it halfway. Another day for sure, though. Took a couple stores, but I found what I wanted. Time for the next stop on the adventure. Downtown!

Dufferin Mall. 2 malls in 2 days. The variety is to the level I would expect. I found a couple things to buy here, nothing major. 

It's like Super Centre.. on steroids. Know that feeling when you wanna grow another 8 pairs of hands just to grab everything and rush to the checkout? Yeah... Focus! There's a priority list. MAYBE one or two random items, but gotta get what I came for and bounce. 

Ok, maybe there's room for a couple unnecessary things. That's what vacation is all about, right? This "list" thing is getting a bit tedious. Nevertheless, it was progressing quite well. Can't seem to find a pair of slippers though, Aeropostale is all stocked up for winter so flip flops are a no-no. Enough of this. Know what's next?

A hard choice, having to leave McDonald's fries, but in the name of variety we took a little drive. This should be fun, right? 

Everything looks so nice! Browsed the menu for 5 minutes and settled on the Bacon Deluxe. "Single or double?", the guy asks. Oh right, this is a regular thing here. Double, my good man! And upsize the fries and drink for that $0.69 while you're at it, sir. 

God bless Canada! This was superb! Cheese perfectly slightly melted, bacon not crispy but well cooked, 100% beef, fresh bread! The fries were great as well, but McDonald's still holds the title belt for "Best Fries EVER". Grab a refill (just because I could) and it was time to head home for the day. 

Out And About!

Out And About!

Day 2

- Bro was gonna get in from work around 2:30 so the plan was to wait up till he got in. Didn't work out. Woke up shortly after he came in though. Caught up a bit, told him about the flight in. We headed down to the convenience store (at 3:00 am) and picked up some toiletries. Came back in and chatted some more straight into daylight hours. A couple others woke up and joined us till eventually the entire gang was here. Got up and had some tea and a muffin (was "chastized" for bringing my own tea bags - among other things - and I learned my lesson). You'd think we'd make the plan for the day? Nah. Everyone went back to sleep. Everyone.

          Fast forward a couple hours later and we decide we're gonna go to Upper Canada Mall and look around and do some shopping. By this time I'm down to 1 jacket! The drive was long but it was fun. We stopped and picked up one more to take along for the ride, then headed for a food stop.

AWWWWWWWWWWWW YEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH!

This is what I came to Canada for. To eat. Have fun, get cold and eat. Keep in mind, I was making a mental note of the places we passed on the way down. So many to choose from. Wendy's. McDonalds. Harvey's. Popeyes. I really wasn't picky where we went first. I have 2 weeks to cover them all. Multiple times. (Don't worry, Femi. I won't overdo, I promise.) Decision made. We're going to McDonalds - I'm lovin' it!

 As soon as we get inside my memory is bombarded with the constant ravings I've heard about the fries. Alright, so whatever I get, get fries with it. As if that'd be a problem lol. Got my first Big Mac and waited for the others. The fries definitely are fantastic though. I need to have more of them in my life before this week ends. *adds to priority list*. Chatted a bit and briefly discussed the possible veto by Pres. Obama, some school protests and who would drive if Robert fell off his chair and had to be rushed to the hospital. Picked up a free refill (just because I could) and we were on the move again. Next stop, Upper Canada Mall.

Did I fail to mention before that AT LEAST 83% of the population has some NICE rides? Corvettes, R8s, a couple Camaros, a Jag and a Mustang all in the same small area in the car park. Slowly walked past and headed for the mall. 

        Sheraton who? Nah, this was the real deal. H-U-G-E. Took me a couple seconds to readjust my scope and then we started to explore. I couldn't even decide where I wanted to go. Brushed through H&M and looped through Forever21. Know what would have been brilliant? To get a map. Luckily the stand was close by, so we started looking for specifics. Headed to Old Navy for some tees and vests. Got to the cashier and she was asking me about subscription emails and some other random stuff so I told her I wasn't from here, and that I was here on vacation from Barbados. The look on her face quickly changed from "Hi! Welcome to Old Navy!" to "Can you kindly fit me into one of your bags?" She seemed so fascinated by my tale of year-round heat, I almost pitied her. No time to stay, however. We had to finish our adventure!

Rob went back to the car to sleep, leaving me in the capable hands of NSE, O, T and C. Picked up my copy of FIFA 14, decided that maybe I'm not cut out to play GTA V and we were off again. 

Spencer's.

Can I just say that I would blow my entire budget in Spencer's? They had Batman shorts on sale for $10 CDN. I would have bought both pairs if they weren't XXL. The amount of Batman and Adventure Time paraphernalia was incredible. I had a handful of stuff and then had to remind myself that these were not priority items and if we could pass back and funds were still available, then we'd come back for this stuff.

Time to head back to Toronto. Definitely a fantastic experience. Heading home for a game of Monopoly with the clan. Know what Monopoly needs? Domino's pizza. 3 medium pizzas and 20 wings, my good man. God bless Canada! Came home and browsed through my haul for today and tucked it away. Time for food and money.

Let me just take this opportunity to say that Monopoly teaches us valuable lessons. Spend your money wisely!

Time for the part timers to leave. Was great having them over and next weekend is gonna be even better. Watched some Sherlock and made myself a bit too comfortable in the process, and that was how my day ended.

BGI to YYZ

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..... I decided to do a blog. For, you know, anyone who's interested. Since it's the first time I'm in Canada and the first time I'm travelling alone, I figured it'd be fun to share with you guys. The first couple posts are gonna be mainly text, but more and more pics to come shortly, I promise! Enjoy!

Day 1

The flight was fairly long. To me, anyway. 6 hours. Longest I ever sat still. Had a window seat, so the view was amazing. Got a couple pictures of some views until it got really dark.

The nice air hostess only offered me the free stuff but then offered the sandwiches to the guys ahead of me. No sweat though cause I probably would have told her no. About halfway through the flight, Asha's (my phone) battery was at 19% and Tiffany's (my laptop) had 35 mins to go. Womp. I clearly didn't plan this as well as I thought I did. In flight TV, then? I guess. Occasionally peering out of my window to make sure we were still suspended in mid air in a big, loud metal bird.
Landed safely! Around 9:55, so about 10 mins late. Batteries were flat dead by now, so I couldn't get any pictures. Took me 10 mins to get from the plane to Customs.Couldn't pass up the opportunity to get on the moving sidewalk! Made it to the counter and the guy there had some weird questions but I guess he more interested in my reactions than the answers themselves. Took another 10 mins for my bag to come around the carousel. Snatched it and headed straight for outside and spotted Pablo and NSE immediately. Get to cross "afraid of being stranded in a foreign airport for hours" off of my list, thankfully. Just before I stepped through the door I asked myself, "what if inside is WARMER than outside?" Guess I didn't have to ask that for much longer. Outside was fairly chilly. My ears started to burn immediately. Ended up wearing 2 jackets. And a long sleeved shirt. And a vest. Just to make it from the airport to the car. Heading home and couldn't help but to stare at the buildings. The apartments, town houses, condos, offices, mega stores. All fascinating.
Got to the house and met the part time residents. Cool folks. Watched some telly while mother messaged me to death as soon as I turned on my wifi. Messaged a couple other folks to let them know I was safe and then retired to the living room to watch TV with the others.