Arrival and first impressions
A change of air
1 September 2007
An hour and a half after leaving Québec we were overflying the suburbs of Toronto and the difference was evident. The ground was flat, a lot more populated and there seemed to be highways everywhere.
As the aircraft banked to turn towards Toronto Pearson Airport we got a few fleeting glances of the city and the imposing CN Tower overshadowing everything else.
The Cenotaph
I had told Jean-Jacques that he would find in Toronto very much what he thought a great North American metropolis would be: a downtown comprising of little else but tall buildings, traffic everywhere and noise. I had forgotten to mention that people never seemed to be able to take a moment's pause.
JJ had remarked once on a train whilst on the way into London that people were working as they sat there, but in Toronto he noticed the number of people in the shopping malls who were sitting on a bench with a coffee to-go and their laptops open. There's a lot to be said for living in a village out in the sticks (In the sticks is ok, in the woods is bad !).
Toronto airport felt very big, with thousands of people rushing everywhere. I had considered taking the local transport into the city but we came across the Express Desk and that would leave us only a block or two away from our hotel and it was direct. It was only going to take an hour and a half as well - if the traffic was flowing.
Actually it wasn't too dense heading into town late on Saturday afternoon but for a few moments on the intersecting highways, with vehicles pouring in from all sides, I had visions of Speed 4 (Speed 3 has already been assigned to Father Ted - you either understand or you don't).
The buildings got higher and the sun disappeared. Apart from a few fleeting moments each day as the sun passes overhead the citizens of downtown Toronto live in the shade. In fact with their very efficient system of underground walkways some could almost be accused of having reverted to caveman status, only needing to come out above ground and into the daylight from time to time to hunt food - which will probably be found either enclosed in a bap or packaged in a polystyrene box, sometimes both.
Our coach reached our stop and deposited us a ten minute dander up the street to our hotel. JJ thought the idea of having a grid system of blocks very useful and it does make finding your way easier, but I still think it lacks imagination, especially if street names are reduced to 54th on 27th which can be found in other cities.
Our hotel was the Days Inn and situated just off Yonge Street, the world's longest street according to JJ. It wasn't the Manoir Victoria, but was reasonably comfortable and very well located. By chance our room was only a few metres from the indoor pool and that got used a few times as the temperatures in Toronto soared into the thirties everyday.
Hoop's Sports Bar
To get our bearings we wandered down into the hotel bar and had a pint (with JJ being asked to prove he was over twenty) before walking out in search of food.
I wouldn't accuse Toronto of being filthy like London but it was certainly grimy, and although we were only a twenty minute walk away from the heart of the city many of the buildings close by were in a pretty dilapidated state.
And there were beggars all along the street. They must have a system of territory and time keeping because we noticed the same people sitting on the footpath at particular hours of the day. Just outside the hotel it was a lady in the morning and a man in the afternoon.
Overwhelmed by choice if we wanted to eat on the hoof we settled for Hoop's Sports Bar on Yonge Street which was packed, noisy and serving good food.
In France we have our sports cafés and in the UK you can find a pub which shows the football on match night, but Hoop's was something else. There were screens everywhere, all showing different channels and different matches. There were even screens embedded in the floor and JJ informs me that you had screens in the toilets. You could empty your bladder without missing the goal.
It wasn't as chaotic as you might think because the only sound was music so everybody had the same soundtrack.
It was also possible to take a table with its own screen and you were welcome to change channel to whatever you wanted to watch - we watched an Arsenal match one evening.
All the waitresses were prepared to speak French which made life a lot easier when ordering. The food was good but as ever in Canada the portions were colossal. That first night we watched a young couple eat their way through their meal, only then to have the main course arrive. The pair of them were very slim and of Asian extraction so where they were putting it all neither JJ nor I have the faintest idea - and, they were drinking jugs of beer.
I just hope that in revenge that at thirty they explode into fat tubs of lard. Thin people shouldn't be allowed to eat like that.
On one of the screens we could catch up on the news and weather information - it was looking hot and sunny for the next few days.
That was good, because tomorrow we were off to a baseball match.
See also