Toronto is the capital of Ontario, Canada. It is a large metropolitan city. If one doesn’t have a good guide or group of locals to help point you in the direction of fun and entertainment, I for one would have been a bit lost. Toronto is not a city easily navigated by car or foot as it seems. We had 3 maps which needed constant cross-referencing to figure out where we were most of the time. And you should always add some time to your assumed journey times as locations that are even right next door to each other take twists and turns to get to.

Our trip to Toronto was mainly a business trip with an added side of fun in between. We went for “Fan Expo Canada”, the yearly Canadian science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic convention. My partner, Roberto, is an artist who does a lot of coloring for comic, sci-fi and fantasy magazines. So we were invited to the convention by his agent and his operation, Udon. Udon is an affiliation of various artists that work on a variety of products for the industry. Roberto’s colleagues were wonderful people, mostly living in Toronto, who were a great help to us during our stay. Without them, we would have been truly lost.

Thursday evening we left for Toronto from Western MA. It was to be about an 8 hour drive, mostly through upstate New York. Driving there was far easier than driving in the city itself, once we got there. Toronto is a very clean city. About ½ hour from our first destination in Richmond Hill, a suburb of Toronto, we got stuck in a traffic jam…at 2AM…for street cleaning. Throughout much of our time in Toronto we saw many street cleaners.

Friday we spent most of the day at the Convention Center, downtown, next to the CN Tower, which we kept referring to throughout our trip as “the needle”. This may have lead to much confusion on the part of people we were asking directions from. The Space Needle is in Seattle, WA, but looks almost identical to the CN Tower.
Friday was kind of a slow day at the convention. Roberto and I mainly walked around checking out the exhibitors and doing the meet and greet. After being in the convention center for several hours we decided to take a walk and see what was going on outside. Much to our surprise we realized that there was no exit to the outdoors from the basement of the convention center where the “Fan Expo” was being held. We had to go up 3 escalators to get to the outside. Needless to say, when the fire alarm went off later in the day we were a bit nervous. That would have been a massacre trying to get all those people out of the building if there had been an actual emergency.
Outside was a nice surprise. There was quite a bit of green space as well as some nice food stands right outside the CN Tower. We decided to have some “Dippin Dots – the ice cream of the future”. I decided on Mango and Roberto had Banana Split. They were like little candy coated ice cream dots. Fun to eat and pretty tasty, if a bit chemically at times.
After we got back to the convention and broke down the booth for the evening we headed out with a group to Wayne Gretsky’s restaurant. The food was pretty good – burgers, salads, sandwiches and pastas. It was a satisfying meal. I had a grilled salmon salad. The salmon was served with a mango mayo which complimented the dish nicely. However, the salad itself came sans any dressing, which made it kind of bland. Roberto had handmade penne pasta with Italian sausage. It was probably the better of the meals.

Saturday we were on our own. Erik, our host, who’s parent’s house (mansion, rather) we were staying at had to get to the convention early. So we slept in and drove into the city ourselves. Bad idea #1. We missed the exit to the parkway, and got stuck on the expressway with no exits. We finally made it to downtown, at which point we relied on looking for “the needle” in the skyline to find our way to the convention center. As soon as we lost sight of that baby, we were in deep trouble. We got so desperate at one point, I rolled down my window at a red-light to ask the car next to us for directions. I am pretty sure the guy I spoke to was a French-speaker and we had a hard time communicating over the loud trucks and traffic around us. So I finally asked “which direction to the needle?” This of course created even more confusion. I finally got the info I needed. We were headed in the right direction. Needless to say, we got lost several more times that morning, but got a very nice, impromptu tour of the city. It took us almost 2 hours to get to the convention. Both Roberto and I have not so impeccable navigational skills, and so he kept twisting down all these residential roads to cut through the city. At each intersection I felt we needed to go the opposite direction he planned to go. But much to my surprise, whenever we asked a passerby for directions, I was always the one on the right track.
The convention was packed on Saturday. Tons of fans and geeks dressed to the nine’s in their anime and comic book character outfits. People were taking pictures of all these people getting their fifteen minutes of fame. It was an incredible experience for me, the person who Roberto was so proud to tell all of his colleagues “never even bought a comic book!” Due to his comment, people from the booth kept checking on me all weekend to make sure I wasn’t too bored. The day was fun though. Erik had brought his laptop to the convention and set it up for Roberto so he could work on stuff he was doing for Erik, while at the same time, showing fans the art of coloring a comic. The fans loved it, and I loved seeing him shine. That day he signed a lot of autographs for adoring fans. It was really nice to see.

Around 5 PM we decided to check into our hotel, where we would be staying for the duration of the trip. It was wonderful staying with Erik, but we were looking forward to spending some time alone and enjoying our little vacation part of the trip. A few days before leaving for Toronto, we learned the Toronto Intercontinental Center, a five star hotel was offering ½ price rooms to people who were affiliated with the convention. We thought that was a great deal, and the first time either of us had been able to stay at a 5-star hotel. So we were very excited. We had already found out at the desk, the day before, that check in time was 2 PM. We were scheduled to go with the Udon group to a restaurant that night with comic superstar Jim Lee at 7 PM. So we figured we had 2 hours to take a swim, have a drink at the bar and freshen up. Unfortunately, when we went to check in we were told, by the very unhelpful front desk person, that our room was not ready, and probably would not be for another 2 hours. We were then told that the hotel was totally booked and they were running behind with getting rooms ready. Neither Roberto nor I had stayed in a 5-star hotel, but we figured that this was pretty out of line. So we inquired what they were planning to do to compensate us, say free drinks at the bar? The answer was a firm “No”. We were told that “our hands are tied”. Coming from a customer service background myself, it is the rule to always give something to the customer when you mess up, but at a 5-star hotel? Their hands were tied? We were very disappointed. So we checked our luggage in at the desk, freshened in the public restrooms and went to have a drink at the bar.

The Hotel restaurant, The Azure is a beautiful establishment. It has floor to ceiling windows looking out to Front Street. It is a very contemporary layout with private alcoves with a table and two cushy chairs. Each table was also outfitted with some tasty nuts with an Asian flair. The drink menu was also very inviting. They specialize in Martinis. I opted for the Wild Orchid Martini that was infused with mango juice and had a fresh flower in it. Unfortunately the bar was out of mango juice. Another unfortunate disappointment. How can a 5-star restaurant, in a 5-star hotel be out of mango juice, featured in a drink from their own menu? Well, probably, because they had so many upset customers in their bar waiting for their hotel rooms too, that they sold out. So instead I went for the Cote D’Azure, a blue martini made with rum and blue Curacao, which had not a flower but a raspberry floating in it. Roberto’s Sophisticated Lady, a martini with fresh raspberry puree did have a flower floating in its delicate purple liquid. The drinks were great and the ambience was lovely, but at $14 CAN a pop for the martinis and all of the troubles before it, it left us a little dry.
But that was not to be the only disaster of the evening.
Finally after about 1 ½ hours, at approx. 6:40 our room was ready. That gave us 20 minutes to drop our things in the room and get next door to the convention center…right next door…seems easy enough, right? It would be, except that the only way to get from the Intercontinental to the convention center was through Toronto’s Skywalk. A very lovely idea, but a ridiculous one to navigate. To get from the lobby of our hotel to the convention center, which as I might remind, is right next door, one has to travel up or down 6 escalators, and about 1 mile of walking through corridors. So we barely made it in time.
We get to the convention center and we catch up with Clarence, one of Roberto’s best buddies. Clarence is a great guy, and it seems like his 2 biggest goals of the weekend are to sell as many sketchbooks as possible and to make sure Roberto and I have a great time. So he is going to drive us and another couple to “The Owl”. He has directions, and we are off and running. Forty-five minutes later we are, guess what? LOST. This time we are with a Toronto native, so we aren’t feeling too bad about the morning anymore. Apparently the person who picked this restaurant did not give any good directions, and when we called 411 to get the address, they had no record of the place. But we were at the intersection on the hand written map. So we park the car and Clarence and Keith go foraging for Owls. They come back 15-20 minutes later – which felt like an eternity to us, because we were left alone in the car with Keith’s wife who is a big talker, and her favorite subject is herself. They come back with umbrellas because not only are we lost, but it is also pouring down rain. I am talking buckets. They escort us down the street to a hole in the wall restaurant called The Owl of Minerva. But you would only know that if you spoke or read Korean, the language it is all written in. Now to say “hole in the wall” you may think bad things, but most people who had dinner there that night, including famous Jim Lee, had a great time. Everyone, except of course for Keith’s wife who complained about everything, and threw an allergic fit in the restaurant when her lips touched Keith’s fork, which apparently at some point had touched pepper which could “kill” her. This is of course not to make light of people with severe food allergies. I work in the healthcare industry, and I know how bad this can be, but I somehow doubt that her’s was an allergy but more of an attack of “drama queen”.
Once we were able to figure out the menu, which was in a very bad form of English, and ripped around the edges and sparse (they could only supply each table with one menu)we were able to sample great authentic Korean food and lots of Korean alcohol, made from rice, I believe. After our experience trying to get to the restaurant, and running through the rain to our unknown destination we were a bit tense. So Roberto asked our waitress if they had any alcohol, she said yes to which he responded “give me the strongest thing you have!” Our table shared a bottle of it, and it was a wonderful compliment to all the wonderful dishes – pork bone and potato soup, kim chee with fried pork and bacon with spicy mixed vegetables cooked right at our table with a wok. It was a wonderful and lively evening. But it was still not over. We went with Clarence, Keith and Jessie to Mississauga, Clarence’s hometown, to one of his favorite spots, Playdium. A huge arcade full of all the games you could possibly want to play. After that he took us all out for coffee at a time honored Canadian establishment, Tim Horton’s, which he likened to Dunkin Donuts in the states for it’s being on every corner – which it is, but the coffee is better. He taught us how to order coffee like a Canadian – we had to ask for a “Double Double” which is a coffee with double cream and double sugar, and man did it hit the spot after they day we had. THANK YOU CLARENCE!

Sunday, we started our morning with our long trek to the convention center. We stayed for a few hours, Roberto did some more painting/coloring and then we did one of things I had come for – we met Juliet Landau, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Drusilla! She was so nice, and couldn’t believe we had traveled all the way to Toronto from the States “for this”. I told her that Roberto was an artist and we were at a booth a little further up, which seemed to make her feel better. We got our pictures taken with her, and she was very good about making sure fans got good pictures before moving on to the next. She was very gracious. After meeting her we left the convention for the day. Thanks to Noi, another colleague, and his girlfriend Sally, we were fully equipped with maps and Chinese pastries to get us where we needed to go. They were an endless source of information about places to go and things to see in Toronto. Our first stop was simple. Back to the delicious food stands outside the CN tower. One thing Toronto has going on is great cheap food. There are stands everywhere downtown selling sausages, hot dogs, and amazing french fries. Every stand also seemed to sell veggie hot dogs as well. We couldn’t figure out if it was due to the health consciousness of Canadians, or the large Indian population. Anyway I had a delicious beef hot dog with all the fixings – ketchup, onions, relish and even hot peppers. Roberto had a chicken breast sandwich that he didn’t love, and we shared some delicious, perfectly fried, hot, wedge cut fries smothered in ketchup. Of course after that we needed a dessert so we shared a crepe filled with nutella and strawberries. Yum Yum!
So we decided to take a walk, and just started up Spadina Ave towards the Fashion District that Sally had nicely drawn out on our map. After a while, we looked at the map, and realized we weren’t what seemed to be too far from Little Italy. We walked up through China Town and were getting tired so we decided to take a bus, the routes which were also on this lovely little map. At the bus stop there was what appeared to be a bus driver in uniform complete with matching hat. He was just missing a bus. So we asked him if this bus would take us to Columbia, the street Little Italy is on. He confirmed this. When the bus pulled up we found out they take only exact change in coins. We only had paper money so we told the driver to go on without us until we got some change. When the bus passed the driver without a bus asked us why we didn’t get on. We explained that we didn’t have coins. He asked us where we were from, and when we said Vermont, he said the next bus was coming and just to get on. He spoke to the driver and we were off. The driver made sure we got off at the right spot and as we were heading off the bus the doors didn’t open, so we were standing there looking at each other. At which point the entire bus, in unison says “just step down”. So we get off the bus and start walking towards Little Italy. The bus driver slowed the bus down, stopped completely, opened the door and stated “you are going in the wrong direction for Little Italy”. So he pointed us in the right direction and we were on our way, feeling a little moronic. Later we found out from Erik that earlier in the week someone had punched a bus driver for not being able to get on the bus, and so now, they just let everyone on. So now we aren’t sure whether the bus driver likes Vermonters or whether he was just scared of us!
As we were approaching Little Italy we heard talking over a loud speaker and it was in Italian. Roberto was thrilled and had fun translating for me. Apparently there was to be an Italian music contest and we were just in time. We got in with the crowd and enjoyed 2 performances until it started raining. So we ran under a store awning for a few minutes to listen some more and it was wonderful. We stopped in a couple of stores looking for imported salami, found out where the best gelateria was, and had some really good pistacchio. It was starting to get late, so we decided to get a taxi back to the convention center. We ended up getting a ride with an Iranian immigrant. We had a nice political chat about how corrupt the governments are, and how much of a shame it is that his country and mine will soon be at war for no good reason. It was a wonderful experience, and we were sad when the ride was over.
When we got back to the convention center we found out we were going to the big Udon farewell dinner at Le Maison Du Japon somewhere on the outskirts of town. And since they had to pack everything up from the convention, Erik needed Roberto and I to drive some people. Needless to say, we were not thrilled at the prospect of getting back in a car and trying to navigate the streets of Toronto. We had parked in the part of the lot with no in and out service just to make sure. But we wanted to help, so Erik hooked us up with a couple of really great young Udon convention volunteers. We all trekked to the hotel parking lot, (while Roberto teased them the whole way about having to ride bikes to the restaurant) popped in some belly dancing music and we on our way to all you can eat sushi, one of my personal dreams come true.
We had a great time at dinner, watching Clarence eat about 50 pieces of Salmon Sashimi dredged in wasabi without exploding. Actually I think he was more interested in the wasabi than the sushi itself. But it was impressive how much he could cram down! We had the great company of the people around us, and realized even though Toronto was not a city we loved, we had met some really great people, and that was what mattered.
After dinner we went back to the hotel and decided to get a drink at one of the local bars. Toronto is full of bums, one of which approached us as soon as we got out of the hotel. As if this was a better prospect, he explained that he in fact was not a bum, but had just been released from jail, and needed a few bucks for bus fare home. This was after he asked us if we spoke English. We should have just said no. So when in Toronto, if approached by a bum, just start speaking another language, even if it is made up. It will save you a lot of hassle. Our hotel was in a mainly commercial district, so there were not many nightly establishments. To reduce our chance of getting accosted by more bums, we went to the closest, Jack Astor’s. It was loud and the drinks were weak. It was our last night in Toronto and we wanted something with a little more ambience, but we didn’t find it and we were tired and had to head out on the long drive home the next day. So we sacked it and went back to the hotel and to bed.

Monday, we hit the road. But first we stopped in our favorite spot in Toronto, Little Italy, for some wood burning oven pizza, snails in a delectable red sauce with roasted veggies, mozzarella and tomato salad, espresso and of course, some more Gelato. But hey, we had walked so much over the weekend, we could afford the extra splurges! So getting lost in Toronto so many times was good for something, finally!
After getting out of Toronto we decided that we would get back into the States via Niagara. We spent a little time on the Canadian side driving around stopped to take a few pictures. Then we were ready for the long ride home.

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