We did that at the end of a very full day, as I said. The day began on the train, as we were scheduled to arrive at 9:30am. We missed the mark, there. Apparently, this is pretty common and fully expected by the train crew. Ideally, the crew serves breakfast the last day of the trip, and everyone is off in Toronto by lunch. Today, that was the case, but just barely. The woman who told us about the meal service ending with breakfast this morning was practically giddy. She said they have served lunch on every trip she has worked on that route since October. Freight trains really delay them. We were about four hours off schedule, which is impressive, as we were seven hours behind in the middle of the journey. I think the conductor stepped on the gas in the middle of the night or something.
Cas had researched some walking tours before we arrived in Toronto, and most of the standard ones began before we got to town. We actually opted for one that started at 3:30- mostly because it was convenient for us to check into our room, put our things down and make our way to the meeting spot in time. We ended up going on the graffiti tour.
Toronto, we’ve been told, is the fourth most prominent city for graffiti in the world. There had historically been a big graffiti problem, and when the mayor of Toronto was a guy I remember hearing about a lot- infamous crack cocaine enthusiast Rob Ford- he wanted to crack down on graffiti. Sorry- couldn’t resist the crack about crack. It’s late, and I am tired.
Nothing makes graffiti artists more frustrated, it turns out, than being told that they can’t do what they wish. The whole problem increased in intensity, and finally, the city came up with some standardization. They have space dedicated to these artists. It’s even got a street sign marking it Graffiti Alley.
Sure, there is a bunch of this stuff in other spots in town, but the alley is pretty special. It’s become a tourist draw in its own right-and honestly, we only choose that tour for its convenient timing. It turned out to be pretty great. There are even a few different depictions of the anti-graffiti crusader, Rob Ford. They’re not terribly flattering.
After we wrapped up the tour, we ducked into a spot to avoid what turned out to be about ten good minutes of slow, fat raindrops. Just enough time to order a beer and plan out the rest of the day. By the time we left that bar, we had plans to eat dinner and go to the CN tower. Toronto’s take on the giant 360-degree-thing-on-a-stick building. We went up after dinner with great ambitions to see the sun set from the top of the tower. We weren’t sure we could make it, though. We were getting tired and pretty fed up with the other people who had the same idea, but in the end, we managed to stick it out and watch the sun go down at the top. Since we’re farther south now than we have been, it went down before nine. In Jasper, it was after ten.
We walked back to the hotel by way of the Loose Moose, and we’ve returned to our room. Having made quick work of several time zones this week, it’s hard to get a grip on when we should be tired and when we should be awake again. We’ve got to get it straight, though, because our train leaves the station for Niagara Falls at 8:55am. We’re just about an hour and a half from our second wedding anniversary at the moment. We’ll be in Niagara Falls to celebrate. I know it’s a cliche place to go, but Cas has a point- he supposes there’s a reason for the cliche.
By the way, he took some really great photos today. Enjoy:
when in Prague, we saw a large graffiti wall, much of which was dedicated to John Lennon ~ even has a yellow submarine!
ReplyDeleteMay you wake up to a wonderful day of celebrating your Wedding Day! Happy Anniversary to you and Cas!!!