Toronto: The Ying to Wellington's Yang

So folks - in case you missed it - here is a picture that Ms Whelan sent me of how gorgeous Wellington was looking last week:

And here were the conditions when I walked to work this morning (oh and it was -22 or so if you can imagine):

Bah humbug!

Peter's Day Out

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well. Things have been pretty busy here, and suddenly I find myself with only two weekends left in Toronto! I am excited about moving on but I guess a little sad too that I am now two thirds of the way through my trip, and leaving behind my great Toronto-based buddies. On the flip side I am excited about catching up with other travelling friends on the other coast, and hopefully seeing the lovely Ms Goodall over there too.

Last Monday night Angela and I went for our nightly wander... unlike previous Mondays we managed to avoid going to the pub but did end up at the shops instead!!! We went to visit our favourite Tim Hortons on the way home and unfortunately witnessed a fairly nasty piece of police brutality against a homeless man... I don't think it is quite the story for the blog but suffice to say we were both extremely upset and spent the next day at our boring jobs drafing our complaints to the police chief.

Tuesday we had a quiet night in (tuesday is poker night - I am still not good!), and Wednesday the gang headed out for a great curry to send Angela off in style, as well as hitting a couple of clubs before getting to bed about 2am... there are some advantages to boring jobs with not much work in them - you can go to bed at 2am and it doesn't really matter!!! Here is a pic of some of the usual suspects - Marcus, Angela, me and Simon:

Thursday and Friday were nights hanging out with the hostel crowd and starting to sort out all my belongings and wonder how to get everything back in to my suitcase. Everyone I meet over here seems to be travelling with at least two bags so I feel quite virtuous, although that may be shortlived when I try to get everything in!

Saturday I decided to take Peter the Moose out and have a day around town. Recently Shane the Beaver made a trip to Wellington and has been hanging out with Megan Jane having a great old time, and making Peter jealous so in response here is a day in photos with Clare and Peter the Moose:

We started with breakfast in the cafe at the hostel:

Then we went to the ATM to get some cash for our adventures:

After the ATM we visited the St Lawrence Market. We found a New Zealand shop, which sold lots of paua jewellery and some possum fur nipple warmers, and a honey shop which sold Leeston's own Airborne Honey. I also found some gorgeous glass jewellery but chanted my backpacker mantra (I have no money, I have no money) and resisted! Well for now anyway...

After the market we admired some scenery on our way to our coffee break at Starbucks. Sadly we had to avoid Tim Hortons and their donuts in protest over the police brutality incident, which was facilitated by the Tim Hortons Manager. Peter is rather fond of his Boston Creams though so I doubt that the boycott will last long!

After Starbucks we visited the Art Gallery of Ontario. Unfortunately much of the gallery is shut at the moment but I did get to spend some time in the Henry Moore sculpture room, which was excellent. We got caught in a rather serious snow storm after leaving the art gallery so had to go to Burrito Boyz (voted Toronto's best burrito spot) for a little snack... it was the best burrito I have had a long time and I think I may have to visit again before I leave. Peter wolfed his down to fast for a photo but you can see the aftermath!!!

After the burrito we were going to go skating but Peter had forgotten his skates (again), so we just had to watch everyone else!

Peter was pretty worn out by all this activity so on Sunday when I went out to check out some more sights he stayed at home to sleep:

I went to Cabbagetown to see how the other half live, and saw this lovely little church (St James the lesser) in the St James cemetary:

I also took a shine to the Yorkville Fire Station:

Well that is all for me today - I hope you are all well and like the photos.

Cheers,

Clare