Leaving Toronto

It's nearing 9pm Eastern Time, and I have another two hours to kill at Toronto airport before catching my flight back to Heathrow. It's been an eventful few days here in Toronto. I arrived on Thursday evening, and quickly got acquainted to the notorious traffic I'm told Toronto suffers from. Even getting the bus back out to the airport tonight, a Sunday evening, took a long time as traffic was very heavy.

I certainly experienced that Canada gets cold, and even then I only experienced a mild version of this: at worst it was about -4 degrees here; while I've been here, it's been -29 in both Winnipeg and Edmonton, so it's been quite warm relatively here!

I've experienced the problem with not informing NatWest that I was going to be in Canada, as very quickly my debit card was blocked, and looking online, my balance hasn't been affected so it's unlikely to be fraud elsewhere. Thankfully my credit card remained useful.

I've remembered that Tim Hortons is pretty damn useful - they're cheap, and they're everywhere! Other things I've been reminded about: Not being allowed to cross the road apart from at specified crossings, and cars that can turn right when the lights are on red, having to ask for the washrooms and not the toilets (or even bathrooms apparently in Canada!), and the distinct lack of privacy afforded in public washrooms/bathrooms/toilets - big gaping hopes between the doors!

I enjoyed Toronto. It would have been better had the weather not been quite so cold, and not snowing, as it was today, on my day of sight-seeing. It meant that heading up the CN Tower, the world's largest building, didn't give particularly spectacular sights, because the top of the tower was obscured in clouds and visibility was low due to the snow.

But never mind, there'll always be some other time I'm sure to explore what Toronto has to offer. Toronto doesn't have numbered streets as far as I could work out; all had names, and slightly strange names like Bloor, and Yonge, and Harbord. They even have a railway station here, with real trains going to real places! I guess there's a lot more towns nearby that make a train service realistic in this part of Canada, whereas over in Alberta there's about 4 big towns a long way apart from each other.

Anyhow, enough rambling about Toronto.