Saturday, August 22, 2009

Trip to Toronto

So I spent the first part of August in Toronto and I thought since, hey, this is a blog!, I ought to tell you about the trip and share some of my observations. Now, I've been to Canada a few times before, so this wasn't the first trip. But I'm not sure I was quite as old the last times I went, so obviously I was looking at Canada from a new lense (by the way, today is my 30th birthday - see, I'm wise now). So here is the narration of my trip in pictures:


To save money (and it did save money), me and my buds flew into Buffalo and drove into Toronto, which of course, necessitated a stop in Niagra Falls. Here is Dr. O neatly framed by the ugly American falls and the wondrous Horseshoe falls. If you've never been to Niagra Falls, I'm not going to say you should go, especially for your honeymoon - it is likely the biggest tourist trap in the world, next to Venice. But if you're amazed by lots of water going over a tall cliff and you're in the area, you ought to stop.


Here was our next destination: the 8 hotel with lots of Chinese writing on the front. We didn't really know what the hote was, but we decided to stay there cause it looked cool. And, no surprise, we were in the middle of Chinatown Toronto, down by Kensignton Market.

Okay, so I can't help making this joke since I was in Toronto for the American Psychological Association annual convention. As a psychologist,
one is permitted a quota of dirty Freudian jokes every month and I have yet to use my quota. So I took some pictures of downtown Toronto to
show that, over the course of history, men have been driven by the power of their own...well...members, as Freud would say, and it is manifest particularly in their architechture, both old and new.


Oh, and if you look real close at the picture on the right, I'll give you a little tip for driving in Toronto: don't drive an ugly car; you're likely to get hailed as a taxi. I was quite surprised at all the ugly cars driving around Toronto - then I realized they were all taxis. So a tip for the tourist.

Toronto, as you know, is a large city in a socialist country. I've got family members who are afraid of socialism here in the states and I'm famous for letting them know that if the US were to turn socialist, things probably wouldn't look much different. It's not like we'll just turn socialist over night, right?

Well, I think I'm probably right. Toronto didn't seem a whole lot different. In fact, here's a picture of a beggar in Toronto:
Wait: I thought socialism was supposed to take care of everyone. So why are there beggars in Toronto? Maybe cause that cop is giving him a ticket for begging and his socialist paycheck doesn't cover the ticket.

Well, that's about all I saw that was too interesting. I did go see the Toronto Blue Jays play, but that wasn't too interesting, since - hey - it's the Blue Jays. But I did get to see a man playing the bagpipes. I love big city street performers.


One good trip to Toronto

2 comments:

Lara Zierke said...

Sounds like a fun trip. Happy 30th. You're old!

Becca said...

Looks like you had some fun too. Love ya!