Kensington Market

From Chinatown, walk further west and you hit Spadina Avenue.

Cross Spadina and somehow Chinatown begins to fade. That's the CN Tower yonder! :-)

One block further and you're in Kensington Market.  A completely different world!

Gone are the exotic Oriental foods.  How about some fashionable beanies, hats and bandannas?

Kensington Market feels like a hippy haven. The place is quite laid back and unpretentious.

Two words come up prominently to mind here: graffiti (the good kind!) and bicycles.

Look at this house! :-)

...and this wall!

The Kensington Market bike rack. Can you make out the letters?

Scooters are cool too.  

This place makes me want to shoot in black-and-white too!  The finger is pointing at a man playing a drum. :-)

Fiddler on the sidewalk.

Time for a snack.  Many coffee shops around.  It's really a great place for people watching!  We chose a cafe called "Fika"...which I learned meant "to have coffee" in Swedish.  

...and that's my snack and Swedish coffee...in a French mug!  I could spend the whole afternoon just lazing and fika-ing here. :-)

This is getting to be a long post.  So I'll end with one tip.  That's the Art Gallery of Ontario on Dundas St. West.

No, I am not the gallery-and-museum type...and I am not going to tell you about this-or-that exhibit.  What you should know: This place has clean public washrooms in the basement.  ...and the museum shop is quite cool too.  :-)

And this concludes my "Toronto" series.

Toronto Chinatown

Walking west away from Dundas Square, the scenery starts to change a bit.  You know you're in Chinatown when the big banks have their names subtitled in Chinese. :-)

...and the street names too!

I don't think the Chinese characters on this facade translate to "Espresso" or "French Cafe"... looks more like a theatre company! :-) [Right to left: 聯僑劇社 = "United Overseas Drama Society"?]

The streetscape suddenly looks more like Hong Kong...except that there is more space and less crowds!

Dried fish...

...and other stuff.  Don't you just love that cracked scoop?

Jackfruit. No, this is not the smelly fruit.  You're thinking of durian. Looks similar though.

Freshly squeezed sugarcane..

The Chinatown dollarama! he! he!

Many cheap things here. But the bubble tea at 4.39 plus tax a cup is not!

I bought 4 "Toronto" t-shirts for 9.99 total.  Even if they don't survive the second washing, I won't complain! :-)

Downtown Toronto and Ramen

I am very grateful to an old friend who took the time to show me around downtown Toronto last Sunday afternoon.

I've almost forgotten what a big-city downtown was like.

No offense to downtown Halifax...but the corner of Dundas and Yonge was teeming with people!

Lots of things happening at Dundas Square -- Toronto's answer to Times Square! :-)

This group was protesting and creating awareness about the plight of the poor kidnapped girls in Nigeria. :-(  

(Read about it: http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/06/world/africa/nigeria-abductions-why-it-matters/ )

Yes, there are streetcars on the streets of Toronto!  According to Wikipedia, the Toronto Streetcar System "is the largest such system in the Americas in terms of ridership, number of cars, and track length."  Who knew?  I always thought San Francisco was tops in the streetcar department.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_streetcar_system)

Bay St. -- Toronto's answer to Wall St.  No, I didn't go around the bank offices begging for a job.  It was a Sunday and they were closed.  :-)

So what does one eat in downtown Toronto?  My request: ramen!  There were quite a few authentic ones apparently and my friend dutifully took me to one...a place called Raijin.

A thunderous chorus of "Irasshaimase!" from the friendly Japanese staff welcomed us in. OK, so I exaggerated a bit! :-)  "Raijin" means "god of thunder". There was a beautiful wooden sculpture inside. Sorry Marvel fans, it's not Thor.

Tonkotsu (pork bone soup).  Kakuni (braised pork belly).  Oishikatta (yum!) :-)

Mississauga and Marilyn

My first stop was actually Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto in the western part of the Greater Toronto Area.  But, to call it a suburb is a dis-service because it is a full-fledged city (pop. ~700,000) on its own and is the 6th largest in Canada.  This is the city where most of my family and friends in Canada live.

Mississauga's famous landmark, I would learn, is the Marilyn Monroe towers.  That's just the nickname for the Absolute Towers, a pair of curvaceous condominium buildings at the corner of Burnhamthorpe Rd. and Hurontario St.  Do you see why they are nicknamed the Marilyn Monroe towers?

 

                                                                        (Image of Marilyn Monroe taken from here.)

The buildings, 50 and 56 storeys respectively, were indeed mesmerizing. 

Other inconsequential photos.... The lobby of the Novotel Mississauga.  

It was a fine sunny day.

...and I thought this was funny.  The perfect place to put a bottle of water...in case of fire. :-) 

Airports - Halifax and Toronto

I made a trip to Toronto last weekend. I got a fresh look at the already familiar airports. So here's just a bunch of images...

There is now a hotel connected to the Halifax Airport.  It is an alt Hotel (a chain brand). I don't know what the name is supposed to stand for. It does remind me of the old Usenet newsgroup hierarchy....  I think it opened last year.  Though I probably wouldn't need to use it, it is good to finally have an airport hotel in Halifax.

Early morning at the airport! Yawn. ;-o

They have new seating fixtures at the waiting lounge! Adirondacks...

...and rocking chairs! Very homey.

Everyone is relaxed in the Maritimes. :-)

And Toronto airport?  Same busy place.

"I Dream I Could Fly" (2003) by Jonathan Borofsky (USA). 

"Flight Song" (2001-2003) by Robert Charles Coyle (Canada).

If you string up these carts and make them float up in the air somehow, they might be considered as a work of art too. :-) 

Next stop...downtown Toronto!

Source for Toronto Pearson International Airport artwork identification: Art, Architecture and the Airport: The Visual and the Visionary