Toronto

Dear diary:

I'm on the train back now. It's the same train. This one's taking me to the airport. It's so exciting that it has WiFi! I've spent the last 6 days in Toronto. I haven't had the chance to sit down and "chill" on the computer, much less reflect on anything. I haven't slept much either. It's been great last few days. The couple of days before that were pretty lame. But even so I wasn't sitting in my room. I was out and about and looking for things to do.

I'll try remember things backwards. Today I woke up super early after only a few hours of sleep. Last night I went to bed after 01:00 because I was packing. Somehow my backpack got a lot heavier. All I've added to it are 3 t-shirts. I bought two of them and one was free from the concert. I had a day pass to NXNE for the rock day. The highlights included me dancing through the crowd. I skipped a lot. You know. Hop-hop. I did that for hours. Twisted my ankle a few times. It hurts. So worth it. I was there walking/dancing/skipping from 15:30 to 23:00.

I must've put at least 8-9 drinks into me. I had a really interesting time buying them though. You see that was the only place that didn't accept credit cards. It's cash only. I didn't have any CAD on me and ATMs are useless if you don't carry a debit card. So my method was simpler: I waited for 30 minutes to download gWallet and PayPal on the super-slow 2g network that TMobile provides. I chatted with... (insert two names here because I don't remember) for that time. These guys were walking around taking Polaroid photos of people and just giving them away. So I got one with the strangers!
But back to the drinks. They didn't have any money to share. So I was just walking around asking if people had cash I could buy off of them with PayPal. For the first 20 people or so I asked about Google Wallet. But I don't think anybody in Canada even knew what it was. Haha. But at least people have heard of PayPal. Most politely declined. Some said they would help if they had extra cash. One woman just looked straight at me and just said one word "No". She's a bitch. I don't want to sugar coat it. But I digress. Eventually, after around a 100 people I found my savior. Her name is Dee and she just watched her whole family reject me and then she just pulled out her phone and said she can make it happen. <3 Being pretty young all she had was $15 on her and she shared it all. I want to praise her for kindness. But in retrospect the favor is a small one. I'm frankly shocked that it was that much hassle.

When I was in line finally buying my  first drink I was ecstatic. One of the people I'd asked for help from earlier saw me with money and gave me a high five. They asked if I finally found someone who "just gave me money". 0.o. No douchebag. It's the 21st century. How the heck do people not know how PayPal works? But I digress. To my future self: reminder, the first drink I got was water. It was hot and I was thirsty.

With all that being said. I had a blast. I hung out a little with Katrina, a photographer I had met earlier. I chatted with Toni (female) from Russia for a while. I danced with a random stranger toward the end of the night. I talked to hundreds of people. :P I talked SXSW promoters from giving me free vodka shots. I got hundreds of high-fives. :P I learned that Zolas make good music. Got a photo with their bass player, too.

But all of that was after I went GoKarting. You see I didn't have in-and-out privileges. And I got there really early when it just started. There were barely any people. So I went across the street and drove around like a maniac. :P Then I had a pack of green-tea ice cream. Come to think of it my major meals that day was a pack of ice cream and a lot of smirnoff ice.

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And now I'm at the airport. Sitting in my terminal. Already passed passport control and customs. Flying into a domestic terminal. That means I might make it to father's day lunch today! That's exciting. And I can make it to Rui's wedding! Today's going to be a good day. Or something! :P

Before the ice cream and the go-karting I was on a boat tour around Toronto islands. I spent most of that time enjoying the summer breeze, sound of waves, waving at passing boats and writing postcards. :P The boat tour was free. Came with the tour bus. So I hopped on the tour bus after.

Friday was a good day. I decided to be a tourist. And after working for a few hours I took the sight-seeing-tour. I had tickets to a local castle called Casa Loma. The tour bus took me there. I had no idea how convenient hop-on-hop-off tour buses are. I got to meet people. Listen to silly facts about the city. And I got to got where I needed to. So, that being said I had this super blissful moment at the castle, sitting on the patio having an insanely good drink. It had St. Germains in it and peach. Do I need to say more? Yes... with champagne. The grounds were gorgeous, too. I mean... it was just a house, but it had towers, a ballroom, a library, a canon, cool attic and an underground passage under neighbour's house to an extension down the block.

When I was tired of the sun I hopped back on the tour bus and headed downtown to work a little more. I knew the NXNE had a free stage in a square where I really wanted to be a few years ago. So I wanted to get there. I hopped off the bus a little too early and ended up walking up Younge St. Somewhere before King St. I found this restaurant market called Marche. I don't know how to describe it. You walk in and get a card. You make purchases at the buffet with that card and then pay the tab at the end when you leave. I like the idea. The food however was really good for buffet food. I had... a salmon quiche that was yum-yum. That and literally the best piece of cake I've had in my whole life. It was hazelnut chocolate something-something. I don't know how they made it, but it was like .. a soft brownie that's not dense but not too fluffy. Super rich flavor, but not sweet.

I worked from the Marche. The atmosphere was amazing. Great music playing. Better than at any of the shows prior. I didn't want to leave. Working was fun, too. That is how I wish I'd spend more of time. Sitting at a cool spot. Looking at regular people. Listening to soulful music. Eating delicious food. Doing good work.

I made a decision that I didn't want to go to another show that night and bought an improv ticket instead. This one was called BeerProv. You know... because everyone was drinking, especially on stage. It was alright. I appreciated doing something different for a change. It wasn't a better improv show I've seen, but I did laugh a lot. Like a lot. Some of the jokes were stupid, but nothing got offensive. So that's cool. This dude made a remark about being dumped after 7 years together because he wanted to pursue a career in improv. Everyone on stage, his-mid-sentence gave him a hug. I don't know if they train to provide emotional support, but that was an inspiring moment. I want a collective like that.

Gotta go board the plane. Maybe I'll finish this there.

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Thursday...  I went to a concert at the Rivoli pool house. I played pool. I listened to music. I walked around a lot. I met Katrina, one of the photographers covering the festival. It was a good day.

The other days before that in Toronto weren't eventful. I worked and walked around a lot. I was kind of aimless and just exploring. Took a while for the night life to pick up. I kept going to the same bar in the evenings almost every night for the lack of better of things to do. They had this barrel-aged porter which was $35 for a liter. So good. But that's about it. The next time I go I think it'll just be around the weekend. On Tuesday I was walking around asking if there was a good spot to go to.. but the answers I got were things like "Hard Rock Cafe" or "McDonalds".