I love Pittsburgh with all my heart. I don't ever intend to leave it. But, in the event that things go epically bad in Pittsburgh, my first choice for relocation will be Toronto. I used to think it would be Vancouver, but I don't think I'm ready to fully commit to living on the West Coast. Toronto is like New York, but more manageable. It's not overwhelming. It's not hectic. It's just right.
We were only there for 24 hours, but we had a blast biking and walking around the city. We had ourselves a night on the town. And we did some pretty excellent shopping. In this post, the bits of everything we did during our day-long trip to Toronto will be recapped in photos. Enjoy. We totally did.
Ahhhh the Poutinerie. This is becoming a standard stop on Toronto trips.
Poutine = fries, gravy, and cheese curds. Though places outside of Canada have tried, I have never been satisfied with an order of poutine like I am when I am up in The Hat. It's probably good to not have easy access to poutine in Pittsburgh. My health would be in serious jeopardy.
While enjoying our poutine, we scoped out the evening's happenings in the Toronto city papers. We were not the only Pittsburghers heading to the city in September.
Upon arriving in Toronto, we immediately spotted some furries. And that, as a Pittsburgher, kinda made me feel at home.
One of my objectives on this trip was to find a Toronto Raptors t-shirt with a raptor on it. We spent a lot of time on our evening in Toronto in search of one downtown. Guess what. No one in Toronto feels like supporting such an awesome team with an awesome mascot. It was a fruitless search. But it was a beautiful evening to be wandering around the city.
So, to deal with this goal of acquiring a Toronto Raptors tee, I took matters in my own hands. Well, I put them in the hands of the lovely guy below, who helped me make the awesome t-shirt above. It's nowhere near an official tee, but it suits my needs PERFECTLY.
Rob also made a t-shirt, but that will be revealed later this week.
Back at our "hotel," we caught the second half of This Movie Is Broken. This is a movie that I had to wait patiently to watch in the United States. In Canada, it's just on normal television. This is a reason I wouldn't mind a life up in The Hat.
On our night out in Toronto, we bar-hopped around Queen Street West. We started at Squirly's for beers, whiskey and foods. We then headed across the street for more beer and more whiskey at a bar across the street, the name of which I cannot remember. And then it was onto our last destination of the night: The Bovine Sex Club.
Sadly, we got there just after live-band punk-rock karaoke was ending. But we spent the rest of our night drinking at the bar and flipping through a medical dictionary trying to find the grossest pictures.
Pictures like this. There were grosser ones, trust me.
After our boozing was over, I needed pizza. (No matter what country I am in, I always need pizza late at night when alcohol is in my belly.)
I did not try the poutine at Pizza Pizza, but this guy gave me a chuckle while I waited for my pie.
The next morning we went shopping and browsing along Queen Street West. We stopped at Type, where I picked up a book about yarnbombing and a Canadian magazine called Uppercase. I haven't had a chance to dive into either, but I'm excited about the creative possibilities each seems to promise.
After winning the lottery and spending a good chunk on the tourist attractions at Niagara Falls, my second stop will be all of the home decorating stores on Queen Street West. The name of this one escapes me now, and my searching on Yelp is coming up entirely fruitless, but this place has so many awesome things. I wanted them all.
Toronto, like Pittsburgh, has covered itself with murals. Whenever I'm in a city without a multitude of murals, I feel a little disengaged. There's something about these murals that makes me feel welcomed as an outsider. It's so much better than stark blankness. I couldn't ever live in a city without them.
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