Thank God for the information desk.

After clearing customs and spending some time searching for my boss, who was scheduled to arrive before me from a different town, I inquired and was informed that her flight had been cancelled. So much for sharing a taxi into town. I could have taken one myself, but if the mantra is “travel as you would if you were traveling on your own” then taking a taxi into town would not be the answer. Not for me. I’m WAY too cheap for that. And this is Toronto. Not Delhi, not Beijing, not even New York. My impression of Toronto (well of Canada and, by extension, Toronto) is friendliness, so setting off a mini adventure didn’t seem too dangerous.

My emotional memory went straight back to the times I landed in Europe and had no detailed plans for getting from point A to point B. There’s terror in that, but there is also a thrill. And I can’t believe I used to do that. But without a mode of connecting to the outside world (all the technology in the world can only save you if you have access, and I wasn’t going to be paying $1 a minute on my cellphone) and not one penny of local currency I had some small obstacles to overcome.

The nice gentleman sitting behind the information desk was able to help me figure out how to use public transportation to get to my destination. For only 3 dollars Canadian I could take a bus from outside the terminal that would bring me to a subway station where I could make one transfer that would get me to a subway station within 2 blocks of my hotel. Zing! And apparently I could get a bus/subway ticket at the exchange counter down the hall. Ok, that sounds promising. And, it turned out I could buy the ticket with US dollars and not have to exchange any funds. Turns out I could buy a return ticket with US dollars as well, right there in central Toronto. The things you learn when you have to learn them.
So off I went.

I got to the subway with no issues, except a packed bus. It isn’t that fun to travel on a bus with luggage. But for $3, I’ll “suffer”. On the subway I heard the name of the next stop and figured I’d better get out and take a picture.

Jane – the comfort of mom. I looked around for the comfort of an empty bladder, but there was no Jon to be found.


I got to my stop (Queen), which ended up being at the end of huge mall. I ended up walking the length of the mall (2 blocks?) before I could figure out how to get the heck out…and when I did I was glad I had printed the map of my hotel’s location “just in case”. Since my boss wasn’t going to be arriving for awhile, I decided a walk was in order. There wasn’t going to be a lot of sightseeing time – this was probably it.

So, I got to go Roman for a couple of hours. I did a loop and ended up down by the CN Tower and it was Zo tall!



Circling back to my hotel for the night, I passed a building. What was this Kitty -corner from my temporary home? St Michael’s Hospital.



I just grinned. Signs all around that I was safe and sound.



BTW on the way out of town a few days later I bought myself a Candy bar – Cadbury’s caramel. I’ve found the Canadian and UK versions of Cadbury’s are WAY better than the US version. The chocolate is creamier and much, much better!