Quay to the City.

Much like the last time I came to Canada, the relatives wanted to spend time with the kids so they dropped off Jay and me downtown so that we could explore. Their big mall is called Eaton Center and it is 6 stories high. We ate at a cute breakfast place called Eggspectations. We wandered for awhile, and then later wanted to wander the downtown streets. A true tourist, I had the big camera around my neck, my “Toronto” book in my hand as well as a full sized map that I kept referring to in order to get around. So we started walking, and walking and walking. We passed through Chinatown with that all too familiar smell of fish scenting the air (which I love). Made it to Kensington Market which was a very kitschy area with a lot of second hand vintage clothing stores, an eclectic mix of people, and a lot of cute shops with hand made goods. Toronto is like a Benetton ad; a huge mix of people and cultures. On our tour, we learned that there are over 90 nationalities represented in Toronto and over 120 languages spoken. And everyone was nice and polite. Later in the day, Mayleen and Charisse picked us up and took us to another site I wanted to see, the Distillery.

And it was only appropriate that we enjoyed a Canadian beer while we were there. It was a neat area that had more specialty shops, including a chocolate shop named Soma and a photography shop named Pikto.

After our day of sightseeing, we came back home to yet another home cooked meal. I kept asking the cousins to take us to some of their local eateries. Since we already ate dinner, we decided to go grab dessert at a place called Demetri’s. Crepes were their speciality. Speaking of food, in my Toronto book, I kept reading the page that had the top 10 snacks of Toronto, some of which I had, but others I had never even heard of. So one day the girls took us to try Jamaican Roti, which looked like a burrito with spicy (spicy!) curry meat inside. Another night they said that we HAD to try authentic Greek food in Danbury because there was nothing like it anywhere. I thought Daphne’s WAS authentic Greek food….okay, I’m still thinking about the food at Messini’s. For the low low price of $12 (for two people) we got the most amazing meal including fries baked with feta cheese…they were EXTRA generous with the feta cheese! The true Greek salad is not supposed to have any lettuce, it was chalk full of cucumbers and tomatoes, oh man it was good. Then came the Gyros, and it was chicken, and it had fries IN the Gyro. Again, for the low low price of $12…I can’t believe it. What’s funny is that we got there (a big group of us) 15 minutes before it closed, but that was apparently very typical. The girls were saying that most people don’t eat dinner until very late. Afterwards we went and got Bubble Tea, and laughed and laughed and laughed. All of their friends are only 24 and they were so funny talking about all of their challenges (as if they were so old). Best part of the night was when one of them said, well aren’t you guys “older”…like 28 years old? :)