Last Sunday was my final day in Toronto. My flight left some time after 7pm, so I had almost a full day.

We stayed in Craig's neighbourhood for most of the day. Throughout my visit, he explained to me the ethnicity of each neighbourhood. Apparently Toronto is quite ethnically divided into neighbourhoods. He neglected to tell me that he lives in the Polish/Ukranian neighbourhood. His gramma is Polish/Ukranian, so I wondered if he chose to live where he does for that reason. He said that he just thought it was a nice neighbourhood. The possibility of homemade perogies was just a bonus.

This is all leading up to the fact that his neighbourhood was having a Polish/Ukranian festival that weekend. We walked the few blocks to the main streets, in the humidity, and enjoyed some ethnic food. I shopped a bit, picking up something for my dad (a trucker's cap which he will not wear ironically...I had to tell him to remove the cardboard that was used to keep the cap's shape while being shipped), for my mom (an Easter egg keychain), for The Brat (because she's Ukranian), and for JNads (because he's damn hard to buy for, and because I couldn't find a Mennonite comic book the day before). I took some photos, but now I wish that I had taken some before the festival. You can't really see the neighbourhood in these photos.


As you can see, it was a little dismal that day. But it was still humid! The entertainment did its best to cheer us up. I was distracted by the coats those poor bastards were wearing. Who's idea was it to make them dance in the humidity while wearing long, red velvet coats?





We didn't stick around to see the rest of the entertainment, even though there was a band that had everyone on their feet the day before, still to come in the program.


Craig lovingly took a photo of my bald spot, but then told me to turn around and smile. So I did. I think that the one from behind worked out better.


Those were the last photos taken in Toronto. We wandered around the street fest for a while, sampling perogies and Polish vodka. It both smells and tastes like nail polish remover! Yummy.

I managed to cram all of my stuff into my suitcase, Craig's hockey bag, and my backpack. At around 5:30pm, he drove me to the airport and dropped me off. I checked in without a problem and without waiting too long (this electronic check-in and seat selection is truly civilized), and then I went to the PizzaPizza stand for one last taste of Toronto. I got a little souvenir with my ghetto slice...a piece of metal about the size of a grain of rice. Luckily, I didn't crack a tooth, so I wouldn't have to delay my flight while taking legal actions. I should have saved that bit of shrapnel, but I just tossed it away. So much for sentimentality.

After a few hours, I was back in Vancouver, where it was sunny, warm, and comfortable. The Ontarians can keep their humidity.
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Addendum: This has nothing to do with the trip, but, it does. The lovely, expensive, organic, earth-friendly dog toy that was purchased in Niagara-on-the-lake lasted less than five minutes. See.