Hi all!
This morning I had a bit of a lazy morning as I've got a bit of a cold at the moment. Courtney headed off to work and I slept a bit more, then read my book and got ready. I left hers at about 10.30am and caught the streetcar into town. As the weather forecast had predicted, it was raining and pretty miserable.
I walked to St Lawrence Market, a food and fresh produce market in a beautiful building. I bought my Toronto magnet and then wandered around. I enjoyed a chicken parmigiana sandwich at Carousel Bakery and then just looked around.
Next up I found a supermarket, which I know sounds dull, but they've been hard to come by thus far in this part of the world! This was a proper one like we have at home too. So I stocked up on fruit while I could!!
I walked to Courtney's work and dropped off my purchases, then walked to the Toronto hostel where I met up with Adam (my brother) and his friend Mikey. Mikey has been travelling the west coast of the USA for a few weeks and Adam only left Australia yesterday. We walked in the rain to Yonge-Dundas Square (Toronto's version of Piccadilly Circus or Times Square I suppose) and then back. We hung out for a bit and then I walked with them to the bus station. They were heading to Collingwood to snowboard for three days. Though brief, it was great to see them. I won't see them until the end of Feb now!
I continued walking uptown and again passed through Queens Park like yesterday, except today half the snow had disappeared! Probably due to yesterday's sun. It was still raining, it has been literally all day today and like yesterday morning you couldn't see the CN tower!
I continued walking north and did so for 20 minutes until I arrived at the Royal Ontario Museum. It opened in 1912 and is a mix of Canadian history and artefacts and artefacts from other parts of the world.
I mainly went for the Canadian exhibitions so went there first. I started in the more recent Canada section and read about how beaver fur was used to make felt and various warm clothes. I also read about how the maple leaf appeared as a symbol of French Canada in the 19th century and wasn't adopted by the rest of Canada until the 20th century. There were paintings and beautiful furniture, and the information signs talked about various French and English influences. Many British loyalists fled to Canada during the American revolution.
The second gallery was about the first people of Canada. Six descendants helped put together this exhibition. Many beautiful tradition outfits and tools were on display, as well as beaver fur and clothing and artwork made from porcupine quills. I read stories and information about particular tribe leaders and saw huge canoes built to transport people and goods.
I was a bit grossed out when I read that part of the process of preparing moose skin back in these days was to rub a "brains and fish liver mixture" on the skin - yummy!
I don't know too much history of Canada but I know one day when I come back I will learn and explore more, but the indigenous people here seem to have suffered a similar fate to those in Australia. People turned up and took over, forced them to assimilate and sadly in the process their culture and ways of doing things have just about been forgotten. The British promised them a free state of their own near this area when the revolutionary war was taking place, but due to losing they could not fulfil this promise.
I spent quite a long time in these two galleries and then moved on to dinosaurs and minerals. The rest of the museum was of a similar theme to the Natural History Museum in New York last week, and all of a sudden I hit a wall. It was about time to meet Courtney anyway so I walked to the subway.
I bought some public transport tokens for the next couple of days. The ticketing system is really old school here. You insert a token you purchase into the turnstile! I caught the subway down to where Courtney works and had a quick dinner in the shopping centre food court of Thai chicken soup and a small fries.
I met up with Courtney and then we went to 'The Second City', a comedy club. We saw a really funny show called 'Come What Mayhem' derived from headlines of 2016. It bordered on politically incorrect at times but that's what made it funny! We didn't get some of the references as they were Canadian or American but we followed along with most of it.
Niagara Falls tomorrow!
Love to all
Claire xoxox
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