Sunday, August 5, 2007

A weekend in Toronto: Baseball, Carnival and The Canadian way!

Hello everyone and welcome to the fabulous and crazy world of Toronto.

What you will soon find is that the blog will become inundated with beautiful pictures in an attempt to persuade as many of you to come over and see us! Fly Zoom.com or Air Transat for flights under £250 !!!! Is that an AWESOME DEAL or what, people?!!

For some reason Canadians say 'awesome' all the time and Dylan has now picked up the habit.

Firstly for all you Bowie and Dylan fans out there here is some stunning graffiti that commands the complete side of a building downtown. Inoffensive and beautifully done, but if you are looking for live music, there's lots around including a concert venue 2 mins from where we live.
Impromptu jazz festivals and live music everywhere..... But that was last weekend!




This is what we got up to this weekend while wondering the streets of Toronto

We have decided to completely immerse ourselves in the whole north American culture so we went to a baseball game.
Here is a shot of the CN tower from our seats.

Excellent seats, no queues, cheap tickets $10 and you get served refreshments in your seat!! Also absolutely no hooligans. Dylan was accidentally elbowed by a 250-pound bodybuilder who was profuse in his apology then offered to explain the game. I had to resist telling him 'Its just rounders played by boys mate, it 'aint an original game'......that would have been very uncanadian!

Dylan and I are now Blue Jay fans and had a truly excellent night.
Next we plan to see the Canadians try to play rugby with body armour.........ooops I must try to get rid of all this British sarcasm.

Saturday we followed the Canadian carnival through the streets of Toronto, in the scorching heat for about 3 miles, the steel bands were phenomenal, the costumes out of this world, the colours blinding and the atmosphere electric!

Dylan and I were a little underdressed for the occasion next year he wants us to go me in pink feathers and him as a Roman centurian!

Look at these fabulous outfits...

Occasionally a roman centurion danced by...

...or some displaced Valkeries...

...angels who had lost their wings

...steel orchestras...
...common or garden party animals...


...Peacocks Galore...

Not sure quite what this lady was but she featured as one of the few still dancing in the intense heat

Lots of kids pulled mini floats along...

Phew it was exhausting but the occasional coconut sure did help!


We opted out of the after parade party and went out for dinner in little Italy, wonderful!


Today is Sunday and its a long weekend so we still have 2 days to fill... were thinking of jumping on the ferry and going to the 'Islands' in the centre of lake Ontario for a picnic.

If this hasn't persuaded you to come visit us yet......... stay tuned for the next posting....... Chinese lantern and Dragon boat festival? Or maybe Taste of Danforth Fine food and wine festival? Or maybe a visit to Niagara Lake and Falls?

Toronto is AWESOME!
and as they frequently say when you buy a coffee to go...............'you have a perfect day now'

Chilombo