First impressions of Toronto & Parry Sound Cottage Getaway

Hi there folks, well its right about time that I get talking about my adventures to date! My first adventure into downtown Toronto started on Friday afternoon. I decided to take a walk to the train station – note to self, next time catch the Durham Region Transit. That 4km walk was just a bit longer than I had anticipated. Anyway, I caught the GO Train from Whitby Station through to Union Station (Central Toronto). First impressions always go a long way when it comes to the little things in life – and one such thing is a clean and well presented mass transit system. And Toronto’s system does not let you down. The carriages are expansive and there is plenty of leg room. They are graffiti free and very clean! The doors are automatic, and there is ample seating as they are double Decker carriages. I found as well that instead of having multiple smaller stations, Toronto’s system opts for larger stops at major centres along the line. This makes your ride feel nowhere near as long as one would expect.

Upon my arrival into Union Station, there are renovations occurring at the moment, which is fine, however there was no real indication on where the exit was. I eventually just followed my nose and ended up on the north side of Front Street (directly across from Union Station). After climbing the stairs I was struck by just how massive the station is, and the old sandstone architecture of the building was impressive to say the very least. The next awe inspiring sight directly to the west of Union Station is the CN Tower. Wow. That thing is massive! Next time I head down town I’ll be definitely going down there to check that out! After a few photos were taken I made my way along Front Street. I found the Hockey Hall of Fame which is another must see museum however I was lacking time on this first trip. I made my way to a bar and enjoyed a nice Stella while watching the first half of the Russia v Czech Republic UEFA Euro 2012 match. After that I made my way through the Financial District which is only one or two blocks from Union Station. I was simply amazed by the size of some of the buildings downtown. Australia really lacks this kind of architecture that’s for sure. There are some tall buildings in Sydney, but nothing like this. Also, in comparison to Brisbane... Well let`s just say Brisbane is very tiny compared to Toronto.

After my little adventure downtown, I ventured back towards Union Station. Feeling somewhat peckish I decided I`d try a Canadian Big Mac! Well they are almost similar – I would say that the meat tastes a bit different but all in all it wasn`t that bad. I waited for the next train to take me north of Toronto to Richmond Hill, near where my housemate Marco works. Once again the train was fine, this was a peak service however, and there were still ample seats on the train. Also those chairs are very comfortable. After that we made our way up to Parry Sound in the Lakes Region of Ontario!

The drive up on Highway 400 was fine, there’s something about having 6 lane highways which is just impressive. What’s more impressive is the amount of traffic on the road! It`s as if one was driving up the Bruce Highway on a Friday afternoon at 5pm... However the traffic was smooth! Very impressed! We made our way along the highway, and on the way I noticed that there was a sign that indicated we were being welcomed into the region by the Native American tribe of the Iroquois. All along the highway there are sections of rock that have been blown away to make the highway. However there are a heap of little rocks that are piled up on the sides of the road. Marco explained that they are a symbol to show safe travels. There are hundreds of these little structures along the sides of the highway. People stop all the time to make these. We didn`t take the time to stop and take photo`s as we were late as it was. The LCBO / Beer Store close at 9pm sharp all across Ontario and we still had to pop into Sobeys and grab food for the weekend. After we grabbed all that stuff from Parry Sound we made our way to the lake (the name of the actual lake escapes me right now... and not even Google maps is giving me a clue). The area is known for having over 30,000 islands located in the district.

We arrived at the lake at about 9:30PM, which instantly meant it was time to catch up on the beers. It was good company, we had a good bonfire going as well, and we also had fireworks! We let off two Roman Candles before calling it quits as we didn’t really want to wake the neighbours with our shenanigans. Well, more and more beers were drunk and it ended up being a rather interesting night – passed out on the couch! The following day started with an awesome breakfast as we were all feeling somewhat under the weather. Scrambled eggs, bacon and toast were the meal of the morning. We followed that off by going down to the dock and began to try our luck at fishing. One thing to note – Canadians use fishing reels on the opposite side to Australia. Weird little thing but you get used to it pretty quick. We forgot to get bait in town so we decided to try the lures. We had a few bites but no one caught anything. By 3PM people were ready to start napping, which by this time, I was ready for my first beer. I gathered up a few stubbies and headed back to the dock to take the kayak out onto the lake and try my hand at fishing further out. The lake was like glass until the random powered boat would be on the water. All in all it was a fun experience, but I still didn’t have any luck with the lure I was using.

Later that afternoon we all sat around and started shooting the BB gun that Matt had brought up. It was a replica Colt .45, wasn’t a bad little gun to mess around with. We just shot at random targets and it was pretty fun. It’s also scary to note how accurate and to scale they make these toys. It was starting to get late in the evening, so we tried to stream the Stanley Cup Playoffs between LA and New Jersey however for the most part the game was buffering however New Jersey made another upset on LA. One more win will see the cup go down to a game 7 play off! That should be interesting. Anyway, we fired up the barbeque and cooked up a delicious meal and then continued on with the beers and an awesome board game called “Apples to Apples”. I recommend this game for anyone who wants a few drinks and has a brilliant or sick sense of humor. Some of the responses and answers you can make are hilarious. Note to self – AIDS, Adolf Hitler or Saddam Hussein cards always win ha-ha. We finished off the night messy once again so it was time to sleep on the couch again. The next morning was not pretty at all – that’s what happens when you mix beer and rum!

Sunday we packed up and cleaned the cottage and made our way back to Whitby. You could not ask for much more of a picture perfect day. The sun was out; it was a beautiful 27C and just fantastic. I got burnt coming back from the lake, however, it was worth it for the experience that I had. Definitely a wonderful place to visit and more than likely I’ll be up there again real soon.

So that sums up my first big adventure of the trip so far. This week will see me hitting the turps at 5:00AM on Wednesday to watch the State of Origin. Hopefully the Blues can finally make something of themselves and get us a win. It’s my birthday this Sunday – the big 29! Marco and I were originally going to head into the city for the day to suss it out and check it out however we may have new plans. But until then that will just have to wait for the next blog. Until then, take it easy, keep it real and I’ll update you all again real soon.
~Matty