Febs
Established Member
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2006
- Posts
- 1,671
After a slight prod from littl_flier, I decided to post up this e-mail I recently sent as my first trip report. 
Week 1 - Toronto and Burlington, ON, Canada
We landed in Toronto last Saturday night, and within a few hours witnessed the biggest dump of powder I'd ever seen anywhere. In under an hour, the streets went from being clear, to covered in 10-15cm of fresh powder. Of course we did the Tourist thing, taking heaps of photos and generally looking like idiots.
On Sunday we drove down to Niagara Falls, then onto Buffalo, NY to pick up an iPhone (or two..maybe a few more
). Niagara Falls was OK, but you sort of get there, take a few photos, and that's about it. Definitely worth seeing though. The boats weren't operating and just being outside was freezing! We walked across the bridge to the US too, as they've built a lookout/bridge thing which makes for a better view than the Canadian side.
Spent the week working in Burlington (about 45min from Toronto), where the average temperature was about -7degC, and at one stage -17 with windchill. Beanies, gloves and scarves were an absolute must (and even then, it wasn't pleasant). Nice people though...really laid back and friendly. One of the guys from our client even offered me (without asking) a drive of his Mercedes Benz S550. They go for $280,000 in Australia, and the roads were icy. Crazy! Good fun though.
We drove back to Toronto on Fri night and checked out the CN Tower (world's tallest building until the Burj tower in Dubai overtook it this year). The lookout and glass floor were actually pretty lame, but the restaurant was fantastic! MUCH better than the restaurant on top of Centrepoint.
On Saturday we went ice skating in an outdoor rink, and I checked out an ice hockey game. Couldn't get tickets to an NHL game which was a shame, but the "AHL" (American Hockey League) game had plenty of seats available (maybe because the teams suck? haha). Plenty of fighting though, which was fun. Pretty funny seeing two players absolutely belting the cough out of each other, with the referees just standing around watching. It was only when the helmets started coming off the referees stepped in. Crowd seemed to love it!
That night we went to find a local nightclub. First we tried one which looked pretty dead, so we headed down the road to find one with a queue out the front, then another (much bigger) queue in a nearby carpark! Apparently the queue starts in the car park, then they take you down to the main queue in small groups...all the while, you're standing around in freezing temperatures. Insane. Anyway we decided that wasn't for us, so turned on the Aussie charm and skipped the queue no problems.
Inside it was like an amusement park - about 10 windows (each with a queue) to pay for entry, then this icy tunnel thing into the main nightclub, past a few "living windows", with actual actors dressed up in costume going about their business (one was dressed as a maid, baking cakes). Inside there were 4 floors (each one huge) with various "interactive art" displays, sculptures, more living windows (one guy was dressed up as the Grinch, watching a gold TV?!) and some really interesting bars. It was the craziest (and biggest) nightclub I've ever seen. Even after being there for an hour, we were still discovering more rooms and hidden areas. Awesome place. CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA
So that was my Canadian adventure. Would I go back? Yeah, definitely (would love to check out Vancouver and Quebec too). Would I go back in December? Ummm....maybe.
Today we're off to Memphis, then back to Kansas City next week. It's fun over here, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to an Australian summer! When I heard it was 35+ there the other day, to say I was jealous would be an understatement.
All the best.
Cheers,
- Febs.
Week 1 - Toronto and Burlington, ON, Canada
We landed in Toronto last Saturday night, and within a few hours witnessed the biggest dump of powder I'd ever seen anywhere. In under an hour, the streets went from being clear, to covered in 10-15cm of fresh powder. Of course we did the Tourist thing, taking heaps of photos and generally looking like idiots.
On Sunday we drove down to Niagara Falls, then onto Buffalo, NY to pick up an iPhone (or two..maybe a few more
). Niagara Falls was OK, but you sort of get there, take a few photos, and that's about it. Definitely worth seeing though. The boats weren't operating and just being outside was freezing! We walked across the bridge to the US too, as they've built a lookout/bridge thing which makes for a better view than the Canadian side.Spent the week working in Burlington (about 45min from Toronto), where the average temperature was about -7degC, and at one stage -17 with windchill. Beanies, gloves and scarves were an absolute must (and even then, it wasn't pleasant). Nice people though...really laid back and friendly. One of the guys from our client even offered me (without asking) a drive of his Mercedes Benz S550. They go for $280,000 in Australia, and the roads were icy. Crazy! Good fun though.
We drove back to Toronto on Fri night and checked out the CN Tower (world's tallest building until the Burj tower in Dubai overtook it this year). The lookout and glass floor were actually pretty lame, but the restaurant was fantastic! MUCH better than the restaurant on top of Centrepoint.
On Saturday we went ice skating in an outdoor rink, and I checked out an ice hockey game. Couldn't get tickets to an NHL game which was a shame, but the "AHL" (American Hockey League) game had plenty of seats available (maybe because the teams suck? haha). Plenty of fighting though, which was fun. Pretty funny seeing two players absolutely belting the cough out of each other, with the referees just standing around watching. It was only when the helmets started coming off the referees stepped in. Crowd seemed to love it!
That night we went to find a local nightclub. First we tried one which looked pretty dead, so we headed down the road to find one with a queue out the front, then another (much bigger) queue in a nearby carpark! Apparently the queue starts in the car park, then they take you down to the main queue in small groups...all the while, you're standing around in freezing temperatures. Insane. Anyway we decided that wasn't for us, so turned on the Aussie charm and skipped the queue no problems.
Inside it was like an amusement park - about 10 windows (each with a queue) to pay for entry, then this icy tunnel thing into the main nightclub, past a few "living windows", with actual actors dressed up in costume going about their business (one was dressed as a maid, baking cakes). Inside there were 4 floors (each one huge) with various "interactive art" displays, sculptures, more living windows (one guy was dressed up as the Grinch, watching a gold TV?!) and some really interesting bars. It was the craziest (and biggest) nightclub I've ever seen. Even after being there for an hour, we were still discovering more rooms and hidden areas. Awesome place. CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA CiRCA
So that was my Canadian adventure. Would I go back? Yeah, definitely (would love to check out Vancouver and Quebec too). Would I go back in December? Ummm....maybe.
Today we're off to Memphis, then back to Kansas City next week. It's fun over here, but I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to an Australian summer! When I heard it was 35+ there the other day, to say I was jealous would be an understatement.
All the best.
Cheers,
- Febs.
). I think you will find it a little different. I could not imagine being there at this time of the year :shock: .
) only to find out the planned YYZ-ORD has been canned, this time due to weather.
