High Park (Image heavy)

This morning we finally got my work permit sorted, so hopefully everything is correct first time.
I then took the subway to High Park station and walked down into the park.
I took a load of photos, but this one was little worrying:

Here are a few more:

I then followed the ‘Discovery Trail’ to the beach.
Yep, in winter.
I was amazed that there was snow on the beach. I didn’t even know snow settled on sand. I decided that it would be an interesting juxtaposition to build a snowman and a sand castle next to each other:

I then followed the trail back up and past a load of really expensive houses!

I lost the trail and ended up with this huge building looming over me.
High Park church.

I then went to nofrills and other boring tasks before going home. It’s a good job that I went out at the time that I did. The day was really warm, reaching 9 degrees and most of the snow was just a slushy mess on the way home.

**TTC pass spoiler alert**

The new pass is absolutely hideous. I read that a company is actually paid to make these things. The photos on them are getting worse and worse. What the hell is this one supposed to be? I know the pic is blurry, but there isn’t much more clarity in the actual thing.
In short, it’s complete shit.

I wish we could get TTC miles.

I have travelled on so many ‘rockets’ today.

This morning I took my coat back to the store (1 bus, 2 trains) because I decided I didn’t like not having a hood. I managed to get store credit on it and then I left to the LCBO.
I felt a bit of a scaff going in a liquor store at 10:30am and what made it worse was that after bravely going in and asking, they didn’t have the beer I wanted!
I went back home, but on the way realised that I would be standing outside in the cold tonight and I really needed a coat. I decided to go to Yorkdale to get a coat with my store credit (2 trains). Just as I was on the North bound train, I realised that I had a Yorkdale gift card at home that I should probably use. Damn it. I’ll have to go home first. I realised this just as the doors were closing at St Clair.
I took the bus home and ate some bagels and jam. Yum Yum. I also finished off the pineapple from yesterday. Tasteless GM shit.
I then went to Yorkdale Mall (1 train, 1 bus). After buying my coat, I then went home again by train and bus. The new coat is heavier, but has more pockets and more importantly, a hood!

After talking to my mum and my sister (briefly) on Skype, Jasmina (Baldo’s girlfriend) and I headed down to the Air Canada Centre for another Raptors game (2 trains and a bus).

I think it was the first game of the season or something, but they’d gone all out and were handing out free hot dogs, poutine, chilli and drinks. The hot dogs were about two inches long and served with mac n cheese. God knows why. The hot chocolate wasn’t so hot, the coffee was stone cold. I didn’t try the chili, but Baldo had two. The line for the Poutine was about half a mile long, and that’s before exaggeration. They were actually so slow at serving it, we were stood in the line for an entire hour! We got talking to some girls in front and they suggested the apple cider. Wowzerz!! That stuff is good! There’s nothing cider about it at all, it’s just warm apple juice, but it was delicious!
This was our view from the line:

The wait was worth it though, we got some kind of combo of poutine and random meat products dumped on top. We chucked it down as fast as we could because, a) the game was about to start, and b) we couldn’t feel our toes at this point.

It didn’t stop there, as we entered, we all got free T-shirts, there were free towels on everyone’s seats and on the way out I got free potato chips!

The basketball game was pretty awful though. The Raptors have no defence. The fireworks at the beginning of the game were quite fun though. The raptor dance pack are totally lame and I was offended by people trying to breakdance to AC/DC. Kardinal Offishall added insult to injury at half time with his awful medley of classic hip-hop tunes. He pretty much ruined every one of them.

I know I’ve moaned a lot there, but I actually really enjoy basketball games!

We came home, but I trusted Baldo as my glasses were in my pocket. We got on a train North, well done, except it was Finch and not Downsview! Pillock!
2 trains and a bus and I was home.

Total = 10 trains and 6 buses.

I picked up the new TTC pas today. It’s hideous in it’s snot green colour.
Price has gone up too. I expect quality! Damn you TTC!!

The Moscow

This morning I told my job I was leaving. Not great timing as I just won sale of the week last week and they were talking about keeping me on full time after Christmas.

Baldo and I are now cooking some dinner, so here’s a story from Liza to keep you entertained for today!

Moscow subway

Hello, today I would like to talk to you all about the subway in Moscow as I have noticed a few differences compared to the one that we use every day in Toronto.

The entry to the subway is quite similar to the TTC network, apart from there are several ticket windows along the wall. This area is called the ‘Kacca,’ which in English means, ‘cash.’ This is where several women sit and sell tickets to the people who want to ride the subway. It is much cheaper to travel in Moscow, it is only $1 per trip.
After you have purchased the ticket, you can then go underground to wait for a train.
The escalators take you underground. At the bottom sits a lady who blows a whistle and shouts at the commuters telling them which side of the escalator they should stand, and which side they should walk in order to keep the flow of people moving. “Stay on the right side,” she shouts, whilst blowing a whistle to attract everyone’s attention. You would think that this would be very annoying, but for most of the time, this woman is actually asleep in her chair. She is even provided with monitors so that she can watch the people travelling on the escalator. In Toronto, this rule is not enforced and people stand wherever they like, causing people to miss their trains because they are held up by slow people.

Once you reach the platform, you are greeted by a wonderful sight. The concourse in between the two train tracks is like an art museum! The vaulted ceilings are held up by Roman-like columns and it is all decorated so beautifully with gold trim and mosaics. The ceiling even has chandeliers hanging down.

Here are some pictures of the beautiful stations I am talking about:

Unfortunately, you will probably only experience the real beauty of the subway from looking at pictures on google. This is because so many people use the subway every day, that there is barely any room to even breathe, never mind move. If you thought the TTC was bad in rush hour, take a look at this picture of Moscow subway!

Getting all these people on the subway can be quite a problem. Everyone is pushing to get on, trying to cram into every spare centimeter of space. The sleeping homeless people on the circular central line make it even more difficult to find a space. Because the trains never stop on this central circle, they just lie there and ride it all day. However, if you can’t get on a train, you don’t have very long to wait. At some stations a train comes as often as every 20 seconds!
Despite Toronto subway only having two main lines, tourists to the city still find it confusing. For instance, many stations have the same name, Eglington and Eglinton West, St Clair and St Clair West, Queen and Queen’s Park, Dundas and Dundas West, Don Mills, York Mills, Old Mill etc. In Moscow, we have 250 stations, all spelt in Russian, so if you are a tourist, you have absolutely no chance of remembering which station it is you have to travel to.
Here is a map of the Moscow Subway.

In conclusion, there are a lot of things that make the Moscow subway better than the TTC. But at the end of the day, I am glad that I can get a seat to sit on when I travel to school instead of having my face pressed into some Russian man’s armpit!

The confusion of the TTC system.

I am no longer confused as I’ve made all the mistakes now, but for someone new to Toronto or tourists, the public transport system is pretty badly designed.

1. Buses will only take exact fare. How the hell is anyone not from Canada going to have $3 in coins to pay for the bus from the airport? Travel agencies only give notes.
2. The barrier-less system is good as it allows you to get off a bus and straight onto a subway without having to go through turnstiles, (especially when you’ve wiped your pass with a strong magnet). However, there are no signs explaining this system, just loads of signs telling you the perils of not having a valid ticket, leaving tourists fresh off the plane worried that there were no ticket machines at Kipling.
3. What the hell is with the names of the stations? Are the engineers really lazy or just so stupid that they can’t come up with new names? For a start there are two stations called Yonge and two called Lawrence, then there’s Lawrence West, Eglinton and Eglinton West, St Clair and it’s West, Queen and Queen’s Park, Dundas and Dundas West, Don Mills, York Mills and Old Mill. Going to the wrong version of the station name adds about 40mins to your journey. Spadina, St George and Kennedy are transfer stations which is fine, but Sheppard/Yonge and Bloor/Yonge have two different names depending on which direction you are traveling.
4. ‘Street cars’ are actually trams. Surely all cars are street cars because they drive down the street?
5. Bus stops regularly don’t tell you the schedule of the bus, route, or even the numbers that stop there in some cases, making it impossible to know if it is worth waiting for.
6. Trams and buses frequently abandon you in the middle of nowhere, usually with about 2 stops notice.
7. Avoid ‘short turn’ buses as this means they are about to abandon you with no given reason.
8. You’re only allowed to enter the rear doors of a street car at certain stops, which are only mentioned inside the car itself, so unless you know, you have no clue.
9. Buses have a yellow cord for the passengers to signal the stop they want to get off. On the subway, the yellow strip is actually the emergency stop alarm.
10. Driver announcements on the subway are either so quiet or so distorted that they might as well send them by homing pigeon or semaphore.
11. The paper ticket from the bus allows you to ‘transfer’ to a subway or street car without paying again. I’ve not seen any signs explaining this system.
12. They have bought some new trains that are more open inside and supposedly perfect for wheelchair users. Except, wheelchair users can’t get on the bloody things because, unlike the old worn trains, the new ones sit too high on the tracks making it impossible for wheelchairs to board. The TTCs answer, “wait for an old train to come along…”

Ride The Rocket!

I hate reading that slogan on posters. It makes me angry. Usually because I’m sitting on the train stationary between two stations with no explanation why and no amount of anything rocket like.
TTC is bollocks.

This morning I went to the science museum. It’s good, but there’s no real structure to it’s layout and most of the exhibits come without instructions making you wonder just what the hell you are supposed to do with the contraptions on show. For some reason you enter on level 2 and then go down to level 4, 6 and up to 5. In that order.
It was alright. A bit cack in places, but it was made infinitely better by the fact that all the school kids were at school and me and about 10 other people had the museum to ourselves.
The planetarium was quite poor, but I guess I was spoiled by the largest one in the world when I visited San Francisco last year.
Also, every bastard thing was in English AND French!!! I didn’t know I’d crossed the border into Quebec. They even duplicated some of the exhibits just to have a French version.

On the way back I made a detour to the Apple store. Only because I wanted a photo of all the post-it notes left for Steve Jobs before they get taken down.
Big mistake. I ended up taking the subway in rush hour. I couldn’t get on the first train so I had to wait for the second. The good news was that I got to ride one of the brand new ‘rockets.’ Then some grumpy old bastard shouted at me and called me a ‘shmuck’ for blocking the doors when there was nowhere else to stand.

I got home and ate my third thanksgiving dinner. But there wasn’t much left, so my house mates treated me to some pasta because they are worried that I am too thin. It was nice 🙂