I haven't blogged in a really long while and I think getting away from it was good for me. These past two weekends I was just able to soak up the experience.
Last Friday I spent some time with my high school buddy and watched Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Then the rest of the weekend I spent with my cousin and watched Guardians of the Galaxy. Those were the last two movies I wanted to watch of the summer!
This weekend was much more interesting. I stayed downtown all weekend and Toronto night-life sealed the deal. I am definitely coming back. It's just the fact that the city is so awake.
Friday night I was with my same high school buddy from the previous weekend. We and another of his friends had plans for dinner and then we'd go visit a club. Buckerfest was going on along Yonge Street which is where we ended up walking up and down a few times. The festival is like a fair without rides and a lot of street performers. There was so much going on I was just feeding off the energy, I love big crowds so much.
When we got to the club my buddy forgot his ID so instead of going in we went back to his place again via Yonge Street. Not going into that club was so sad, even though there wasn't much going on at that time (it was pretty early for the club) I had just wanted to check it out. He felt so bad he gifted me his unused backpack.
After sleeping over at his place the two of us went to Cora's for breakfast (wow I can't get enough of that place) and then went to go find him a wallet in the Eaton Center (so next time we go out he won't forget his ID). Instead of a wallet we found some nice red chino skinny jeans, which I wore today and after a few hours actually was comfortable.
The Eaton Center is another place so filled with people. Even though WEM is bigger it's also really wide, giving the allusion that there are less people in the area than there actually are. I don't like that, I like the busyness of the crowds, and the Eaton Center, as well as Yonge-Dundas Square has that in spades.
Hailing each other farewells I went to my cousins place in downtown where they took me around China Town to Kensington Market, which by itself is totally amazing (all by walk too). Kensington Market is a marketplace situated on and around Kensington Ave. It's an incredibly multicultural place. In one alleyway, there were food stands and I felt like I was in South America. There are so many little shops selling so much cool stuff.
Later in the evening we went out to a place called Snakes and Lattes which is a cafe where you can play board games until 2am (which we did). It was incredible. At first I was so skeptical of the place, it felt like the back of the comic book store where nerds brings their cards from some TCG (trading card game) and plays like their life depends on it. But once we sat down, everything around me zoned out, it felt like we were sitting at our own dinning table with just ourselves.
I think the most amazing part was after we came out of the cafe, the city was still so awake. I remember thinking that 2am here was like 10pm in Regina.
The next day again we went to Kensington Market but via a different route both there and back. This time we were picking up items from several different places and I realised, not only is the city incredibly multicultural, it's also like it's own world with regions. There's China Town on Spadina, surrounded by Kensington Market behind it, Queen Street (an urban flea market) diagonally south of it, Korea Town on Bloor above it. And if you go down Bloor more there is Little Italy. China town runs along Dundas for a bit before it turns into more of an urban area where the Eaton Center and Yonge-Dundas Square is. There's the AGO museum too, and a really nice park behind it. All of these places give different vibes from day and night, and I love it all. I've definitely fallen in love with that big square of downtown.
Until I return I guess.
Innovating Life
~ASKalburgi