So I'll start this post with our arrival to Toronto :D
Ames and I arrive in Toronto, retrieve our luggages and are now standing in the airport, wondering how to get to the downtown area, where our hotel is :P We've already decided against renting a car and so we're standing at the airport, near those information computers, which by the way, are pretty useless... I'm thinking either the public transit or perhaps I shuttle bus, cos a cab is just going to cost us a fortune. Ames calls the information and asks what is the fastest way to get to downtown... and the person on the line answers subway... can I say: LIAR!! LOL
All right, so we have to get to a subway station... and so I ask the currency clerk which tells me I have to take a bus to the station. Fine. We find the bus stop... I look at the map, we're waiting. A bus arrives... it's not the one I was expecting, but according to the map, it should get us to Spadina station and that's fine with us... Next to us is a South American couple in the same situation... they ask the bus driver, and she tells them her last stop is Spadina station... Good :D We get on the bus... still in awe to really be in Toronto LOL :D But soon, I'm not feeling too good. Now, I usually fly on an empty stomach, because I don't want to get sick... I also suffer from motion sickness... so I was getting a bit dizzy and definitively wasn't feeling good... and the bus was stopping at every light!! After perhaps 45 minutes, we stop at this place... it looks like a huge bus stop (you know, those glass house where you wait for the bus when it rains and snows?), but I don't see anything else... tons of ppl suddenly get on the bus and the bus driver disappears for a couple of minute... I don't see any sign at all... and I'm pretty sure it wasn't Spadina station. So we sit and wait and once the bus driver comes back, our journey continues... only, the bus is now going in the direction we've just come from!!! At this point, I'm panicking a bit, because I'm definitively not feeling well... but i'm still optimistic and thinking, perhaps it'll turn soon... After two more stops, I ask the lady behind me where did we just stop... and she answers me Lawrence West Station... Quick look at our map and Lawrence West Station is indeed a subway station... Now, Spadina isn't Lawrence West... another bus stop... I turn twds Ames and I'm like: I want to get out of this bus, NOW! Let's just go back to that subway station... so we get down at the next stop... Just before getting down, Ames asks the bus driver about the subway station and she's all like: that's where we just were... I'm going back to the airport now!
Phew, good thing we decided to get down.... unfortunately, the South American couple was still on!! I hope they eventually got to downtown LOL
At this point, we were starving, so we stop at a Wendy's. Now, I've become addicted to Wendy's ever since I started my job... there's not many more Wendy's in the province of Quebec and I just love their baked potatoe... Unfortunately, I'm still not feeling really well... the chickenburger really tasted dry... so I pack my baked potatoe and figure I'd just eat it later... So we start walking to the station... and let me tell you, 4 bus stops is a long way! LOL :P so finally, we ended up getting on the bus again to go to the subway station... Once at the subway station, it was easy... Ames is really good with direction and we figured it out quite easily :D We finally arrived to Dundas and easily found our hotel :D No problem with check-in... So after probably 2h30-3h, we made it, we're in our hotel room!! And it only cost us 2.75$ each LOL :P
So at this point, we want to rest... perhaps a nap... we ended up reading a little bit, looking at our list of UBS, zapping through the TV channels... It's about 4h15 and I ask Ames if she wanted to go walk around a little bit. I'll try to make this story short, but see, my sister (Emilie) loves Lacoste (the crocodile brand). In Montreal, there was a 50% sale on everything except classic shirt on Saturday... my mom couldn't drive my sister to the store on Saturday and my sister wasn't too enthusiastic at the idea of going with my dad... (my dad's a sweetheart, but he's the type to go: just buy everything LOL :D and my sister is the type of girl who feels guilty after shopping because she spent too much money (well our parents' $$)). Anyway, so Emilie asked me if I could go look in Toronto if they had the same sale and if yes, if I could buy the shirts she wanted it. So she wrote down the address, open hours of the store and me, being a really nice and good sister, decides to look for it. Now, the store is on Bloor Street and our hotel is on Bay Street... if you walk straight on Bay, you're going to run into Bloor... easy right? Also, on our way to the hotel, we changed subway at Bloor Station which is only 2 stations away... it's not that far right? So up we go... and walk... and walk... and walk. God I swear, we were "next street, it's the next street for sure"! LOL :D Turns out Bloor street was almost 10 blocks away!!! So finally find the store and find the shirts and yes, there's the 50% sale on Saturday... Poor Ames, the face she made when I told her we had to come back the next day LOL!!
Now, Ames and I each had books we were looking for on this trip. Ames was looking for Wolf Tales IV, Velvet Glove (reprint by Emma Holly), Hidden Agendas by Lora Leigh, Sylvia Day's blacklist and Never Lie to a Lady by Liz Carlyle (the new one). As for me, I was looking for Exit Strategy by Kelley Armstrong, The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes by Anne Stuart, Jennifer Cruise and Eileen Dreyer, as well as Robyn Carr and Deborah Smith's backlists. So on our way to Bloor street, there's an Indigo!! Of course we went in! LOL :D My books weren't there, but I think Ames found Hidden Agendas... but that was it... also, there was the buy 3, get the 4th free sale, so Ames didn't buy anything...
Now, what goes up goes down right? LOL :P so after finding the Lacoste, it was time to go back to our hotel and this time, we walked along Bay Street. There was a couple of UBS on both sides of the street, but good girls we were, we only went in the ones on our side of the street LOL :D In ABC bookstore, Ames found 3 books! As for me, I abstained... knowing we would come back tomorrow with Cindy and Kristie.
On our way back, Ames gets a phone calls and it's almost 6pm, so we figured it was Kristie. However, when Ames answers, it hangs up. I look at my cell phone and I missed 2 phone calls! No! So I call Kristie and she says she would be late. That's fine, cos I think we were about 15 minutes away from the hotel... So we walked faster and got a glimpse at the World's Biggest Bookstore! Back at the hotel, one of us stayed in the lobby to wait for Kristie, while the other went to shower :P Ames was first... then we switched... and I was on my way to the elevator to go to the lobby, all clean and dressed up when I saw Ames and Kristie walking towards me! Greetings, hugs :) Kristie and Ames changed and we were back down, to get a cab. Poor Kristie... she really only had time to put her suitcase down, get the books out of her carry-on bag to show us what she brought LOL :D and change and we were on our way to the medieval dinner theater.
At the medieval dinner theater, we made it just in time :D Didn't have to wait around at all... also, got nice place in my opinion... and if you've read Kristie's post, you know that we had the Red Knight. I really thought he looked like Aragorn. I enjoyed it and was surprised that the food was this good LOL :) I got some videos of the horses, the joustings and the fighting that I will upload later tonight :D After the dinner theater, we went back to the hotel and lounge around with something to drink LOL :P I had apple juice ^^; very daring right? We got to our room and I think the Fifth element was playing on TV... I know Ames and Kristie were watching it, but I fell asleep in the middle of it. The last memory that I had of that night is Kristie asking Ames if they should take out my glasses... and me saying no, that I'd sleep with it LOL :P
In case you are curious, Ames brought three books with her on this trip :P Kristie had 6 I believe and I had 5 :P
Canadian Romance Blogger Meeting, part I
