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Toronto So Far

Posted by ellisaurus on July 28, 2016July 28, 2016

En route to Toronto – catching a red eye flight because I am an idiot and I don’t know how to plan. Initially I thought I would absolutely nail sleep on this cause I was totally exhausted. WRONG. It was incredibly uncomfortable on the flight and I did not sleep. I have never actually cosnidered grabbing a pair of noise cancelling headphones so badly before- and I would absolutely be willing to skip out on my Sony brand loyalty for a pair of industry leading Bose NC headphones. Seriously. That bad.

Woke up mid crappy snooze to a beauitul sunrise in the middle of the morning.

One more image to capture the sunrise again.

Coming into Toronto with beautiful hot muggy skies ahead. So much mugginess.

Little did I know that half of the crap I packed was not worth the packing- its totally hot and mucky here and long pants are out of teh question for me. I would be in the nude if possible. Its that freaking hot here. Its hit 35 with humidity at times. I run really early in the day or I do not run at all. In Edmonton I am fine running in 30 as long as I have some water but this is no dice at all. I don’t even consider it.

Got to catch up to Vanellis italian fast food at Upper Canada Mall- used to have this all the time when I was a kid and haven’t seen one since. Turns out nostalgia makes things more memorable than it really is- this lasagna was just ok.

Hot hot hot day in Newmarket and enjoying the sun with the local community grounds- lots of families to soak up the sun and the farmer’s market. And here is somebody playing Pokemon Go.

Fresh produce at the Newmarket Farmer’s Market.

Eating some breakfast at the St. Lawrence Farmer’s Market in downtown Toronto- western omellette and apparently the best veal egg plant sandwhich in the world.

Lots of love here for this farmer’s market.

Everyone grabbing an eggplant sandwich and the line moving super fast- they process a lot of customers here.

Enjoying downtown Toronto at O’s place- the Go Train comes through here. I have also enjoyed the twilight scene mode on my a6000- it takes a series of multiple exposures and combines them to reduce noise and increase detail through a single composition. It really helped with street shots at night, where the F4 of my 18-105 lens was not fast enough to capture street shots without a tripod. A lot of these are from the scene mode setting. Really glad I brought my 18-105f4- let me have a lot of range that I wouldn’t have had with the 16-50 PZ kit lens, and I haven’t been as worried about sharpenss like I am with the 16-50 PZ

I absolutely love the gigantic buildings here.

Walking through the night to go home when Uber failed us.

I just love how ambient everything is here- and here are some more people playing Pokemon Go. Its insane how much PkemonGo has brought people out and about. I love it cause it makes outside so much more vibrant and exciting, even if they are just looking at phones. Just a lot mor epeople out and about.

The night life in downtown Toronto is amazing- there’s always people out and about doing things. Definitely jealous of the downtown here.

Underneath one of the highways.

I dont know what to caption these ats.

I love the building design here- one of the condo units spans across two condo units. This is one of the things I have really enjoyed in Toronto- there is lots of unique character in these buildings.

I am even excited about seeing a Loblaws downtown just cuase everything looks cool..

Being very touristy and getting excited about the CN tower

Night Market – making that super cool ice cream that is liquid poured onto super cooled surface and made right before your eyes- except we were full at this point and skipped out on it.

Stinky Tofu from Mama Bear’s stall- Taiwanese stinky tofu is remarkablty stinky in comparison to Hong Kong stinky tofu…and also much more bland. I got to try it again in the restaurant and…it was still bland.

Deep fried squid.

Having some lamb with rice Toronto chinatown

Produce out in Chinatown

More produce- so much to see

Really delicious HK milk tea ice cream with ok durian ice cream- still am not a fan of durian

Toronto street cars

Gigantic high rise- not as big as others but still impressive to me

Night market decorations

Grilling squid at the Night Market.

Here’s the stinky tofu stand that was just stinky with no flavor- it seriously smelled like sandal feet here.

I forgot what I am eating here. I am not afan of soup noodles as much.

This noodle dish was AMAZING. In house made noodles.

Meat kebabs. Ok.

Green beans- ew vegetables.

One of my faves of the trip- beef wrapped in green onion cakes.

Some kind of squid dish that was just ok.

Gelato in Italy/Portuguese district downtown Toronto- ok to me, not a huge fan of gelato. Huge fan of friends and gelato though- we got to have some good talks with blistering heat and cold gelato. Too many flavors though- I freeze when I get options and W has to choose for me.

I love the little homes here in this Portuguese district – I love the neighbourly feel and everybody out on their porches.

Some really good pan fried buns.

This veggie pizza was AMAZING at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in Yorkville mall. The spaghetti was also devine as well- I havent felt that way about restaurant spaghetti in ages.

HK cold milk tea at Phoneix Restaurant- my absolute fave.

And my fave dish of all time- hainan chicken at Phoneix Restaurant- every bite is full of flavor

Malaysian curry beef stew- good but not as mind blowing to me now that we have Island Curry in Edmonton that provides almost as good of a taste

I’ve forgotten half of the things that I ate here

Of course dim sum everywhere- the price is much cheaper than in Edmonton- almost 2/3 the cost. And the flavor is awesome.

More beef wrapped in green onion cakes- so so so good. Reminds me of the time I discovered ja leung- hoping I will be able to find these in Edmonton, but I bet I could make these at home, esp with Taiwan style green onion cakes.

Super delish pork belly- not as fat at it usually is too

Jamie Oliver’s restaurant has nice decorations all around

Definitely will come back here again to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant

Running by the harbor front in downtown Toronto- worked up a hell of a sweat and was easily outpaced by J and O, but had a good time all around. The heat was INSANE and it was still the morning. The humidity murdered me. And we couldn’t find slushes anywhere after.

More touristy pictures as we ran in the harbour. I’m happy that I am able to get my workouts in even while I travel. The good thing is that if we come in the winter, there is an Orange Theory Fitness gym nearby that I could hit up incase the weather is crappy for running. Always felt agitated when I couldn’t get my workouts in. The nice thing is that I also came up with a new body weight plan that isn’t a billion push ups- instead its 6 different kinds of pushups- the variation makes everything much more dynamic and exciting.

Right at the start- jealous O and J have this to run along- much better than the runs I have been doing in Newmarket where everything is suburbia hell and there is nothing interesting to look at- no stairs either. I am totally missing the River Valley right noq

Dinner with fam out at night

Disappointed its not an RC F, but still a fan of the RC series. I know it hasn’t had a lot of great reviews, but I am always a fan of Japanese sports cars just cause they are so rare now. I personally would love to own an RC F, over an M3 or C63. Just the rarity of it is neat.

Got a pair of old man sandals…and I love them. These are dad sandals. And they feel great. I have upgraded from thong sandals. Originally was going to hunt for Birkenstocks but these take the cake for character- everyone has told me they are hella ugly. Nice.

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