Toronto part II

Since my last entry I have been a busy boy. This posting will mostly comprise of photos...as a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Almost immediately after my last entry I saw a local band called Yeysayer (above), who were very good! They played at the horseshoe tavern - one of Toronto's best (aka most renound) live music venues. If you want to know what they're like, download some!

I also visited the Toronto Steam Whistler Brewery (shock!), which was interesting. It is a fairly small operation, but the lager is good - & the free samples kept flowing! I somehow managed a gym session after my tour & samples...a fairly lazy one at that!

Halloween. It's a BIG deal here. The costumes that were on show were, in the most part, incredible. Everyone goes to a lot of effort (myself included, of course), as you will see from some of the pics below...

Our group got smaller as the night went on, but Kenny (Waldo/Wally) & I made it through to the end (somewhat the worse off for it though). We went to a total of four parties that night. Plenty of mischief caused throughout too! ;-)

I managed to get some work! General labour & cleaning windows. I found the job online & worked for a couple of weeks for this English guy who runs his own company, so cash in hand. One afternoon, we had finished early, so we went to the pub for a quick pint. That quick pint turned into a 8 hour drinking session that ended up with David (my boss) & I doing Kareoke at midnight in a random sports bar. We chose Wonderwall by Oasis...you can all appreciate how bad it must have been! Funny times.

Check out this muriel! Now that is some impressive street art! There are about 10 of these in the far West of the city. If you are ever in Toronto, check them out!

After one month in Toronto it was time to move on. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in TO & cannot thank everyone enough for making me feel so welcomed! These people know who they are ;-) I got on a train on Tues morning at 9am & arrived in Portage-la-Prairie at 7pm the following day. Canada is BIG. The train was pretty good though, lots of leg room & there was an observation carriage to enable excellent views of the scenery!

I stayed with Linda & Barrie in Portage-la-Prairie, some of my Mum's friends from her time on Canadian soil. Once again, I was truly humbled by the hospitality & warm welcome I received. Linda & Barrie showed me around the small farming town of Portage, & treated me to some lovely home cooking! :-) The town is where many WWII pilots trained, & it is situated at the southern tip of the Manitoba lake - which is over 300miles long! The pics below are of the lake that Linda & Barrie's house backs onto. The Prairies offer some excellent opportunities for some amazing sunset pictures!

I enjoyed my couple of days in Portage, where I got my first real snow (4 inches), but it was time to move on again...Edmonton next stop.

Toronto, Canada