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Okay so I’ve been extremely lazy of late and haven’t updated this in like 2 weeks. Public demand has forced another entry. Okay so two people wanted me to write this. And one of them was my mum. The other one is a hot guy, so that’s two good reasons to do it I suppose. So I’ll try and get as much done as I can before my ride comes to take me home. It’s probably way too detailed for anybody to be bothered with but it’s also for me!

When I’d left off I was at Julie’s. We had a hilarious time at the Fall Fair, there were 6 rounds of demolition derby (we managed to sit on the awfully uncomfortable bleachers with the really friendly locals for nearly 3 of those rounds, including one where a girl came in second), a whole bunch of farm animals (I’m sure they were trying to pass of dogs as rabbits – those things were huge!), a ride operator that I’m sure was trying to make Julie and I puke (we sorta went past him in the beginning yelling that it sucked, so he turned up the juice) and some lovely locals at the chip wagon (I’m sure they were dancers, not strippers).

Julie’s aunty and uncle were fantastic, I got to meet the greyhound, bird and two deaf ferrets, and they showed me video of the singing telegram they got for Jules’ homecoming. They also caffeinated me and gave me cake, so they are already some of my favourite people!

I was going to go back to Toronto on Sunday night but was convinced to stay another night for a promised caesar salad (that didn’t arrive, but that’s okay). I got up superduper early on Monday morning so Jules and her mom could drop me off at the bus/train station. Where I missed the train and a bus, but managed to make it back to Toronto safe and sound. That day the weather was absolute shite so I checked back into the hostel and spent the day shopping at the Eaton Centre and reading in the bookstore. I couldn’t decide between MD and CD so didn’t make any major purchases. I’m sure my credit card is happy about that.

On Tuesday I arranged to meet up with my friend Darren, who I met in Edinburgh. He had just moved to Toronto that weekend and we had coffee and then went back to his place for dinner (an offer of free food and I’m anyone’s). I met his flatmates who were awesome (and extremely hyperactive), and they made me stay and wait for the ice cream man to come up the road in his van. I blame the sundaes totally on Karina, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. So I was late for my movie date, and we ended up seeing Matchstick Men (no Johnny Depp for us that night), which was okay. All in all, a brilliant day, however.

Wednesday I spent the entire afternoon walking around Toronto Zoo. The weather was awesome and the zoo was pretty impressive (the first ever zoo to arrange animals by geography, not by genus). I was a little bit rushed to get around the whole thing in 4 hours, but it was mostly done! I got to see Komodo Dragons, month-old tiger cubs (so cute it was ridiculous), seven (!) elephants, moose, arctic wolves, raccoons, grizzly bears and beavers (they are massive, they could easily take out a small child, I’m sure)! There were lots more animals, naturally, but I liked the beavers. So for my last day in Toronto, I managed to top up my tan as well as see a bunch of cool stuff at the zoo. Didn’t ride a camel, but there really wasn’t time … I went out for dinner with David, and then we went uptown to meet Candice for cocktails at some random student bar, after taking a wrong turn through Korea town (totally not my fault). We had a few drinks, met Candice’s friends (all very lovely) and somehow ended up with a martini glass under Candice’s arm and a drinks menu in my handbag in the middle of Tim Hortons eating donut holes. It was a perfect night, right down to getting an empty subway car on the way home and David playing his beautiful red guitar for me (still think it needs a name…).

To be continued …