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February 08, 2006 ( Wednesday, February 08, 2006 ) So, for those of you who didn't know. I recently just took a trip to Toronto. Here is the backstory. A few weeks ago, the message board on SarahSlean.com was hosting a contest in which you submitted your best live photo from one of Sarah's concerts. The winner received two tickets to the Gala Opening of her exhibit of her paintings at Spin Gallery in Toronto. I entered, not expecting to win because A:) There were beautiful photos submitted by other people B:) I live here, and why would they pick someone in B.C. Well, I ended up winning and didn't find out until Tuesday that I was actually going. The prize didn't include airfare or anything else, but thankfully a friend in Toronto helped me out and I was able to make it. After about a day's worth of planning I was off to Toronto for the first time. I left on Wednesday (Thursday at 1:30am). The bus trip was a bit miserable as it was too cold and bumpy for me to sleep. I got to Calgary and headed to the airport. The flight was good. Some turbulence which I don't tend to handle very well despite my best efforts to keep a calm look on  my face. I arrived in Toronto in the dark, which I think helped keep me from being overwhelmed. Since I couldn't see much of the city, it didn't scare me as much. I was staying at a hostel downtown called the Canadiana Backpackers Inn (Scott said "right, like people just happen to backpack their way into Toronto...) I reccomend this place to anyone staying  in Toronto. They were very nice, and it was a very comfortable (and cheap!) place to stay. When I signed in they asked if I would like to join them on a trip (5 minute walk) to the CBC building for a live taping of Royal Canadian Air Farce (that's the episode) That was a neat thing to experience. It aired on Friday night. I got to meet Luba, which was pretty cool. After the taping I was prett tired after being awake for like 30 hours, so I went back to my room and slept. On Friday I started off my day going to the CBC Museum which had an exhibit called Growing Up With CBC. It was cool to see all of the old Mr.Dress-Up and Friendly Giant stuff. I went to the gift shop and loaded up on some cool CBC stuff. After that I wandered around downtown trying to find Canada's Walk Of Fame. After circling the general area for a while, I finally found it and took a photo of Celine Dion's star for Scott. Then I went to the Eaton Center, which is Toronto's big ma  ll. Wow. It's definately an impressive building. I went to Chapters to look for a book that I've been trying to find everywhere, and stumbled across a large group of people. I noticed a sign saying "In Store Signing by Pamela Anderson". I stayed and got a book signed. She's very...much like you would expect. Lot's of hair, boobs, and make-up. I've never seen someone with so much make-up on. Kind of scary actually. After that I shopped for a bit before getting lost on my way back to the hostel. Friday night was the big event and I met up with Jim, who was my guest for the gala. We showed up and it was fairly quiet when we got there. Soon the gallery started to fill up and we started to mingle with people. It was  also a media event and we tried our best to stay out of the many camera's views. Much Music, E-Talk Daily, Bravo, CTV, and many more media people were there. We talked to Sarah for a bit after her interviews were done. She was suprised to see me, even though she picked the winners of the contest. She didn't think that I would travel that far just to see her exhibit. She seemed nervous, which was understandable as she was about to play a few songs. Her set was short, but she played beautifully with a string quartet. After she was done, there was more mingling and we pointed out some quasi canadian celebrities- Ben, the lead singer from Billy Talent - Rex Harington, dancer and recent Star on the Walk of Fame recipient - Damhnait Doyle, singer from the band Shaye -Kevin Drew from Broken Social Scene -Mary Margaret O'Hara, singer and sarah's costar from the movie Black Widow - Much Music Hosts Devon and Sarah I think there was more, but I honestly can't remember. The gala was fun, Sarah played another set which ended with a sing along of Edelweiss from Sound Of Music. We chatted with her again after and she was much more relaxed. The gala turned into like...a nightclub so we left around 12:00 and I went back to my room and slept.  Saturday, I slept in and when I looked outside it was miserable out. Rain was blowing sideways and I really had no desire to be a part of that. I was supposed to meet a bunch of Sarah fans at the gallery that afternoon, so I braved the wind/snow/rain/hail/sleet and walked down. I passed a little store (apparently it was a boutique *rolls eyes*) and I saw some Barbapapa stuff so I had to go in! I bought Scott a gift because Barbapapa is like an inside joke with us. The gallery was almost empty which was nice because it gave us a chance to really  look at the paintings. Her art is very...dark and deep. It's kind of like carnival stuff at times. I like it though. I asked the owner of the gallery, who was incredibly friendly, how purchasing the art would work and he said that they do payment plans which means that I could soon be the proud owner of a Sarah Slean painting. I have to decide still. After the gallery, I went with some of the fans (we call ourselves the Passioneers) to another concert, the Bluebird North Tour. It was pretty good. The artists were Valery Gore, Matthew Barber, Peter Elkas, D'ahri, Blair Packham and Shari Ulrich. The songs were really amazing since each person would start their song solo and the other artists would slowly kind of blend in and by the end it was a whole group song. After the concert I navigated my way home. On Sunday, I went to church. For a long time I've wanted to go to church in a big huge cathedral. I finally got my chance. The church was insanely huge. Inside, I couldn't stop looking around at all the stuff. The service was very good and it was definately worth it. After church, I wandered around downtown, taking photos of stuff. I went to the Hockey Hall of Fame which was actually pretty interesting. I touched the lucky loonie from the Olympics and felt the the Stanely Cup. I went back to the hostel and decided to go see an outdoor concert a few blocks away. On my way over, I saw a Much Music segment being taped in the much building. The concert was short, it was a Gordon  Lightfoot Tribute with Luke Doucet and Liam Titcomb. After that, I dec ided to go to the CN Tower. It was alright. One of those over-rated tourist things that you just have to go and do. The city is so big that you can't even really comprehend it. It freaks me out that there are bigger cities than that. After the CN Tower, I went back to my room and got ready to go for dinner with Nicole, Neal, and Nicole's boyfriend. Dinner was good. It was the first time I had ever had Thai food, and I like it. After dinner we walked around for a bit before everyone headed off to home. I got back to the hostel and caught up on e-mails and talked to Scott on MSN before packing and getting some sleep.Monday I had to leave by 7:30 am to catch the bus to the airport. I was early and had to wait with my suitcase in the cold. The toronto airport is much easier to navigate than I anticipated and I made it onto my flight quickly and easily. The flight itself was alright. I watched Elizabethtown which was....kind of dumb to tell you the truth. But at least it kept me occupied. Landed in Edmonton and then connected Calgary. In Calgary I had to wait for a few hours for my greyhound bus so I put my stuff in a locker and took off downtown for food. It was strange. When I was in Calgary, I had that sense of comfort you get when you're in your own space. I think I felt that because for the first time in days I was in a place where I knew and a place where I wasn't worried about getting lost, and I had memories and feelings attached to it since Scott and I used to spend time downtown when he lived there. After eating and walking around I went back to the Greyhound station and boarded my bus. The trip wasn't as bad but it was still boring and bumpy. I was happy to be going home. |
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