Second Canadian Post, Eh?

Continued from First Canadian Post, Eh?

Wednesday, 530 PM EDT
We get to Toronto and we ride for forever until reaching our hotel which is located on College and Yonge Street. The view from the 6th floor gave me a bird's eye view of the busy downtown Toronto area. We're within walking distance of quite a few restaurants and shopping areas. The famous Eaton Centre is only about three blocks from us, so we appear to be in a good location.

Now, the purpose of me boarding a plane and coming up north in the first place has nothing to do with Toronto. The reason I'm even in the area is to attend a Boxing Hall of Fame event on Friday night near Syracuse, NY. It was supposed to be a trip taken by me to meet some friends of mine in Buffalo and then drive to Syracuse. But, after realizing how close Toronto was to Buffalo and the fact that The Mrs. was not feeling the best when we took our anniversary trip in April, I decided to buy an extra ticket and make it a 2nd vacation for us. Of course that was before realizing there was a strip club within two blocks of my hotel. LOL! Just kidding. Kind of... I shouldn't be surprised that they have them here. After all, this is the home of the Slutwalk.

Wow, they're discussing Anthony Weiner on the news here in Toronto. It appears that his wife is going to have a what Sonia at LogAllot would probably refer to as a "weenie." First your husband publicly admits to sending bulging underwear photos to other women and now you have to have his kid. Sucks for her. Anyway, back to the city of Toronto. The one thing I can say about Toronto is that they have the begging-est (I know it's not a word) people I've ever seen. Every block, you'll be asked for "spare change" at least two or three times. At least! Now, I'm not one to ignore people, so I'll make eye contact and just say "no." But, after a while, it gets old! One lady had a nice Pomeranian dog that (in my opinion) she dirtied up to make it look homeless, too. The dog's coat didn't appear to show long-term dirt. It honestly looked like she threw dirt on him and put on some tattered clothes to make money. I may be wrong, but I doubt it.

Toronto is a busy city of almost 3 million people. The most shocking thing to me about Toronto is the cultural makeup. Asians are every where in Toronto. Everywhere! I've never been to a place where white people are the minority. I'm seeing three Asians for every white person and it's great!

Wait. That sounded bad. I mean that it's great that there's so much diversity in the city. I've always pictured Canada as a land filled of Viking-looking red heads who say "eh" all of the time, but it's far from that. It's a wonderful mix of cultures consisting mostly of Asians and there's a strong Indian influence as well. Either that or I'm seeing a lot of them because a Bollywood festival is in town.

Setting the stage for the Bollywood Film Festival

Actually, Asians aren't the majority. I'm exaggerating a bit. However, they do represent roughly 30% of Toronto, but the area where we're staying is near the University of Toronto which have a lot of Asian students. I guess my noticing this is a product of me growing up in a town that lacked diversity. My one wish, if I had to live my life all over again, would be to grow up in an area with multiple cultures and have more than only just black and white friends.

8:45 PM EDT
The Mrs. and I walk over to Fran's. It's a diner that's been around for 50 years. It serves breakfast 24 hours along with daily specials. The Mrs. goes for a hamburger and I try the daily special which is an order of beef ribs. The food was excellent! I thought the fries weren't all that great, but she enjoyed her burger and I thought my ribs were legit. We leave there and on our walk back to the hotel, I turn my back for a few seconds while looking into a store only to have some guy flirt with The Mrs. and tell her how pretty her eyes were. Look, dude. Just because there are only six black women in Toronto doesn't mean you can have mine.

Okay, I lied, it's more than six. Maybe 10. After a long day of walking and toting luggage, I'm tired. We make it back to the hotel in time for me to finish watching the Bruins destroy (again) the Canucks in the Stanley Cup Finals. It wasn't too long that I got into the bed and slept like a drunk toddler.

Tomorrow, we'll hit up the Eaton Centre and see what it's about.

I added this shot for my homie over @ EmDottie.com. She loves this store.

(To be continued...)