14th – 16th – Return home

Waking up in the hotel the following morning I was surprisingly un-hungover so after getting my stuff together and checking out, I trotted back to the station and took the train back to Toronto airport and checked into my hotel for the third – and last – time on the trip. 

Not planning on just staring out of the window for the rest of the day I got myself a ticket for a night boat cruise and returned to the Toronto center. Walking around, enjoying the weather and killing time, I unfortunately realized that NomNomNom Poutine was closed on Sundays, so I had to find a different place to curb my hunger for one last pile of poutine. 

Belly completely filled with heavy poutine I trotted about until I ended up at the harbour where I boarded the boat and spent an hour or so travelling back and forth on the river taking in the full beauty of the downtown skyline. Definitely a better view than from the tower – especially because the windows were open letting you get an unobstructed view of the sights.

Walking along the waterfront in the evening.

Toronto skyline.

For the trip home I believe the easiest would be to quote my Facebook post from when I came home. Uncensored – sorry mom & dad; my language is foul when I get annoyed and you aren’t around.

My airport hotel was excellent; flexible check-out times so I was able to check out at 1400 so it fit with my departure. I had checked in to my flight in advance and I just needed to print my baggage tag at the airport and hand it in. 

The airport doesn't have dedicated bag-drop counters so I got in line in the BC check-in line - first in line. The order of people to go the counters next was controlled by two employees. When it was my turn - no it wasn't! An elderly couple had made their own line and rushed to the counter as soon as it was available, completely missed by the employees and I didn't realize what had happened until it was too late. I can't be mad at them, though, they obviously didn't see us/the "real" line because with their heads so far up their own asses all they would have been able to see was darkness. And they were Very Important Couple (tm) so of course they should be able to jump the line and ignore everyone else. And they took so FUCKING long. Finally I could hand over my bag and I was done in literally seconds.

Fast track scanner for security didn't work, so had to talk with a security guy - he let me through manually but pointed out it probably wouldn't have made a difference (next time I want a security guy that can count - the "normal" line was clearly at least 3 times as long). Success! Until my bag got randomly picked for thorough inspection - number 7 in line, and they all took a couple of minutes each. Waiting, among several large families including all generations, including toddlers and small kids. The fucking NOISE!

Finally got done and escaped to the lounge. Peace and quiet for a while. Delicious desserts. But why do they always only have ruby ports and not tawnies? :(

Went to the gate to board. The Very Important Couple (tm) was of course in front. Chaos, as another plane - even larger - was departing at the gate next to us half an hour later. We started boarding at departure time. Of course. And why is it SO FUCKING HARD for people to understand what order to board in? A majority in front of me were not BC so when they were turned away and told to wait for their group to be called they stood like deers in headlights and couldn't or wouldn't understand that they had to step away so others could pass them (WHAT? There are other people on this flight than ME?!? NO! That cannot be!!).

Finally got settled into my seat. 

There were problems with the on-board APU so they had to use one from the ground. It arrived quickly, but it turned out it wasn't big enough, so they had to call for a bigger one. It took close to an hour before it had arrived and we could pull away from the gate, and the mean time they couldn't run any cooling in the plane - and Toronto is/was mid/high twenty degrees. The fucking temperature in the plane... At least the entertainment system was turned on when we sat down and not as when I flew to Toronto where it didn't get turned on until after takeoff. 

The flight was a nice diversion from all the shitty things that lead to this. I do want to know who the fuck turns off the entertainment systems 5 minutes before arrival at the gate. I might be biased; I had 2 minutes left of an episode I was watching, perfectly timed for our arrival. I might have growled a bit too loud as the woman sitting in front of me turned around and looked at me.

Oh, didn't really sleep, either, so of course I was a normal pleasant patient human being arriving in Copenhagen.

Getting off the plane went well, arriving in the new part of the terminal (E for those in the know) but as they had closed the passport controls there they had put up a sign directing us to the control at C instead, including fencing so there was no doubt where to go. A group in front of me went in complete shutdown and blocked the entire hallway because having the employee who was standing there telling them what to do - basically just saying what the sign said - was apparently too much for them to handle. Again; deer in headlights. When I got tired of waiting for their braincell to reboot I started saying excuse me and pushing through which apparently kicked them into gear and they started moving again towards the escalator. For fucks sake (or is it "for fuck's sake"? I want to appear professional): you walk to the left and stand on the FUCKING RIGHT! It's not rocket science, uncultured swine!

Got through passport control - the officer seemed like the most competent person I had met since I checked in - and went towards the baggage pickup. Before that there are those one-way doors; there are two next to each other, and dear man who was short enough to be 12 but bald and grey enough to be 70: if you are aiming for one door go for that one. Don't, at the last moment, switch over to the other one without looking behind you, because it will result in me almost tripping over you and no stop fucking looking at me like that look where you are FUCKING going you are NOT alone in the world. 

Waited for my bag that never showed up so after an hour I reported it lost and went home. Apparently I was not the only one from Toronto that had a missing bag. Had to buy toiletries on the way home because someone in Toronto thought it was important to not send my bag with me (it's probably living its best life in Japan or on the beaches on Bali by now - asshole). Everything is hot and humid here with no relief. There is more wind out of my ass than in the air outside.

The worst part is that Very Important Couple (tm) did get their bags and left long before I gave up - but not before they found some of them on one of the carrousels that wasn't for our flight. 

But don't worry. I am different than before. I have grown. In spite of this I do not sit here and hate people.

Now I fucking hate everything.

For the record, the bag arrived 3 days later so I’m assuming it came over with the next same flight as I was on, and a few days later everything was back to normal. 

Once again big congratulations to Mira and Jeff for getting married. Big thanks for letting me be part of it and experiencing the wonderful wedding (and all the delicious food and snacks… and wine!). Thanks to Lisa for the fun company on my first night back in Canada. Big thanks to Angele for guiding us around Churchill and to the group for such a great time; Chris & Lorne, Dennis & Ruth, Kristi, Dorothy, Donna, Ana, Marina, Jenny, Jeanne and Hillary (and anyone I've unintentionally forgotten). 

Full album can be seen here.

10th – 11th – Toronto

I had a flight out of Winnipeg a bit past noon which despite a half hour delay went smooth and uneventful. We arrived in an orderly fashion but did end up having to wait for our luggage for close to 45 minutes. 

I checked back into the hotel and retrieved my bag in storage, trotted about for a bit before getting a ticket for a late entry to the CN Tower and grabbed a train to the city center.

Walking around Toronto.

Nathan Philip's Square with the city hall to the left 

and a large city sign if you've forgotten where you are.

I had planned to have dinner while in town but I realized I wasn’t really hungry so I ended up just having a walk around in the fading light until around 2130 where I could get into the tower and enter the viewing platform. An amazing view of the city below and in the clear weather you could see quite far. The view was partially obstructed by the countless hand-, finger-, cheek-, forehead- and other sticky prints all over the windows. And due to the interior light and people using flash there was so much reflection. Apparently there is an outdoor platform you can walk out on without the glass, but it was currently closed due to renovation. Ascending to the top floor there were fewer people and therefore a bit less chaotic and noisy. Some of the windows were angled downwards so there were less reflection, but due to their angles they let a ton of light in from the colored lights lining the tower.

It is really annoying with all these viewing platforms where you’re stuck behind glass and I don’t know why I keep paying (often a good chunk of money) go gain access to them. Ah, well, vacation-me is less critical than after-vacation-me when it comes to spending money.

Leaving the tower at around 2330 I returned to the station to grab the train back to the hotel/airport, and thinking I had plenty of time I wasn’t in a rush. I arrived 12 minutes before the next departure which turned out to also be the last departure, so despite I had no problems making it in time I was very glad that I hadn’t spent more time getting back to the station.

The following day I went back to the center to spend the day walking around seeing the city. The sun was out and the temps were high, but the many tall buildings gave some nice much needed shade. There are a lot of large tall buildings in the center – many more than I expected, I think. The roads were pretty wide so it’s fairly easy to get a good view of them despite standing near them. I tried booking a spot on a night harbour tour to get the skyline from the water, but due to a power outage in that part of the city (I thought I was in Toronto and not Toroffto?) they only took cash. Too bad. I grabbed some delicious poutine at a small booth called NomNomNom Poutine – which certainly lived up to their name. Fries, cheese curds, meat and gravy – what’s not to like? 

Poutine. Way better than it looks.

Trying to get out of the heat and maybe resting my legs I spent the afternoon in the Toronto Aquarium. There wasn’t much you wouldn’t see in any other aquarium around the world, though they did lead the guests past the water treatment and purification systems which introductions to what the various parts did, which I thought was pretty interesting. 

Mandatory "jellyfish in front blue background"-shot.

For dinner I ended up in the financial district in a basement restaurant where I had a delicious burger (priced as one would expect for a nice place in the financial district) with a dessert consisting of an excellent pile of 5 small donuts. While they called them donuts I’d argue these were closer to donut holes stuffed with cream. 

4th – 5th of August – Getting to Winnipeg

Flying out and leaving home was as easy as usual especially after a direct connection between Copenhagen and Toronto had been established. It was surprisingly small plane for the distance; a 1-isle A321 Neo, BC was 1+1 or 2+2. It was absolutely no problem; I was just a bit surprised and expected a larger plane.

Arriving at 1500 I had planned with a friend to meet after settling in at the hotel, so when we were getting close to landing I sent her a mail updating her with the current situation. That jinxed it, of course, because less than 5 minutes later the captain informed us that due to a thunderstorm having passed through the area we were put in a holding pattern above the airport. The plan was to stay there for half an hour and another 15 minutes to get down but it took close to an hour before we managed to land, having been queued up behind numerous planes also waiting for the thunderstorm to pass. 

The original reason for returning to Canada so soon since the last time is because I have been invited to a wedding outside Toronto (and that voucher I won during my last visit). The wedding gift is two bottles of Danish whisky; wrapped in bubble-wrap, a plastic bag thoroughly tied so it’d hopefully keep the bag dry if any of the bottles broke along the way, everything wrapped in a towel before putting it all down among the clothes in my bag. I was fairly confident that they would be fine, but my heart skipped a beat (or more) when I picked up my bag in Toronto and realized that it was wet. It took a lot of internal convincing to make me settle down and acknowledge that everything outside was probably wet due to the thunderstorm, and had it been due to the whisky it would have been able to smell it – which I couldn’t. Safely arrived at the hotel a few minutes later (staying at a hotel located near the terminal train is really convenient) I unwrapped everything and confirmed that everything was in order. Phew!

An hour later I got picked up by my friend and we ended up in a nearby steak restaurant for a delicious meal before returning to the hotel. It was so much fun meeting up again after 6 years. 

The following morning I left all the wedding-related luggage at the hotel before returning to the airport and flying out to Winnipeg to meet up with the travel group the same evening. We started with an early dinner where we were introduced to our guide and a rough introduction of the tour itself before we a couple of hours later boarded a bus looking like a trolley that took us on a 2½ hour tour through Winnipeg. It was quite interesting despite having a historical focus but I found myself nodding off several times – through that was likely just due to the jetlag hitting and not the tour itself.

Our tourbustrolley.

We walked through a back road where an artist had painted northern wildlife on multiple buildings.

Returning to the hotel I prepared myself and my bags for a very early morning and crashed in bed.