Posted by Vasisht on May 20, 2007 in
Toronto Hangout – it brings us pictures of restaurants, pubs, parks and of course, malls. But there is one more place which we can add to this list, which happens to be our friendly neighborhood library. Let me tell you about the Toronto Public Libraries.
Libraries have been part of almost all our growing years, event though it meant those smallish rooms with bound books smelling of sulphur. I can still remember those days I spent reading superman and batman comics, and then moving on to more mature stuff like Hardy Boys and Sidney Sheldon. Well, you can relive those days even today, and have a cool place to hangout at the same time!
Let me tell you about the Toronto Public Library closest to me – the York Woods branch. Its a neat little building, with huge glass windows and an attached theater (where actors perform on a stage). The library has automatic doors…weee!! so that you can leave with your hands full of books. You are met by a friendly librarian, who sets you up quite fast. Did I tell you borrowing books is completely free?!
Once you get your card, you can go in and start browsing. Like any self respecting library, this one has categories too. They have books and periodicals of various languages too. Imagine my surprise when I found Kumudam and Kalki here. They also have a good collection of hindi and tamil movie DVDs. Coming to books, they have all the usual categories of fiction, self-help, cookery, educational and many more. Kids have an entire section to themselves, stocked with science books, encyclopedias and of course, colorful story books.
The library has a few computers too, all connected to the internet. Those wishing to study, can enjoy the comfort of the huge sofas in the reading section. The library has photocopiers and printers too. I barely notice all these, when there is this huge stack of superman comics in front of me. And I didn’t know Asterix came in this cool, hard-bound avatar. (Puff puff) Catch ya later. Have to carry this ‘heavier than schoolbag’ bundle of books home.
Posted by Vasisht on May 16, 2007 in
Toronto Sitting comfortably in the corner of Yonge and Queen, is the Toronto Eaton Center. The website claims that it is the number one tourist attraction of Toronto, deservedly so. Lets take a tour.
The entrance belies the size of this behemoth. It looks tall from outside, alright. But you will never expect it to be this huge. Bangalore’s Forum is like a departmental store, when compared to the size of this place. The first thing it reminded me of, is an airplane hangar. Maybe it was the roof. Talking of the roof, there were huge birds hanging from the roof, giving the feeling as though you have entered a huge zoo – Welcome to the Jurassic park (Sorry, couldn’t hold myself).
It was almost Christmas when I went there. So, the place was dressed up for the occasion. Greeting you when you enter, was a huge Christmas tree studded with, guess what, Swarowski crystals! The tree was glittering like a great big diamond! And it was rotating too! There were some pretty neat hanging trees too.
After this, you enter rows and rows of stores. It was console release time. So there were Wii stalls, which were more crowded, and the PS3 demo unit in the Sony store. I played Motorstorm on the PS3 – it was fun. After all the stores, comes a huge Sears (a large retail chain like WalMart). The Eaton Center was bought by Sears sometime in 1999. So, the back end of the building was fully occupied by Sears.
If all this walking makes you hungry, head out to the Food court. As you would expect for a mall of this size, the food court is huge, with representation from all the usual suspects. There were some Indian eateries too, if I remember right.
The Toronto Eaton Center is a great place to hangout. The fact that this place has been around for 30 years gives history as a reason for you to pay a visit.
Posted by Vasisht on May 4, 2007 in
Toronto Hey there! This is Vasisht from Toronto, Canada. Yup, the same place India and Pakistan used to meet in those Sahara Cup matches. Well, otherwise we haven’t heard much about Toronto. Well, imagine my surprise then, when I landed at this place! I shall be writing about the hangouts in Toronto from now on. Lemme start with a brief intro to Toronto.
Toronto is in Canada, as you might have noticed. No, it is not the capital. It lies somewhere on the South East edge of Canada, on the shores of lake Ontario (I don’t know why they call this a lake, it is so damn huge!). It is a sprawling city, and supposed to be one of the most multi-cultural in the world. You can see people from everywhere! It is just like any other city in the U.S, though much less crowded. When I landed here, the first thing I thought was – Hey! Where are all the people?!.
Whenever you see a pic or come across something on Toronto, you see this nice tower standing in the background. That, is the CN Tower. You can dig up more about The CN Tower here – The CN Tower Portal. I shall continue with my perspective on it.You can see the CN Tower the minute you get down anywhere at downtown. The first thing that strikes you when you see this tower is – Cheez…u kiddin’ me? That was supposed to be one of the tallest towers?. Yup, it looks so small from a distance. But it grows bigger as you get closer, yeah, really. You understand the sheer size of it when you stand right under it. It is HUGE!
When you enter it, you are greeted by a ticket booth. This place is no hangout – it costs around $25 CAD (Canadian Dollar, 1CAD ~ Rs 37) to enter this thing. When you do make up your mind and splurge, you join a queue to a photo. They take your photo in front of a greenscreen, and will hand it over to you later, with the tower instead of the green. You then proceed to a strange contraption, something like a metal detector, but more like the body scanner in Doom 3 (yup, it has red lights and stuff).
Then comes the lift. It takes you to the sky dome. The lady in the lift shoots out statistics, some very helpful, like the speed of the lift, and that no-one died when constructing the tower (or I guess it was 2 people). Anyway, you come out of the lift, into this sky dome thing. It is just a big circular room, with great big windows, and you see the whole city below you. There is even a restaurant here, where you can eat, and stare at the Ontario lake at the same time! They have some binoculars, which, sadly, doesn’t work until you drop some coins.
Once you are done drooling at the city, you can go to the glass floor. The glass floor is where they have made a part of the floor out of glass. You can see right down to the road underneath you. It takes some getting used to, but after that, it is fun. You can then roam around, reading the history of the the tower. After you are done, you can do two things – pay $15 more and go to the Sky-pod (which is still higher), or get the hell out.
Well, the photo I mentioned before, they show it to you when you come down again. But it ain’t free. You can also buy some CN Tower themed stuff at the mall downstairs, like some small silver keychains, and all sorts of things with the photo of the tower. All said, it was a good experience, and a must for anyone visiting Toronto. The view of the lake looks awesome from the tower.
