sunny sunny week

lots of new photos! yay :)
here the dialog to them:

(check again later for the rest of the photos - like snakes!)

picking charles up from the airport proved to be quite an ordeal, since canadian customs assumed he was a criminal - they even called me on my mobile to confirm i knew who he was and to ask how long i'd been a citizen. him coming to visit me obviously makes me a potential criminal as well.

early on saturday we headed off to montreal! whee :) loooots of hours of bus riding later we arrived and were met at the station by anf, neesa and a loud trumpet. we made our way to our couchsurfing host's house and then met jose and marie-france to go to a couchsurfing meet up in town, after a fantastic vietnamese dinner (yay for pho!). still being jet lagged, charles was close to collapsing at midnight, so we made our way home.

montreal

neesa's plan had been to get up at 7 on sunday, but somehow we didnt really comply... so we got up later, and went to maria's host's house for a great brunch of crepes and salsa dancings. we wandered the old town and the port area, saw the amazing basilica and said goodbye to the other surfers. charles and i then went to meet his old friend from the south of france to have sushi with him and his girlfriend. deeeeellliiiiiciiooouuuusss! and SO stuffed. we then sat in a bar and listened to a great performance of manouche (gypsy jazz) music. monday morning we went to get fresh baguettes and croissants and then climbed mont royal and went for smoked meat at the famous "schwartz's" before heading back to the bus.

back in toronto we explored china town and beautiful kensington market, hung out in the macintosh store of the eaton centre, tried bubble tea, went by the lab (no mice show, tho...) and had yummy food and personally imported french wine for dinner.

kensington and spadina

wednesday we slept in, had a great brunch on the patio, explored the distillery district (where i discovered that the heavenly chocolate is not macedonian but venezuelan), and then went for an educational and fun lao new years dinner with the csers.

distillery district continued

next on our list was greek town, so after a breakfast of pancakes we went to the athen's cafe and ate more food :). loooots of food, as you can see. after gorging on yummyness we went to the CN tower to meet the others for their WWF charity climb where we had free yogurts and indulged in more trumpet blowing (see anf's photos here). i then took charles to see his first baseball game, yay :) but toronto lost, boo :(

CN tower with the blue jays

9.25 on friday morning our bus departed to niagara. we beawed the falls, ate burgers, then headed to states for more beawing. easy-peesy for me, not so easy for charles (with him being a criminal and all, you know). we fought our way across the border (i'm exaggerating a little) only to fall asleep on the grass in the sun... with the sound of rushing water around us, and a nice cool breeze. that makes it sound worth going to the states for, right? we DID have a look at the falls, and the complex is much more admirable from the US side, but the falls are just much cooler on the canadian side. duh. we also spent some time gawking at casino addicts back in canada, frrrreaks. back in toronto we made yummy pasta and had the second bottle of imported wine.

niagara falls

saturday! we headed off early to toronto island - beaaaautiful weather and sun shinyness and sand and beach and snakes! yay for snakes.

snakes!

then little india for a yummy yummy lunch and lots of saris and bangles and bindis and sugar cane juice and whatnot. quick spurt back to the eaton centre for export-goods and then to marin's for her bday party with games. our present: some cream from little india containing 24k gold and turmeric to make your skin glow.

little india

sunday we were lazy, had a late brunch, laid in the sun, packed and then rushed off to the airport to meet jose, anf and neesa there. we had to see charles off and i was glad to have distraction on the way home, and then a huuuge "chocolate brownie binge" at fran's diner.

yay for a good and happy and sunny sunny week :)