Toronto...

I never cease to be amazed by the ability of my fellow man (and woman) to be so immediately accepting and welcoming towards total strangers. My (slightly shortened) weekend in Toronto was punctuated by a series of first-time meetings, swiftly followed by comfortable acceptance and generous hospitality. A great deal of my good fortune is down to the fact the Ollie was the medium through which I met all these people...his own generous, free-spirited outlook on life tends to attract the kind of folk you want to spend time with. To Fred, Jacqui and Richie (the Hellers), Dana, Christine, Carolyn, Tyler, Patricia and Laura - thank you for making me feel welcome, for your hospitality and for an hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable weekend...and please stay in touch.

Those who read this blog the right way (i.e. from bottom to top), our roadside snapshot may give you an idea as to why our weekend was a little shorter than planned...without wishing to beat Lauren over the head with this again (but it is fun...), who in their right mind would hire a car from 'Rent-a-Wreck'?!!! Surely that is just asking for trouble? Anyway, after a last breakfast at L'avenue (I was determined that the 4-egg omelette would not defeat me!), we departed for Toronto in plenty of time to beat the holiday traffic (for Thanksgiving weekend Friday traffic on the Montreal-Toronto highway, imagine M4 westbound on a May Bank Holiday apparently). Less than 10 miles down the road and the car found 40mph too taxing and eventually gave out all together...woohoo!! To be frank, I wasn't all that bothered (at first)...particularly when I found out the name of the hire company...that kept me laughing for a good ten minutes...and there was still plenty of food to keep me quiet (See picture). However, as it became apparent that we were no more than an inconvenience to the hire company and that we weren't going to be sorted out particularly quickly, visions of a boozy night in Toronto with a certain roommate began to dissipate rapidly. Eventually, we were furnished with a new car - after an amusing encounter with a French-Canadian tow-truck driver who happily regaled us with tales of the good old days. Apparently, before the City council interfered with the licensing of tow-trucks, it was quite common for rival towers to torch each others' trucks as competition was quite fierce. At this point, he seemed relatively sane...until he told us that, during this period of 'strong commercial rivalry', he had slept in his truck for 3months '...because at least that way, if they did torch my truck, the police would be forced to investigate it properly...on account of my being dead...'. We were very glad when the car-hire people paid him in cash without any fuss...

The upshot of being late and having to stay in town until the traffic had calmed down meant that I got to sample the must-have culinary speciality of Montreal: a Schwartz's smoked meat sandwich. Schwartz's Hebrew delicatessen is, apparently, the oldest deli in Canada. The sandwich was certainly very good...and good fuel for our (now late-night) road trip. 5hrs in the dark and a couple of anonymous roadside service stations don't leave much to report...although driving in Canada is certainly an experience...and I did learn that poor motorway driving is a worldwide phenomenon - and not restricted purely to Blighty. We arrived in suburban Toronto at 3.15am and fell into bed.

Early rise on Saturday to help Lauren's parents pack up a truck for storage, as they are currently in the process of moving from the 'burbs down onto Toronto's lakeshore (Lake Ontario). I got my requisite picture of the CN tower from the window of the removal van...and think I did a remarkably good job. We met with friends of Ollie's (Dana and Christine) for lunch at Dimmi in Yorkville (THE upmarket part of downtown Toronto). Five bottles of Pinot Grigio later, we had agreed to go for dinner at the house of mutual friends...who happened to be out of town...Dana wants to come across as the big manly jock, but his inner Jamie Oliver is just busting to get out and shout 'Pukkah malarkey!' at every one. While his signature dish (Beer Can Chicken) doesn't look pretty (or even right, for that matter) it tastes amazing. This was only fitting considering the minor palace we were dining in in the owners' absence. Poor Carolyn (housesitter and friend) must have been terrified as several bottles of red wine and three 220lb+ men got involved with each other. To her credit (and my surprise) no stains were incurred and no further cats were lost. The rest of the evening is a bit of a haze...but the hot-tub, vodka and slightly upset neighbours with sprinkler systems came into the mix...

Spent a very pleasant, lazy afternoon on Thanksgiving Sunday hanging out with Ollie's friend Laura in Rosedale (read very nice part of Toronto). Tea and muffins followed by a stroll in the (still!) gloriously sunny park to work up an appetite for South-African style Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner. (Lauren's parents hail originally from Cape Town.) Dinner was enormous and fantastic - pumpkin pie a surprising addition to my list of highly edible foods - and it was with a heavy heart that I took my leave from Toronto. Canada's been great - an unexpected bonus on my travels...it's been about the people rather than the places, but I guess that's my philosophy anyway. I feel like I've made some new friends and I hope I get the chance to come out and visit them again before Ollie finishes his PhD. I've ditched my winter clothes and my clubbing trainers...I've gained a few pounds...but now it's time to get my hike on! Yeah, I'm going to be an emaciated, beanpole traveller with a straggly beard before you can say 'Seoraksan National Park'.

Take care everyone, stay in touch - your e-mails keep me smiling. Next stop South Korea...and only 312 days to go...