I've been kinda procrastinating on writing up an entry about Thanksgiving break and here I am, finally getting down to it. I made a trip up to Toronto with Ming, Chunyi and Jingshen. We headed out in Chunyi's car on Thursday morning, with most of us kinda exhausted from the previous night's party.
Stopped over at Windsor for dim sum lunch after having some trouble locating that shop given the ambiguous directions which we received. We reached there 20 minutes before they were open for business, so we just camped out in the car across the street and dashed in the moment they opened their doors. Ate a ridiculous amount of dim sum. Decent but not fantastic.
Continued the drive up to Toronto and checked into our hostel, Global Backpacker's Village which was at the junction of Spadina and King's. Decent location and the four of us shared a dorm with another guy. We headed out and went to Roy Massey Concert Hall to grab tickets to the Shaolin Monks performance. Walked around the city a little in the freezing temperatures and hung out at the mall across from the concert hall until it was time for the performance. Pretty fascinating performance I must say and it was held in this old concert hall which looked kinda medival. Walked all the way back to Spadina and had late dinner/supper at a chinese restaurant serving noodles and fried dough fritters with soy bean. Light drinks later that night at the bar in our hostel before we turned in for the night.
Our dorm room
+001.jpg)
Fuzzy image of the Shaolin Monks after their amazing feats
+007.jpg)
Huge Christmas tree at the mall (all the bling bling stuff are Swarovski crystals!)
+002.jpg)
Waking up late the next morning, we headed down Spadina towards Chinatown area and had a good breakfast/lunch at a noodle/roast meat shop. I had my dose of char siew and soy sauce chicken noodles. Good stuff! We walked around the city for the most of the afternoon, with Jingshen and Chunyi taking photos of the city using their digital SLRs. I had the opportunity to check out the city itself rather than do the more touristy stuff like heading up CN tower (which I did the first time I was in Toronto during fall break in freshman year). Still, a couple of shots of the city and CN Tower is a must-have.
Our hostel
+014.jpg)
One of the many iPod advertisements in Toronto (this is across the street from our hostel, on King's)
+015.jpg)
Spadina: Entering Chinatown
+010.jpg)
Shops along Queen's
+012.jpg)
CN Tower
+017.jpg)
We went over to Pacific Mall, one of the largest asian malls in the area and went for what I still consider the world's best tau huay! I never thought I would have the chance to return to that place again and it still tastes so marvellous. Fresh and smooth tau huay. Heavenly. Walked around Pacific Mall a little before going for hot pot buffet dinner (once again, another place which I thought I would never visit again). Awesome food and we ate a ton of beef and veg and beef balls and all. We had individual pots of soup for everyone so we ordered one 麻辣 pot. Potent but so awesome to have that in the freezing winter. We went out for drinks at a pub along Queen's (I think), can't really remember the name of the place. Watched some sports on TV and chatted for awhile before heading back to sleep.
The Toronto City Hall
+020.jpg)
Sunset while driving to Pacific Mall
+023.jpg)
Saturday morning, we went to the Old Distillery District and checked out several picture galleries. Pretty cool place, converted into a mini arts town from the old distillery. The old lifts, pipes and furniture were largely in tact but put to new uses. Interesting place.
Between Art Galleries at the Old Distillery District
+030.jpg)
The Old Distillery District
+033.jpg)
We went to Dynasty Restaurant for dim sum lunch. This time, excellent dim sum, with one of the best cheong fun around. Great food before we drove home to Ann Arbor.
It's been a pretty good trip; a good chance to get away from Ann Arbor and experience city life again. Now, heading into the final stretch of the Fall semester, tackling projects and finals coming up.
That's all for now. Have a good night.
P.S. Apologies for the poor writing but I can't really be bothered to edit it, so forgive the poor language / sentences / paragraphs.... you get the idea.
Stopped over at Windsor for dim sum lunch after having some trouble locating that shop given the ambiguous directions which we received. We reached there 20 minutes before they were open for business, so we just camped out in the car across the street and dashed in the moment they opened their doors. Ate a ridiculous amount of dim sum. Decent but not fantastic.
Continued the drive up to Toronto and checked into our hostel, Global Backpacker's Village which was at the junction of Spadina and King's. Decent location and the four of us shared a dorm with another guy. We headed out and went to Roy Massey Concert Hall to grab tickets to the Shaolin Monks performance. Walked around the city a little in the freezing temperatures and hung out at the mall across from the concert hall until it was time for the performance. Pretty fascinating performance I must say and it was held in this old concert hall which looked kinda medival. Walked all the way back to Spadina and had late dinner/supper at a chinese restaurant serving noodles and fried dough fritters with soy bean. Light drinks later that night at the bar in our hostel before we turned in for the night.
Our dorm room
+001.jpg)
Fuzzy image of the Shaolin Monks after their amazing feats
+007.jpg)
Huge Christmas tree at the mall (all the bling bling stuff are Swarovski crystals!)
+002.jpg)
Waking up late the next morning, we headed down Spadina towards Chinatown area and had a good breakfast/lunch at a noodle/roast meat shop. I had my dose of char siew and soy sauce chicken noodles. Good stuff! We walked around the city for the most of the afternoon, with Jingshen and Chunyi taking photos of the city using their digital SLRs. I had the opportunity to check out the city itself rather than do the more touristy stuff like heading up CN tower (which I did the first time I was in Toronto during fall break in freshman year). Still, a couple of shots of the city and CN Tower is a must-have.
Our hostel
+014.jpg)
One of the many iPod advertisements in Toronto (this is across the street from our hostel, on King's)
+015.jpg)
Spadina: Entering Chinatown
+010.jpg)
Shops along Queen's
+012.jpg)
CN Tower
+017.jpg)
We went over to Pacific Mall, one of the largest asian malls in the area and went for what I still consider the world's best tau huay! I never thought I would have the chance to return to that place again and it still tastes so marvellous. Fresh and smooth tau huay. Heavenly. Walked around Pacific Mall a little before going for hot pot buffet dinner (once again, another place which I thought I would never visit again). Awesome food and we ate a ton of beef and veg and beef balls and all. We had individual pots of soup for everyone so we ordered one 麻辣 pot. Potent but so awesome to have that in the freezing winter. We went out for drinks at a pub along Queen's (I think), can't really remember the name of the place. Watched some sports on TV and chatted for awhile before heading back to sleep.
The Toronto City Hall
+020.jpg)
Sunset while driving to Pacific Mall
+023.jpg)
Saturday morning, we went to the Old Distillery District and checked out several picture galleries. Pretty cool place, converted into a mini arts town from the old distillery. The old lifts, pipes and furniture were largely in tact but put to new uses. Interesting place.
Between Art Galleries at the Old Distillery District
+030.jpg)
The Old Distillery District
+033.jpg)
We went to Dynasty Restaurant for dim sum lunch. This time, excellent dim sum, with one of the best cheong fun around. Great food before we drove home to Ann Arbor.
It's been a pretty good trip; a good chance to get away from Ann Arbor and experience city life again. Now, heading into the final stretch of the Fall semester, tackling projects and finals coming up.
That's all for now. Have a good night.
P.S. Apologies for the poor writing but I can't really be bothered to edit it, so forgive the poor language / sentences / paragraphs.... you get the idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment