Oh, Canada! - The Vacation 2006, Part 2: My old neighborhood...

Gosh, am I ever gonna finish this series or what? Anyhow, if you're just joining in, I've been periodically posting stuff from my vacation in Canada, and I know, they are posted far and in between, but hey, who said I was on a deadline?

Without any further ado, I give you.... DAY 2!

Arghhh!!! Flash...Too early...

Ah, that's more like it!

As my father took off with his cronies, he left me to wander around my old
'hood. Suffice it to say, it's like I never left...

Here's one side of Yonge St. It was the closest major street
around my block.

Here's Yonge St. again. Suprisingly, not a lot of people ate at the McDonald's.
It was mostly a makeshift shelter for the wealthy homeless.

Tom Cruise likes to check-in here when he's in town.
Nah, I'm just kidding... The building usually flies to him!

Gee, I wonder what they serve here? It too, is usually empty, but I
guess they do all right. There's a female chef in there that cuts the lettuce
with a huge machete. Again, don't know why, but it looks cool.

Amazingly, these are the same exact books that were laid out for sale
5 years ago the last time I was here. Hmmm, French...

Here's where I used to live. Oh yeah, did I mention that I lived right
near Church and Charles, the gay mecca of Toronto? Imagine San Francisco's
Castro St. and Los Angeles' Santa Monica Blvd. combined, and you get
my neighborhood. They used to shoot the exterior scenes for "Queer as Folk"
about 5 blocks down from my apartment. Yeah, lots of boys with boys and
girls with girls, but hey, it was one of the safest places to live in the city.

Strangely enough, I had never actually seen anyone step out
of these apartments.
Ever.
It was like living on the Universal Studio's backlot.

This was a little park I'd pass by. It was mostly couples and
dog walkers during the day, and drug deals going down at night.
Yeah, multipurpose commons.

And finally, here's the little market where I used to buy my grocceries
and whatnots. The clerk that worked there was from India, and he spoke
with an accent so thick he could give Abu a run for his money in linguistic
comprehension. Although I couldn't for the life of me understand what
he'd say, I'd smile politely, and nod most profusely.
We had a great relationship
like that.


Thanks for coming along!

TO BE CONTINUED...