Toronto – it seems like a great city, probably worth more than a day and a half… maybe we’ll come back some day... maybe. Yesterday was an incredibly hot day, so we didn’t do that much. We attempted to walk the city a bit, walking around an area known as Cabbagetown.
Cabbagetown factoids:
1. It has the largest continuous area of preserved Victorian housing in North America
2. It got its name because it’s original dwellers were Irish and they grew cabbage in their backyards (from this you understand that one of the historic features is that all the houses actually have backyards)
3. Nowadays even the small houses sell for over a million dollars.
4. Parking is free except from midnight to 7am.
We started our tour by eating lunch at an Indian restaurant that claims to be South Indian and Sri Lankan. In was very good, Uri actually says it’s one of the best he’s ever eaten. Then we headed out walking through the hood. We actually cut the tour a little short because the heat was pretty unbearable, or at least, it just didn’t make the touring all that fun. Just as we were about to give out, we saw a little truck go by, ringing a bell – no it was not an ice-cream truck, it was a guy offering knife sharpening services. I was very amused, and so was a little old lady that was walking just behind us. The truck struck a conversation between us and when she found out we were tourists, she offered us to take us to “a little hidden corner near by”. She was the one who told us the origin of the name and about the gardens (though Uri thought of the Irish thing himself). I actually thought she would show us a hidden garden, but that wasn’t the case. Oh well… anyway, she was very nice, and the street she showed us (that was marked on the lonely plant tour we were using) was cute as well. It turns out that she spent 13 years in Ithaca, teaching in Cornell (is everybody hearing the music to Disney’s “It’s a small world” now?).
After meeting her we decided to do the smart thing and go indoors, we went to see a movie. Sorry Toronto, the AC calls. Oh – and no criticisms from museum goers, we weren’t in the mood (we hardly ever are). We saw Julie and Julia, which I whole heartedly recommend everyone see when it comes out on DVD. We had to wait about an hour for the movie to begin, so we walked around the mall. Uri bought himself a hat in H&M, so there’s a chance he might become a hat person now. Also, I noticed two interesting shops:
Yes! It’s Fox and the Super-Pharm from Israel. I had actually seen the Super-Pharm all over Toronto, and didn’t know if it was the same one as in Israel, but since we had time to kill, I went in and saw that their private label brand is called Life – so it is the same chain! I know Fox is originally Israeli, but I suspect that the Super-Pharm is originally Canadian, since that explains much better why the logo has an S in it. Do you think that the fact that I’m excited about this means I miss Israel? Or does it mean that I’m becoming one of those strange Americans that loves all things Israel without any judgment? Can we chalk it up to me being interested in brands, and just say it’s a professional interest?
Oh – apropos Israel, you remember I mentioned Anthony Bourdain here a few of times? I recently subscribed to his blog. I read a post yesterday about Thailand, and thought it might be nice to add a comment about the papaya salad guy in the night market in Chiang Mai. When the other comments, I saw that there were two people (both clearly American by their name) that recommended he go to Israel. They were doing it in a rather annoying way, complaining that he had gone to other Middle Eastern countries but not Israel. But they are so right – it’s been my one thought since the very first No Reservations I saw (which was on Egypt). So I used the opportunity to explain why he should come to Israel. It came out as a little manifesto, since apparently I can’t write anything short, you can read it here (comment 34). I hope someone actually reads those things. It would be so cool if Uri and I could take him to Israel!
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