Akis and Carrie's travels to Ontario
We arrived in Toronto and were promptly picked up by Jim and Jane and were wisked away to Southampton ~ a small, yet charming town on the coast of Lake Huron. The town itself has under 3000 people, and I think Akis was amazed at the fact that there was only one stop light.
The days here were pretty low key. We didn't do much other than sit, drink coffee, go for for walks, watch Akis check out the squirrels in awe and have family over for dinner. I must say that it was a bit of a switch for him as he was required to spend all of his time communicating in English, and smoking required that he went outdoors. From the sounds of things, there is a lot more space here than there is in Athens and he seemed to marvel at the size of the houses and the lawns that accompanied them.
The other low key days were spent at my sister's house ~ recently purchased some of us were put to the task of helping to tear down the shed and the satelite dish, while others of us skipped out of the tasks at hand.
We did take 2 road trips while we were there ~ Niagara Falls and the Danforth.
Niagara:
True to form, the days at the Falls were wet and ultimately I broke down and bought an umbrella. I think this had more to do with the fact that Akis was not pleased when he was soaked head to toe while we were caught in the rain, than my actual belief that we needed one. The days were cool, ok rather cold but the night was even colder. We had to duck in and out of the car to capture the photos of the falls in the evening to prevent ourselves from having our extremities numbed by the cold. I did manage to go up the Skylon tower ~ a first for me and I must say it was quite the sight up there. You have a clear view of everything around you. The other bonus of going this time of year was the lack of people. We managed to score with the parking ~ free at the Casino and free at the park at night, the hotel was dirt cheap ~ a bit suspect but for $44 you can't complain. What was shocking was that the max rate for the room was posted at $299. Now that is hiway robbery! The restaurants still managed to charge a significant sum ~ $3.00 for my Diet Coke which had less than what you would get in a can!
It had been a number of years since I had gone, so it was go again. Amazing how you can sometimes forget the great wonders that are in your back yard!
The Danforth:
So one of Akis' friends lives in Toronto and happened to be there on vacation while we were in Ontario. To celebrate 'Oxi' Day (pronounced 'oh-he' - the Day the Greeks said 'NO' to the Germans and the Italians I believe) they closed off the Danforth and had a parade. This is a pretty big celebration for them so off we trucked to Toronto to see some of the action. Given Akis had spoken very little Greek since coming to visit, it was cute to watch him as we drove into the area and he realized that the signs were in Greek ~ reading all of a sudden became so much easier. We met up with Dimitri and proceeded to a cafe for coffee, Greek style. This means that it will take you forever to drink your coffee and everyone around you will be smoking. As North Americans do, I got my coffee, had it consumed in 15 minutes and bid adieu to the boys and headed downtown to spend some time with some of the gals I haven't seen in about a year.
We had decided to hit the spa and then take a bit of a pub crawl. The crawl didn't really start off well as we stopped at the first location as it had an outdoor seating area. After Ms. Ann just about froze to death we decided to carry on towards a patio with heaters and sun. Well just before reaching the destination, we realized that it would be more of a hop than a crawl so we decided that a few more stops were in order. It was a great day and I enjoyed the company, along with the plans we started to put into motion for getting together in January in a sunny location. That's right, Carrie will have visitors. =)
As all things do, the vacation time did come to an end and Akis and I made our way to the airport. We both flew that night in opposite directions leaving us almost a world away ~ and while I was sad to see him leave and I know I will miss him, I am excited about my next opportunity to see him which will have me visiting in Greece after my next contract. Here's hoping that I make it a bit further than lesson 7 of my 'Learn Modern Greek' CDs!
The days here were pretty low key. We didn't do much other than sit, drink coffee, go for for walks, watch Akis check out the squirrels in awe and have family over for dinner. I must say that it was a bit of a switch for him as he was required to spend all of his time communicating in English, and smoking required that he went outdoors. From the sounds of things, there is a lot more space here than there is in Athens and he seemed to marvel at the size of the houses and the lawns that accompanied them.
The other low key days were spent at my sister's house ~ recently purchased some of us were put to the task of helping to tear down the shed and the satelite dish, while others of us skipped out of the tasks at hand.
We did take 2 road trips while we were there ~ Niagara Falls and the Danforth.
Niagara:
True to form, the days at the Falls were wet and ultimately I broke down and bought an umbrella. I think this had more to do with the fact that Akis was not pleased when he was soaked head to toe while we were caught in the rain, than my actual belief that we needed one. The days were cool, ok rather cold but the night was even colder. We had to duck in and out of the car to capture the photos of the falls in the evening to prevent ourselves from having our extremities numbed by the cold. I did manage to go up the Skylon tower ~ a first for me and I must say it was quite the sight up there. You have a clear view of everything around you. The other bonus of going this time of year was the lack of people. We managed to score with the parking ~ free at the Casino and free at the park at night, the hotel was dirt cheap ~ a bit suspect but for $44 you can't complain. What was shocking was that the max rate for the room was posted at $299. Now that is hiway robbery! The restaurants still managed to charge a significant sum ~ $3.00 for my Diet Coke which had less than what you would get in a can!
It had been a number of years since I had gone, so it was go again. Amazing how you can sometimes forget the great wonders that are in your back yard!
The Danforth:
So one of Akis' friends lives in Toronto and happened to be there on vacation while we were in Ontario. To celebrate 'Oxi' Day (pronounced 'oh-he' - the Day the Greeks said 'NO' to the Germans and the Italians I believe) they closed off the Danforth and had a parade. This is a pretty big celebration for them so off we trucked to Toronto to see some of the action. Given Akis had spoken very little Greek since coming to visit, it was cute to watch him as we drove into the area and he realized that the signs were in Greek ~ reading all of a sudden became so much easier. We met up with Dimitri and proceeded to a cafe for coffee, Greek style. This means that it will take you forever to drink your coffee and everyone around you will be smoking. As North Americans do, I got my coffee, had it consumed in 15 minutes and bid adieu to the boys and headed downtown to spend some time with some of the gals I haven't seen in about a year.
We had decided to hit the spa and then take a bit of a pub crawl. The crawl didn't really start off well as we stopped at the first location as it had an outdoor seating area. After Ms. Ann just about froze to death we decided to carry on towards a patio with heaters and sun. Well just before reaching the destination, we realized that it would be more of a hop than a crawl so we decided that a few more stops were in order. It was a great day and I enjoyed the company, along with the plans we started to put into motion for getting together in January in a sunny location. That's right, Carrie will have visitors. =)
As all things do, the vacation time did come to an end and Akis and I made our way to the airport. We both flew that night in opposite directions leaving us almost a world away ~ and while I was sad to see him leave and I know I will miss him, I am excited about my next opportunity to see him which will have me visiting in Greece after my next contract. Here's hoping that I make it a bit further than lesson 7 of my 'Learn Modern Greek' CDs!
posted by Carrie @ 10:02 PM
1 Comments:
At 12:22 AM,
Carrie said…
Ah no, that is a post all onto itself... Plus, you have all the photos!
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