Today Natasha and I took to the streets (and shops) of Toronto for a much needed outing. After a quick breakfast, I grabbed my skates and dad and mom dropped us off at the train station and we got into Toronto around 1:30 pm.
Our first stop was a Tim Hortons for another coffee. We went to the one near the Bloor-Yonge subway stop, as it was close by to the Indigo we wanted to go to. There was actually one that was closer, but oh well.
The Indigo was large, but not massive. It had 2-3 floors, kind of a split level design, with a grand piano in the middle as well. While we were there, someone came in and started playing it (just a random dude). It was quite a nice backdrop while browsing books. I was looking for a fantasy novel but I couldn’t remember the author, I remember seeing it in the UK and it was about some female assassins or something. I’ll have to hunt it down again. Ah here it is, Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. Noted.
After there, we still wanted to see some more books, so we headed to the HUGE Toronto Reference Library near Bloor-Yonge. It’s a 5 storey library with tons of reference materials, a coffee shop, a gift store, 3D printing, and more! We spent a bit of time there, and then headed down to a Staples because Natasha wanted to find a notebook. Sadly we didn’t have any luck finding a blank one, she’ll have to get one online.
We found a nearby pub after that, went to one called the Village Idiot, in the Village on the Grange. Nice selection of European beers, I had an Innis & Gunn but I swear it didn’t taste as good as it usually does. I just looked it up now, and apparently they’ve changed their aging process? They think that by adding chunks of barrel into the beer as it ages, they’re still allowed to call it “Barrel-aged beer”, as opposed to actually aging the beer in barrels. Total bullshit if you ask me. I doubt I will be buying their stuff again unless I can find the original actual barrel-aged stuff. Will test maybe once more.
We walked a short way to the restaurant after (Café la Gaffe), and sat down in a cozy spot. The restaurant was really nicely decorated and had a lovely warm feel to it. We were right beside the kitchen and could watch the chefs as they worked away. I ordered mussels, bouillabaisse, and creme brulee, and Natasha had smoked salmon, smoked chicken pasta, and creme brulee. Everything was super delicious, especially the mussels in their sauce and dipping the bread in and mmm. I was actually a bit disappointed by the bouillabaisse after that because I just wanted more of the mussels! The creme brulee was delicious though.
After dinner it was dark and perfect skating atmosphere, but getting a bit colder. We braved the cold though, and went to Nathan Phillips Square to do some skating. Natasha was a bit shaky at first but soon we were both skating laps on the ice like old times, holding hands and just enjoying the time together. There were loads of other people skating, but it wasn’t jammed, so plenty of room to move around. After a bit they cleaned the snow off the ice with the Zamboni, and then we got back on for a bit more. We took some pictures, then popped across the road to a Tim Horton’s for a hot chocolate. It was lovely to warm up after the skating, though there were some sketchy patrons there.
We made it back to the train station and mom picked us up from Clarkson. All in all a fabulous day!