week 7 inquiry post
This reading break I made the trip out east to visit some of my hometown friends. And boy did I have a very eventful week.
I flew out of Victoria with my best friend Ella and landed in Toronto where we met up with Paige who was flying from Vancouver. The 3 of us all came out to visit our friend Caitlyn who lives in London and goes to Western, she picked us up from the airport and we drove the 2 hours back to her apartment in London. We stayed in London for 2 nights and did a lot of catching up, went to a casino (my first time and I could not stop thinking about that one scene in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief – the Poker Face, lotus flower one, you know what I’m talking about).
We visited many different cafes and restaurants including a speciality donut place and the most amazing gourmet crepes I’ve ever had. We visited the Western campus and even got me to meet a few of her friends from school which was very exciting. I will say though the best part of London was Caitlyn’s pet bunny Scott.
We then did a day trip down to Niagara Falls and it was gorgeous. We ate lunch at the HardRock cafe and made our way through all the shops, where I bought the tackiest tourist shirt I could find and it is my new pride and joy. The falls were beautiful, I was in awe the entire time I couldn’t believe how big it actually is and that is is completely natural – our planet is so amazing isn’t it! Other than my ridiculously overpriced $10 coffee I would give Niagara Falls a 10/10.
We spent the last 3 nights of our trip in a hotel in downtown Toronto. We visited Kensington Market, which was covered in murals. Every wall, sidewalk, driveway and fences had been painted and even the few houses were painted using bright colours. I wish I got to see the place in the summer when the market is in full swing. We met up with one of Paiges friends from UBC who lives in Toronto and she showed us all around, helped us navigate the public transport and even invited us into her home when our flights got cancelled and we had no where to stay. Her parents took us all out for lunch and were genuinely the kindest people. We spent a few nights out on the town and met up with 6 more of our Penticton friends who go to UofT at their favourite regular bar. Even though I didn’t go home and see my family over reading break I still feel like I got my home fix seeing all my friends that I have grown up with over the years.
Getting home was an absolute nightmare, the day before we were supposed to fly home Toronto was hit by a snowstorm that cancelled all flights out of Pearson Airport for the whole day, including ours that was at 7am the next morning and we did not find out until 2am – almost as we were leaving our hotel for the airport. Originally we were going to be stuck in Toronto for 4 extra days as that was the next available flight to Victoria, instead we payed a lot of money to get onto a flight to Vancouver only 12 hours after we were originally supposed to leave. However, this flight was delayed for hours which turned our evening flight into a 6 hour redeye after sitting on the tarmac not moving for 3 full hours and once we finally landed we had to wait another hour for ground crew. 10 hours sitting in the middle seat on an airplane overnight – not the best time but Ella, Paige and I were all in the same row which definitely made the experience tolerable (the airline double booked Ella’s seat so when she had to be moved there was conveniently an empty seat in our row). When we landed in Vancouver it was the middle of the night inn Victoria but 5am for us on Toronto time and it still took us 3 hours to get to where we were staying that night (for a few hours only) due to the lack of public transport that late at night. By the time I got off the ferry and back to my house in Victoria I had been awake and travelling for the past 23 hours but boy I wouldn’t change one minute of the trip for anything! The 19 hour sleep I had Friday when I got back may have helped my attitude about the whole experience, now we just wait to see if my refund from the airline comes in – fingers crossed!
