There She Goes…

Yesterday, I arrived at my B&B (Toronto Garden Inn) after the +10 hours late train (see previous entry). Usually when I arrive at a new location, I walk to the nearest intersection and see what food choices and mini-mart options are near me. Turns out, around the corner is a homeless shelter. I walked to the corner and abruptly turned around and walked faster than I did before back to my serene, well-kept B&B…the place is nice, well cared for and the owner (Miko, who I met today at breakfast) assured me this was a safe area. He says the homeless people are scared of the cops so they don’t act out of line. Something about the vibe is really off for me and even today when I walked back in the middle of the day, it felt off. I know enough to trust my vibes so I’m walking a different way to meet my friend Vicky tonight and will take a Lyft directly to my front door after we’re done eating, drinking and catching up. I hope my mom doesn’t read this until I’m out of Toronto. I know she’ll worry and check in on me every 5 minutes. At least she cares…

Now, on to the recap for today! Let’s lighten the mood, right people?! Miko told me about “the shoe museum.” You have me intrigued, I said to him. I walked early enough this morning that a lot of the homeless people were not outside and I made it to Bata Museum safely. I never knew there was enough intrigue or material to dedicate a whole museum to shoes but there was! Did you know that shoes were sometimes made out of human hair? Or that royalty had specially designed shoes that were much larger than the size of their feet so they would never accidentally touch the ground?

My favorite part of the museum was a special, temporary exhibit for “Manolo Blahnik: The Art of Shoes.” My inner Sex and the City girl squealed at the collection of art in the form of footwear.

After the Shoe Museum, I went to the Royal Ontario Museum. I didn’t know what kind of museum it was but I figured since I was in the area, I would check it out. I’m really glad I did..it’s the kind of museum I like! The one with dinosaurs, ancient Roman statues and Egyptian mummies.

Don’t get me wrong, art museums are fine but I’ve always been fascinated with this kind of history. The outside of the building is very art-deco but it’s covered by construction for improvement 😦 This is the best shot I could get of it.

Toronto is very big city. It is vastly different than Vancouver. It certainly has an east coast vibe (ie, Times Square). Tonight I’m meeting Vicky, a girl I met while traveling by myself in Spain (Madrid to be exact) back in 2015? 2016? I can’t remember now…too much travel, said NO ONE EVER!!