Toronto, Canada TRIP Day 3/9

10/6/13

I'm waking up
to ash and dust
I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust
I'm breathing in the chemicals
AND THEN I EAT
So today for breakfast, we are actually eating homemade food, courtesy of the landlord, Mary! She baked us some bread and gave us butter and Nutella! The best thing since sliced bread. Wait, no, I think the iPhone 20 was the best thing since sliced bread. But it was made for sliced bread, at least. I hope...
     We carpooled Ruby and took her with us to Ontario Science Centre! I did not misspell that! If you have a problem with the spelling, please contact 1-800-BAD-SPEL. Please call 8-1-1 if you are going to dig. Know what's below. Call before you dig. But really. Calling Charles Pitman is the way to go! Call 533-5000! Your favorite attorney.
     So the Toronto Science Centre charged $22 for adults, $16 for Seniors, and $13 for children (3-12). Even though I'm eleven, I could probably pass off as a child for 5 more years. Go midgets! Anyway, I don't have much to say, other than the fact that the museum was pretty big, and that level one is at the top of the building and level six is at the bottom.

At the beginning, there was a long, yellow ruler with rocks that showed... rocks. I think it's probably either the time the rock/mineral was formed, or when it was first discovered.

Okay, now this rock kind of freaked me out, the one with the holes. I have a phobia called "trypophobia", which is an intense, irrational fear of holes. So, if the following photo gives you goosebumps or make you feel uneasy, you may have it.

I really wonder how this is a rock.

Okay, the evil pictures are gone. We now return to your regular schedule.

This shows how to tell how old a tree is.

There was one activity where you stand on a weight, and then it will calculate how big your wings would be if you could fly.

4.55 meters. Wow.

This is another activity where you take a photo of yourself, and then cover up your faces with other peoples' eyes, nose, and mouth.

Disgustingly awesome!

The work in progress.

 See how your muscles in your eye move with these 6 levers!

Also see how far you need to be in order for the bar to be balanced.

Which wheel would go first: the light, wooden one, or the hollow, heavy metal one?

Squeeze the grip for a strength test!

How fast are your reflexes when driving?

This was a challenge to see if you could trace a star with a little pen. The pen has a magnet which will cause the machine to beep if you go outside the little star's boundary. It may seem easy and all, but you have to use a MIRROR. It's really hard for me to do, but just imagine a doctor's life.

This is the impossible ladder. Watch from this TV connected to a camera to see me do the impossible.

WHOA!

We left the museum after basically finishing everything, and then we went to the harbor and walked around.

A curvy bridge!

Everybody has to eat! Ruby recommended a restaurant to us, and drove over there.

There's a lot of food, and I only remember land mixed with onion and peppers, Mapo Tofu, and eggplant. There was also one that required a propane grill.

We sent Ruby back to her apartment, we drove back to our house, and slept.

Toronto, Canada TRIP Day 2/9

10/5/13
So we woke up from the Caravan Inn at like 8AM. We had two different rooms, with my mom and dad in one, and my grandparents and I in another. I had 2 pieces of toasted bread squishing some butter in the middle. When breakfast was over, we packed up our bags and visited Niagara Falls, which only like 10 minutes away. We took pictures, walked around, and my dad and I took a ferry at the bottom river/lake that Niagara fed into.

It was kind of hard to see parts of the Niagara Falls, because of FOG. IT'S ALL OF FOG'S FAULT, EVEN THOUGH FOG IS NOT A PERSON, SO IT DOESN'T KNOW THAT I'M MAD!!!
Oh wait actually it was the mist from the long waterfall....
Oops.
So the ferry we took was called "Maid of the Mist", and I was hesitant to take the ferry, because there were like literally a thousand people in line. However, it was only $12 for a child and $19 for an adult, and I needed pictures for this blog, so we went. Now I thought that it wouldn't be bad, but boy, the waterfall gives you a shower with the mist. At one point, I thought it was raining. Now that's some top notch water quality.

Water water water water! Water! Forgot money! No more money money money money!

And here is a picture of the actual boat...

It was noon, which only meant one thing:
The stomach is getting angry.
Using the power of GPS, we found a Korean restaurant named "Korean Garden". It was a restaurant that provided raw food and vegetables, and then you cook it over a small stove (here it's a propane-powered portable stove). With each meal, they also provide you some cold side dishes.

We went back to the car and now headed towards...

DRUMROLL...

TORONTO!

The drive was 1 1/2 hours away from Niagara Falls, so I fell asleep while we were driving. The location was kind of like in a city, except there weren't as many skyscrapers. We had an apartment in a basement, kind of like our trip to New York. So the actually above-ground house had a small car lane to the left of it, and then to enter, the door was on the left of the house. There were some steps down (not stairs) towards a door. The door introduces you to a dining room with a stove, dishwasher, coffee maker, fridge, dining table, etc. The dining room was also connected to a small living room with a couch, TV, and bookshelf. Two king-size bedrooms are connected, along with a single bathroom. Now, pictures please.

     They were so nice, they even provided lemon cookies and gave me some candy called Jujubes! It's basically just some chewy gummy stuff. The landlords were Chris and Mary. So we settled in, and then we called my college cousin, waiting for her to be ready for us to pick her up. She calls, and we drive to her rented apartment, and then we take her to a hot pot restaurant called "Master Mix Hot Pot" that she recommended. The food there is pretty expensive (21 CND per person) but it's an all-you-can-eat. So basically, you sit at a table (NO YOU SIT ON A CHAIR) and the table has a stove/grill, they put a cooking pot above it with special water (added ingredients) and then you pick raw foods to cook in there. Basically, you're the chef! You can choose from veggies to tofu to meat to noodles. Also, free drinks! Yay!

Seems Like They Forgot To Capitalize The Last word.

After that, we sent our cousin, Ruby, back to her apartment, went home, and slept.

Toronto, Canada TRIP Day 1/9

10/4/13

So on October 4, 2013, it was a special day because I have added 2 more plane flights to my record… of plane flights. We are going to Canada! Home of the maple syrup and “zed”.

     We have two planes that will eventually take us to our destination: Buffalo, New York. We are flying US Airways, which is an airline I have never heard of. The first plane took us from Huntsville, Alabama, to Charlotte, North Carolina. The second took us from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Buffalo, New York! Yay, buffalo! I expect McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, and all the other fast food restaurants to serve buffalo wings, or for Buffalo Wild Wings to be more common. After all, it's Buffalo! New York.

     We arrive at Buffalo, and it is like midnight. You know what that means!

10/5/13

Nothing really. I just have to add a date. So since we have 5 people here (dad, mom, grandparents), we rented a Toyota van! It fits 7 people in it. Even though a regular SUV or something could fit us all, we are having a visitor (my 20-year-old cousin that goes a college in Toronto), so I guess it is necessary. We headed off Caravan Inn, a hotel in Canada! That's right, we are driving into another country... which means we have to go through customs. However, it was not that complicated. America and Canada is separated by a ~100M bridge, so we were ON the border! But it's not like we were on the four corners of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.
     If you want to head outside of America, first you have to pay a $10 fee. You cross the bridge, and then you go are forced to stop at another toll booth, but instead of taking cash, they take IDs. You have to show them your passports and then answer a series of questions. After that, welcome to Canada! Home of the maple syrup and "zed". Actually, it seems like only America says "zee".
     So back to the Caravan Inn, and like I said, it was already midnight, so we settled in and went to sleep.

Visit to Europe TRIP - Day 14/21 (06/05WE/13)

Visit to Europe TRIP - Day 14/21 (06/05WE/13) Tallinn, Estonia Day

     Estonia? Huh? Is that supposed to be a country or something? And what about Tallinn? Maybe he relates to Stalin. No, a country can't relate to a person... unless you break the laws of physics.
      Today the cruise has arrived at Tallinn, Estonia. It’s a small city, so the cruise isn’t going to stay there for long (until 1PM). I think I slept way too late last night, because I was too tired to go outside. I stayed in the cabin until like 12PM and nothing very interesting happened. I did ride the slide on the cruise (although it’s very cold). Well, at least my dad went to visit, so now I have pictures! There’s nothing better than pictures except for maybe more pictures.

     I don't have any captions since I don't know what they are. I also don't want to give you false information, because if I do, you will probably fail a history/social studies test, and then you will blame me! I will then go bankrupt and live on the streets.
     Now since I don’t have anything to say, I’m going to just give you random boring facts about the cruise. Did you know the cruise holds about 3,000 people, with 2,000 being the passengers and 1,000 being the crew? . Did you know that Costa is the company name? Did you know that Costa is bought by Carnival Cruise Lines? Did you know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? If you eat breakfast you will live about 1/4 of a day longer without suffering*.
*results may vary.
So I did the basic things like eating food, going to the kids club, and at the end of all, I closed my eyes, and fell asleep.