Canada Day 1: I came for the carnival, and I stayed for the horse ghosts
Day 1: September 1, 2022
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| the chaos of the CNE! |
Today is the day! It's time to head to Canada for another whirlwind adventure.
My new United credit card has several perks, one of which is two passes to the United Lounge. Since Air Canada intimidated me via email into arriving two hours or more before my flight, I had loads of time to kill once through security (I only had carry-on). 1.5 hours early, in fact. I headed to the international lounge and got a mimosa and cappuccino, made myself a yogurt parfait and some cereal, all for free. I stocked up on Fritos, mints and some oatmeal for the days my hostel doesn't provide breakfast, and I was ready to go.
The flight was brief, a mere hour, and BOOM I was on Canadian land. I changed into shorts and I was off to the UP express train to take me to the city. It is a local commuter train with nice, spacious seats and luggage storage. I take it to Union Station, where I decide to just walk to my hostel, since it takes the same amount of time as a bus but with far less hassle.
I walked up to Kensington market, which I remembered from my previous family trip back in 2014. It is full of small restaurants, shops and bars, each with a uniquely grungy vibe. It feels like Freetown Christiania, if you are familiar…just slightly more capitalist.
I go to Segovia Meat Market and ask the gentleman there which of the empanadas he would recommend. He says it depends on what I want. I tell him an empanada in any flavor or meat, and he suggests the cheese/chorizo one (they make their own chorizo on site) and the classic Columbian empanada with beef, which contains a hard boiled egg and olives.
I take them to the nearby park and finish them and my water bottle. I am now thirsty, but assume I can get some water and a dessert at a pastry shop I marked down along the way to the CNE (Canadian National Exposition). This turns into a massive mistake.
Good news: it is sunny. Bad news: it is TOO sunny and I wore jeans. In the shade it is fine, but in the sun I regret my choices. Also I am thirsty. I take a break in Trinity Bellwoods park, known as the "hipster/cool" park, but to me it just was a park with a lovely view between the trees, framing the CN Tower.
I keep moving and consider what are my needs. Do I really want a margarita? That sounds good. Or, do I want a bathroom? I realize in my dehydrated delusion that I really simply need water. My feet carry me on to Mabels Bakery and Specialty Foods, a sweet shop on my list. I look around and realize that I am full, I need water, and I am so tired that my brain for some reason thought that a cookie could somehow satiate my thirst. In my tired and sweaty state, I think "I should continue walking" instead of, you know, get water here in this air conditioned building.
I finally make it to the CNE. I realize I had just walked 4.25 miles (about 6.8 km) since leaving my hostel. I pay for my entry ticket, which is discounted after 5pm to a mere $11 CAD, and go straight to the info desk. With wobbly knees and a dry mouth I ask for a water refill station, and the young woman tells me its in the Enercare Center "where the food is" as if I should know what that place is. She points to the map and it is on the opposite end of the grounds. I ask when the ghost tour is later, and she tells me Princes Gates, again, as if I know what that means. She rolls her eyes as she points to the map, on the opposite end of the park. She seems to enjoy the whole "giving information" aspect of the info desk gig.
I walk past the kiddie carnival, and the beer garden with live music, stopping at the arts and crafts building (vendors selling jewelry and other homemade goods). I finally find a building selling food. It is…overwhelming. I ask a vendor where a water refill station is, and he doesn't have a clue, and I find an info desk and the boy points out the exit saying it is to the right. I walk out the exit, and now realize TWO HOURS have passed (and 5 miles of walking) since I desired water and I am frustrated to no end. Me traveling alone is beneficial to all: you can avoid my bitterness and wrath when I'm tired and frustrated like this. I look around and wander some more before finding a tiny, 2x2x4 foot fountain with a few spigots. This is it? I fill up my bottle, chug it, fill it again, chug it, and lay on the grass. I want sleep. Or food. My brain isn't sure.
After resting somewhat, I go into the food pavilion which feels like a casino…of food (oh, by the way, the CNE has a casino, too). There are lights and signs and bright colors and lots of people walking in no discernible path that it is all just completely overwhelming. I stare at the food map, which includes the exits and directions they face and try to figure out which direction to head in order to make it for the 7pm acrobatic show. I cannot figure it out for the life of me and I wonder how much my temporary dehydration damaged my brain cells until I realize that the building I am in is not the Enercare Center, but instead the food building, and I have only made it HALFWAY through the fairgrounds. Knowing this, I can reorient myself and I head east to the Enercare Center.
The Enercare Center is Toronto's convention center, so once I walk past the giant gnome display in the lobby, it opens up to a massive room with huge ceilings like…a convention center. The wing I enter through is the home and garden wing, so there are booths selling special vacuums and triple-insulated water bottles (I have thoughts on this) and lawnmowers and other gadgets and tools. Regarding triple-insulated bottles: I currently have a double insulated water bottle, which keeps my drink hot or cold for at least 5 hours, and I wonder why one would need more insulation, unless you plan to stow cold wine to drink 24 hours later? It seems unnecessary.
There are some art installations on display here, such as an ecological commentary on single use plastics.
I make my way to the opposite end, with just enough time to make the acrobatics show. The start of the show wasn't as impressive as the tail end, which featured a female aerial acrobat who previously was in Cirque de Soleil. The singer and emcee for the show shares that she is his fiancée, and he proposed to her in this act just a few months ago. He is from Toronto, she is from Mexico, they met doing acrobatics and they are sharing their love of music and acrobatics with the world and…I just wanna see a movie made about their lives.
After the 15 minute show, it was nearing 7:30pm, which meant that the ghost tour was about to start. I dashed to the Prince's Gates. The tour began with a brief poll of who actually believes in ghosts. A majority said yes, a handful said "definitely not" and a few said they were in the middle (me). She explained that she wasn't here to convince you that they are real, but she will share stories that were either from 1st hand accounts or from a paranormal study by a Canadian group that did research here. In other words, to the skeptics, she isn't making this up all on her own.
The guide, Candice, started by sharing that we were standing on loads of dead bodies right now! One of the battles of The War of 1812 was fought here on this ground, and basically lots of people died, and it was easier to bury bodies where they lay vs. try to find all of their limbs and reconnect them to ship back overseas.
We moved on to the Stanley Barracks, where there have been more reports of paranormal activity than anywhere else on the grounds. Namely, when the paranormal group did over 10 sessions studying the building with a medium, they had conversations and interactions with hostile male ghosts, who were extremely misogynistic and who admitted to having abused and killed women in the building. There are no official police reports to confirm this, but in the years that this served as low income housing, lots of women who lived here were women who ran away from home and there were no records of them after they disappeared.
We moved onto the Horse Palace, which is not a palace for horses but rather some smelly stables. Here, we hear accounts of horse ghosts. As Candace said, "nothing menacing, just some horses that died and became ghosts." We also went near the horticulture building, which once served as a morgue after a nearby maritime disaster. There was a recent account of a flood downstairs from a pipe that only the fire department has keys to, and the rushed sounds of footsteps to the emergency exit. Spooky.
There was one more stop on the tour, but we had been taking a long time moving with such a large group that it was now 8:30pm. She told us that we were about to go to Scadding Cabin, aka the oldest house in Toronto (over 250 yrs old). Candace declares it "the middle of nowhere" in CNE terms, so we were free to bail since we were now going over the allotted 1 hour of the tour. I did, because I knew it would take me at least 20 min to get where I wanted to go next, and god only knows how much longer if I kept with this group walking in the opposite direction.
Skipping the rest of the tour, I proceeded to walk back to the Enercare Center, which only took me 18 minutes this time (it is 1.5km or roughly 1 mile from one end to the other, and add to that the struggle of pushing yourself through crowds)! It was after dark, so the midway was getting busier. Once at the Enercare Center, I passed through the video gaming room, past the Battlebots with electric saws chopping each other into bits, to "A Trip through 103: Therapy for the Soul," an art installation. Once inside, a woman led me through a pitch black tunnel to an opening. The room features a web in the middle, with three light projectors facing it from different directions, projecting abstract images while a matching electronic musical soundtrack blares in the speakers. There were inflatable chairs on the ground in a circle, facing the imagery. As soon as I was inside, I was shocked they didn't provide you with an edible beforehand...it was quite trippy.
After relaxing for about 15 minutes in this installation (my feet were very tired), I exited. I notified a man running the exhibit that some of the chairs were deflated. It was then that I learned he was in fact the artist, and it was an intentional choice to let them deflate, as a commentary of how we as humans are given something and we ruin it. I would live a job where I can just dismiss errors as purposeful decisions.
I sat down in the hall to charge my phone in an outlet when I realized it was now 9:20pm. There were only 40 minutes until the buildings closed. I could stop to get food in the food hall or go to the farm, but only one before buildings close. I decide staring at llamas would be better than deciding which of the 200 food options to eat.
I rushed out to "the farm" which was an indoor petting zoo with other farm exhibits. I had to cut through the midway, which on paper felt like a smart decision because it was the shortest distance, but now it was so packed with people waiting in line for rides, cotton candy, and carnival games that the crowd was moving like molasses. Any opening I found, I ran, only to find myself in another crowd. Its a good time to point out that strollers were allowed (thankfully no pets) and I saw not one, but TWO stroller entanglements of wheels-on-wheels in this mess of people, slowing us all down a little more.
The farm was cute, and definitely an attraction for children or people obsessed with animals. There was a giant sand sculpture in the middle of the room, and along the edges were separate farm stalls with pigs, cows, goat, sheep, ewes, llamas, and alpacas. Promptly at 9:55pm, they locked the bathrooms and started to kick people out (gently, of course, as is the Canadian way).
Without building access, I had no more wifi access, until I got near an administrative building and was able to find my route home.
I debated going on rides, since there were still two hours left until the entire CNE was closed. However, the midway was pure insanity and I knew that if I bought tickets and waited in line, it was likely I would only ride one thing before it was closing time. But I was happy with my decision to leave, since I made the most of my five (!) hours here. It was like a mix between a Vegas casino and Milwaukee Summerfest and a carnival, and there was never a dull moment. And, I only spent eleven dollars the entire time!
I walked to the nearby bus station, which was busy shuttling people away from the CNE back into the city. I asked a transportation staff what the cost was and if they provided change. He said $3.25 and no change. I told him I only had fives or larger, and he said "not acceptable," as in, there is no way he would let me pay $5 for a bus ticket. So instead he just offered me a ticket for free. Sweet.
As I ride back towards the hostel, I notice how lively it is, reminding me of New York. Restaurants on King Street close anywhere between midnight and 4am, catering to the nearby barhoppers, and creating a bustling nightlife. I am too tired to get food, and I my exhaustion trumps any hunger I may have.
Home and exhausted, I settle into bed and finally relax my feet for a much needed rest before camping tomorrow.
My new United credit card has several perks, one of which is two passes to the United Lounge. Since Air Canada intimidated me via email into arriving two hours or more before my flight, I had loads of time to kill once through security (I only had carry-on). 1.5 hours early, in fact. I headed to the international lounge and got a mimosa and cappuccino, made myself a yogurt parfait and some cereal, all for free. I stocked up on Fritos, mints and some oatmeal for the days my hostel doesn't provide breakfast, and I was ready to go.
The flight was brief, a mere hour, and BOOM I was on Canadian land. I changed into shorts and I was off to the UP express train to take me to the city. It is a local commuter train with nice, spacious seats and luggage storage. I take it to Union Station, where I decide to just walk to my hostel, since it takes the same amount of time as a bus but with far less hassle.
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| Here's the CN Tower. I saw it. |
I walk to the lovely Clarence Park hostel, with a quaint exterior and a very hip, industrial vibe inside. It is now 2:30 and the hostel does check-in at 3pm. Without asking my name to see if the room is ready, the staff simply tells me to wait until check-in. By the time it hits 3pm, it is now a new staff member and he says "let's see if your room is ready." Luckily it was, because I would have been very annoyed to just have waited 30 minutes for nothing, when I could have been exploring.
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| hostel vibes |
I get into the room, which features nice privacy curtains around each of the four bunks, but no lockers. I always am annoyed when hostels don't have lockers, but at least there were curtains to sort of hide your stuff. I'd previously taken the waiting-in-the-lobby time to freshen up, so as soon as I dropped my bag, I was ready to explore.
I walked up to Kensington market, which I remembered from my previous family trip back in 2014. It is full of small restaurants, shops and bars, each with a uniquely grungy vibe. It feels like Freetown Christiania, if you are familiar…just slightly more capitalist.
I go to Segovia Meat Market and ask the gentleman there which of the empanadas he would recommend. He says it depends on what I want. I tell him an empanada in any flavor or meat, and he suggests the cheese/chorizo one (they make their own chorizo on site) and the classic Columbian empanada with beef, which contains a hard boiled egg and olives.
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| empanada time |
I take them to the nearby park and finish them and my water bottle. I am now thirsty, but assume I can get some water and a dessert at a pastry shop I marked down along the way to the CNE (Canadian National Exposition). This turns into a massive mistake.
Good news: it is sunny. Bad news: it is TOO sunny and I wore jeans. In the shade it is fine, but in the sun I regret my choices. Also I am thirsty. I take a break in Trinity Bellwoods park, known as the "hipster/cool" park, but to me it just was a park with a lovely view between the trees, framing the CN Tower.
I keep moving and consider what are my needs. Do I really want a margarita? That sounds good. Or, do I want a bathroom? I realize in my dehydrated delusion that I really simply need water. My feet carry me on to Mabels Bakery and Specialty Foods, a sweet shop on my list. I look around and realize that I am full, I need water, and I am so tired that my brain for some reason thought that a cookie could somehow satiate my thirst. In my tired and sweaty state, I think "I should continue walking" instead of, you know, get water here in this air conditioned building.
I finally make it to the CNE. I realize I had just walked 4.25 miles (about 6.8 km) since leaving my hostel. I pay for my entry ticket, which is discounted after 5pm to a mere $11 CAD, and go straight to the info desk. With wobbly knees and a dry mouth I ask for a water refill station, and the young woman tells me its in the Enercare Center "where the food is" as if I should know what that place is. She points to the map and it is on the opposite end of the grounds. I ask when the ghost tour is later, and she tells me Princes Gates, again, as if I know what that means. She rolls her eyes as she points to the map, on the opposite end of the park. She seems to enjoy the whole "giving information" aspect of the info desk gig.
And then I begin my trek.
I walk past the kiddie carnival, and the beer garden with live music, stopping at the arts and crafts building (vendors selling jewelry and other homemade goods). I finally find a building selling food. It is…overwhelming. I ask a vendor where a water refill station is, and he doesn't have a clue, and I find an info desk and the boy points out the exit saying it is to the right. I walk out the exit, and now realize TWO HOURS have passed (and 5 miles of walking) since I desired water and I am frustrated to no end. Me traveling alone is beneficial to all: you can avoid my bitterness and wrath when I'm tired and frustrated like this. I look around and wander some more before finding a tiny, 2x2x4 foot fountain with a few spigots. This is it? I fill up my bottle, chug it, fill it again, chug it, and lay on the grass. I want sleep. Or food. My brain isn't sure.
After resting somewhat, I go into the food pavilion which feels like a casino…of food (oh, by the way, the CNE has a casino, too). There are lights and signs and bright colors and lots of people walking in no discernible path that it is all just completely overwhelming. I stare at the food map, which includes the exits and directions they face and try to figure out which direction to head in order to make it for the 7pm acrobatic show. I cannot figure it out for the life of me and I wonder how much my temporary dehydration damaged my brain cells until I realize that the building I am in is not the Enercare Center, but instead the food building, and I have only made it HALFWAY through the fairgrounds. Knowing this, I can reorient myself and I head east to the Enercare Center.
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| the food map. please note the section labeled "fried foods" |
The Enercare Center is Toronto's convention center, so once I walk past the giant gnome display in the lobby, it opens up to a massive room with huge ceilings like…a convention center. The wing I enter through is the home and garden wing, so there are booths selling special vacuums and triple-insulated water bottles (I have thoughts on this) and lawnmowers and other gadgets and tools. Regarding triple-insulated bottles: I currently have a double insulated water bottle, which keeps my drink hot or cold for at least 5 hours, and I wonder why one would need more insulation, unless you plan to stow cold wine to drink 24 hours later? It seems unnecessary.
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| to be honest, I actually marked the gnome display as something I wanted to see at the CNE |
There are some art installations on display here, such as an ecological commentary on single use plastics.
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| faucet with plastic waste pouring out |
I make my way to the opposite end, with just enough time to make the acrobatics show. The start of the show wasn't as impressive as the tail end, which featured a female aerial acrobat who previously was in Cirque de Soleil. The singer and emcee for the show shares that she is his fiancée, and he proposed to her in this act just a few months ago. He is from Toronto, she is from Mexico, they met doing acrobatics and they are sharing their love of music and acrobatics with the world and…I just wanna see a movie made about their lives.
After the 15 minute show, it was nearing 7:30pm, which meant that the ghost tour was about to start. I dashed to the Prince's Gates. The tour began with a brief poll of who actually believes in ghosts. A majority said yes, a handful said "definitely not" and a few said they were in the middle (me). She explained that she wasn't here to convince you that they are real, but she will share stories that were either from 1st hand accounts or from a paranormal study by a Canadian group that did research here. In other words, to the skeptics, she isn't making this up all on her own.
The guide, Candice, started by sharing that we were standing on loads of dead bodies right now! One of the battles of The War of 1812 was fought here on this ground, and basically lots of people died, and it was easier to bury bodies where they lay vs. try to find all of their limbs and reconnect them to ship back overseas.
We moved on to the Stanley Barracks, where there have been more reports of paranormal activity than anywhere else on the grounds. Namely, when the paranormal group did over 10 sessions studying the building with a medium, they had conversations and interactions with hostile male ghosts, who were extremely misogynistic and who admitted to having abused and killed women in the building. There are no official police reports to confirm this, but in the years that this served as low income housing, lots of women who lived here were women who ran away from home and there were no records of them after they disappeared.
We moved onto the Horse Palace, which is not a palace for horses but rather some smelly stables. Here, we hear accounts of horse ghosts. As Candace said, "nothing menacing, just some horses that died and became ghosts." We also went near the horticulture building, which once served as a morgue after a nearby maritime disaster. There was a recent account of a flood downstairs from a pipe that only the fire department has keys to, and the rushed sounds of footsteps to the emergency exit. Spooky.
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| people on the tour attempting to get photos of orbs of horse ghosts. no one had any luck. |
There was one more stop on the tour, but we had been taking a long time moving with such a large group that it was now 8:30pm. She told us that we were about to go to Scadding Cabin, aka the oldest house in Toronto (over 250 yrs old). Candace declares it "the middle of nowhere" in CNE terms, so we were free to bail since we were now going over the allotted 1 hour of the tour. I did, because I knew it would take me at least 20 min to get where I wanted to go next, and god only knows how much longer if I kept with this group walking in the opposite direction.
Skipping the rest of the tour, I proceeded to walk back to the Enercare Center, which only took me 18 minutes this time (it is 1.5km or roughly 1 mile from one end to the other, and add to that the struggle of pushing yourself through crowds)! It was after dark, so the midway was getting busier. Once at the Enercare Center, I passed through the video gaming room, past the Battlebots with electric saws chopping each other into bits, to "A Trip through 103: Therapy for the Soul," an art installation. Once inside, a woman led me through a pitch black tunnel to an opening. The room features a web in the middle, with three light projectors facing it from different directions, projecting abstract images while a matching electronic musical soundtrack blares in the speakers. There were inflatable chairs on the ground in a circle, facing the imagery. As soon as I was inside, I was shocked they didn't provide you with an edible beforehand...it was quite trippy.
After relaxing for about 15 minutes in this installation (my feet were very tired), I exited. I notified a man running the exhibit that some of the chairs were deflated. It was then that I learned he was in fact the artist, and it was an intentional choice to let them deflate, as a commentary of how we as humans are given something and we ruin it. I would live a job where I can just dismiss errors as purposeful decisions.
I sat down in the hall to charge my phone in an outlet when I realized it was now 9:20pm. There were only 40 minutes until the buildings closed. I could stop to get food in the food hall or go to the farm, but only one before buildings close. I decide staring at llamas would be better than deciding which of the 200 food options to eat.
I rushed out to "the farm" which was an indoor petting zoo with other farm exhibits. I had to cut through the midway, which on paper felt like a smart decision because it was the shortest distance, but now it was so packed with people waiting in line for rides, cotton candy, and carnival games that the crowd was moving like molasses. Any opening I found, I ran, only to find myself in another crowd. Its a good time to point out that strollers were allowed (thankfully no pets) and I saw not one, but TWO stroller entanglements of wheels-on-wheels in this mess of people, slowing us all down a little more.
As I walked, I noticed lots of people were carrying around what looked like a 3 foot by 1 inch dowel with a wrist strap that I would guess were walking canes, but without adornments or paint. Just an unfinished wooden dowel with a hole drilled on top. I saw so many that I thought maybe these were midway prizes for older people? But then I saw young people with them and thought maybe this was a purchase? I was baffled because I didn't understand why an unfinished wooden dowel would be such a hot ticket item. I also saw a small handful of people holding brand-new squeegees, also on a 6 foot pole. Again, not the usual stuff you see people carrying around on a fairground. I tried to come up with various explanations but settled on the fact that there must be some vendor stand in the home and garden building selling a magic mop that has really resonated with people.
The farm was cute, and definitely an attraction for children or people obsessed with animals. There was a giant sand sculpture in the middle of the room, and along the edges were separate farm stalls with pigs, cows, goat, sheep, ewes, llamas, and alpacas. Promptly at 9:55pm, they locked the bathrooms and started to kick people out (gently, of course, as is the Canadian way).
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| you could practice milking a cow! the Buffalo Grove historical museum has something to compete with! |
Without building access, I had no more wifi access, until I got near an administrative building and was able to find my route home.
I debated going on rides, since there were still two hours left until the entire CNE was closed. However, the midway was pure insanity and I knew that if I bought tickets and waited in line, it was likely I would only ride one thing before it was closing time. But I was happy with my decision to leave, since I made the most of my five (!) hours here. It was like a mix between a Vegas casino and Milwaukee Summerfest and a carnival, and there was never a dull moment. And, I only spent eleven dollars the entire time!
I walked to the nearby bus station, which was busy shuttling people away from the CNE back into the city. I asked a transportation staff what the cost was and if they provided change. He said $3.25 and no change. I told him I only had fives or larger, and he said "not acceptable," as in, there is no way he would let me pay $5 for a bus ticket. So instead he just offered me a ticket for free. Sweet.
As I ride back towards the hostel, I notice how lively it is, reminding me of New York. Restaurants on King Street close anywhere between midnight and 4am, catering to the nearby barhoppers, and creating a bustling nightlife. I am too tired to get food, and I my exhaustion trumps any hunger I may have.
Home and exhausted, I settle into bed and finally relax my feet for a much needed rest before camping tomorrow.
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