2 - We need to talk about the TTC... >:(

Right, so I wanted to tell you guys more about my trip to Europe (I’m obsessed, I know), but I was in Toronto last weekend, and oh boy – I forgot what it was like to rely on their transit system.

The day got off to a slow start. A friend and I were heading into the city for my films first festival premiere, but we missed the GO train from Oshawa by a few short minutes. An hour later (because, you know, it makes sense for trains to only run every hour on a weekend?) we’re heading into the city with no problems. Except we’ve just lost an hour.

By the time we get to Union, it’s pretty much time for us to grab an early dinner so we can get to the festival and grab good seats, so we make our way to the subway… only to find out that it’s not running the direction we needed it to go! Now we have to take the long way around town. So we follow the signs to the other northbound lane, and somehow end up on the streetcar, which is going the exact same way of the subway we were going to take. You must be thinking, “Hey, that worked out in your favour, didn’t it?” It sure did – except now the trip is going to take that much longer because of all the stop-and-go traffic on the road.

Anyways, we managed to get to the theater on time, and were even able to grab a sit down dinner at a delicious Thai place just down the road. If you’re in the Bloor-Spadina area, you should check out Thai Basil. Their lunch special goes until 5pm, and for just $12 (tax included), you can get soup, a spring roll, and a massive, delicious plate of chicken pad thai.

By the time the screening was over, we had about half an hour to get back to Union station to make the 9:13 train. Plenty of time, right? Well, we had to head eastbound on the Bloor-Danforth line because, you know, the line between Spadina and Union was closed. So we do that. We get off at the Bloor-Young station, just as a southbound subway leaves. There’s still twenty minutes left until our train leaves, so we wait… just to find out that that was the last southbound subway. There was no notice or anything. So now we have to head BACK to St. George station to catch a shuttle bus, and by the time we actually get onto the bus, our train has left. Needless to say, we had to wait another hour for the next GO train, and by the time we got back to Oshawa, it was already 11:00pm – and there was still another hour to go before we got home.

Moral of the story? If you know you’re going to be using the TTC, make sure you allow PLENTY of time to get places, especially if you’re on a schedule. You never know when it might just quit on you!

#blog #film #sunday #festival #storytime #traveling #travel #destination #toronto #transit #ttc