Today is Native American Day.
We started the day with the curious continental breakfast which included waffles.. Still, the spicy sausage was good and made for a good sandwich.the fire alarm went off part way through breakfast but there was no way we were missing our free food so stayed put until it stopped.
While eating breakfast we watched the news, apparently on the walk we did last night from the station to the hotel there was a shooting and a stabbing which was a little worrying!
Canada has some impressive wildlife, such as grizzly bears and moose. We decided today was the day we would meet these beasts face to face. 30 mins later we pulled up at Toronto Zoo where it assured us that Giant Pandas were living.
Giant Pandas are notorious for hiding whenever anyone comes close enough to see them, so when we rocked up at the enclosure to find one happily sat in the middle chewing through a big pile of bamboo we were pretty convinced it was a man in a costume. In fact it wasn't until it actually walked around to get to another pile of bamboo that we conceded we were actually seeing the real deal.
Next stop Polar Bears! As we approached the one visible one which was collapsed on a rock sun bathing we were directed to a different enclosure where a young polar bear was playing It had more energy than the pair of us combined as it got busy researching the bounciness and chewiness of some tyres. Just watching the Pirelli polar bear was tiring so we went back to the sun bathing parent, who took that moment to decide the sun bathing was getting too much and at what he really needed was a nice dip and spent the next 10 minutes showing off his back stroke to us.
Feeling lucky (Dirty Harry would have had to pull the trigger) we strolled around the rest of the zoo whilst Mark slowly destroyed a cookie the size of his head. Our final bit of luck came when finally face to face with the grizzly bears, who seemed surprisingly interested in us. It turns out it was probably the large bucket of fruit that was about to be thrown in that had peeked their interest. Watching a 900 pound hairy beast chasing after raw fruit was an impressive experience. Those apples never stood a chance.
Mark found a teepee and as it was Native American day he decided to hijack it and recolonise.
The final creature to show off for us was a Canadian Otter which took great pleasure swimming up to the glass and using it to push off for a back flip. Suitably impressed we decided that we couldn't top that, we headed to the city.
Getting to the city meant more taxis and trains as per yesterday. Part way into the taxi journey the driver told us that the subway was broken and that we should let him take us instead for a bargain 60 dollars. Now considering that the subway only costs 3 dollars, that didn't sound like a bargain. We opted to tusk the broken train and as we suspected the driver was lieing a little bit and there was nothing wrong with the trains.
Once back in downtown we visited the Royal Ontario Museum which was highly recommended by every guide book ever. The museum had a fairly impressive dinosaur collection but other than that it wasn't so good unless you liked to view the pots and pans of the ages.
It was time for beers and we'd heard off a few people that Queens Street was the place to go. We stopped at the first bar we could find which was pretty cool and had a few and then moved on. A few blocks down we found the next bar and grabbed some food and then that was it. We did find one more bar that wanted a 12 dollar cover charge so we to,d them where to go, but that was about it. This marvellous bar district in the city known for its night life had three bars, and this was Friday night.
On the way home we were dozing off on the subway when Martin tripped up some girls who were trying to get past and sent them flying. Best call it a night... Following the shootings and stabbings reported in the area we opted for a taxi rather than walk tonight!
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