Day 12 - Early? Late? Or right on time?

09:30
I’m asleep a little after midnight, and sleep till nearly 07:00. Decent enough. It’s still dark out, and I throw some clothes on and head up to the observation car. 30 minutes later, it’s starting to get light, but it’s murky, grey light. The clouds are heavy, and I suspect I’ll see either rain or snow later. It’s still achingly pretty though. The huge swathes of forest have largely given way to plains and lakes. Some of the lakes are completely frozen over, others partially. I bump into Mary-Beth, and we chat for a while. She’s an artist by trade, and gives me the URL for her website to check out some of her work. She’s a very proud Canadian, and has painted many works of the natural beauty of her country.

I brave the shower. It’s actually very well set-up - a sizeable cubicle, with a smaller dedicated shower stall. The water pressure surprises me, as does the quick availability of hot water. When I emerge, and head back to my cabin, a blustery blizzard has started. There are water droplets on my window, which immediately turn to ice. The temperature outside is around -10. Given we’re getting *somewhat* near Toronto, I’m a little concerned that the slightly warmer conditions I’ve been promised in Toronto may not materialise. The snow at the trackside is, if anything, getting deeper - it’s a proper Wintery wonderland…

There’s a feeling on the train that we’re nearly there, that we’re coming towards the end of our journey. Bear in mind, some of these folks are on day 5, having joined the train at its origin in Vancouver. Now, ‘nearly there’ could be a little misleading. We’re still a minimum of 5 hours from Toronto, and I suspect closer to 8. That’d get you from London to Edinburgh and back (on a good day, obvs) in the UK, so there’s a chunk of train time still to go… I don’t have many/any plans when I get into Toronto. I’d been warned to expect mild to moderate delays on the train. I’ll dump my stuff at my hotel, and head out for a wander around the local neighbourhood. There are some awesome sounding bars and restaurants to check out…

12:30
I’m so confused. The online train tracker is suggesting we’re going to arrive into Toronto around 16:30. The folks on the train reckon we’ll arrive on time at 14:30. We’re about 65 miles North of Toronto, and currently moving at 75 mph. Who the fuck knows what time we’re actually gonna get there.

At 10:30, I head to grab some breakfast. There’s no lunch planned on the train service today, as we’re scheduled to arrive at lunchtime, so breakfast is brunch today. i sit with a lovely lady from Vancouver, whose name I don’t quite catch, and a lovely lady from Munich, whose name I don’t quite catch. We chat about travelling, music, psychology. My brunch is a very tasty omelette. I’ve been really impressed by the quality of food service on the train. I had a brief chat with the chefs yesterday to express my thanks. They’re working in a narrow, galley kitchen, the temperature of which is never less than scalding. They’re feeding around 150 covers, three times per day, and two of those meals are three courses. It’s incredible what they manage to produce.

Back in my cabin, I settle in to enjoy the last couple of hours (I think?) of the journey. The snow is gradually dissipating. There are hints of it around, but the temperature is obviously a little higher than we’ve been heading through for the past couple of days…

15:50
And after all that, after nearly two days of train, we arrive…. Early. Only about 15 minutes, but I’m might impressed. Chatting to a couple of my fellow trainers (trainees?), it sounds like there’s some healthy padding in the timetable to allow for delays - so even though we’ve been running 2-3 hours late through much of the journey, an ‘on-time’ arrival was always very much on the cards.

My accommodation for the next 3 nights is a serviced apartment in the entertainment district. What the entertainment in the title is, I’m yet to discover. I arrive a little after 15:00, and delisted check-in not being until 16:00, my room is ready for me. Arriving to the 7th floor, the voice in the lift tells me this is the penthouse. I don’t recall booking a penthouse room. The room’s huge though, and has a cool little lounge area to one side of the bedroom. I’ve a balcony as well, though not much of a view.

I need to do some laundry. I’ve been trying to avoid hotel laundry services, as they’re wicked expensive in North America. $3 for a pair of boxers, $10 for a pair of trousers, and so on. A week’s worth of laundry will run me $50 easy. Conversely, I want to try and avoid a traditional laundromat, as I don’t really wanna spend a couple of hours in a Levi’s ad. I find a service that will come and collect my laundry bag, and drop it back to tomorrow. Pick up / drop off is a 2 hour window this evening, and then again tomorrow evening, but that’s fine. I decide to head out for an early dinner, and a couple of beers.

22:30
I’ve yet to find the entertainment part of the neighbourhood in which I’m staying, There are loads of bars and restaurants - maybe that’s the reference. I find a cool taproom called Bar Hop, a couple of blocks from my apartment. It’s Happy Hour, and they’re serving a 10oz (c. 300ml) pour of a local IPA for $3, around £1.70. This is excellent value, and fill my proverbial boots. I’ve not eaten since a late-ish breakfast, and order a bowl of Asian Nachos - togarashi spiced wonton wrappers instead of tortilla chips, a banging Bulgogi beef in place of chilli, a spicy Korean BBQ sauce, a soothing but pokey Sriracha mayo, and some pickled carrot, cucumber and onion. An incredible plate of food. Best bar type food I think I’ve ever had.

I’m back at the apartment just before 20:00 to wait for my laundry collection. There’s some small confusion when, despite my inherently clear instructions, the collection dude doesn’t realise I’m in an unstaffed, serviced apartment. He eventually emails me to ask me to come and meet him. Fortunately, I see this pretty quickly, so a wholesale error is avoided.

Satisfied with my day’s work, I watch a movie, and spend some time writing.Läs mer