Arriving on Thursday evening, I met up with Jenny briefly. I wanted to make sure I would get a ride from another bridesmaid on Saturday and confirm the details. When Jenny said, "I think you might need to wake up at 5:30 am, I would like all bridesmaids to be at my place before 8 am," I replied, "That's alright, sometimes I sleep past 2 am, I'll take that I didn't sleep at all!" My original plan was to help Jenny out on Friday. However, given I don't have a car in Toronto, I couldn't assist her with the remaining task. Therefore, Friday became my tourist day. My host Sylvia dropped me off at the GO station before she went to work so that I could take the GO bus to downtown. I had taken TTC bus and subway before, but for GO bus, that was my first time.

Glass floor providing a vertical view

Full-size polar bear in the gift shop, oh yeah, I wanted a snuggly hug!

I walked along University Avenue and on my way, there was this interesting artwork out in the open. It took me roughly 1 hour and a bit more to get to Bloor Street.

Unfortunately, Some of the permanent collections have been closed due to renovations like the Egypt and Nubia one.

Knowing that I would spend hours in the museum, I fed my stomach and then began my adventure in the ROM.

 The European armouries happened to be in the showcase. The one here was made in the mid 16th century for Lord Pembroke (only 2 other similar ones from the same period and same factory in the world now, 1 in Tower of London, the other in Glasgow)

This unique museum also houses artifacts for natural history. See the dead birds in motion? Never in my life will I recognize all these birds...

My nice host took me to this authentic Korean place. Pan-fried duck, sweet and sour cold noodles, seafood pancake, all so yummy. And portions were so large that we couldn't finish it all. Aiya, I wanted to try pork bone soup...

At first Calvin was hesitating to join us for he had only met Sylvia before this lunch. As I always know, my friends are so easy-going that we all mingled well.

I don't know whether it was truly the large portion or my stomach was messed up with the lack of sleep and lack of food during the day before, I couldn't finish the Vietnamese noodles and was left with 2 pieces of spring roll. I joked that I couldn't fight these spring rolls and was defeated by them.

This Torontonian castle looks as grandiose as any European castle. Once inside, I realized it couldn't compare with the Warwick castle (I tried not to compare it with the Royal ones in Britain). It was beautifully built, but it wasn't designed for warfare I believe.

The steel staircases to the towers were extremely narrow, I doubt anyone can ever run up and down fast. The Norman Tower (open tower) provides a superb view of the city including the CN Tower.

The most interesting was to walk in the secret passages and tunnels. That's right, 4th day in a roll, I spent hours a day on foot.

We chose to try Chinese Vegetarian cuisine not only because Joyce is a vegetarian, but also Stuart having an upset stomach after going to the Greek Festival. I was sitting at the restaurant wondering what takes Sylvia that long to not have arrived past 7:15 pm. So I asked Stuart, "Did you call her?", by then Stuart recognizes he forgot about it and called Sylvia. The problem was his phone was just throwing temper, Sylvia could only hear the question, "Can you hear me?" Too bad that Sylvia got tied up (no, not literally tied up!) by her landlord to help in the waterworks, she couldn't join us for dinner at all.

As we went through the menu and Joyce couldn't read Chinese, we tried to translate. As I spoke "Fake Pork", Joyce corrected me with "Mock Pork". Stuart then started this joke about Mock Veggies made from meat. Man, I'm sure people will get intoxicated by all the food colorings. And when making Mock Bread from a slab of meat, the pork skin will make a good crust, huh.

Not to leave out Sylvia, we gathered for a drink after dinner. Our seating configuration was interesting enough - Boys on the left, Girls on the right. I can't recall how this discussion was started when I heard Sylvia on my right talking about how she believes she should serve her (future) husband and cook a feast everyday. Joyce on my left, being very much westernized, responded immediately with the entirely opposite view, saying if her (future) husband asks of whereabouts dinner is, she would say it's on the stove and he should cook for himself. The 2 girls went on with this common-law, marriage and commitment discussion. I couldn't help but to look at the 2 boys and said, "These 2 are so extreme, they would sit together is all because of me."

Oops, we forgot to take pictures together....

I thought I would spend another hour at Sylvia's home to finish making the soup and then take a walk in the neighbourhood or even take the bus to somewhere nearby. Rain started to pour from the sky. That's Ontario and I wasn't surprised. Chances were, once the clouds leave the area, it would be sunny. An hour or so after the rain stopped, it poured again, much heavier too. Thus, I decided not to go out at all.

For dinner, me and Sylvia ordered food first while waiting for Calvin. We thought we ordered just the right amount, but we were wrong... The portions were so huge that the 3 of us could only finish half of all the food on the table, although me and Sylvia did suspect Calvin wasn't full when he stopped eating, hmm.. When we asked the waiter for boxes to pack the leftovers, he looked at the food with astonishment, as if he couldn't believe we had finish eating. Again, all the leftovers went to Sylvia's fridge, all the leftovers altogether probably could feed her for a week.

Calvin took the honourable task of escorting me to and fro the airport. Timing was perfect so I didn't have to wait long before getting on the plane. When the captain announced there was a delay of 10 minutes, I freaked a little worrying that it would be a long delay. Luckily that was only to wait for passengers from an incoming flight. We made up the time during our flight and I arrived home on time. I am gracious that I made few kind friends at Jenny's wedding, have been in the close company of some great old friends, and much enjoyed the warm hospitality of my host Sylvia.

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