Got up fairly early today on what was a beautifully clear (but fooking freezing) day and went straight to the CN Tower, where (as I suspected) we wouldn’t have to wait the 75 minutes we were quoted yesterday. After getting past the predictable $20 photo person, we were up 120 odd storeys in a minute. I take back what I said about the CN Tower not being a patch on the Empire State Building – the CN Tower is actually over 100 metres taller!
What a view you get when you’re up there too! Could see right across Lake Ontario and way out past this huge city’s boundaries and into the sticks as far as they eye could see. Went up another 20 odd stories to the ‘Skypod’ thing which they reckon is the highest observation point on this here Earth. Hard to explain those sorts of views, but unforgettable would be a good word to begin to describe them. We then dropped a couple of levels to find a glass floor which looks straight down to the ground, which you can walk across. They say the glass can take the weight of 40-odd hippos (so I was ok, just), but it was strangely a very hard thing to step on to. Got there in the end and even braved lying down on it (although I looked a proper tit).
It’s Easter Sunday here (well, as it is around the entire globe like) and everything was shut. Didn’t find that out until we headed for that massive Eaton Centre, where only one shop (Sears; like Debenhams but not as good) was open and a handful of eateries. Grabbed something quick to scoff on and decided to spend the afternoon trying to polish off all that alcohol we had to trek for last night back in the hotel.
By five we were out and about again to get down to the Air Canada Centre to watch the basketball game we got tickets for. What I know about the game can be written on a postage stamp (Dennis Rodman was a cross-dressing drug addict, Michael Jordan had his own trainers, Shaquille O’Neal is a big bastard and lastly, England aren’t any good at it), but this didn’t stop us having a top night taking in one of North America’s most-loved sports.
It’s obvious very quickly that American sports are a completely different ball game to that football game I like a lot in our fair land. Firstly, the Toronto Raptors (who are obviously Canadian) were taking on the Philadelphia 76ers (who as you probably know are American) and on came the respective national anthems..... nobody booed!!! What’s that about!? They applauded each anthem in fact!? Could you imagine that happening between English and Scottish teams for example, or for that matter, when England are playing any country on the globe, no matter who they are!? Come on Canadian’s/American’s; boo the anthems, show some disrespect!
The Toronto Raptors are doing pretty shit looking at the league table (or standings as you call them here) but every player got his own personal spot-lit introduction to which everyone cheered. My team Ipswich are doing very badly in their league too and if this ceremony was to take place, you would guarantee each one of those players would receive a fine slagging. Recommendation 2: Do this to your underachieving players.
Also, what I noticed is that the crowd get excited about the strangest things – namely getting prizes dished out to them during the game ($7500 was dished out, flatscreen tv’s, holidays etc),; mainly t-shirts. When they came to each block to throw them out, people were going absolutely mental and annoyingly blocking my view of the game. After they got a semi about this, this got them chanting. Sadly their crowd chants existed of just “let’s go Raptors” and “de-fense!” Point 3: Introduce English-style vile terrace chants. What about a bit of “you’re gonna get your f**king head kicked in” or “you dirty (insert nationality or area they’re from here) bastards?” That would be good.
Although we were in there watching the game for over two hours, the ball was actually only in play for about 50 minutes because they love having ‘time-outs’ etc (so they can dish out more goodies to get the crowd excited). This was OK with me as this meant that the cheerleaders were introduced to do a little dance, although I probably took more pictures of their routines than a gentleman really should do when sitting next to their girlfriend.
Anyways, Toronto won 111 to 104, with the experience as a whole being quite exciting and something I’m glad we’ve done. Didn’t see any hint of English-style post-match violence (as there wasn’t a single away fan there), which is probably a positive thing. In fact, it was nice to see people of all nationalities, creeds and colours coming together to enjoy sport, something that is evidently a long way off from happening in England.
Jumped on the Subway with no hassle whatsoever and was home in time to catch some more of the absolutely awful Canadian television. Think we’re off to the zoo the morrow which’ll be fun and then on to whatever else tickles the fancy. Quite liking Toronto, very laid back, but still terrible fashion sense.
