My uncle gave us these instructions for getting to Toronto downtown last Friday. By the time we woke up and got ready it was already around 11am. Archana, my cousin C8 and I finally got out of the house armed with umbrellas ( yes it had to rain ofcourse). C8 carried her own cute umbrella while A and I decided to share one - which meant A would actually hold it as she was taller (hahahah).
The bus stop was very close to home according to my uncle. We reached Mavis. There was a funny looking bus stop. It was completely transparent ( how would this provide shelter against the sun?). There were 2 tiny chairs. We were not sure if this was the correct bus stop. After some investigation ( looking for any boards, signs) we found 6119 written on a tiny pole. Did this mean bus number 6 - 11 - 9 or was it 61 -19 ? There were more combinations too but we decided that this was probably the one. The bus came soon. We bought our tickets and sat down.
Finally a big mall came. Aha. We were told not to get off. I had asked the driver to let us know when to get off. So he looked at me and told me ' this is your stop'. I looked at A and gave the driver a puzzled look. I told him ' no we will get down in the last stop'. The driver nodded his head and said ' no this is your last stop to union stn'. The argument continued as I explained to him that I was told not to get off. The driver got extremely annoyed. He started explaining about some train and some bus. Huh. No one told me about a train !! The driver looked like he wanted to kick all of us out of the bus. A kept telling me that we should continue on the same bus. I was going crazy listening to the two tell me opposite things. What do I do ? The driver finally got fed up and closed the doors. We seemed to make a U-turn. Oh o. Was this the last stop after all ? Suddenly I saw another bus standing on the opposite side with ' union station' written on it. And finally it flashed to me that this was what the driver wanted us to catch. I asked him to stop and we got off and ran to catch that bus. Phew. Made it in time.
We reached Union Station. We looked for maps and directions of any kind. We found none. I told A that maybe it was up the stairs; I found upstairs to be a railway station and there were no maps ofcourse. This was very strange. We went to another ticket counter and still found no maps ! What sort of tourist place was this ? No maps and no time-tables to pick up ? Finally we went to a Budget rental in the station and told him we were lost. The guy at the counter was very sweet and gave us a map. Yipee !
All this running around made us very hungry. We hurried towards Le Papillion for a superb French meal. A and I had 'crepe' which was just like dosa only a little sweet. I had crepe Jean-Pierre ( yummy) , A had crepe aux Champignons and C8 had pasta. The waiter was very nice to us and suggested that we see the beaches on such a dull rainy day.
The rest of the story will be continued in the next post. But if you are in a hurry you can read it in A's post.
The bus stop was very close to home according to my uncle. We reached Mavis. There was a funny looking bus stop. It was completely transparent ( how would this provide shelter against the sun?). There were 2 tiny chairs. We were not sure if this was the correct bus stop. After some investigation ( looking for any boards, signs) we found 6119 written on a tiny pole. Did this mean bus number 6 - 11 - 9 or was it 61 -19 ? There were more combinations too but we decided that this was probably the one. The bus came soon. We bought our tickets and sat down.
Finally a big mall came. Aha. We were told not to get off. I had asked the driver to let us know when to get off. So he looked at me and told me ' this is your stop'. I looked at A and gave the driver a puzzled look. I told him ' no we will get down in the last stop'. The driver nodded his head and said ' no this is your last stop to union stn'. The argument continued as I explained to him that I was told not to get off. The driver got extremely annoyed. He started explaining about some train and some bus. Huh. No one told me about a train !! The driver looked like he wanted to kick all of us out of the bus. A kept telling me that we should continue on the same bus. I was going crazy listening to the two tell me opposite things. What do I do ? The driver finally got fed up and closed the doors. We seemed to make a U-turn. Oh o. Was this the last stop after all ? Suddenly I saw another bus standing on the opposite side with ' union station' written on it. And finally it flashed to me that this was what the driver wanted us to catch. I asked him to stop and we got off and ran to catch that bus. Phew. Made it in time.
We reached Union Station. We looked for maps and directions of any kind. We found none. I told A that maybe it was up the stairs; I found upstairs to be a railway station and there were no maps ofcourse. This was very strange. We went to another ticket counter and still found no maps ! What sort of tourist place was this ? No maps and no time-tables to pick up ? Finally we went to a Budget rental in the station and told him we were lost. The guy at the counter was very sweet and gave us a map. Yipee !
All this running around made us very hungry. We hurried towards Le Papillion for a superb French meal. A and I had 'crepe' which was just like dosa only a little sweet. I had crepe Jean-Pierre ( yummy) , A had crepe aux Champignons and C8 had pasta. The waiter was very nice to us and suggested that we see the beaches on such a dull rainy day.
The rest of the story will be continued in the next post. But if you are in a hurry you can read it in A's post.
6 comments:
Rahul,
This particular driver was mean; otherwise the rest were very friendly. Or maybe he was having a bad day and we're just ticking him off by acting too *smart*.
Abt the rare breed comment..hehehe...we're rare even here :-P
Grr - that bus-driver!$#@! But thinking back, it was very funny - me refusing to get off and the driver intent on forcing us off :-D!
Rahul, with our heights, we shd have chosen careers as super-models :-P - kya karen - made a mistake becoming engineers instead ;-)!
hmm...... bad driver!! nice pics, cute C8!!
PS: n I get a word verification ONEHE
looks like Hindi!! woh nahi!!
hey nice acct of ur trip i must say.. in a way we can learn wht to do if we go to toronto next time..
Wish I was in C8's position watching all your miseries - cleaning up at the ATM or the weird looks the driver gave ... I guess she had the maximum fun and going with you means lots of (mis)adventure for her :))
Archana,
looking back...i m still not amused with the driver :-p
Rahul,
next time i meet all these weirdos...i will ask them to pose for my blog hehehe
Kutti,
yeah c8 is very cute
Vivek,
more places to follow :-)
Prabhu,
yeah c-8 had a lot of fun with all the adventures.
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