CircusSep 23, 2009
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The lovely coffee place - Balzac's Cafe, Mill street
Circus tents!
Had a very chilled day today, I am still blaming the jet lag from the West Coast. (3 hours does make a difference!) Posted a few more bits and pieces back to myself in order to help the weight limit on the plane (and attempt to clear some space for inevitable New York shopping blitz) I returned to an all day breakfast place that Betty and I had found last time we were in Toronto and enjoyed a ridiculously large plate of french toast and strawberries. Sadly I think all the good work i did walking up mountains is being undone in these last two weeks...! After a bit more mooching round the shops (windows only) i returned to my hotel to pack up again.
Later in the afternoon i met up with my two Aussie friends for a coffee and we found a lovely area down by the docklands. It was obviously a fairly newly redeveloped area, in an old distillery building. Cool area with some nice looking shops/restaurants. We found (or rather my guide book suggested) a great coffee shop that made awesome cakes - i had Magic bar and it was quite perfectly named!
As one of my birthday presents, I'd spent some money on a ticket to the latest Cirque du Soleil shows after becoming a bit of a fan through seeing two of their shows in Las Vegas earlier in the year. Their new show, Ovo, was housed in a traditional circus tent errected in disused docklands of Toronto. I was very glad I had some company as we walked down to the entrance as it essentially involved walking alongside motorway and some quite dark paths to get there! I promised i would get a taxi back to the hotel! The show itself was wonderful. Nowhere near the scale of the Vegas ones but i doubt anything will ever top those. It was definitely more of a return to old school circus acts but incredibly impressive. It was all insect themed (albeit very loosely in some cases) so I was a bit freaked out when act 2 started off as a giant rope spiderweb (i am confirmed arachnophobic) but i survived. They also had red ants bouncing kiwis/sweetcorn upside down, love sick ladybirds, trampolining frogs and the most insane tightrope walking beetle. Bizarre but great fun!
