Some of you may know already but I actually have family in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) - on my mother's side and in true Portuguese fashion they're always willing to host (and feed me amazing food) whenever I make it up to Canada for work. There are five women who are all first cousins to my mom and all five live with their respective families in a suburb of Toronto called Mississauga. One of the cousins, Delores, is my mom's age and has a daughter, Melissa who is also 26. When Melissa found out that I was going to be around for Halloween she asked me to join she and her friends for a pub crawl in downtown Toronto and of course I said yes.
Delores drove me into the city on Saturday to meet up with Melissa with a quick detour to her sister (my cousin) Anna's hair salon in the Portuguese district of Toronto
http://www.uniquetouch.ca/index.htm. My cousin Anna has built a really impressive business and a well known name for herself in the community and since I had never met her in person before I enjoyed meeting her and seeing her in her element. If you're ever in Toronto and need your hair cut (because that happens all the time right?) be sure to go see Anna!
On to meet up with Melissa at her boyfriend Ian's house where I met a great group of Mel and Ian's friends who were incredibly welcoming and interested to hear about what I was doing in Canada for six months. They all said the same thing "awesome - but why during the winter?!" after that explanation they provided some great tips on how to handle the snow, how to get around, some "must do" items before I go back and even some planning for ski/snowboard trips in January and February. Then the fun really began...
Since I hadn't planned for Halloween ahead of time Ian had a great selection of Halloween costumes ready for me to pick from - I ended up going with the doctors outfit and called myself a California plastic surgeon who got his licensed revoked (people got a good laugh out of that one). Slowly more and more friends arrived, all with great costumes and the party was in full swing - by 8 o'clock we were out the door and in a cab to the first pub, a place called Grace O'Malleys. I was really surprised how much Canadians get into Halloween - there wasn't a single person who didn't have some type of costume on! After a short time at O'Malleys we moved onto Crocodile Rock where I witnessed a funny incident with Mel and Ian's friend Dave (dressed as a nerd) and then danced to some great music. From CR we moved onto London Tap House where again the music and atmosphere were incredible - LTH actually has levels that are all built around this kind of atrium that looks down unto the lower dance floor which makes it easy to keep track of everyone since I really didn't want to get left behind! The night went on with more dancing and drinks and we eventually poured ourselves into cabs and headed back to Ian's place...all in all a perfect introduction night to Toronto complete with new friends.
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| Me, Ian (wolf from Little Red Riding Hood), Matt (Elvis) and Lindsay (Marylin Monroe) |
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| Courtney (Little Red Riding Hood), Nick (The Situation) and my cousin Melissa (Dutch girl) |
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| Me and my cousin Melissa |
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| Crocodile Rock - a must if you come to Toronto |
