Back in Washington DC

Flights in & out of Buffalo and 600 driving miles later, my return to Canada is now complete and I am back in Washington DC once again.

All things considered, it was a pleasant trip, despite being initiated by a family funeral. As fun as it is to travel with friends and/or kent4str & cuyahogarvr, I do like traveling on my own periodically, just for the fun of it.

Toronto has changed a great deal since I lived there –condo construction has spread like a bad cold-- but is still quite recognizable. Traffic congests in the same places, the tourists congregate in the same streets, restaurants are still over-priced. Still, I greatly enjoyed walking through the busy streets day and night, observing the ebb & flow of pedestrians and shoppers and generally just taking in the sights.

I had very pleasant time sharing drinks and a late night snack with John and brunorepublic last night. Alas, it completely slipped my mind that I was holding a camera most of the night: while I got a photo of John, I neglected to get one of brunorepublic… I’ll have to remedy that next visit.

The EconoLodge in which I was housed the past three days was, well, memorable, to put it mildly. In a prior life, the building was a flophouse. The less generous would say it’s gone upscale only barely. Parking was non-existant, there was gum and stains in the carpeting of my room, the toilet seat and the vanity bore the burn scars of past cigarettes. Worst of all, they charged $10/day for wireless Internet access. Well, I couldn’t really expect much better for $80/night and arriving in town without reservations. And I’d like to thank the neighbouring hotel for the bleed of their free wireless signal into my room, at least affording me the opportunity to drain some of the spam from my mailboxes when time allowed.

The Ford Focus I had rented from Buffalo was an adequate car but hardly memorable. I’m content that it didn’t die in the three days it was in my possession.

Returning to the US was tiring but not problematic. Being a long weekend in Canada, there was much tourist travel and, as expected, all border crossing points were very busy. Having not used the Queenston/Lewiston crossing point in 15+ years and suspecting anything would be better than the Fort Erie/Buffalo bridge, I gave it a try. I can’t say it was better or worse since I don’t know what today’s wait was like in Buffalo but I spent 90 minutes creeping about 1.5km from the Canadian side, across the bridge to the US border checkpoints. My border interview was 15 seconds tops and I was on my way to the Buffalo Airport, pausing briefly to refill the rental’s tank.

Note to fellow air travelers: you should consider taking a bath or shower before being cooped up in a plane in close proximity to other people. And certain others should consider cutting back dramatically on the amount of perfume worn. Seriously.

I regret not having more time to be a tourist around town and taking more photos. I regret not going shopping. I regret not being able to visit a vast number of people, sometimes because of my own schedule constraints and sometimes because said people were out of town on their own vacations. I particularly regret not being independently wealthy and thus being able to indulge myself with travel more often.

Back in Washington DC

Flights in & out of Buffalo and 600 driving miles later, my return to Canada is now complete and I am back in Washington DC once again.

All things considered, it was a pleasant trip, despite being initiated by a family funeral. As fun as it is to travel with friends and/or kent4str & cuyahogarvr, I do like traveling on my own periodically, just for the fun of it.

Toronto has changed a great deal since I lived there –condo construction has spread like a bad cold-- but is still quite recognizable. Traffic congests in the same places, the tourists congregate in the same streets, restaurants are still over-priced. Still, I greatly enjoyed walking through the busy streets day and night, observing the ebb & flow of pedestrians and shoppers and generally just taking in the sights.

I had very pleasant time sharing drinks and a late night snack with John and brunorepublic last night. Alas, it completely slipped my mind that I was holding a camera most of the night: while I got a photo of John, I neglected to get one of brunorepublic… I’ll have to remedy that next visit.

The EconoLodge in which I was housed the past three days was, well, memorable, to put it mildly. In a prior life, the building was a flophouse. The less generous would say it’s gone upscale only barely. Parking was non-existant, there was gum and stains in the carpeting of my room, the toilet seat and the vanity bore the burn scars of past cigarettes. Worst of all, they charged $10/day for wireless Internet access. Well, I couldn’t really expect much better for $80/night and arriving in town without reservations. And I’d like to thank the neighbouring hotel for the bleed of their free wireless signal into my room, at least affording me the opportunity to drain some of the spam from my mailboxes when time allowed.

The Ford Focus I had rented from Buffalo was an adequate car but hardly memorable. I’m content that it didn’t die in the three days it was in my possession.

Returning to the US was tiring but not problematic. Being a long weekend in Canada, there was much tourist travel and, as expected, all border crossing points were very busy. Having not used the Queenston/Lewiston crossing point in 15+ years and suspecting anything would be better than the Fort Erie/Buffalo bridge, I gave it a try. I can’t say it was better or worse since I don’t know what today’s wait was like in Buffalo but I spent 90 minutes creeping about 1.5km from the Canadian side, across the bridge to the US border checkpoints. My border interview was 15 seconds tops and I was on my way to the Buffalo Airport, pausing briefly to refill the rental’s tank.

Note to fellow air travelers: you should consider taking a bath or shower before being cooped up in a plane in close proximity to other people. And certain others should consider cutting back dramatically on the amount of perfume worn. Seriously.

I regret not having more time to be a tourist around town and taking more photos. I regret not going shopping. I regret not being able to visit a vast number of people, sometimes because of my own schedule constraints and sometimes because said people were out of town on their own vacations. I particularly regret not being independently wealthy and thus being able to indulge myself with travel more often.