Canadian street stuff

I’m sitting in the Austin airport as I type this.  In my travels around Austin I got a total of three photos of stickers or street art.  Toronto on the other hand was rife with these street art things!

Not sure what this means but it was everywhere.  I didn’t love it but thought I must include it because it was so pervasive.

This little heart was also pretty common (not quite as common as the black and white bird though). Here it’s in cardboard but it was also a sticker in some spots and just painted on in others.

I love the robot below but I was equally intrigued by the OperationMaple.com sticker (Take Canada Back!)…

College St was where the real action was though.  I found this:

and my favorite – the two rabbits:

There were other little ones here and there:

I was pleased with the quantity and quality of finds in Toronto.

Toronto – various

As opposed to taking photos of buildings or neighborhoods or historical things, I end up taking photos of random signs, public art and so on.

For example, these two larger than life monsters below were in the Distillery Historic District:

I found this “no trespassing” sign amusing because it looks like you aren’t supposed to lightly dance.  I don’t think it’s very intuitive…

These turtle signs requesting motorists to drive slowly were all over.  At first I thought it was just the work of one specific neighborhood, but they were everywhere.

This sign was slightly perplexing – was the kid looking for water or playing with a sling shot before he was zapped for touching something?

So, I did take a photo of one building.  I walked through a neighborhood to get to an Indian area of Toronto.  This neighborhood had lots of row houses and duplexes.  The duplex below stood out because the two owners clearly did not agree on the design!

When walking on Spadina Ave, I passed a store that had this human model in the window (see below).  Either the owner is really prudish or there is something really surprising beneath that square of paper towel!

I do have some evidence that I was there – even though there are no Toronto-specific things in the background…here’s me!

The public library had some interesting elements on the building – this owl was my favorite:

On my way to breakfast one morning I passed Wendy’s, which had this little mural on its external wall. I liked it not only because I know a Wendy (and she’s amazing), but also because it’s cool – it has such a laid back feeling. 

Finally, this is what I saw on my way home somewhere over the midwest:

Stay tuned for the final installment – Toronto street art!

Toronto Tourist

In Toronto I walked around fairly aimlessly.  I picked a restaurant or a neighborhood and just set out.  I didn’t do any of the touristy stuff like go up in the CN Tower or take the ferry to the islands.  I just walked and ate basically.

On the way to the Distillery historic district I popped into the St. Lawrence Market – it was Sunday and it was the  “Sunday antique market.”  In perusing the items (see the three photos below), I didn’t find much that appealed to me but it was fun to look at everything. 

This is the first time I saw a carving made out of deer antlers – I didn’t buy it.

One of my favorite parts of Toronto was the transit!  They have streetcar and subway!

The streetcar was fun, extensive, and fascinating.  As you can see from the photo below, there are shelters/stops but because the streetcar runs in the center of the street customers have to mosey out into the travel lane to get on it.  I don’t know that such a “hazardous” boarding method would be allowed in the US. 

Here’s what it looked like inside the streetcar:

Extensive! Below is a mix of subway and streetcar but, of the 15 lines shown below 11 are streetcar! It went almost everywhere I wanted to go. 

Here’s a photo of the streetcar in traffic.  You can also see that they have lots of the Vancouver-like glass house development in the background along the lake.

I did take the subway too and enjoyed their version of the “mind the gap” sign:

Toronto also has bike share!  They have the Bixi system but it’s very similar to the Bcycle in Denver.  I didn’t get a chance to ride it but was happy to see it there and saw quite a few people riding it.

Speaking of bikes, there were these bikes all over town that were locked to signs and completely painted (various colors).  It turns out there is a story. Two artists did this to some abandoned bikes but were initially ticketed! The Mayor pardoned them and commissioned art in this form around the city.

Another thing I saw were these plants with imploring messages stationed on top of bike racks near Union Station.

To continue the non-motorized transit nerdiness, the pedestrian signal was a more laid back figure than we have in the states:

Oh, the Canadians…stay tuned for more on Toronto!