Last Saturday, I decided to forgo the downtown celebrity hunt at the TIFF and I went instead to a Celtic Festival at Kew Gardens which is in the Beaches area of Toronto. It was about a 10 minute ride on the streetcar. (The streetcar runs along Queen St, and it is about a 5 minute walk from my house to Queen)
There were little booths selling many things including Irish jewelry, Scottish shortbread, and British candy. I sat and listened to some music by the Scarborough Pipes and Drums, and my far-off Scottish blood was dancing along.
After listening for awhile, I walked through Kew Gardens, which are absolutely beautiful. There were lots of families, people with dogs, homeless people, and even singletons like myself.
I walked down to the shore of the lake (Ontario), and there was a boardwalk with tons of people. It goes quite far, heading west all the way past downtown. I sat for a bit on a bench and watched the sailboats on the water.
I then walked along Queen Street east which is a wonderful little neighbourhood full of little shops and restaurants. I found a beautiful little walkway / parkette called the "Discovery Walks".
It wound its way up into a quite nice area with some beautiful houses. A lot of them were hidden by the trees (like the next picture), but you could still see how incredible they were.
It was a perfect Saturday afternoon and I really enjoyed scratching the surface of the city just a tiny bit more.
This week I am in school and it is definitely an adjustment to get back into a "scholarly" frame of mind. I have been to 2 of my classes so far, and it is hard not to feel overwhelmed when everyone else sounds like they know everything already. Hello! I thought we were here to learn? I think it is that most of the students are much more culturally and globally aware than I am. I will just have to do a lot of reading and research on the topics of the classes and hope that I can provide even a small opinion.
I hope that you all have a great week!
