Day 64: Philadelphia - New York City

The Locust Punch turned out to be Locust Poison, and it took Steph and I a while to recover from them today. Went to a really ghetto McDonalds for hangover-curing greasy food, then took a long subway ride to sprawling Northeast Philly to visit the insectarium. In the most bizarre interruption to sightseeing, it turned out that the insectarium had been shut down by the police just five days prior for operating without a licence. Whoops.
Instead, we hit up a nearby costume shop for my rather confused attempt at Halloween. Went back into the city, met Edward at his work, editing a documentary on the Spin Doctors. Went for tasty burgers at a Belgian pub, then dashed home and out again to catch the sketchy Chinatown bus to NYC.
Met Donnie and headed out to Queens. Witnessed much Halloween mayhem on the way. Most original costume: tofu hoagie. Went to a local bar for Halloween drinks.

Day 63: Toronto - Philadelphia

Another travel day, with a dash of Amazing Race-style transport-dashing. Flew from Toronto to New York City then bolted out of the airport to make my train to Philadelphia (no Toronto - Philly flights!). Made it, met Steph in Philly, went straight to the pub (pretty much). Philly has nice pubs. Steph went to slave away at the library and I went out to Westchester to visit Margaret. Westchester is a very pretty town, all old buildings and "Main Street, USA" sort of feeling. Back into Philly, where the Democratic presidential debate was happening in Drexel University. Seems like the Democratic presidential candidacy is more important than the presidential election itself. Met Steph, and we hit the town - first the Locust Bar, a student pub where we indulged in the trademark Locust Punch, then Woody's, a friendly gay bar.

Day 62: Toronto

Spent today on one of my patented Death Marches around Toronto. Started at the CN Tower, which is enormous, but not at all pretty. Walked up to Queen St (again!) and past lots of important buildings that I've already forgotten to the Eaton Centre, which is a very pretty mall, with cool flying-geese art, but still just a mall. Popped into The World's Biggest Bookstore (it's really called that, though I don't believe it). Strolled through the University of Ontario, along Bloor St, and finally back down to Kensington where I met Kevin for coffee. We had another walk around Kensington and then through Chinatown before parting ways. Walked to the financial district, found some statues of cows and not much else, then met Kate for the subway ride home. The google-pedometer thing says I walked 13km today. I shudder to think of how far I've walked on the whole trip.

Day 61: Toronto

Started the day with a driving tour of Toronto. Saw the CN Tower, Lake Ontario, lots of other bits and pieces. Stopped at the Distillery District, an area of old industrial buildings converted into trendy shops for trendy people with more money than sense. Found a bakery with pies, pasties and sausage rolls, which immediately puts Canada leagues ahead of America in my view.
Drove out to eastern Toronto, to the beaches. The beaches, of course, being the beaches of Lake Ontario. Lake Ontario is so huge I can't register it as a lake; lakes are meant to have a visible opposite shore, at least they do where I'm from. Anyway, had a nice stroll along the shore, then through a nice neighbourhood a bit like Norwood or Unley.
We drove back downtown to meet Kevin for Round 1 of the Japan Friends / Internet Friends Collision of Universes. We had a nice afternoon tea, then Scott and Kate went home and Kevin showed me around the uber-cool Kensington market. Kensington really is the funkiest neighbourhood I've ever seen - second-hand shops spilling out of the front of houses, cars painted with murals and full of shrubbery, and bands playing on the street just because they can. It's wonderful fun.
Walked with Kevin down Queen St to meet his partner Lauren, who was working at a convention / market for local artists - comics, posters, record covers, badges and such. Really neat. Ended the day with a dinner of awesome $3 burritos.

Day 60: Toronto

I think the secret to this journal is being alone. It's now November 6th, and I'm at JFK waiting for a flight to San Francisco.
So back on the 27th of October, Kate and Scott took me around Toronto. Went to the St Lawrence Market, which is much like Adelaide's Central Market, and therefore great. Followed the market with a tram ride and a long walk down trendy Queen St. Had an amazingly good sandwich lunch, and eventually headed home, where Scott made a fabulous blue cheese lasagna for dinner.
Toronto is big, diverse, and much friendlier an un-snobby than a city of five million has any right to be.

Day 59: London - Toronto

Today I flew from London to Toronto. That's about it. Met Kate and Scott, and given the hour that I arrived, and the views available from the highway, all I can say about Toronto is that it isn't too cold, and there's lots of condominiums.

Day 58: London

Curiously, when you get the 5:30 wake-up call for breakfast on thie boat, you've already docked at Harwich, England. I suppose there's no point in getting off to just wait around for the first train of the day.
Spent the day in London before meeting Chris and going back to his place. Went to the British Museum again to finish off what we missed the first time - Africa, Asia and the Americas. I've decided that the best three museums in the world are the British (history), the Louvre (art), and the American of Natural History (natural history, naturally). So there. Spent ages reading books in Borders and two different Waterstones, then went to the National Gallery. Saw Sunflowers, Virgin on the Rocks and... that one on the Crash Test Dummies album.
I was thinking that I'm bound to be asked which city was my favourite, and I came to the conclusion that if someone put a gun to my head and made me choose, I would say London. The things I loved about each of the cities could be summed up in either their visuals - the monuments, parks, settings and such (Paris, Rome, Vienna, Venice, Luxembourg); or their liveliness, their people-atmosphere (Munich, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Marrakesh) - and basically, London combines the two better than anywhere else. That, of course, doesn't take into consideration things like food, nightlife and music, which I couldn't really experience. I'll be back for those when I've made my millions.