As you can see in the picture above, I had a lot of fun on the flight. There were bad jokes everywhere like this one. Otherwise, I survived the flight like most of my A to B journeys so far: sleeping (Nico can sing a song about it). However, I had to wake up briefly for my layover in Reyjavik. Arriving in Toronto, I had to go to the 'Immigration' counter at the airport, which of course I didn't find right away, but if you constantly have the wrong documents during the checks, you will eventually be directed in the right direction. So eventually I actually got my work visa and was sent away by the friendly, whispering Canadian officer with the words: 'I will just write on this 'renewable', I mean it's probably not going to happen, but you know, everything's possible'. Yeeaaahh. Positivity...While I was busy with the bureaucracy, the airline staff took care of my luggage that I hadn't picked up yet. By 'took care of' I mean hidden. No one knew where it was. Like Easter, except that I already knew what I wanted to get!
You can't get more CanadaJoey and Joey's apartment with a view from the 17th floor I spent the last week in the north of Toronto with Joey. Joey is a Couchsurfer and so busy that I didn't meet him until after I had spent 1 night in his apartment. I was welcomed by Leo, Leo is also a couchsurfer and has already spent a few nights at Joey's. He is also German and comes from Connewitz... What are the odds??? There is also Karen from Mexico, but I only met her at 5 am. Karen speaks fast and loses a lot of hair. The last member is Skylar, the cat who lives under the couch and only comes out at night to be petted, eat, and of course make a fuss. Yes, I use a lot of allergy tablets and yes, maybe that's why I was sick on the weekend. I'm still on day 1. On Wednesday, I met another couchsurfer and we took a little literary journey through Toronto. We visited a 'Rare Book Collection', learned about the 'Beats Movement' and saw an exhibition about 'Little Red Riding Hood'.Poetry book shop 'Knife|Fork|Book', the store shares space with a dance studioFrom the Little Red Riding Hood exhibition :) Roald Dahl is great! Until now, I have always spent the afternoons doing nice things and the mornings trying to get a Canadian SIM card and a bank account, both somewhat unsuccessful. I have had a bank account since Friday, after Peter's cousin gave me her address so that my debit card could be sent somewhere and I can pick it up. Also the main reason why I will probably stay in Toronto for another week. I now have a Canadian phone number, even if the prices for it are just heartbreaking here, the salesman tried to comfort me a little bit. For comparison: 500 free minutes + SMS + 1GB are 35€. Yeah -.-. In the evening, I finally met Joey. Joey works as an accountant, teaches Chinese on the weekends, and plays baseball. In between, he sometimes sleeps and likes to listen to 'Celtic woman'.Boat ride :)On Thursday, I went to Centre Island with Leo. The island is only 10 minutes away by ferry and since it's not yet in season, everything looked deserted and a bit like autumn. But it was much more relaxed than the hectic city.In the evening, we went to the 'Multi language exchange' in downtown Toronto. At the entrance, we all got stickers with flags on them so that others could see which languages we speak. Unfortunately, it didn't always work. One person wanted the flag of Catalonia, but instead got the one for Macedonia. Besides Canadian flags, there were many Korean, Chinese, and of course German stickers. There were a lot of interesting people. For example, Cole, whose parents are from Ghana and who was voted the 'whitest black' at school. As a native Canadian, he likes to wear lumberjack shirts and learned German as a teenager through 'Call of Duty'. Since he likes to correct me, I taught him the word 'smartass'. I'm really good at making new friends :)Americans going down a waterfall in blue garbage bagsSo Friday. Friday I took the subway to the final stop Kipling, to meet Allen there, dily's Bulgarian-Canadian cousin. Who are all these people? Yeah, I have no idea. I had never seen any of them before and it was funny to pick up people from the airport that I had never seen before. Dily and her friend Ina are both from Bulgaria and Dily had never met her cousin Alen before either, so there were a lot of first meetings that day. From the airport, we drove together with Alen's car to the Niagara Falls. Apart from a lot of water, there were also: a lot of casinos, tourists, selfie sticks, and the border with the USA without a visible fence.To Marieke: I completed the task and accidentally walked into a few selfies ;) (No one was injured)In the evening, we all went out to eat and I showed Dily and Ina Joey's apartment, because since Leo left, I was now the senior couchsurfer. This included: explaining why the cat lives under the couch, where the spare key is, and that you have to wait downstairs at the door for someone to let you in, because we didn't have a key for the door. Yes, that's actually it so far, because yesterday and today I mainly had a cold and didn't do much.I apologize here for my spelling and grammar, it probably won't get any better ;) Here's some bonus material:Graffiti AvenueGraffiti Avenue Graffiti Avenue Graffiti Avenue
