TORONTO, CANADA
Weather: A glorious, sunny and warm day. So much for the thunder and rain forcasted!
Today was spent travelling to Toronto.
On the way out of Niagara, we drove along the Niagara River and stopped at historic Niagara-by-the-Lake. It's a very pretty little town where no large tour buses are allowed in the main centre of town. We were dropped off at a car park just outside of town and some took the shuttle bus into town and some of us took the 5-10 minutes walk into town.
Some houses and buildings along the streets had plaques stating the year that the building was established. I saw some that had Circa 1839 and 1840. We took the "million dollar drive" out of town passing homes that are valued into the millions of dollars.
We stopped at the place where they say Niagara Falls originated possibly thousands of years before it's discovery. The falls recede a certain amount every year.
After a very long bus drive we finally arrived in Toronto. Half the people on the bus were still sleeping when our tour director Linda started to tell us about Toronto.
The first thing we all noticed were all the apartement buildings everywhere you look. Many are still in the process of being built. There are two gold buildings in this city with actual gold dust encrusted on their windows. The building owners wanted their building to stand out on the Toronto skyline. And it is actually real gold.
Dinner was held at one of the restaurants at the hotel. I was almost late for dinner as I got stuck at the elevators. They have really slow elevators here at the Sheraton and when the elevator finally arrived it was almost full. Then the bloody thing decides to stop on every floor all the way down from the 10th floor (where I was staying) even if there wasn't anyone on the floor! Frustrating!
After dinner I was really tired so I went to my room and got ready for bed - it was 9pm already. These late nights and early starts are starting to catch up.
I was just starting to get to sleep when, at 11:30pm I heard this loud, constant beeping noise. I thought it was my alarm at first, thinking it couldnt' be 5:30am already. When pressing the off button didn't make it stop, I got up and started to hunt down the possible source of the noise. It was coming from a speaker just above the door to my room - it was the fire alarm! I quickly got dressed and had my bag on my shoulder ready to evacuate.
Then there was an announcement that an alarm has been triggered in the south tower and that the hotel's team were checking it out and to stand by for further instructions. Within minutes I could hear sirens approaching the hotel - about six minutes from the time the alarm went off.
Another announcement stating that the fire brigade were on the scene and were chekcing it out and to stand by, all the while that stupid beeping continued. I could hear people in the corridor outside my room wondering if they should evacuate.
The whole incident lasted about fifteen minutes. Then we were informed that the fire brigade has given the all clear and that we will not need to evacuate and there wouldn't be any further annoucements. Have a good night.
I put my pyjamas back on and got into bed. Then that stupid beeping again and the guy repeats what he just said! After saying there wouldn't be any further announcements!
Had a hard time going to sleep after that.
