Monday 9 October 2023

First Thanksgiving

Our first true day in Canada started with a bowl of very English porridge - just enough to set us up for a long old day of walking across town. We caught the streetcar to a nearby park then hiked to the downtown area. In Toronto it's remarkable how quickly the landscape goes from suburbia into fringe shopping districts into mega city - our walk took us across all three and eventually to the base of the CN Tower. 


Rebecca especially was still fending off the remainder of jet lag today so it was nice to do a cursory sweep of the city without building our day around any major activity. There was one thing we simply had to do while in Canada... visit a Tim Hortons. As the tiredness hit a coffee and a doughnut really picked us back up again.


We did need to return to our host's home though because this weekend marked the beginning of Canadian Thanksgiving. Although the day itself is technically tomorrow, the big meal was planned for today. We met up with my extended family plus a few other satellite friends, all local Torinotonians who were great company. We exchanged differences in ways of life, politics and food while scoffing turkey meat and red wine. My favorite thing was helping prepare a small side for the Thanksgiving meal while hanging around others all chipping in to help make the meal something special. Though I was 1,000 miles away from home, I was still amongst family and reconnecting with them on a foreign national holiday is an incredibly rare treat.



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