In a peace starved world where there is so much pain, suffering, violence, hurt and loss of life, to attend a lecture about love, in this case, ‘Divine Love’ according to the famous poet Rumi, was something very interesting to be looking forward to. Continue reading “‘Radical Love’”
After a lovely cultural visit to Kensington Market, we walked towards Chinatown. It is quite an unbelievable place, you basically enter an area that engages your senses, wakes up the wonder in you, informs your brain that knowing Chinese at this moment maybe a very good and beneficial thing to know, especially if you are like me and like to haggle now and again! Continue reading “Chinatown, Downtown Toronto”
(My solo road trip of western Canada – Wednesday 30th September)
OK, if you have been keeping up, a little recap since this morning:
The Sky Train, The SeaBus, Downtown Vancouver, Trees Organic and a fantastic yummy breakfast, The Seawall, Granville Island and Public Market, Railspur District, Gastown…phew!
Now I really needed something good to eat, something different, something with a bit of class, somewhere that has had excellent reviews and has a very good reputation…that will be Èast is East` thank you very much. There is a link below if you would like to see their website and menu, and if you go to the music page you can listen to some of the music on offer, just this makes me want to visit again…soon!
I walked a long way to get here, actually, by the time I had finished all of the above, and by the time I had reached this place (which I had actually read about back in the UK for one of the best places to eat when visiting Vancouver) it was just after 5pm, I did not leave this place until just before 10pm with at least an hour journey back to my accommodation. From the photos below, you can see that it was daytime when I arrived and not many people which led into the night and where the place became packed.
Why was this you may ask. Well, the decor was wonderful, the service was more than I could ask for, the food was so good, I took their signature dish which are very small portions of all their very best stuff on the menu, and when you finish that, you can order as much or as little as you want from the menu (same as before or different dishes) and the price stays the same.
But honestly, the main reason I stayed there was because on this night they has some splendid, mesmerising, soulful and classy entertainment which just made the whole visit exceptional in my view. I appreciate that not everyone may like this sort of music, but for me, this was very special.
There were three amazingly talented music artists that were playing fusion music together, there was a mix of Persian and Sufi music intertwined with aspects of Chinese music…after the day I had, there was very little battery left in the I Pad so I could not capture more than what I did below (and the sound quality may not give the credit that is due, but gives you an idea) which is a great shame as there were so many incredibly moving pieces that were being innovated as they played along…wow!
(My solo road trip of western Canada – Wednesday 30th September)
A short walk from Downtown Vancouver, there is a place that really makes you feel you are in a different era, it is called ‘Gastown’, I really liked this place, it was tremendously cosmopolitan, it has so much character and independence about it and as you walk around, you can feel the historic charm and spirit.
The types of shops in and around this area are like nothing I have seen before, some shops are totally unique in the way they are presented and the things they sell. Some shops are too expensive to even look at like ‘Versace Home’! Impeccable boutiques are dotted around, one-of-a-kind galleries and an evident and thriving fashion scene. The Victorian architecture I really admired, lots of colours and designs to take in.
One place that attracted the most amount of people while I was in a particular area was the ‘The Gastown Steam Clock’, the world`s first ever steam powered clock, amazing to see it work on the hour, if you have time, read what its about (there are videos you can see of this working and there is a link of the refit below earlier this year).
This is a bit late, but we visited this market back in September, fantastic weather, awesome variety of food, beautiful architecture and not too far from downtown Toronto where I went to later on with Fatimah and Maryam, what joy! Will hopefully be visiting some more markets during our stay, I believe Kensington Market is in the plans, at least that’s what the girls keep telling me!
St. Lawrence Market is one of two major public markets in Toronto, the other being Kensington Market. It was named the world’s best food market by National Geographic in April 2012
http://www.stlawrencemarket.com/
The original plan was to go for a romantic walk with Nour to downtown Toronto without kids to celebrate our thirteenth anniversary, yippee!
However, little did I know that my wife’s nieces, both who are lovely, a little loopy but amazing souls, were also coming along…that’s Fatimah (22) and Sara (15), Fatimah probably thinks that she needs no introduction as the world should already be aware of her existence!
Further to my ignorance, I did not realise that these three lovely ladies had a plan to eat some Poutine. Poutine is a Canadian dish, originating in the province of Quebec, made with french fries and cheese curds topped with a light brown gravy-like sauce.
In addition to this, my ignorance was compounded by the fact that they were secretly re routing the romantic walk in downtown towards Krispy Kreme (the global American doughnut company).
Oh and by the way the way did I tell you that I also did not expect to get totally drenched in one of many downpours on is beautiful day!
http://smokespoutinerie.com/
