2013/09/06: One week of shopping and cooking

The first week is over, and some problems are still not solved. Enrolling in courses is somehow complicated, spaces are reserved or I’m not allowed to enroll or whatever; I still haven’t any proof of my health insurance plan; warm twin duvets are already sold out (and it is fucking cold at night in this room); my lovely smartphone seems not to accept any Canadian SIM card; BUT: WE HAVE A BIKE!!! The best thing that happened today: going to this crazy bike shop in Chinatown with Laura, haggling and discussing with Israel and Chinese manpower, buying our favorite bike, still not believing that we got it that cheap, silently moving around the corner, and then celebrating our success. If Laura really gets 110$ back when she returns the bike in April (we have a written proof for this), than we paid only 115$ for using a quite good bike and a very good lock for more than half a year! 115$ equals 3 kilograms of Mozzarella or 11 Camemberts, that's not much!
The bike is by far not the only thing I spend money on this week. I already wrote about the Walmart experience, in the meantime I experienced some other shopping adventures: a Swedish furniture store (ok, this one is not surprising…), a Russian furniture store (this one was surprising!!! Stuff and all other clients speaking Russian, food that I haven’t seen since my last visit in Russia, and there's no hint from outside that "European food experience" means "Russian paradise"), Pacific Mall in Markham (stepping off the bus I recognized immediately that I've been their on our field trip five years ago, it’s a unique Asian mall, bot no-one was able un unlock/repair my cell phone), a funny Chinese supermarket (where many things are much cheaper than in Canadian supermarkets), a huge "normal" Shopping Mall (with multiplex cinemas, furnishing houses, big food core, Tesla shop and everything, but no groceries at all…) and so on. Every single shopping experience takes about 2-4 hours and 40-60 dollars…

Special offer at the Russian supermarket:

Pacific Mall before the first shop opened:

Chinese supermarket:


As I met Karen (geography student in Passau) for an ice cream (pardon, gelato) in downtown Toronto and Lucas (fellow student in Frankfurt who is starting an internship here), and I got to know Max, Katharina and Laura at the welcome events on campus, I spoke a lot of German this week. We watched the Kanzlerduell and Neues aus der Anstalt together, we cooked almost every evening together and we gave each other the good feeling that we are not the only ones having problems with some administrative, furnishing or technical barriers. It feels like we’ve known each other since a long time, but it’s only three days! We already share many nice experiences - and a bike.

Two things are really typical for my (our) stay in Toronto:

1.) Being the only one to do/be something (e.g. being the only one walking along the wide street to the IKEA market while the rest of the world seems to drive a car; being the only non-Russian in the Russian supermarket; being the only non-Asian in the Pacific Mall; being the only white person (and the only one jogging) in a park near the Finch-Jane district; being the only one older than 20 at the college introduction (besides the professors); ...

2.) Figure something out – and immediately notice that it doesn’t work today (e.g. finally finding the clothes washers in the apartment house – and noticing that they only work with money charged on your student card; finally finding a favorable SIM card offer – and figuring out that your cell phone doesn’t accept the SIM card; finding a perfectly fitting duvet – and getting told that is not available in your size; finally having internet in the flat – and asserting that the Ethernet cable doesn’t reach from data jack to desktop (wireless internet is not allowed…); …


To proof that I’ve already been to downtown Toronto (which is about one hour, or 23 cycle kilometers south of our campus), here are pictures of the Royal Ontario Museum, …

…CN Tower…

…and its new neighbors, …

…Spadina Avenue,…

…Financial District, …

…and Distillery Historic District.

2013/09/01: The first three days: Campus, Public Transport, Walmart

Toronto is a huge city. Travelling from the inner city, located in the south, at Lake Ontario, to the northern edge of the city takes a lot of time. I’m living at the northern edge of the city, at York University’s Keele Campus. You have to take the subway all the way to the northern terminus, from there you have to take a bus. Which bus? It’s not easy to figure this out on the very complicated system map. Digital departures board? Ha, ha, funny! This is not Germany, darling, this is public transport in North America. As Canadians are much smarter than Germans, they manage it to use a public transport system without schedules or even maps at the stations. Ok, the thumb people who don’t understand this weird, out of fashion system drive their car. These people are in the majority, in the greater Toronto area more than 70% of the residents with a job drive to work. That’s why no-one – no kidding, also at the student housing services – can answer a question that starts with “how do I get by public transport to…”. How can one of the most progressive cities of the world maintain such a noncompetitive public transport system? Nothing has changed since I’ve been here five years ago. The day passes (still only available at subway stations) look like a lottery scratch ticket where you have to scratch the date on which the ticket should be valid; the subway network in a metropolitan area of nearly 6 million inhabitants offers basically two lines; the tramway network is run by old, squeaky streetcars which mostly get stuck in congested traffic; at York University three different operators are offering bus services, but every operator has another ticket system. I absolutely love the streetcars, on my third day I already got some basics of the bus system, and the subway is running fast and frequently. But there’s a lot to be done to turn Toronto’s public transport into an alternative to car dependency…

The flat was empty. Like a hotel room with kitchen. A lot of storage space, a refridgerator and a stove, but no mattress cover, sheets or blankets, no dishes, pans or knifes, no clothes hangers or waste bin. Do they expect exchange students to bring all these things by plane within their 23 kilogram limitation? Do they expect us to eat junk food three times a day? Or is it just a clever way to push the Canadian economy, earning hundreds of dollars on the first day exchange students spend in their country? Anyway, I need pan and pot for cooking, I need knife and fork for eating, I need sheet and pillow for sleeping. I searched a wonderful webpage for free or cheap, used or for rent stuff, but finally I gave up and did what everybody else does: I went to Walmart. First of all, I tried to find a grocery story on campus. There is none, only a little shop which is closed on Saturdays. After walking around the campus for more than one and a half hours (no joke! But it always looked as there could be something like a grocery store at the next corner, and again it was only a huge parking lot, a tennis stadium, a hockey stadium, a UPS storage or the subway construction site). Finally I walked to the next available Wifi-hotspot and googled the addresses of the grocery stores and shopping malls given in the “Handbook for Tenants”. Should have done this before: none of the grocery stores is in walkable distance! Crazy, a campus for thousands of people, and no grocery store (but Tim Hortons, Wendy’s, Subway, KFC, Taco Bell, Jimmy the Greek, another Tim Hortons and another Tim Hortons).
As I had to take a bus anyway (thanks to Google Transit I knew when and where the bus leaves, the Transit Operator’s homepage was not able to find a connection…), I went directly to Walmart, hoping that I find there everything I need. I’ve been the only one to arrive there by bus and not by car. And I’ve been probably the only person to spend two hours and almost two hundred dollars in this holy hall of capitalism. You can buy everything in here! Everything! Unbelievable. Forget about Metro, Selgros and Kaufland (no, don’t forget about them, they offer fresh, healthy food, you don’t find this in a Walmart…). Some things are extremely cheap (1$ for a glass respectively four knives), some things are extremely expensive (15,83$ for a fucking ethernet cable). But I had to buy this cable, as I want to have an Internet connection in my flat sooner or later (obviously later, Monday is a holiday in Canada…). As if the flat wouldn’t be expensive enough, the Internet cost another 27$ per month (it would be more than 70$ including telephone and television). Back to Walmart: this is not a joke, these are the prices for organic milk and toilet paper. Until I find a cheaper solution, I’ll drink non-organic milk and do my shit on public toilets…

There’s now a lot of stuff in my apartment, the refridgerator isn’t empty any more, the matrass is covered. But as my apartment is full, the campus is still empty. Where are the thousands of students expected to start their studying next week? Where are the lines to wait in for getting a YU Card, the apartment key or o coffee? Everything is empty, you don’t have to wait for anything. I hope this will change next week. Tomorrow, when my “Post-Secondary Metropass” (another 108$ per month…) is valid, I’ll go downtown and have a look if there are still people.

2013/08/30: “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end” (Ernest Hemingway)

2013/08/29: Arrival in Toronto

Having spent the night sitting in buses and lying on an uncomfortable bench in Ottawa’s Greyhound station, I arrived in Toronto yesterday afternoon. I arrived in many cities within the last five weeks, but this is my last arrival, as I’ll stay here for the next four months. So there will be possibilities to write more about the city itself…
The pictures show King Street, seen from the hostel where I spend my first night; York University and the apartment I’ll spend my next 110 nights; Toronto’s Financial District; and finally CN Tower, which is not only the highest, but also the highest priced building I’ve seen in the last weeks. 32$ for the lower observation desk, 44$ for the upper one. Fuck you, I prefer to spend this awful lot of money for… for three camemberts in a Canadian supermarket... :(

2013/08/28: New York - Montreal

If you have only time (and/or money) to do a one-day train ride in North America, go from New York to Montreal (or vice versa). The train equipment is not really convenient (but you’re not disappointed as long as you’re normally using European trains and not to Amtrak’s comfortable Superliner cars), but the landscape is great! Travelling all along the Hudson River Valley from New York City to the northern end of the New York state, you see a lot of water, iron bridges, fog, old houses, birds, rocks, water lilies. I can recommend to travel through this fantastic scenery.
Having crossed the Canadian border, the landscape is not spectacular until you glimpse the skyline of Montreal at the horizon. Crossing the St Lawrence, you have a great view at almost everything Montreal is famous for - Skyline, Mont Royal, Olympic Stadium, Habitat 67, Biosphère. What you don’t see from the train window is Montreal’s Old Town, Vieux-Montréal. But it’s only a ten minutes’ walk from Union Station, and it’s worth going there. It has nothing to do with other North American citites (except for Quebec City of course). It is more French than most cities in France. High heels and low houses, cobblestone streets and street musicians. It’s a fantastic place to spend three hours waiting for the night bus. As I had the rucksack (and two small bags) with me, I often changed between walking and taking a break on a bench (the later the evening, the longer the breaks). Sitting on a bench, four locals came from behind and asked me if they can offer me some food. At least from behind I’m meanwhile looking like a homeless guy begging for food… After a short funny discussion they continued their walk. Friendly, English speaking Quebecers, wow! This runs agains all (also my own) prejudices. Nevertheless, I’m happy to stay in Toronto and not in Montreal for the next four months.

2013/08/27: Big Apple

Due to a railway bridge which had been opened to let ships pass and a door which had been opened but didn’t close anymore (so that we were not allowed to go faster than 50 miles/hour), we arrived in New York two hours late – between D.C. and NYC seven quicker passenger trains passed! Having left the worst train of the whole trip, we checked in at the worst accommodation of the whole trip. From there (529 Putnam Avenue in Brooklyn, don’t go there!), we finally started exploring New York by taking a subway to Coney Island.
Coney Island is a famous amusement park in Brooklyn, …

which is home of the international Hot Dog Eating Contest (have a look at the “Wall of Fame”!)…

…and where you can find “Original Frankfurters”!

As Conny Island is located at the Atlantic Ocean, there’s also a beach (but Conny Island isn’t an island, it’s a part of Brooklyn, Brooklyn is located on Long Island).

After so many pictures of Brooklyn I should also upload a picture of Queens.

From some elevated subways in Queens you can have a view to Manhattan’s skyline.


This is not the skyline of Manhattan, this is a graveyard in Brooklyn:

We took the subway to get to Manhattan. It is easy to find the subway stations…

…and the names of the stations are nicely made…

…but in which direction should I walk to find the platform of line 7?

Not only New York’s subway is great, also the Roosevelt Island Tramway is worth a ride.

As Major Bloomberg tries to make New York “greener and greater”, a lot of new cycle lanes had been installed in the last years. There’s also a new bike sharing system, “Citibike”.

To ride a bike in New York, you should wear one of these stylish American helmets.

I cycled through Central Park,…

…along the Hudson River…

…and the East River,…

…through East Village…

…and over the Williamsburg Bridge.

I did a longer stop in the Meatpacking District, …


…where I walked along this great, new High Line Park, my new favorite place in New York (it hadn’t been opened when I was in New York five years ago).




Being in Manhattan, you have to see Times Square, which is crowded day…

…and night (and which is being pedestrianized at the moment).

The new “One World Trade Center” has almost reached his final height…

…and is already surrounded by other new skyscrapers.

Taking a (free) ride on the Staten Island Ferry, you have not only a perfect view at Manhattan’s skyscrapers,…

…but also at Jersey City (on the left) and Brooklyn (on the right).

On the bus ride via the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge back to Brooklyn and in Williamsburg it was too dark to take good pictures, but believe me that also the last evening in the Big Apple was a great one. Although the New Yorkers are not the friendliest people in the world and the prices for almost everything are exorbitant, New York is in my opinion the best city in the world. I’ll be back (at the 22nd of December).