Day 81: Brewery Tour, Exploring TO

I left with Alex around 8am and started my day with some cafe lounging and breakfast. Once I was fueled up I rode through the University of Toronto and saw some fantastic old buildings scattered through the downtown campus. This was followed by a stop in Chinatown to see the area and get some reasonably priced fresh fruit to top off the baked goods from the cafe. I lazed around, got some more food, then rode down to Steamwhistle Brewing for a 1:30 tour. I was here last time but didn't take the tour so I was looking forward to it. It cost $10 and included a bottle opener and bottle of beer to enjoy during the tour. As we started bottles were coming off the line and our guide grabbed us each one. Since they stamp them with the date and time bottled I was able to see that this pilsner was bottled 3 minutes before it hit my lips, probably the freshest commercial beer I'll ever enjoy! The tour was fun and ended up being great timing as there was a fierce thunder and lightning storm raging outside and I would have been soaked through on my bike. The tour finished and I killed some time trying to wait the rain out and met a Danish woman who had done some touring around Europe so we exchanged some recommendations of places to visit.

Eventually I decided that the rain wasn't going to quit so I journeyed out into what was now at least a sprinkle and rode to St. Lawrence Market. This is similar to the superb markets found in most great cities and I had a good time sampling the mustard and cheeses and getting the customary personal size custard pie.

Soon after I had finished I got a notice from Alex that he was getting off work early due to the storm so we met back at his place and headed out to Pizza Libretto which had been recommended to me earlier in the day. The pizza was fantastic and very traditional Napoli style. I realize it sounds like all I did was eat, and in a way that's what I felt like. But for better pleasure and worse finances my metabolism still burns strong several days after riding so it takes quite a bit to keep me sated.

We got back and caught up on some Olympic highlights which I was happy to do since it hasn't been easy following them at all while on the road. The whole internet issue has been amazingly frustrating and none of my phone's apps have been working here, even with Wi-Fi. I realize these are what Louis C.K. would call "first world problems" but I've gotten so used to being able to access email and such easily that it is frustrating to be in a major city, very close to the US, and not have any functionality. To top it off the Blogger app has been crap recently anyway so just getting a post up takes 30-45 minutes, let alone the time it takes to actually write them. Either way I'm still making the effort and hope you're still enjoying them! I'll do some more solo exploring tomorrow, definitely excited for another full day here!