Last night I went with a friend of mine to the Toronto stop of the Bamboozle Road Show. The main performers lined up to perform at the show included Forever The Sickest Kids, Good Charlotte, LMFAO, Third Eye Blind, All Time Low, and Boys Like Girls. My friend and I stayed enough to see Good Charlotte and LMFAO, who were the bands I was most interested to see, especially LMFAO since I had seen Good Charlotte two years prior.
The first performance we saw was of Good Charlotte. They put on an okay show, but it was kind of interesting see them on stage having had no new album since 2007’s Good Morning Revival. Midway through the show they performed a new song dubbed “Like Its Her Birthday” which will be on their new album they announced on the tour to be released in September. Although I was a pretty big fan of theirs a few years back, their performance didn’t really convince me or tell me why I was a fan. They weren’t really energetic with their performances and didn’t show much enthusiasm. For a band that’s been around for almost a decade now, I did expect more from their show. Perhaps dating Nicole Richie and fathering her child has taken a toll on Joel’s career?
The second performance we saw was by the Hip-Hop/Pop/Dance or perhaps “Party Rock” duo LMFAO known for their singles, “I’m In Miami Bitch” and “Shots”. From beginning to end, this band created a non-stop party. It seemed as if they belonged more inside a club rather than a big venue because of their style of music, but regardless they were amazing. They sang completely live, which is sometimes rare nowadays, and put on a very entertaining show. They had crazy dancers, some dressed as a lego blocks, and others decked out in “Party Rock gear” (I guess a nonchalant way of advertising their clothing line). The costumes, the choreography, and the overall energy they had on stage was just incredible. They were a little out of place though at the festival; if you look at the rest of the line up, they were the only ones of their genre. Although I went specifically to see them, the rest of the crowd knew them more just for their singles and only really got into them then. Regardless, for a fairly new band, they definitely put on a show and had great stage presence and would be perfect openers for artists like Lady GaGa, Black Eyed Peas, or any energetic pop performers as these guys know how to “get the party started!”
Overall, the Bamboozle Festival was fun, despite seeing just two performers. The set up was fun with gaps between each bands to get merchandise, socialize, and meet some bands (the side stage ones for the most part) walking around the venue. Because the Molson Amphitheater is outdoors, there was some fun in the sun as well with the great weather going on.
I would definitely recommend everyone to check out LMFAO if they can, but I might pass on Good Charlotte. Although they have a bunch of catchy songs, their show just felt a little lackluster, especially for a band that’s been in the game for nearly a decade.
EDIT #1: So this interview didn't happen today and has been postponed to tomorrow because of Kate's schedule! I will still fill everyone in on how it goes!
As many of you know, I’ve been a pretty big Hilary Duff fan, for quite some years now. Consequently, I get pretty excited when she releases new material whether it be movies, music, or TV guest appearances. As of late, she’s had quite a few new releases including her movie Greta, her appearance on the current season of Gossip Girl, and the latest release, her made for TV movie, Beauty and the Briefcase.
Beauty and the Briefcase is a romantic comedy film that recently premiered on ABC Family. Despite being just a TV movie, it is Duff’s first motion picture that has gotten major publicity and promo since 2006’s Material Girls. Although I’m a huge fan, I wasn’t going into the film with high expectations. Her latest projects did disappoint a little; Gossip Girl, although a mature themed show, didn’t quite showcase Duff’s acting capabilities and According To Greta, despite being a really good film, disappointed with the ending. Therefore, I went into the movie with no expectations and no bias. How did that turn out? Keep reading.
The movie revolves around Lane Daniels (Hilary Duff, War Inc.) who is an aspiring journalist trying to get a position for Cosmopolitan. Although at first she is rejected, the editor in chief reconsiders and gives Lane the task to do the cover story for the next issue. This job is a little more than what Lane bargained for; she has to go undercover, work at a financial office and date various men to ultimately writing an article about dating men in suits. Of course, you can see where the story will go with this plot, and although it is a cliche story, that’s what most romantic comedies; recycled plots. Lane has a checklist that she follows for her “magic man” which includes things like being able to play an instrument, having an accent, etc. and while working on the story, she meets a man that completes the checklist, but the only problem is, he isn’t a “man in a suit” as she meets him at a restaurant not in the office. The film goes on with her trying to balance all these men which include her boss Tom (Michael McMillian, True Blood), her co-worker Seth (Matt Dallas, Kyle XY) and the guy she meets at the restaurant, Liam (Chris Carmack, The O.C.) and of course getting all tied up and going over her head to the point that the focus of her article changes.
Khizer’s Review:
The movie was cute. Nothing more, nothing less. From beginning to end, it was cute seeing Lane’s character develop and see her go undercover and work on her story. The movie was engaging enough to make me actually want to yell to the screen telling Lane what and what not to do. As a result, I think it can be said that Hilary’s acting in this film was above par. Although the script was a little redundant and cheesy, Hilary had no blame for that nor did the writers of the script as the movie is actually based on the book “Diary of a Working Girl” by Daniella Brodsky. Hilary shared great chemistry with almost all her co-stars, however what bugged me was the fact that for doing a story on dating men in suits, she only really dated two men in suits, and one of them was her boss, Tom, whom she only really had lunch with. I know this may have been part of the storyline, but I would think that they would have a few more men that she could have dated in her process. As well, for people who are familiar with (and like) Lizzie McGuire, this movie will be a sort-of treat. Throughout the movie, Lane’s character has a voiceover of her inner thoughts, reminiscent to Lizzie McGuire’s alter ego. Having this voice gave the movie a “Lizzie All Grown Up” feel. At first I thought it was a bit cheesy, but by the end of it, I started liking it.
Overall, there’s not much to review on this movie. The storyline is typical and cliche, but that’s what romantic comedies are, as I stated above. For what it was, I think the movie was well done. Hilary definitely showed a mature side of her acting, and it was nice to see her in a romantic comedy geared more towards her older fans. If al else fails, she could create a niche in the romantic comedy genre and could possibly become the next Sandra Bullock or Kate Hudson of the genre. Oh and I must mention, Duff looked beyond gorgeous throughout the movie. Matt Dallas, Michael McMillian, and Chris Carmack were all good in their roles, however Chris Carmack’s British accent in the film was evidently fake. Other notes about the movie; Amanda Walsh (former MuchMusic VJ) was also in the film playing the role of Hilary’s best friend, and Jennifer Coolidge (Hilary’s step mom in A Cinderella Story) made a guest appearance.
Final verdict? If you’re into romantic comedies, this won’t be a huge disappointment nor will it raise the bar for future romcom’s. If you’re into Duff, this movie will be a treat for everyone. Or if you’re simply looking to pass time, this movie will do the trick. If romantic comedies aren’t your thing, I wouldn’t recommend watching this one as it won’t sell you on the genre. Basically what I’m trying to say is, the movie was a good watch for a TV movie and that is about all.
Khizer’s rating: 3 stars
Hey everyone,
So I will start of by apologizing for the lack of posts on this blog; the last post I made was in February and now its nearly May! Time has just gone by so fast, and so much has happened in the last two months that I haven’t posted on here...yet!
Despite not posting official entries on the blog, I have been writing entires and have been keeping track of topics and events I want to blog about and I promise by the end of this weekend, I should have a few posts up.
So what’s been new and exciting with my life?
Well, as some of you might know (and I think I made a post about this late last year), I got an internship at Toronto magazine company Vervegirl in which I edit interviews they do with celebrities, behind the scenes photo shoots, special features and other exciting things like that. I’ve been interning there since November and I finally got “upgraded” in the sense that now I’m not only editing these pieces now, but I’m going out and getting to film them as well! My first project will be filming an interview with British singer Kate Nash at her hotel room! In addition, my name is finally posted in the header of the magazine under the “intern” section. I’m pretty excited about both of those and cannot be thankful enough!
Of course, my life wouldn’t be complete without my fix of music, concerts, and film, and I have a bunch of news regarding that as well. Since my last post in February, I attended a Hedley concert in Ottawa which was amazing. Opening for Hedley was Boys Like Girls, Stereos, and Fefe Dobson so it was a pretty big show. Asides from Fefe Dobson’s opening performance, the show was incredible. I saw Lady GaGa and Timbaland in concert as well that I didn’t blog about (however those were in November (2009) and January, respectively) that were also both great. Upcoming concerts include Lights & Owl City at the end of this month, Faber Drive with Jesse Labelle and New Cities in May, Bamboozle festival in June, and Lady GaGa in July to say the least. I’ll make sure to post reviews on all of these as they happen! Some movies that I will be reviewing for my blog are Beauty and the Briefcase starring Hilary Duff, and The Back Up Plan starring Jennifer Lopez. Everything I listed above will be posted in their own respective entries in retrospect (for example, since Timbaland happened in January, it will be filed under January in my blog, however I’ll create a reminder post so everyone sees it).
I’m sure all of you are dying to know about juicy gossip in my personal life. I don’t want to give too much away, but I did turn 20 in March and had a pretty awesome birthday party (I believe I posted my birthday invitation poster on the blog). Shots by LMFAO featuring Lil’ Jon became the song of the night and consequently my 20th birthday theme song. I also made a trip out west to BC earlier in March and visited some friends (a blog will be up about that) and I recently booked a trip to go to Europe for 10 days in August so I’m pretty stoked for that! Drama in my life has been minimal (for once)! Speaking of drama, I did meet Ms. I Just Wanna Be No Drama Adrianna aka Jessica Lowndes from 90210 in March which was cool. So I’m in Toronto for the full summer and I’m currently trying to get a full time summer job and who knows, I might migrate back to Toronto for University? Who knows!?!
Anyways, I wanted to give everyone a quick update on what’s been good with me. I promise this blog is going to get very exciting really soon! I don’t want to give too much away since I like secrets, BUT I am working on getting some exclusive interviews just for this blog. A few months ago I did get Marianas Trench to show some support for the blog, which they did as you can see in the top right hand corner...now I’ve been working on getting some interviews for the blog so let’s hope this post doesn’t jinx that!
Talk to everyone later!
Love,
Khizer
Hedley recently released their third studio album “The Show Must Go” and have been doing a nationwide tour dubbed “The Show Must Go...On The Road Tour” with special guests Fefe Dobson, Stereos, and Boys Like Girls. As a huge fan of Hedley as well as Stereos, I was really excited to see the show and was able to catch it during their stop in Ottawa.
Before the show, I was fortunate enough to meet the band who were super nice. I had a friend that was supposed to meet them with me, but she was unable to get off of work in time for the meet and greet (she did attend the actual show with me though). As a result, when the band saw me alone and I explained how my friend was working, Jacob cut me off and was like “you were supposed to come with a friend....and YOU GOT DUMPED!”.Playing along with their joke, I said yeah unfortunately, and when I did the band got serious and felt bad, “Are you serious, omg, wow sorry.” “I’m just kidding, she had to work,” I replied. “Oh good, I was going to say you’re a huge trooper if you still decided to come out to the show the day you got dumped!” he replied. It was a really fun meet and greet, although it was a bit short, the band was really nice and meeting them made me more stoked for the show.
The show started about an hour later with Fefe Dobson opening. Fefe Dobson released her debut album in 2004 and had a few somewhat popular singles including Take Me Away and Bye, Bye Boyfriend. Her sophomore album went unreleased when she parted ways with her label, and she is currently finishing up her new sophomore album for release sometime this year. Opening for Hedley would be the perfect way to do early promo. She performed for about half an hour singing songs from her debut, and a bunch of new songs. To me her performance was below average. She had this rocker look going on during her performance, however it seemed so force and unnatural. Her live voice wasn’t horrible, however most of the songs she performed were just screaming and/or sounded the same. From the crowd response, I was’t the only one not impressed with her performance. Thankfully, it was only an opening performance so it was short.
The second performance of the night was with the new boy band Stereos. Stereos gained recognition on MuchMusic’s Disband from which they landed themselves a record deal and released their debut album last year. Since then, their popularity significantly increased and they did their own nationwide tour last year, toured the U.S. with Kill Paradise early this year, and are now opening for Hedley. Their music is a fusion of rock, hip-hop, and pop and thus they have a pretty big fan base. The crowd went wild when they showed up on stage and they didn’t fail to disappoint with their performance. As a matter of fact, people got so into their performance you could actually feel the floor shake during some of their songs, especially during “Turn It Up”. It was really interesting to hear them live as their music uses real instruments as well as the recently popular auto-tune and hip-hop beats. Lead singer Pat’s voice isn’t the strongest voice, but he did prove that he could sing without the use of auto tune, and the rest of the band put on a great live show. They were definitely a good opener for Hedley and they definitely had great stage performance. This is rare for new bands, especially when these new bands perform at arena sized venues as opposed to clubs.
The third performance was by American band, Boys Like Girls. I was actually surprised that Boys Like Girls was opening for Hedley as they are pretty big themselves, not only in Canada, but in the USA as well. Not being a huge fan of the band, I still managed to enjoy their performance. I saw them a few years ago playing alongside Good Charlotte at a club venue, and performing at a bigger venue wasn’t a hard transition for them. They opened the set with a cover of I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas and went on to perform a half hour setlist including their hits Love Drunk, Two Is Better Than One, and The Great Escape. They brought a fan on stage as well, and the lead singer sang to her. Overall, they put on a good show.
Of the three openers, I would have to say Stereos were my favorite.
After a short wait, the lights dimmed and the crowd began to scream louder than they did for any of the other acts; it was Hedley time. Their performance started with an intro video that showed each member of the group doing their own day to day activities, when they receive a phone call that they have to be at a performance. All of them rush to get to the performance, which of course, is our show. It was a neat idea for an introduction video and definitely built excitement for their show. They opened their set with Cha Ching and did not disappoint. It seemed as if Jacob didn’t know what city he was in for the first few minutes of the performance as he addressed us as “Kingston” a few times. By the end of the song, he finally got it right and called us Ottawa. I wasn’t sure if that was an intentional mistake or if he was reliving his show from last night. Either way, the performance was a great opening song and they did not disappoint with their stage presence. They had props, videos, costume changes and divided their show into sections. One section of their show was campfire songs in which they brought some fake trees onto the stage, logs to sit on, a fake campfire, a video in the background depicting the night sky and sounds of owls hooting, and a fan that let out a gentle breeze in the audience. They definitely set the mood and started performing some of their slower and more acoustic songs. This included “Friends” from their latest album which became one of the highlights of the show. Other songs they performed included Perfect which was done on a grand piano and was very raw. You could hear and feel Jacob’s emotion during his performance of that song; it was another highlight. Of course the show wouldn’t be a true Hedley show if there weren’t some shenanigans on stage. During the performance of Don’t Talk To Strangers, Jacob did some butt shaking and some of the other members showed some of their rear end on stage during the camp fire scene. They performed almost all of their singles including 321, Gunnin’, On My Own, She’s So Sorry, Trip, and Never To Late which was the final song before their encore. During the encore, they performed For The Nights I Can’t Remember on the grand piano in which Jacob made a really deep and touching closing speech. In his speech, Jacob told the fans how much their support means to them as well as talking about how everything they do is for the fans, and they don’t deserve the success they have etc. Although some lines of the speech did seem a little rehearsed, made up and simply crowd pleasing, it did seem honest and sincere. I believed it.
Overall, the show was fantastic. Hedley definitely proved they can put on a great live and visually appealing show, something that I haven’t seen from a rock show as of a late. For being band with not much popularity outside of Canada, they definitely put on a show equivalent to the level and quality of some major international tours by worldwide famous artists. The funny thing about that is that had the group not have all the cool sets, videos, and props, the show still would’ve been just as good. Their live performance is just so raw and brilliant that it doesn’t need the aid of visuals to get itself across.
The Show Must Go...On The Road was an amazing show that did not disappoint in any expect (minus Fefe Dobson’s opening) however by the end of the show, that was all forgotten about. Here’s hoping a tour DVD is released!
One of my resolutions for 2010 was to start traveling more. I am in my prime years and I figured if I don’t complete some of my traveling I want now, I will probably never do it. Consequently, I decided I would start my first travel by visiting a destination I have previously visited...its no where far away, and its not even a different country....its Western Canada specifically British Columbia, and more specifically, Victoria and Vancouver. Double V! I have a few friends up in the West and I had some time off so I figured it would be the best way to start my travels! Here’s a recap of how my trip went (BEWARE! It’s a bit lengthy):
Day 1: Toronto to Victoria
The first day of my travels to Western Canada started with a flight from Toronto to Vancouver. After an hour standby in Vancouver, I took a transfer flight to Victoria, my first destination.
After arriving in Victoria, I took a shuttle bus to downtown, yes for some odd reason Victoria International Airport is about 25 minutes away from mainland Victoria itself. The shuttle brought me downtown where I me
t my friend who was on her lunch break. She gave me instructions on how to get to her suite so I can unsettle and pack while she finished her shift work.
I took a taxi to the suite and had a nice conversation with the driver who was really nice and friendly. After arriving at her suite, a crisis presented itself. Her door, which was supposed to be open for me, was actually locked. I texted her and she told me to speak to the landlady to let me in. When I did this, her landlady was extremely bitchy and refused to let me in, claiming that she only rents the suite to my friend and since she’s not there, she won’t let me in. So...I’m in a foreign city, luggage in my hand, my friend at work for another 4 hours, stranded in a suburban neighborhood not knowing what to do. I was definitely in a pickle. My friend who was furious at the situation thought it best that I go to a nearby coffee shop and spend some time there while waiting for her to finish work. And so I went to a Subway nearby.
At the Subway, I ordered a footlong figuring it would allow me more time to “lolligag” at the restaurant. Eventually, I felt awkward staying in the restaurant, so I decided I’d make the most of my trip and explore the city on my own given that I had a few hours on my hand. In this sense, I am totally adventurous and am not afraid to venture out and explore new things...even if I looked like a total weirdo lugging a packed suitcase with me.
Exploring and walking aimlessly actually turned out to be quite an adventure allowing me to admire the beauty of Victoria. The air is extremely fresh, mountains are in distant sight, and water is marking its territory around the city. Walking with my iPod, I eventually landed myself downtown near my friend’s workplace. As she finished work, she was surprised to see that I had made it all the way downtown. We ranted about the situation and then took the bus back to her suite. Here more drama unfolded, to the point where my friend decided that she could not stay at the suite any longer. Her landlady was too invasive and would look down on her because she was young. Long story short, we checked into a hotel near downtown. What a welcome to the city eh?
After checking into the hotel and finally getting a chance to relax, we decided to go downtown and checkout a movie. We saw Remember Me starring Twilight star, Robert Pattinson. The movie was horrible, in my opinion. It had some high points, but overall, it failed to grab my interest. The theater the movie was playing at though was very vintage and had a nostalgic feel which added some redeeming factor to the horrible movie. After getting to the hotel, we watched some TV (predominantly the Family Channel, of course) and fell asleep. End of one crazy day.
Day 2: Victoria
The second day of my trip allowed me to sleep in a tad. My friend had to go to work early in the morning, so sleeping in was a very tempting option that I decided to choose. I woke up around 10:30 and head out to the McDonald’s across the hotel in hopes to get some breakfast, but unfortunately they had finished their breakfast for the day so I had to get an actual meal to start my day. I returned to the hotel and ate my food while watching some TV (Family, of course). The timezone difference (3 hours behind Toronto) did affect and trip me out sometimes as my cellphone and computer clock would often confuse me.
After satisfying my sleep and comfort needs, it was time I got up and make most of my time in Victoria. Consequently, I took a shower and since it was Friday, I 'Googled' a Mosque nearby and started my day with Friday prayers. The nice thing about relatively small cities is that everything is relatively close to everything else giving incentive to walking. I walked to the Mosque, completed my Friday prayers and decided to explore the city and take pictures...and so the tourist in me came out.
I had quite a few hours to myself so I explored the city, mostly downtown Victoria near the harbor. Downtown Victoria was very cozy. It felt like a tightly packed village. The buildings and streets preserved history and were all old fashioned. Even with new stores like Lush and The Bay, the integrity of the buildings were preserved. The harbor was breathtaking. You could see mountains in the background, boats and ferries coming and going, merchants selling paintings, jewelry, hand crafted items and people enjoying themselves doing their own thing whether it was reading a book, walking their dog, or just mesmerizing the view. This was view was definitely something you won’t find in a big city
After some more strolling, I walked back to the hotel in time for my friend. We ordered a pizza at the hotel, ate and watched some TV (Family, you already know), and then decided to head out. We decided the harbor would be the perfect place to go so we went there and spent our evening at the beautiful Victoria harbor and watched the sunset. It was very nice. When the world became dark, the city lit up with lights popping up over all the big buildings including the parliament/city hall. It looked beautiful and felt even more alive. We stayed for a bit and then went back to the hotel.
The next day we were to go to Vancouver, so we packed our bags, had some snacks, watched TV and went to sleep.
Day 3: Victoria to Vancouver
The third day of my trip was arguably the best as so much was accomplished. The day started with my friend and I checking out of the hotel and catching a bus to the Swartz Bay Ferry terminal to take the ferry to Vancouver. Unfortunately, the bus driver was a douche and wouldn’t let us on the bus because we were a bit late and weren’t standing at the stop but a few meters away from...talk about nice eh? Anyways, we had to take a taxi instead which ended up being fun as our driver tried to cater to our music needs and was making conversation. It was a fun taxi ride.
Upon reaching the ferry terminal we got our tickets and quickly boarded. It had been almost 14 years since I went on the ferry last, but everything seemed so familiar. The ferry was huge and had about 6 decks in which an arcade, gift shop, two restaurants, and much, much more was packed. It felt like we were on the boat from “The Suite Life on Deck”...as you can see, the Family channel is already influencing my blog. After browsing the ferry for a bit, we went to the Pacific Buffet. The buffet was all you can eat and had so many items. It was brunch time so the variety was huge including a salad bar, a desert bar (including chewy cookies, cheesecake, and so much more), and then the main items which went from breakfast stuff like eggs, and french toast to lunch and entree items like tarragon chicken and rice. Oh and did I mention that soft drinks, milk, and juice was included in the buffet? It was amazing. My friend and I stuffed ourselves and forced our stomachs to eat...eat...and eat some more. Granted, we did feel bloated right after. After the buffet, we lounged around in the ferry, sang some Ke$ha, yes you read right, and then played hide and seek. Yes, we are very childish. Oh, and I must add the scenery on the ferry was amazing; the water, the mountains, the fresh air...something you can’t find in Toronto.
When the ferry arrived in Vancouver, my good friend from Vancouver picked us up with her sister. After making a stopover at the mall to pick something up (and meeting some drunken hoes at 2 in the afternoon) we went to her house and freshened up. I’m not going to lie, her house was pretty epic. After freshening up at her place we went downtown via the Skytrain. Did you know the Skytrain has no driver? If your answer was yes, you’re irrelevant, but if you answered no, I KNOW RIGHT, ISN’T THAT SO CRAZY?? It took me a while to wrap my head around that, and once I did, I began to enjoy the ride. It was a cool alternate to a subway (Toronto) and had some really scenic views of the mountains. After arriving downtown my Vancouver friend became a tour guide and took us around town. We saw the 2010 olympic cauldron, went to Live City (and met the Stanley Cup), and browsed downtown for a bit. After we tired out, we got picked up, did some grocery and came back home.
After getting home, we decided to go technologic and went on Chatroullette. If you guys are unfamiliar with Chatroullette, its like a chat (obviously) site, but you also get to see who you are talking to with webcam, so its pretty neat (despite occasional sausage fests). Chatroullette took over the rest of our night. We took a dinner break and then decided to watch Bandslam. However, Chatrolutte took over as my Vancouver friend was on the site throughout the duration of the movie, and then after the movie we all joined her. After tiring out from the super long day, I eventually decided it would be best to call it a night...to bed it was!
Day 4: Vancouver
Because day three was very long, and kept us awake ‘till the early am, we all slept in ‘till the early pm. When we eventually did get up, we had breakfast and then started getting ready to go out.
Our first destination was the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Like the ferry, I hadn’t been here in 14 years, but upon arrival everything was so familiar. As cheesy as it sounds, I could see my 6 year old self taking pictures with the totem poles. 14 years later, the types of pictures being taken were totally different. Mother nature decided to go against us and pour rain us throughout our Capilano adventure. Despite this, it was a lot of fun. The scenery, the nature, the environment, everything about the Capilano Suspension Bridge was breathtaking. My Vancouver friend was acting like a 12 year old and started doing all the adventures and collecting stamps for ever check point she came to as described in the map/adventure guide, my other friend was meeting her ancestors all “heyhowareya”, and I was taking pictures. It was pretty awesome. We ended up staying at the Capilano for quite a bit and when it was time for us to go I didn’t really want to leave but we were running out of time. The funny thing is, the moment we got out of the park, the rain stopped. My 12 year old acting friend’s mission was completed as she got her “I Made It” certificate as we left. My other friend and I got one as well. We’re so cool!!
All that hiking got us hungry so we went to this place called Joey Tomatoes. It was a pretty cool restaurant and had some awesome menu choices. Our server was pretty cool as she gave us all some free dessert samples. It was like souffle with ice cream? Something like that, but it was really good. It definitely “hit the spot” as one would say. After dinner, I got a chance to drive back to my friend’s house (in her car of course) and the ride was awesome simply because Bad Romance was played on the radio. On the way home, we stopped by this park by my friend’s house. What was special about this park? Hmm, i don’t know, JUST THAT THEY SHOT TWILIGHT THERE (well a few scenes of it). No, I’m not a huge Twilight fan, actually I’m not a fan at all, but it was cool to see the set and I got super nationalistic and “patriotic” because it was filmed in Canada.
The rest of the evening had an interesting turn. We went back to my friends and packed our bags. My friend’s parents were to come home that night so my other friend and I had to go check into a hotel for the night. We checked into the Howard Johnson downtown Vancouver and chilled over there for a while. Unfortunately, they didn’t have Family on their TV. After some persuading, I convinced my friend to check out Vancouver nightlife, so I got ready and we went club hopping. Because it was a Sunday most clubs were pretty low profile and no big events were happening. We went to Roxy Bar first and then went to Republic where they were having a Reggae night. They played some GaGa (YES!) but for the most part it was just mediocre. We didn’t stay at either too long and eventually just went back to the hotel and went to sleep...tomorrow would be a day of major traveling.
Day 5: Vancouver to Victoria to Calgary to Toronto
The final day of my amazing trip was all about travel. I started off my day checking out of the Howard Johnson and saying goodbye to my friend who was going back to her home in Calgary. She was taking the Greyhound back. I had a long journey as well; I was catching my flight from Victoria, which would stop by in Calgary (what a coincidence) before landing in Toronto. To get to Victoria I had to take the ferry again, which I was really excited about.
Although I was originally going to get a ride from my friend’s sister to the Ferry terminal, I thought I would just take the Skytrain and bus all the way there. It was a good way to finish my travel I thought and a great way to see some other parts of the city. Alas, I said bye to my friend via text and via FB to her sister and started my journey to the Ferry terminal. It wasn’t that bad actually; I took the Skytrain for about 40 minutes and then had to transfer onto a bus, which took about another 40 minutes. I arrived right in time to catch the ferry at the terminal.
The ferry ride was amazing as per usual, and it wasn’t busy this time. SCORE! I got tickets for the buffet once again, and stayed there for the remainder of the ride. While indulging in the buffet, I also caught up on some missed episodes of Desperate Housewives. Between the drama on the show, the mouthwatering food, the breathtaking scenery outside, and the thrill of being on a boat, I was in heaven. I could stay on the ferry forever and live happily ever after....but of course life is not a fairytale and while thinking this, we had arrived to Swartz Bay Terminal in Victoria. The rest of the story isn’t that interesting; I took a cab to Victoria International Airport where I stayed for a few hours. The flight to Calgary wasn’t bad. After arriving in Calgary, I had a stop over for two hours, and then caught my red eye flight back to Toronto (which I surprisingly liked...I think night travel is the best method of travel for me).
Overall, my trip was outstandingly brilliant and (insert a million complementing adjectives here). Getting to travel to West was an amazing experience as it always is. A few people asked me why I would go to Western Canada again as opposed to traveling somewhere new or the U.S.. I only had one answer; “you haven’t seen Western Canada have you?”
