I've tried typing this out so many times and each time I try it gets deleted. It's all so incredibly boring I myself got bored of typing it, so I draft it but they don't save since I lose the internet. I'll try and make it nice and interesting to read... good luck.
Having left the coffee shop in Sudbury I walked up to the lakeside trail. There was a little park/gardens area so I had a little wander around. Unfortunately it must have rained the night before, as I ended up in a very soggy patch of grass at the bottom of a slope. Like a true Englishman, I carried on through as if nothing was amiss and plopped onto the path below. With a beautiful tide mark on my shoes, I headed off along the lakeside trail towards science north. The scenery was wonderful. The sun was shining and I had as much time as I wanted to meander along beside the lake. Science North, my destination, is a science centre based in Sudbury. It was conveniently located right beside the lakeside trail so I headed in to look around. Sorry Sudbury, but it was crap. I think my expectations might have been raised due to our earlier trip to the Ontario science centre. As I write this I'm struggling to think of things I found interesting. A whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling, a butterfly room, a Mars rover-style remote controlled car, some smelly native animals and the toilets. The toilets make it onto the list because I went for my first public poop since I was 8. A remarkable achievement I think you'll all agree.
Disappointed and relieved in equal measures, I headed back into Sudbury. On the way out from the little park/gardens area, I came across a dog with nobody in sight. It was a Doberman cross. I'm not afraid of dogs, but this thing was giving me the eye and had that 'I may attack' look about it. It made its way over to me and to my relief began wagging its tail. I patted it and went on my merry way, looking around for a person as I went. The dog's owner I did not find, but my pace was matched by a guy on rollerblades who struck up conversation. He was very polite and I think a bit autistic. We chatted about the differences between American and Canadian money and other mundane things. Once we hit a downhill road he zoomed off.
I took the bus to the cinema and watched Fury. The comfortable chairs and excitement of watching this film really distracted me from the reality that I had gone to the cinema alone. And these chairs were fucking comfy. Plus the screen was huge. The film disappointed me somewhat but it wasn't terrible. Dave very kindly picked me up from the cinema and took me with him to an appointment, where I sat in the waiting room chatting to the lovely receptionist about my travels. Afterwards we went home to get some sleep, as I needed to be at the coach station by 7:15. Dave once again provided me with a lift to the bus terminal in the morning, without which I would have certainly missed my coach. Another great couchsurfing host.
The coach was a complete shitheap compared to the one I took from Toronto to Sudbury. No wifi & no chargers, so I was stuck alternating between sleep, reading my book and listening to music. The scenery was lovely, but trees and lakes can only interest anyone for so long. Also when the drivers switched, the new guy was a complete dickhead. He had an argument with one of the passengers up front and wouldn't let me do a wee at one of the stops. I had to wait til the next one; I may have done a poo at the science north but there's no way I'm using a coach toilet... for anything. Speaking of which, luckily everyone either had earphones in or was asleep, as I'm fairly sure I farted loud enough to wake myself up at one point.
So I arrive in Thunder Bay on Friday evening. It's so late I have to take a cab to Shandelle's apartment. She wants to go out with her friend so when I get there, we chat for a while and then they're off. I go to bed.
Saturday morning and Shandelle is at work, but her room mate Mariah is home. We chat for a while. She doesn't really seem very talkative... but she does have massive boobies. When Shandelle gets back she has her friend Corey with her. We all go out to grab some late breakfast downtown. This is a Saturday afternoon around 2pm and nothing is open. I don't just mean for breakfast, I mean nothing is open at all. We ended up in a hotel restaurant for food. Luckily the waitress was chatty and we got good service. The food wasn't great... but it seemed as though they catered mainly to pensioners. It smelt like old people in there. Corey and I have similar humour so we had a good laugh. We went out that evening and played pool. I told Mariah to come meet us at the bar and she said she'd meet me back at the apartment. Back we go, only to chat for 10 minutes and then head off to bed. How disappointing!
Sunday I went and played discgolf with Corey and his friend Mike who also seemed like a really decent guy. Discgolf is awesome; it's a cross between golf and frisbee. Very fun. I've already looked up courses in England. We went back to his and chilled for a bit before heading out to a different bar to play more pool.
Monday was a wasted day of watching parks and recs. In the evening Shandelle came back and played with photobooth on my iPad... the most eventful part of the day.
On Tuesday I walked around the downtown area to see if there was anything I had missed. There wasn't. I did manage to sample the Finnish pancakes I had been told were good. There is a large Finnish population here in Thunder Bay, and so there are saunas and other Finnish cultural buildings.
Annie, who hosted me for two nights, walked down with her dog to meet me at Shandelle's. She was very chatty and interesting, so we talked all the way back to hers. Quirky but comfortable, her house was quite near Corey's place. We went and got food at a local pub/bar. It was good. She was very interested in people. Just talking about people she had met and all the places she'd been. We went home and to sleep.
I couldn't be trusted to stay in her house, which wasn't a problem, so I went with her to walk the dog. We picked up hot drinks and walked for ages. When we got back we headed out to a different pancake place. I had too much... which is unfortunate because later on we went for a free unicycling session. It was great fun but hard work. I was sweating balls once the hour and a half was up. I'd managed to unicycle half of the hall we were in and of course look like a massive wanker the whole time. The guys running it were incredible and showed off some impressive stunts. Annie's friend came and picked us up and came back for a glass of wine. They carved pumpkins. Annie had been in an accident after which she found farts incredibly funny. I was happy to keep her entertained for the evening.
The following day saw me head back the Shandelle's thinking we were going out. We did not. On Friday Mariah dropped me off at the intercity mall and I grabbed some stuff for a costume. Being the savvy, sharp-minded geezer that I am, I managed to get items I could use again. A Clark Kent costume comprises of a superman T-shirt under a buttoned shirt and some glasses. Aside from the glasses, I can wear those items again. We went to a girl's house before heading downtown. It was disappointing to be honest... no prospects, no fun conversations with strangers. Just loud noise and jostling people.
On Sunday I walked into town to visit Shandelle's shop. It wasn't really a shop... it was a room above a tattoo parlour with some clothes in it. Obviously I didn't say that whilst I was in there, but it was almost funny how crap it was. There were some girls there from her uni course who took me to the coffee shop so I could use the internet. I stayed there a while then headed home. Corey came by with Svetlana and we went to play discgolf with Mike. That evening we went back to Mike's for dinner and to watch the leafs game. Leafs win!
Monday saw me do nothing much other than playing pool at shooters again with Corey; this time Mike joined us.
Tuesday I went to the college to see where Corey works, as he told me it's easier to explain if I'm there rather than just telling me. It was a production company, manufacturing parts for contract. The machines were cool and he explained how they work. Seeing how things are made can be fairly interesting. It does pose the conundrum of how the very first production machine was created. I suppose smaller machines build bigger machines, and the smallest machines are hang crafted?
We went to the cinema to watch maze runner. 5 dollars. Less than 3 quid to watch a film... luckily, since it wasn't very good.
I'm desperate to move on now to Winnipeg. If Winnipeg and Calgary are similar in experiences to Thunder Bay then I'll go to Vancouver pretty sharpish. My dream of learning to snowboard whilst volunteering has been smashed. I spoke to a very nice man from a ski resort who explained even volunteer positions require a visa. I guess I'll just have to find something else to fill my time there. I'm just moving from wifi to wifi, hoping a rideshare comes up. I'm leaving Saturday with or without a rideshare.
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