Ticking Off the Toronto Bucket List: Week #12

I know I know! I'm almost done my 13th week and I haven't even written about week 12! Well, I'm ready to re-live last week, so here it goes!

Last week I attended the NxNE Music Festival in Toronto. I had a wonderful time, met lovely bloggers from the CBC Radio 3 community and saw some great bands play their hearts out. I even hosted a picnic last Saturday entitled the "MoniSki R3 NxNE/Goodbye Picnic". For those of you who may not know, I am a R3 Blogger, and my blog name is MoniSki! It may sound quite nerdy, but I promise it's not :) It was a picnic for people in the R3 community, and also served as a going away get together for myself.

Anyway, the picnic was in Trinity Bellwoods Park and all the R3 bloggers met up to watch some great live bands. Mr. Grant Lawrence, a host at R3, was so kind to actually get some awesome artists to play the picnic! Nothing beats listening to the lovely tunes of Wayne Petti (Cuff the Duke), Matthew Barber and Graham Wright (Tokyo Police Club), on a warm summer's day during a picnic. It was brilliant!

I made a lot of new friends this past week. I'm going to miss them :) I'm also going to miss this festival a great deal, but maybe I'll be able to come back some time in the future to experience it again!

Anywho, here are some photos from all the festivities that took place :) It was great :) I didn't really tick off anything from the bucket list, but I at least took advantage of Toronto and spent a lot of time wandering its streets, parks and venues.

9 more weeks to go!

Keep Smilin',

Moni

Ticking Off the Toronto Bucket List: Week #11

Hey there!!!

Writing this blog has made me realize how hard it is to really start keeping track of everything you've done in the past week. I've been up and about all the time, but it's hard for me to now pin point everything! Every week seems to be blending into the next, in a good way!

However, I do have some things to share! Enjoy!! Next week's entry will be a good one for sure. This week is the North by Northeast Music Festival in Toronto!! I can't wait! Last year I had such a blast and made some awesome friends! It'll be great to see all my friends again in one place celebrating Canadian music. Plus, I'll be hosting a picnic in Trinity Bellwoods Park for all the R3 Bloggers to meet up and spend some time together! Should be fun!

But, for now, here's Week 11!

Bata Shoe Museum 

327 Bloor Street West 

Pay-What-You-Can Thursday Evenings! 

This museum is literally like a 15 min walk from my house and I had never been to it. Therefore, since they had a PWYC Thursday Evening where you just pay a minium $5, my friend and I thought it would be a good idea to finally visit it! 

Now, I'm sure some people would find this museum very fascinating, and indeed it is! However, my friend and I didn't read a lot of the history of any of the shoes, and were more into looking at the shoes. Perhaps that's why we didn't find it all that interesting? We really should have read a bit more. The museum itself is not that large, so if you're not reading anything than you get through it pretty quick. They did have a "Junos" themed exhibit with shoes donated by Canadian musicians. I saw Sam Roberts' shoes, they were dirty... Oh, and Justin Bieber's shoes were on display too! What I can say is that I absolutely adored the shoes from the Roaring Twenties, but that's a given. 

Justin's Shoes

Cutest shoes :) 

I would recommend this museum for those who enjoy learning about the history of things, and more specifically shoes. I personally wouldn't pay full price to get in, so if you can go on a cheap night do it! 

Magic Oven 

Various Locations Across Toronto

http://www.magicoven.com/

I'll make this nice and simple. 

Great great pizza. So tasty. Not greasy. Different types. Organic. Fresh ingredients. Free of preservatives.... I could keep going. 

Go there if you want some yummy pizza in the city. Trust me!! And it's not that expensive compared to other Toronto places!! 

That's all for now folks!! 

10 more weeks to go! 

Keep Smilin, 

Monica

Ticking Off the Toronto Bucket List: Week #10

Wow!

It's already been week #10! Time is flying by so quickly!

Well folks, I barely ticked anything off my list last week... if anything I did things that weren't even ON my list! But here we go anyway...

Festival of Clowns

Red Nose District 

[My bestest bud Carina was part of a clown cabaret and it was lovely :)]

If you're afraid of clowns, you shouldn't be! Not these clowns anyway! They are lovely and usually friendly (depending on the clown!). This particular showcase was hosted by the Toronto based clowns Morro and Jasp. They are hilarious, and I suggested seeing them in one of their shows! So funny! They get better and better each time I see them :) 

My friend Carina basically "debuted" her clown Styne, and I'm so proud of her :) 

Me and Jasp! 

Me and Styne :) 

El Almacen 

Yerba Mate Cafe 

1078 Queen Street West 

Yerba Mate.... it's an interesting drink! It's like coffee but without the jitters. You drink it out of a gourd, and it has an interesting process from beginning to end. I recommend just checking out an Yerba Mate cafe in order to get a better explanation. Actually, check out blogto for more info. All I can say is that after you drink it you feel like you're on cloud 9. I felt very happy after I drank here! 

I should add that the staff was very nice and informative ;) I felt very relaxed and comfortable here! 

Alright folks, 

11 more weeks to go!!!! 

Wow! 

Keep Smilin, 

Monica