Yolande takes me to Toronto

19.03.2008

I found this new website, pickuppals.com and I thought what the heck, and just typed in my destination for the Easter weekend. Niagara Falls, AGAIN, thinking nothing would happen. But within 2 hours, Yolande had written me back, offering me a ride to Toronto for $30! How could I go wrong? So, my plan is to drive with her there, then I will take the Greyhound the rest of the way to Niagara.

Yolande picked me up at work at exactly 4 p.m. with two other guys in the back, Teddy and Terrence. It was pretty awesome. Yolande and I talked the whole way to Toronto, mostly about traveling, while Teddy and Terrence drifted in and out of sleep in the back, occasionally piping up when we randomly started talking about Carleton University. The one thing all four of us had in common, was that we were all students there. Yolande's been all over the world, and is in the midst of planning a trip to China.

Yolande works for the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission, writing up new regulations for broadcasters in Canada. That's a pretty sweet job, if I've ever heard of one, and she doesn't even have to speak French (very well)!

So, blahblahblah 4.5 hours go by, and it's time to stop at the rest station. I was kind of uncomfortable doing this, because I knew it would make me late to catch my bus. Of course, I was right, I caught the bus way later than I wanted to, but it was cool because by the time I made it to the Toronto bus, I caught the exact same bus I would've been on had I left from Ottawa at 4:30 p.m. It doesn't seem to make sense, but it's true.

Yolande didn't want to drop me off downtown so I had to take the subway all the way into town from Scarborough Town Centre, which sucked. That took a whole extra hour. I should've thought ahead and brought my ticket with me so that I could've got right on the Greyhound in Scarborough. THEN I would've saved some time. But alas, the ticket counter in Scarborough was closed, and the bus driver told me I had to go downtown in order to get on the bus. Which by the way, isn't what a couple people in line told me. They said I could give the bus driver a "deposit" and then I could pay for the rest of the ticket when I got downtown.

But whatever, I paid way less for the bus than normal, and also made some new friends. Which was totally worth it. Pickuppal really works!

Now, I have about an hour to kill before my bus leaves, and my mom and dad will probably be worrying or something, because I told them I would leave early in a quick email I sent right before I left today. *sigh*

Yolande