Damn I just woke up. That was a crazy night--one I shall not forget, but for the most part it was pretty lame except for the misadventures that made it colorful. Quick play-by-play:
6pm: Me and a friend from school hop into my Soob armed only with a cooler of brewskis and a change of clothes for the club.
9:15pm: We made some really good time despite traffic on 90 near Buffalo airport, and by now we are already on Lake Shore Dr (a bit clogged) But we pass Ontario Place because we wanted to be closer to downtown. We reach the Harbourfront/Queens Quay area. After parking we grab our beers in a bag, thinking we can drink while watching fireworks.
9:30pm: After buying a cuban cigar each we spot a sushi joint and realize we are hungry. Sushi joint is right next to a Mr. Sub (used to be my favorite!) and we're not expecting much, but DAMN this place was good! Dragon rolls were awesome, and teriyaki salmon and chicken was great. Of course, we are carrying around a 6-pack and ask the sushi chef (we sit at the bar) if its okay to drink our own beer. He doesn't seem to understand us. Five minutes later the owner, an Asian woman, comes out screaming at us! It was an innocent question! We felt bad so we tipped good. But I made the mistake of paying in cash and now $60 out of $100 in Canadian money is gone. We already owe parking deck $12.
10:30pm: Fireworks start. WTF. LAME!!! What happened to the old 'Symphony of Fire' as I remembered it? This was just another generic fireworks show. None of the floating fountains of fire I remembered from my youth, or the trick special effects combining lasers + fireworks to make a real lightshow. They killed it!!! The Benson & Hedges version was 100x better than this lame 'Festival of Fire' crap. Its over in 30 minutes. Wow, and this is what we drove 3 hours to see. Not only that, but we are stuck in public harbourfront and not only are we not allowed to drink our beers, but people start complaining about the cigar smoke blocking the view (the fireworks were also really low because Ontario Place wants you to pay $35 to see them, and we were a bit farther away trying to catch it for free.) So we had to put out our cigars.
11:00: we are back at the parking deck, but we're on the 6th floor and over 100 cars are trying to leave. We're completely stuck. We change our clothes in the car, and start drinking the beers as we wait to get out. I drink two VERY slowly and my friend drinks 3. We're both done way before its our turn to pay and leave. By the time we're out its 12:15.
12:15-12:30: Can't find parking. We're in the club district (between Queens and King, coming down Richmond) and can't get parking anywhere. We pull over to ask some cops on bikes where good parking is. Dude tells us to keep looking and that they are all marked. Then he looks at me (driving) and asks "WHERE IS YOUR SEATBELT?" I tell him we're about to park so I took it off. He's all "THAT'S the best excuse you have?" Motherf**cker starts WRITING ME A TICKET!!!! I explain I'm from the US and didn't know the law and quickly snap it on, and he checks my NC tag and lets me go. Couldn't believe it.
12:35: Finally we find a parking lot with open spots, but what should happen right in front of us? As we pull in we see three guys jump another guy on a bike, beat him down, and steal his bike. This happens 2 feet in front of our car!! We close the windows and turn music off because we're like "what if they're killing witnesses?" But then the parking lot attendant comes up with a club (wtf they carry those?) and scares them off (guy didn't get his bike back.) We get the fvck outta there.
12:40: Find parking and head to clubs. We check out Tonic, Soundbar, Distrikt and others--NOTHING has a line or any semblance of anything going on! WTF its a national holiday people! Why are the clubs empty? finally we see a crowd outside 'Republik' and head in. WOW. Nice place! Glowing walls with color changing lights, lasers, and HOT HOT HOT girls, even HOTTER bartenders. The first room was playing all techno, so then we went to the other room to see if they were playing hip-hop. Uhh, no. They were playing random goth music and then some NIN thrown in for good measure. We didn't know what to do! Nobody here was dressed goth either. Finally we went back to the other room and now they were playing hip hop/reggae. Didn't drink much, just a vodka tonic for me. Ran out of money paying cover so now were just paying in American dollars. Bartender thought we were tipping real well apparently because she asked us if we wanted to do body shots with her! We were a little confused and declined, and later kicked ourselves for that. I finally found a really cute Indian/Latina girl (so hard to tell sometimes) and started grinding with her...for all of 30 seconds before girlfriends cockblocked. Didnt' have much luck with others...tough crowd. Now I realize why 3/4 of the guys were just wallflowers. We thought it looked a bit like highschool, but I guess these people are 19-20.
1:45 - Somehow I realize its almost 2am and that if we leave now we won't be back before 4:30. We weren't planning on staying the night since we both are flying to DC today to party it up in Adams Morgan with more friends from school. So we get out and head to the car. Again, more street crime. Two dudes are just beating the sh*t out of what appears to be a homeless Jamaican. He gets up and they push him back down, on top of my car! Eventually they see us and leave. We ask the homeless guy if he's okay and he's like "FVCK OFF MON, ITS ???? ????/ Can you spare a loonie/twonie?" Yeah real friendly, so we leave him sitting down in the lot. Besides, no more Canadian money.
3:15 - We reach the border and...hey, 24 hour Duty Free. I get some Armani cologne, a BIG bottle of Ketel One, some ridiculously cheap Crown Royal, and some Cadbury/Nestle Canadian-only chocolate for my sister. My friend gets some ice wine and black label. We both get more cubans since the others we didn't get to smoke much. LOL I love how they sell cubans at the border, knowing full well they are illegal to bring into the US.
4:00am - border crossing. Nobody but us. One lane open. This girl looks at us like we're crazy for crossing at 4am. "What is your citizenship? Where were you born? What is the license plate on your vehicle? Why is it a NC tag? Whose car is this? But who is it registered to? Does your father know you have this car? Why did you go to Canada?" We tell her for fireworks. "Why are you getting back so late?" We tell her about the clubbing. She uses flashlight to check for others in our car. "Have you been drinking?" We say yes, but she doesn't pull a breathalyzer? "Did you buy any alcohol to bring back with you?" Now, here's the thing. The guy at Duty Free said if we've been in the country less that 24 hours, we have to pay full duties on everything. So naturally we don't want to declare. But we didn't hide anything except the Cubans, shopping bags are first thing u see when you pop the trunk. But we decided to lie beforehand. "No, no alcohol." Then she asks me to shut the car off and pop the trunk. SH*T!!!! We oblige her. She has gloves on, checks things, out, takes all of 30 excruciating seconds, closes the trunk, and tells us to have a safe drive. WTF?? We didn't see her confiscate anything. She HAD to have seen the bottles. She just let us go!
After this we get lost, nearly run out of gas, piss off a tollbooth attendent for not having small change, etc. Get back around 6am. That's the last time I ever try to visit Canada without spending a night. The last time I park downtown (TTC baby!) The last time I don't wear my seatbelt.
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