Johnafranko DelGregor The Third

You left me so long ago, and it hurt. You warm my heart and with your presence I grow, the glow won't return without you. Everything is so much more colourful with you around, and so cold and drab when you leave. Now that you've finally returned, I can feel whole again, because damn SUN, spring is here baby! These boots are ready for some grass beneath them, some leaves above them and birds singing to them because this long cold winter has been around for too long.
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Johnafranko was a guy who took no whistles from anyone. If you saw him walking down main street, you'd be sure to see mean looking biker dudes stepping out of his way, because despite his diminuative size, he had a death stare that would send death himself packing.

One sunny Saturday afternoon in May, a young buckaroo by the name of Flemington Dark happened to be strolling down Clarkson Ave. when the narrow sidewalk forced a confrontation of velocities that left old Johnafranko in a heap. The whole city stopped dead in its tracks and hushed to hear what  kind of madness would ensue. However, none were more surprised than Flemington when after Johnafranko stood up and dusted himself off, gave a most gracious bow, a tip of the hat and walked away smiling.
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Tip of the day:

Coffee is delicious and comes with perks, but lately the regenerative health properties of tea are making inroads on this collection of bad ideas. Rediculous flavour, no jitters and some kind of bodily chi flow enhancement. Definitely a vitality booster. Try it out, because three to five coffees per day is not as good of a balance as could be.
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The guy who gets cut off and smiles

It's been awhile 

since the weekend

We both pretend its good

While thumbing our favorite thing

Loud blender of chaos

Thinking of nothing

But the calm taking over

In the face of madness

On Queen west

Why Toronto is not a World-Class City

I have called Toronto home for 26 years, and have a good idea of how this place is. What I did not quite realize is how things are done differently (read: better) elsewhere. Having just returned from a trip abroad to several fine European capitals, I have to recognize how far we lag behind in being a world-class city. You can look at assessing this in different ways, and my focus is on transit infrastructure.

If the world is a living organism, with breathing ecosystems that are all interconnected, it goes without saying that if you industrialize and burn fossilized fuels for hundreds of years, the fertility of the organism will decline. Hence, in order to maintain the fertility of our planet, we must take measures to reduce our human impact on the natural ecology. Does anybody remember how the deserts of Iraq were once the fertile plains of Mesopotamia? If you smoke like a chimney everyday, it is well known that you have a high risk for life-threatening health problems. How is our planet any different? If we burn coal and oil profusely for hundreds of years, how can we not expect life-threatening health problems?

My idea of a world-class city is one that balances its size and modernity with liveability and sustainability. Here are my reasons why Toronto is not a world-class city:

1) Bicycles

Toronto is not a bike-friendly city. Cyclists are not embraced as equals on the road. There is no good cycling infrastructure here. Some paint lines in the road which most motorists ignore does not qualify as bona-fide cycling infrastructure. As a short-term temporary measure it is a good start, but without more permanent raised (or at least separated) lanes dedicated to pedal power and/or real enforcement of the lane as a bike lane (not a temporary parking spot for a car), it is just a half-measure. Also that at every intersection the lane mysteriously disappears and becomes a car turning lane is a joke, and speaks to how half-assed our 'bicycle lanes' really are.

A current cycling debate revolves around a city-council decision to retrofit a portion of an underused parking garage at city-hall as a bicycle locker station complete with showers. The papers and naysayers are all over it as an excessive waste of 'taxpayer' money -- as if cyclists aren't taxpayers too... However, this plan is exemplary of how disconnected our city planning is with reality. Why start building bike lockers at city hall? Firstly why do we need bike lockers to begin with? In Copenhagen people leave $1000+ bikes unlocked outside overnight and they remain when they return. Shouldn't we be focusing on the bike theft problem at the core, rather than putting these bike locker bandages over the existing problem? Secondly, why choose city hall? Does it not make much more sense to install these things (which unfortunately are useful at the moment, as bike theft is currently rife in Toronto) at a transportation hub such as the currently under-renovation Union Station, where tens of thousands of people on the move travel through each day?

2) Public Transit 

The TTC has an extensive network of buses, streetcars and a small number of at capacity subway lines. However, during rush-hour the main lines are so overcrowded that the experience is very unpleasant. Information regarding when the next bus or streetcar is coming is left to those with smartphones to check for themselves (not very public or equal, is it?). Why can't all stops have readouts that give a precise estimate of the next arrival? Standing in the cold wondering when the next ride is coming is not a world-class experience. Having no direct rail connection to the major international airport is not a world-class experience. Needing to fumble for exact change or tokens that feel suspiciously like really expensive dimes in your pocket is not a world-class experience. Needing separate fares and multiple tickets to travel to the nearest suburb is downright embarrassing. It will only take until 2016 (!) for the Presto fare-card system to be fully implemented, which is beyond playing a little bit of catch-up. World-class cities lead, they don't follow.

The Long Quick Goodbye

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This town is old
It's breathing
Time to leave
I'm seething _______________________________________________________________________

Copenhagen you slick little devil you. Your food is making me ever-hungry, and that despite just having eaten. Your fantastic National Museum made it easy on my non-Danish speaking Anglophone bones and displayed a good number of all kinds of sacrificial and ceremonial bones as well. You have quite a long and interesting history for such a small nation. I especially like your ancient sun-chariot worship, and that at one point your people believed that musicians were shamans who could traverse between the breathing and spirit worlds. Perhaps there are still believers in such un-scientific madness.

Although your charms are constant, I must admit that my darling Berlin was dearly missed as soon as my butt hit the bus seat and I knew that my goodbye had come and gone before I could accept it. Why did I feel so at home in the German-speaking lands? Berlin especially is so effortlessly cool, despite many similarities to Toronto; it just felt like nobody was trying as hard yet reaping twice the cool beans. However, unlike some goodbyes, my goodbye with the Deutsche is only temporary.

How far Toronto lags behind in cycling infrastructure is extremely apparent, and perhaps it is no coincidence that Europeans are so comparatively fit. Beyond mere lines of paint in established car dominated streets, both recent cities have full boulevards dedicated to cyclists, and not just down one street, but all major arteries. It is a dream to see, and makes me wish I had my pedal monster with me. I can't believe not just how many bikes are on the streets here, but in Copenhagen, how many nice bikes aren't even locked up. I was horrified in Berlin to see most people ride up to a bakery, leave their bike unlocked and run in for some delicious breads and pastries. And yet nobody got their ride stolen... Some kind of mutual respect is missing back home.

Tomorrow marks the end of this chapter of traveling, and returning to working for a company that doesn't strive for greatness will be a massive challenge. Perhaps schooling looms closely on the horizon, and if not as soon as would be welcomed, at least traveling to more inspiring lands until official intellectual betterment is possible.

To all who read these words, thank you (and fear not the comments box).

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If every day you lay a brick
It will take a long time
But eventually you will have a strong foundation
If every day you start a fire
Even a small fire
Eventually you will have created an uncontrollable blaze

So beware of the burn
Whose scars will remain
And the magical elixir
Which exists not in that bottle

And start laying bricks
One at a time
So that one day
You will have built a home
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Hauptbahnof Mitte

Today involved a visit to the East side gallery, a remaining portion of the Berlin wall dedicated to murals. A nice place for a stroll on another cold day. Visiting the 'memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe' was the sombre second half of the day. The information presented as nothing new to me, but the pictures were quite powerful, as was the memorial itself: thousands of coffin-like slabs of varying heights arranged like an unburied cemetary. A friend tipped me off to visit an old Nazi-era airfield that has been re-claimed as a park, which will be tomorrow's excursion. It looks like to Copenhagen from here on Monday. Cheerio!

Style Monster Berlin

Berlin you sexy city, you. Small wonder why everyone speaks so highly of you. Everybody is so stylish, in that excellent, understated Berlin way. I could say its hipster at its best, but I think it goes above and beyond that... more like slickster. I mean that it the most complimentary way. Please forgive the typos, I'm not a fan (nor pro) of iPad typing.

The hostels here are far nicer than most hotels I've ever stayed in-- slick, stylish and modern, excellent staff, and clean as can be. They are really quite like everything here. Of course I'm enamoured, and removed from the drudgery of daily working life, but the charm of this place is hard to resist for a young man of Torontonian origins.

Last night, after meeting up with Canadrian (and going for a Chinese massage) we went on an 'alternative' pub crawl, where we (~30 of us) did shots in a convenience store, mobbed several u-bahns, visited some funky nightlife spots, had absinthe properly (though I am still not a fan), and I capped the night of by giving dancing lessons to a very nice teacher from Luxembourg. Who said you need to know how to dance to teach someone?

This morning was not the sunniest feeling morning, so after waking early to check out, I visited the Deutsch equivelant of the Bay, where I proceeded to drool over all the awesome cookware and kitchen tools. I managed to stuff a good deal into my now quite plump travelpack. Tasting all of these regional foods while traveling has re-awakened my love of the culinary world.

While visiting the memorial of terrors (a large photo exhibit of the third reich, near checkpoint Charlie) I came upon the idea of doing a masters degree focusing on propaganda, as the control, manipulation and dissemination of (mis)information is a key tool in the bag of all large organizations past and present-- and understanding how people are affected/influenced is a skill that I believe would be beneficial in shaping how our future unfolds.

This darling of a city will be hard to say goodbye to, and I think that my gut was right in thinking that this should be the next place that I call home.




Th

Vienna my darling

What a nice streak of days here in lovely Vienna. My gracious local friends did me an amazing favour in taking me around and making me feel so welcome here. The dour Viennese attitude that they warned me about seemed so impossible given them being so utterly kind and generous (and beautiful!).

Day one involved Viener Schnitzel at a fine Stube around the corner from the hostel, followed by some rum + cokes at McDonalds (provided by my excellent friends -- mind you, McDonalds sells beer here!). After meeting some of their friends for a birthday at a swank hotel bar, we went to the hottest club in Vienna, where the light show made us feel like we were on drugs (we were not!). Dancing all night lead us on a quest for breakfast, although our efforts were largely fruitless, until luckily the train station had some places open. I was urged to have a Viennese speciality, essentially a sausage loaf with cheese, which was far more delicious than it looked at first sight. We bumped into Austrian reality-tv star Conchita Wurst, a drag-queen (?) who rocks a trademark beard -- pretty styling in my opinion -- and we did an impromptu photo shoot.

Being so wiped from the late-night festivities (call it an Easter celebration?), I barely made it in time to see Parsifal, and upon making it there on time (3 Euros for a world-class opera, are you serious?), I could only make it to the end of the first act before retreating back to the hostel for laundry and naptime.

Today was another excellent day of sightseeing and cafes with my lovely personal tour guides, who escorted me to the impressive Shonbrunn Palace and gardens, followed by a walk around Stephansplatz. We went to a very fancy coffee-house (coat-check required), where I got to have the Viennese speciality Sachertorte chocolate-apricot cake. After that, with their persuasive charm we managed to go on the crypt tour of Stephansdom Cathedral at a discount, where we saw lots of bones and creepy corridors (not particularly pleasant). I almost wretched when looking into a room stacked full of the bones of 400+ people -- and wondered why we went there... The girls said that there was no smell, but I felt that there was something gross in the air.

For dinner we went to a very nice funky restaurant where I got to have a dish of wild-garlic pasta, which was extremely delicious (and only available in spring). Tomorrow will be a travel day, with a bus to Prague and hopefully a train connection up to Berlin.

Solo travel is hardly travelling alone :)