It’s been a great weekend in Toronto, what with World Pride taking place and everything. I just wish I had the energy to go to everything. Having said that though, I’m pleased with what we’ve done.

Friday

Glen was on-call so he didn’t go to work until 12, which slightly put my schedule out. It’s a bit strange having another person in the house when you’re not used to it. We also Skype called a potential wedding photographer called Mandie. She was great. Down-to-earth, easy going, competent and got along well with us. We’re just waiting for the contract to come through and then we’re set. One less thing to worry about.

I then wrote for a little while, went to the gym, and then met Nathan for a drink down on Church St. It was only 3:30pm but the place was already buzzing. Why weren’t these people all at work? We went into a pub, sat at the bar, had some drinks, chatted, met some Americans from Tennessee and then headed off at about 6. There was such an amazing atmosphere about the place – helped by scantily clad hot guys on rollerblades (one of which I had a photo taken with).

In the evening, I caught up with Julian until Glen got home a little after ten. We then went down to Wellesley St to go to a party where Rob and Adam were at. From the balcony there was a good view of the free Carly Rae Jepson concert over the road. She played for about half an hour, finishing with the only song of hers that I (or anyone) really knows (Call Me Maybe).

Once that was done, the party wore down. We had grand plans of going to Cawthra Square for their dance party but Glen and I were both pretty tired. As it turned out, Cawthra Square closed at 12 anyway so we didn’t miss anything. Instead, we met up with Nathan (and his friend Tyler) and went for food at Ginger. The streets were still packed, the restaurants open, it’s all just too cool. We went home after that and were in bed by 1.

Saturday

Despite getting to bed at a reasonable time and sleeping in until 8:30, we woke up tired. Wearing contacts all day didn’t help, and my legs were still sore from their workout on Wednesday. Still, we had a pretty busy day.

We did a few errands in the morning, such as cashing a cheque at the bank, buying some new shorts for Glen at H&M, and then buying some groceries as we’re having people over on Sunday. We then set off to Richy and Ian’s party downtown. They’d put on drinks and a big spread of food. There are so many parties going on in Toronto for Pride, and it’s really lovely to be invited to just a few of them.

We stayed there for a few hours, drank, ate, met some new people, and then went to the Aqua party at Yonge-Dundas Square. DJs, water fountains, drinks and lots and lots of shirtless men. I was one of about 40 who didn’t take their shirt off. And talk about chiselled. How do they find the time to go to the gym that much? Don’t they work?

The sun beat down on us for a while until it started to dip behind the surrounding buildings and cast a cooling shadow. One of the strangest things about the event was the free sample area. Here, you could get free samples of beer, wine, champagne, and vodka. There was no limit on how many you could have, there was no policing, and strangely it wasn’t all that packed. Something like that would be illegal back home, and it’s probably illegal in Canada. We drank our fill though. On the flip side, you had to pay $3 for water.

We stayed until 4 or 5, then went with Ur and Israel to a party at University of Toronto that one of the deans was having. We didn’t know anyone except Yannick but we quickly struck up conversations with various people, one being a woman called Stevie who was a lot of fun. We spent most of our time sitting and talking to her. It was while sitting that we got peed on by a squirrel overhead.

The dehydration, the heat and the alcohol all caught up with me eventually and I started to get a headache. My neck and shoulders were all tense and enjoyment was going down. I’d been drinking a lot of water anyway and downed a couple of ibuprofen but it still wasn’t enough. The party was starting to thin out too and I was ready to go by about 8, so we walked home.

We had grand intentions of going out again. Julian was at Woody’s. Rob and Adam were at Cawthra Square. Nate was going to Pitbull. I sat on the couch with a heat pack on my shoulders, watching Seinfeld. (One of my favourite episodes was on too, the one where Puddy says Elaine is going to hell.) We then crawled into bed at 10:30. The thumping of the bass down the street gave me mild FOMO and I found it hard to fall asleep. Ear plugs came to the rescue and I was out soon after, very glad to be going to sleep.

Sunday

What a difference some sleep makes! We got up around 9-ish and tidied the house, ready for our guests to arrive. Only a few people had RSVP’d and then even fewer showed up. Pauline and her friend Patrick came, and once it became clear that was it, we packed up and headed out to get sushi on the other side of Yonge St.

Anna joined us soon after we got there. We ate a heap of sashimi and other things and then hit the street to watch a bit of the parade. It was really hot (even for Toronto) but there were thousands of people out watching the parade, which was just awesome. We stayed for a little while, watching the floats bunch up and grind to a halt as the spacing between them disappeared.

We then walked down to College Station so we could get through the subway to the other side of Yonge St (where the parade was being held) and then walk up Church St. We said goodbye to Anna, and then went up, checking out the various stalls as we went and getting progressively sweatier the further up the road we went. We lost Patrick somewhere.

We went back to our place to escape the heat, shower, redress, have some drinks. Nathan joined us and we stayed in the cool of the air conditioning for a few hours. It turned out we could see one half of the start of the parade route from our balcony. What we found really surprising was that four hours after the parade started, there were still groups waiting to march. I don’t think it finished until after 6. Talk about a big parade.

Glen’s desire for pulled pork (which he never actually got) drove us on to the streets again, and we all went in search of more fun. We said goodbye to Pauline at Wellesley St, got some more cash out, and then met a couple of Nathan’s friends at Byzantium. This place is probably one of the best kept secrets of Pride. It’s on Church St, right in the middle of everything, has cool air conditioning inside, DJs and a full service bar AND IS LESS THAN HALF EMPTY. The music was good, the drinks fine, yet something about it discouraged people from venturing in. Anyway, we had a good time, stayed for a bit, then Kevin and Andrew joined us and we left.

We walked around for a bit, then went into Cawthra Square for a few drinks and a bit of dance. We weren’t there long before deciding to head to the Green Space at Ryerson University. It took us ages to get there. We stopped and talked to people, had pizza, ambled along gawking at people and listening to a dance version of Let It Go blaring out of one of the stages, and then arrived just as it started to rain.

We got wet, we sought shelter, then it stopped and we went back out. The bonus of the rain was the awesome rainbow in the sky afterwards. How perfect is that?

Ryerson was just like Aqua the day before: hot men everywhere with the shirts off. The benefit being it was the evening and the music was awesome. We stayed until after the sun went done, and this was probably my favourite place during Pride this year. We stayed until about 9:30, Glen ready to go home (he has work to go tomorrow), Kevin suddenly having a reaction to something in the air, and Nathan needed to go home to let his dog in. I probably could have stayed a bit longer but it’s not as fun without friends (and I wasn’t in the right headspace to make a whole bunch of new ones).

We walked back up Church St, watching the various stalls and outdoor parties start to shut down. Nathan left us. We met Adam at the corner of Wellesley and then Glen and I said goodbye to them both and we went home. I had mild FOMO on the walk home as I’m not super tired, but I think I did enough, saw enough and had enough fun. I also want to get things done tomorrow and my legs were starting to hurt. I’m sure I’ve got a stress fracture in my foot.

So Pride this year has been another amazing experience. The city really is the better for it and I’m so glad we’re here to see it. I’m also really happy we get to do it all again next year.

Happy Pride, everyone.