When I had a quick, last minute trip to Toronto for work I didn’t have much time to plan. Especially when I was going during a massive conference week and nearly all hotel rooms were booked.  So I looked up a few touristy activities and timing but nothing else. That likely wasn’t the smartest idea. I didn’t know that my chosen hotel was in the Financial district of downtown, and that nearly all cheap restaurants and stores closed down over the weekend. I also didn’t know my chosen hotel was more like a dorm, and it wasn’t recommended to drink the water.

So the first night when I was deeply thirsty for water, jet lagged, and hungry I ventured out of my hotel. I had seen a newsstand type shop across the street and figured they’d have what I needed. But no….they were closed. But next door was Tim Hortons. I knew two things about Tim Hortons, that they are usually 24 hours and they had something called Timbits that were supposed to be delicious.

So I happily wandered in, ordered a few Timbits and a donut and gobbled them down. But it was all lies. They weren’t delicious. They weren’t bad either, but would not be in my top 5 donuts, or even my 5 Meh! donuts. But I was so tired I didn’t care. I also figured since it was almost midnight that maybe they weren’t fresh.

So the next morning, when I needed to grab something to eat before work (and arm myself with something warm to drink on the long cold walk) I headed again to Tim Hortons, which was a good idea, as it was Sunday and everything else was still closed. But…the Timbits and donuts were still less then Meh! The client saw what I had and joked “Now you are a real Canadian!”

In total went to Tim Hortons probably 7 times in a 4 day trip as it was just so close. At the end of the trip I still was not wowed by the taste (I will say the price was amazing) and was racking my mind to figure out who had recommended Tim Horton’s Timbits so highly. And then that is when I realized….

hortons_0910

That it was the TV Show How I Met Your Mother. I had remembered recommendations from a character…

Travel Missteps

Travel Missteps is an every-other week series on how sometimes part of the journey is making mistakes and getting lost.