Out & About #40 | Summer Hangouts #3: CNE 2014

Don't you just love how convenient public transportation is? (And, mind you, I say this without a speck of sarcasm.)

GO transit actually has a train that takes you directly to the gates of the CNE! Like, how awesome is that?! All you need to do is find your way to the closest GO Bus/Train terminal - which, of course, is easier said than done given that not everyone will live in an area that's convenient for busing.

We arrived at the CNE around 11 AM, but even then, the exhibition was already flooding with young families and small groups of friends.

we walked through the carnival game booths for a while (getting scammed along the way) before heading into the Direct Energy Centre to see the various exhibits available.

There were three main exhibits in the Direct Energy Centre:
- Exhibit A: At Home Pavilion
- Exhibit B: International Pavilion
- Exhibit C: Warehouse Outlets

The International Pavilion was our first stop.
Various booths representing different countries and places could be found inside retailing items from that respective country. Majority of the items were home decor products and jewellery, but a few booths also carried some very interesting pieces as well. For example, costume shinai at the China booth (though shinai did not originate from China). extremely large fans made from wood and silk were at the Phillippines booth, and colourful wool bucket hats at another booth that I cannot seem to recall the country name of.

I stopped midway through Exhibit B to pick up a quick lunch, but my Vegetable Hummus Sandwich turned out to be nothing more than an inexplicably greasy mini croissant stuffed with a chickpeas and a thin layer of lettuce and carrot slaw that cost me $5.Though I had had quite average expectations for CNE food outside of the Food Building, this was setting a whole new record low on my rating scale.

Don't be fooled by the photo: it's actually much smaller than pictured.

We then took a detour from the booths to see the 'Rock on Rock' exhibit as well as check out some of the things offered at the Garden Show.

A tap performance happened to be taking place at the International Stage at that point, so we headed over to catch a short snippet of it.

Making a quick round into the Marketplace, which frankly contained nothing of interest to us and merely consisted of bored vendors making no effort to promote their 'As-Seen-On-TV'-style products, we went back to Exhibit B to check out the remaining booths. 

The narrow hallway between the Marketplace and the International Pavilion, denoted by the name Heritage Court Gallery on the official CNE map, had been transformed into a small display for various Western fandoms.

We soon left the exhibits, made a quick round through the Canada Armed Forces display, and slowly made our way towards the Food Building, stopping only to "Drink a Fruit out of a Fruit".

To be honest, there wasn't much to do at the Food Building, as we had already eaten while browsing through the Direct Energy Centre. The food options were quite diverse, but didn't seem highly distinguishable from a common shopping centre food court, given the noise level and degree of messiness of the area.

The Arts, Crafts, and Hobbies building was our last stop, and, in my opinion, was the best exhibit of all. It was a good size - large enough to sustain the amount of incoming and outgoing traffic, but not so immense that it would possible to get lost and distracted. Vendors in the building were carrying more unique items, all at generally reasonable prices.

And so concludes my day at the CNE!