The 400 Project

Sometimes your night takes a totally unexpected turn and you end up on a crazy unplanned adventure. That happened to me last Saturday.

After finishing dinner at a restaurant in the west end of Toronto to celebrate my friend’s birthday, we all decided to go back to my place. The trouble was that we had six people and five of us had come to the restaurant in a car together. We quickly learned that Kia Rio’s are not really accommodating for a sixth passenger. Rather than making Matt head out on his own, I offered to take the TTC with him, and so our two groups headed in separate directions.

Seconds from the closest streetcar stop Matt informs me that he doesn’t have change for the toll. A few blocks more and a failed attempt at getting change, we decided to just walk to the subway. To quote myself; “It’s not that far”.

It was.

It may sound like I am complaining about this forced exercise, but this walk actually turned out to be a highlight of my weekend. After trekking a few more blocks we realized that it was Nuit Blanche weekend. For those that don’t know, Nuit Blanche is “a free, annual, city-wide celebration of contemporary art, produced by the City of Toronto in collaboration with Toronto’s arts community.” Check out their site here to get more details. Basically, art installations are set up all over the city and everyone is encouraged to get out and experience the city from sunset to sunrise.

To sum up; we walked past a Stranger Things themed party, several huge exhibits, a contortionist, a pyromaniac, and a herd of T-Rex with signs letting everyone know the end is nigh. We were surrounded by crowds of people taking in the nightlife in the city, and were unexpectedly doing the same. I am sure the night continued to get more exciting after we passed through. It ended up taking us about an hour to get to the subway after stopping a few times to check things out along the way.

Getting back to my apartment and meeting up with the others felt strange. So much had happened for Matt and I in our hours apart. Hearing us describe our journey must have sounded like an episode of Dr. Who. It was then that I realized that they had no idea what we had been experiencing because, for the most part, we had been too busy to text or post on social media.

This type of experience is what makes life so amazing. Embracing the unexpected adventures that happen every day. I got to hang out with one of my best friends, experience the city I live in, see some crazy art, and have a really cool but unanticipated adventure. Doing all of that while also being active, seems like a pretty big win to me.

For more on getting out and experiencing the world around you, check out Ben’s article Don’t Wait.

Have an unexpected adventure of your own? Share your experience in the comments below!