I hate the Euro, I really hate it. Basically because I can’t see to get it anywhere, at least not in quantities or denomations that are of any use. This is turning out to be the hardest part of my trip to Greece (so far anyway, I have a feeling things are just warming up)
A couple of days ago I head to my local TD at Yonge and Eglinton, not small but not large, hoping they have Euros. I ask for 800 Euros, turns out they only have 600, mostly contained within a single 500 euro bill. I tell them no thanks.
I go to the mall near me since it has a Marlin Travel, which is the same place Alicia got her money, by name – not location. That was equally pointless since it turns out not all of then change money, and my location didn’t.
Fine, I threw up my hands and said that I would just go to the Marlin Travel location at Fairview, the one she went to. I check online and it said it was open until 9.
So tonight I get a ride there with a coworker who’s heading in that direction, and head to Marlin Travel. I see the currency converter section, and it also had a big “Fuck You” sign, in the form of a Closed sign. Turns out that although the main office is open to 9, that thing isn’t. Of course, Alicia warned me of that too, but I figured at 7 it would still be open. Nope, missed it by an hour.
So I head to the TD that’s in Fairview, one last stab. I wait in the rather long line for around 15 minutes, and then wait at the teller desk for at least another 15 while they wait for some time lock to open for them to get at the money. I don’t recall that shit happening when I was at my local TD. Anyway, they said they had over two thousand Euros, so I said I wanted 800. Then about halfway through my wait they said some of it had been put aside for others.. you know, people who didn’t haul their ass in to ask in person. When they come back, all they have is a 500 bill, a couple 100 bills, and two 50’s. I didn’t want anything bigger than a 50, considering you can barely break $50 canadian here anymore. The bank even has a big goddamn advertising poster about how they convert currency, way to rub it in. I give up and head to the subway.
Ah, and the TTC re-enters my blog once more. I saw on a TV screen while waiting at the bank that something had gone awry and that the Yonge subway line between Lawrence and Bloor was down. And true to their word, it was. I got off at Lawrence and walked the rest of the way home. It wasn’t as far as I thought, 2km, which is only a third of the distance from my place to the office, and I walked that once (though it nearly killed me). The walk tonight wasn’t great though, I’m quite badly out of shape, and with any luck this greece trip will finish me off. Assuming I have any money on hand to pay for the day trips.
Life would be so much easier if all nations just learned to stop worrying and love the loonie.
Addendum:
I phoned ahead on friday to the booth alicia used, and confirmed they were open on saturday, and that they had the money in useful denominations. They did, and put a hold on it for me. I went in to pick it up, turns out they need photo id for some reason, made even stranger because they only seem to accept debit. Any security concerns they might have surely would apply to the rest of the known world, no? Anyway, failed again, as the amount of the charge was higher than my debit limit, which surprised me since I thought I had already purchased stuff in excess of the amount. So I went up to the same TD that foiled me before, and they increased the limit, went back to the booth and after 5 minutes of them taking down all my information for the still as yet unknown security reasons, I finally got me euros.
Flight is tomorrow. Greece or bust.
Is that a bad omen, I don’t know.
