When I heard that the observation deck on City Hall was included in Doors Open, I knew I had to head downtown. I had been trying to get up this spot for awhile now and this was the prime opportunity to scout it out properly!

Once you got out at the 25th floor, visitors were ushered through the glass doors in the foyer and up 2 flights of stairs to the top. The deck itself was cool, but kind've underwhelming. There were two layers of "protection" in front of the thick and dirty glass windows and there were too many people walking around with selfie sticks for me to really appreciate where I was.

After a few minutes, disappointed, I begin hiking back down there stairs, subconsciously turning the knobs on all the mech room doors as I passed them. Suddenly, one turned, and the door opened. I quickly broke away from the pack of people that I was with and slid into the room. It brought me into a little closet, where two other locked doors awaited. As quietly as possible, I managed to pop open one of the doors and voila, I found myself in the sub-mech room of new City Hall.

Nothing overly exciting awaited me, just the sheer fact that I was somewhere that I shouldn't be during the one day where places were legally accessible was amusing. However at one point, two doors later, I spotted a ladder going up to a hatch and I nearly shit myself, but it turned out to be a dead end.

After City Hall we made our way to the Canada Life Building where we attempted to seduce the security guard to let us take a peak into the stairwell that went straight up to the roof, but he politely declined. Then we went to see Osgoode Hall, where somehow we managed to get away 1.


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from the crowds and we found ourselves in the basement opening doors that were on the other side of the "off-limits" tape that we had seen as we were coming in. All in all, pretty awesome day!

Nice one. If your feeling like some infiltration in Ottawa this weekends your time to shine.

Man! I'm trying to get out to Ottawa in two weeks or so!

Haha, glad to know that I wasn't the only one that wandered into the Osgoode Hall basement during Doors Open. Can't wait for next year!

Only Asians on the deck. Interesting.

All the way to the rooftop next time ! haha