Canada: Toronto
I flew to Toronto in late June to start my Canada150 train trip and for anyone who lives in Canada, you’ll know domestic flights are just as (often more) expensive than international flights. My flight costed me $265 one way from Vancouver. I guess it’s ok since I save money by traveling via train with the youth pass.
I landed in Toronto 3 hours later and got picked up by my cousin Ricky and his family, who live in Toronto. Without a moment to rest, we started a jam-packed Toronto tour.
The first place we arrived at was Nathan Phillips Square, where the “Toronto” word installation sits. In the winter there’s an ice-skating rink and the light up the installation at night.
After a quick walk through Nathan Phillips Square, we had lunch at the 360 Restaurant at the top of the CN tower. We got a good view of the city as well as the Toronto islands, which looked like they had a population of 11 people.
FYI if you make reservations at the 360 restaurant, your ticket up the CN tower is included and you don’t have to wait in line!
After our lunch, I shopped for a bit at Eaton Center before I met up with a friend, who took me to the Distillery District. The Distillery District reminded me of Yaletown – bricked buildings and floors and hipster restaurants with fairy lights outside. We ordered some food and drinks there before we moved to the next area he wanted to show me.
Eaton Centre. 
Love locks at Distillery District.
We traveled by uber (why doesn’t Vancouver have uber again?) to quickly see Yonge-Dundas Square, a busy metropolitan area with lots of shopping. I lined up at the Uncle Tetsu for the famous jiggly japanese cheesecake. Unfortunately, their only Canadian location is in Toronto so I hadn’t been able to taste it yet but finally I did and it was delicious – soft and fluffy and not too cheesy.
Yonge-Dundas Square. I love adidas. 
Uncle tetsu!
The next day, my parents joined me in Toronto and together we went to see one of the 7 wonders of the world – Niagra Falls! It was busy and a clear day. I was surprised how close we were to New York and how you can view the falls from Toronto or New York.
The grandness of Niagra Falls was amazing. It didn’t matter where you were standing along the wall, you were able to get a good view of the falls.
As your basic tourist, I insisted that we get on the boat that drives close to the falls – the ones where everyone needs to wear a red poncho and we all look like refugees.
Let me tell you right now, if you want to take photos or film while on this boat PLEASE BRING A WATERPROOF PHONE BAG or use a go pro or something. When you first get on the boat and it starts moving towards the falls, you’re like ok this is cool this is great. But in one split second the sky goes from sunny to you getting showered on by the falls water (no you are not under the falls, you are just very close to it). My mother was hiding near the back of the boat and laughing at all the people whose cameras and phone screens turned black as the boat turned the corner and everyone got soaked.
I celebrated Canada Day in Toronto with some friends and they were kind enough to show me around more places near the Harbour, where we would be watching fireworks later that night. After some dimsum, the first place we headed to was Graffiti Alley, an area of neighbourhoods and alleys with lots of street art. It smelled bad but we got some really fun photos.
We also stopped by Sugar Beach, which is a random corner of the city that has beach sand and umbrellas, facing the harbour waters.
And to our pleasant surprise, at Sugar Beach was none other than a giant duck. THE GIANT FLOATING DUCK that travels the world.
That night, we lined up to eat at a Thai restaurant called Pai. Vancouver doesn’t have a lot of good Thai food in my opinion, but I thought Pai was very authentic and delicious – definitely worth the lineup!
We watched the Canada Day fireworks at the CN tower and at the Harbour. The harbour show was definitely more exciting. As you can see from the photos below, the CN tower fireworks looked like little sperm and the fireworks ended within 10 minutes.
CN Tower fireworks. 
Harbour fireworks.
Last year, I celebrated Canada Day in Amsterdam and got sick, so it was nice to celebrate the national holiday in my own home country, even if it wasn’t my own city. Although I am far away from home, my parents were in Toronto and so were a lot of my university friends who moved there for work after graduation.
I also considered working elsewhere after graduation and Toronto was a viable option. Unlike Vancouver, Toronto is much bigger. The highways have around 10 lanes which is actually really scary to drive in. Toronto also seems to have more “pockets” of areas.
For example, Vancouver is very small. We have our gastown, which is like 3 streets long, and we have our yaletown, which again like 3 streets long. Everything is quite close together and each area is small and connected, but Toronto has more of these little neighbourhoods farther apart, with more distinct flair.
To expand on this point, take a look at the Distillery District. Toronto has that and also the best tacos I’ve ever eaten at the Kensington Market, which is a whole neighbourhood for small and local restaurants. They have the huge city centre and even more suburbs.
One of my good friends, Cynthia, actually moved to Toronto this summer to open her own women kickboxing gym (she’s so cool omg) and her area had full on beaches with cliff point views of the great lakes.
Toronto is indeed very cool and trendy with great food. Their sushi is terrible though, which is a big minus for me from the west coast. Also they have no mountains.
Sincerely, Loewe
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