Toronto
- Details
- Written by Mintea
Time of Trip: Spring Break 2011 (March 23-26)
A hooked rug in the Textile Museum of Canada
Best/Food/Craziest/Shopping/Worst of My Trip
1. Best!
Wandering! Toronto is a great city for aimless or not so aimless wandering. I spent the majority of my time walking without a real purpose. I had general goals, such as walk towards Chinatown, pass this church, go to this restaurant, but I always found myself enjoying the journey and finding things I didn’t
even know about. While the subway is good for reaching far off places, I highly recommend walking to any destination that is in the downtown area (the stations downtown are quite close to each other, and it is probably not worth the price of a subway pass… I spent $10 for 4 rides). I was by myself and felt quite safe, even when the sun started to go down. Also, my experiences with strangers were all positive – this town is full of nice people !
2. Food!
I have not quite gotten over the awkward feeling of eating alone in a restaurant that is not located in an airport. However, I decided I really wanted some good Chinese food and wandered to Chinatown. I found a cute restaurant called Mother’s Dumplings, or 妈妈饺子馆 .The menu is not great for the single patron, so do go with friends if possible! I almost managed to finish my 12 pork dumplings and they were certainly the best I have had outside of China. Maybe I need to go to more Chinese restaurants? Additionally, there was free, tasty tea.
3. Crazy?
Perhaps it is not that crazy, but I salsa danced in the middle waiting section of a cross walk with a random international college student who was making his way from one bar to the next with his friend. Spontaneous dancing with strangers is always exciting!
4. Shopping!
Toronto Eaton Centre
I seem to do the majority of my clothes shopping while traveling... but not this time! I surprised myself and did almost no shopping at all. I did adventure through the Toronto Eaton Centre, which is huge and would certainly be heavenly for someone with the desire and the funds to do some shopping. It features all the standard stores that can be found in NA and more. The Sears has more high end items and variety than American Sears because it apparently used to be Eaton, which was bought by Sears in 1999. My only purchase of the trip, not including food/gas/lodging, was at Indigo Books & Music. They happened to have eight different books by my current favorite author, Robert Rankin. I am continually disappointed by book stores in the US because they never seem to have his books, or they only have one or two. I was so excited that I bought two books and decided on the spot that I could most definitely live in Toronto.
5. Worst…
The worst part of my trip was the drive. I was lucky enough to drive to Toronto on a snowy day, following almost a week of warmer weather. I drove by Niagara Falls without even being able to see the river I was crossing, let alone the falls. Luckily, most people were driving cautiously and I safely arrived in Toronto with only 1.5 hours added to my expected driving time.
If I had to pick something about Toronto that was not so great, I would have to say High Park. I will admit I did not give it that much of a chance, but if you plan to go here, either go during the summer/spring/fall or prepare to trek through snow. Or perhaps I just didn’t like it because wandering through a park by myself made me feel a tad bit lonely. Overall, I adored Toronto, so High Park is more along the lines of the least awesome thing instead of a bad experience that one might associate with the “worst” part of a trip.
Day By Day
Day 1
I began my day by driving around Lake Erie. I planned on stopping at Niagara falls, but the weather had other plans for me. I drove through rain and hail and then New York and Canada welcomed me with snow. I spent $4.25 on tolls to cross bridges over rivers I could not see. Customs was a bit intimidating. The experience of being questioned by a person in a booth while sitting in your car is quite different from talking to a person at a desk after a long flight. Avoid bringing weapons to Canada and keep pocket knifes out of reach, because that is apparently where they need to be while driving.. or maybe just while going through customs.. the customs officer wasn't very clear about that. After crossing the border, I had a long drive on QEW, passed numerous accidents, and sighed with relief when I finally reached the parking garage down the street from the hostel I stayed at. Green P is wonderful for finding parking lots and garages in Toronto as well as prices, though it does not include all of your options.
I stayed at the Hi-Toronto Youth Hostel. The outside is cutely painted and the sign is easy to spot from down the street. The staff was very nice and the hostel was always bustling with people. The bathrooms were surprisingly clean and my 10-bed room was nice, though it only had one working light on the ceiling. My one complain would be lack of locker space in the room. For 10 people there were 4 reasonably sized lockers and 8 tiny lockers (day locker found at theme park size). The hostel has a small cafe in the basement that serves breakfast and dinner, offering meals ranging from $4 to $10, free coffee in the morning, and free tea all day(which I never found but didn't look too hard for). The basement also has a room with a TV and a kitchen with cooking stations for several people.
After settling in, I headed to a nearby ATM then went in search of food. I felt safe wandering around by myself in the dark but was not very successful at finding food. After passing a few burger places, a Mexican fast food place, and a restaurant with St. Louis in the name, I gave up and went to Starbucks for a Chai Latte and a cookie. On my way back to the hostel, I ran into some friendly college boys, did some dancing while waiting to cross the street, and sadly turned down their offer to go dancing and have a few drinks, which seemed the smart thing to do considering I was alone in a strange city with no cell phone service. I went to my bed and fell asleep, which was quite easy because I was the only one in the room and was worn out from the long drive.
Day 2
After waking up to an abandoned room at 10 a.m., I decided to try out the Hostel Cafe for breakfast. I had a wonderful bowl of yogurt, granola, and fresh fruit topped with honey. I then headed out to the King subway station, where I was unable to buy the $10 day pass I had heard about and instead bought 4 rides for $10, which came in the form of 4 little coins that were quite shiny. I rode to Dupont station and walked a few blocks north and up the Baldwin Steps to reach Casa Loma (seen in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and several other films):
Casa Loma
Casa Loma was built to be the home of Sir Henry Pellatt and family as a wonderful place to entertain friends and royalty. Pellatt designed his castle with E.J. Lennox, who was also the architect for the Old City Hall and several other major buildings in Toronto. This castle features beautiful woodwork, original furniture, hidden passages, and, for the time it was built, state of the art bathrooms.
Shower that sprays from 6 different directions as well as from above.
To give it the feel of a castle, Casa Loma also has a tower which can be climbed and offers a nice view of downtown. After touring the main home/castle, you can go downstairs to see an unfinished part of the building. Signs will tell you all about the grand plans Pellatt had, including that for a whimsical swimming pool:
Grand plan for the Casa Loma basement swimming pool.
What the unfinished swimming pool looks like today.
Attached to the basement is a rather spooky 800' tunnel leading to the stables and a greenhouse.
Creepy, Long, Cold tunnel that runs under a road.
Garage next to the stables... Pellatt had an electric car that he loved.
I missed out on the gardens behind the castle that are open during other seasons, but if the flowers in the greenhouse are any indication of what the garden is like, it is probably quite nice.
From Casa Loma, I continued on to High Park (by High Park station), which was rather empty. I felt lonely walking in the park by myself and did not spend much time, but if you want to trek in the snow, this is a great place to do it. It is also probably rather nice and more entertaining in warmer weather. I quickly left the park and headed to Chinatown for lunch. On my way to Chinatown, I got lost and ended up by the Eaton Center and old city hall. I back tracked, went another direction, and finally found myself on a street filled with signs written in Chinese characters. I ate at Mother’s Dumplings and was quite pleased. After more wandering, I decided to head to the CN tower, which I could see off in the distance. This experience is a bit pricey ($22 for the elevator ride) and I would probably consider having dinner at the top if I went back, because when you eat there you get to ride up for free. The CN tower has all the standards of a tall tourist trap, with indoor and outdoor observation decks and a place to mail letters. It also has cool glass windows on the floor of the lower observation level and in at least one of the elevators, so you can stare down a long, long way and feel safe knowing that the glass is stronger than most normal floors and was designed to hold a gang of hippos.
Facing my fears!
View from the west side of the upper observation deck in the CN tower.
I returned to my hostel (passing by the Hockey Hall of Fame) to put on a better coat and while there signed up for a free walking tour for the next day. Equipped better for the cold weather, I headed east to the Distillery District to check out SOMA Chocolatemaker, which turned out to be intriguing but expensive. While there, I ran into a flash mob of sorts, made up of people in green singing/complaining about the TTC and rude people.
The Distillery District.
I finished my day with a vegetarian burger, salad, and mashed potatoes at the Hostel's Cafe and some hot chocolate from Tim Hortons.
Day 3
I again had breakfast at the hostel, this time enjoying pancakes while talking to some fellow travelers. I began the day by taking a roundabout route past St. Micheal's Cathedral to locate the meeting spot for the free walking tour I signed up for the day before. To kill time, I went to the Textile Museum of Canada which had several interesting exhibits of traditional clothing and decorations, a unique exhibit of artwork by Kai Chan,
and a rather extensive interactive exhibit, where you could try out looms and feel different types of thread and see how they are made.
The free tour by Tour Guys was great. It consisted of me, the tour guide, and one other person. Tours are perhaps more popular in the summer. We walked through downtown, seeing the old and new City Halls, the Eaton Centre, and the Church of the Holy Trinity (Toronto's second oldest church). The old city hall is very pretty and was designed by E.J. Lennox. The new City Hall is a strange building that was meant to show that Toronto is a city of the future. This is probably why it was used in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Old City Hall and Toronto downtown buildings.
New City Hall.
Once the tour ended, I wandered north to Bloor Street and the Bata Shoe Museum. This unique museum has shoes of famous Canadians, a history of shoes from around the world, shoes in art, and an exhibit about socks, featuring Napoleon's own socks. After learning all about shoes, I made my way back to the Toronto Eaton Centre for dinner and book shopping. I lazily meandered back towards my hostel, stopping at the Gooderham Building, the old old city hall, and St. Lawrence Market, and finished off my lovely but short tour of Toronto.
St. Lawrence Market