- Niagra pics
- Toronto pics

Day 10: Jun 13, 2007: Niagra Falls, ON to Toronto, ON



Woke up this morning and went to experience the falls. I don’t know what to say about Niagra! It’s a waterfall and it’s really big. Canada’s side is better.

First we went on the Maid of the Mist which, as always, didn’t disappoint! Journey behind the falls, however, was a bit silly and not as good as I remembered. But I didn’t remember much. After that we simply walked around and enjoyed the view of the falls and the parks. Lastly we stopped at Ripley’s Motion Simulator Movie thing, which we got last night as part of our museum ticket. And, well, I’ve been on a few motion simulator rides in my time and this was not the best. Not… even up there, actually. But, whatever.

On our way out we passed by the rapids, the hydro plant, and Brock’s monument. Brock’s monument and Park is all about the war of 1812. The monument is huge! It’s so tall!

After the monument, it was straight to Toronto! Which wasn’t very far at all. But we did have to introduce ourselves to Toronto traffic and gridlock. Without air conditioning, being at a standstill was not the best, but thankfully it didn’t last TOO long. Toronto is so big!! I’ve been to Toronto before, but being able to directly compare it to every other city makes it plain to see just how massive of a city it is. Finding a hotel was a bit of a nightmare. Every hotel we found was soooo expensive and usually full. It took us forever, but we finally found a room in a hostel that was a converted dorm of U of T.

I grew up in Montreal, so I think I’m culturally predisposed to dislike Toronto, but there’s no denying that it’s an impressive place and there’s a LOT to do. Today we only had time to do a little bit of exploring, but I’ve noticed a thing or two. I know a lot of people who have told me that Vancouver has a lot of people who are “into their appearance”, but overall I think Torontonians spend more time dressing. They look so well put together! It makes me feel self-conscious in my shabby travel shorts-and-shirt.

What else… Toronto is full of people. In Toronto, smoking is cool. Toronto has lots of neat architecture. Toronto doesn’t take Visa. In Toronto, lots of people use bicycles, but nobody wears helmets.

I guess that’s it for now, I’m tired and I’m sure I’ll have plenty more to say about Toronto tomorrow.

Day 11: Jun 14, 2007: Toronto, ON



Today was Toronto Day! We started off at the CN tower, naturally. Like Niagra, I’m not sure what to say other than the CN tower is really big! The observation deck was nice, like any other tall-tower-observation-deck-thing I’ve been to, but the glass floor was definitely something unique and fun. It made me nervous, though. Well, maybe not so much nervous as uneasy. Instinct I guess. It didn’t help when Trevor kept jumping on the glass panels x_x.

We bought something called a “city pass” which is five Toronto attractions for, as they advertise, “one low price!!”. We actually did the math last night, and even if we used all the other coupons we found, the price was less than half the sum. Also, the cost of the pass was STILL less than the total discounted price of all the attractions that we were *really* interested in, not just the ones we were sorta interested in.

Anyway, because of the pass we headed then to the Hockey Hall of Fame. I like hockey, I mean, I watch the games and cheer the ‘Nucks and can follow the game well, but I’m not super-crazy into hockey or any other sport for that matter. Still, I was VERY impressed by the hockey hall of fame. It was friggin’ HUGE! They had a ton of memorabilia and history, a NICE theatre with a short documentary, and a live game where you could try to shoot a puck past a virtual goalie. (Trevor scored!) It also had a very impressive hall and vault which housed all the hockey trophies, including the original Stanley Cup! (the tiny cup that sits on top of the trophy as it is today). Unfortunately, today most of the trophies were replicas, the real deals were being awarded at the NHL awards, which we watched later that night

After the hockey hall of fame, we went to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). It has this huge new wing that’s called “the crystal”, which is quite literally a crystal-like structure that juts out of the side of the original museum. It was one example of what I think will be the future of architecture, and there are several examples of it in the city of Toronto. The new structure partially encases the old structure, preserving it as if it, itself, was an exhibit. As pressure for both new spaces to build and the preservation of history escalates, I would not be surprised to see buildings pop up that completely envelop the buildings of the past. Regardless, ROM was really big. Really, very big. Sadly, most of it was closed! It seems like it’s still being built, which was unfortunate, but really we had a hard time exploring what was there in the time we had. ROM is a very classic-style museum, it has rather fine exhibits of Greek pots and Egyptian artifacts and dead birds all kept in a row behind glass. It had a nice exhibit that had recreations of different rooms from different European periods, that was kind of cool. And an entire exhibit dedicated to paperweights. Uh, ok. It wasn’t my thing, though. I like to learn about how things worked or what happened more than this is what things looked like oh-so many years ago.

Lastly, we did more walking in the evening (though our feets were very tired!). We went to see the “Eaton Center”, which is a really big mall! And well, it was a really big mall! I prefer markets with unique little things, but it was impressive to see such a big edifice to consumerism.

Tomorrow we will do more sightseeing. Toronto Toronto Toronto!