A Quick Trip to Toronto
This was my first trip to Canada, and it’s one of those places I MUST return to. I think I say that a lot but this trip was way too short, and Canada is beautiful, big, bright and full of adventures waiting… I really feel like I barely scratched the surface, of both Vancouver and Toronto. And to be honest I didn’t give Toronto enough time. 2 full days, 2 half days. One of those days I spent at Niagara… So to make the most of my time and take in as much of Toronto as possible, I set out to walk. I could have seen more sights if I’d taken a tour bus, but I wanted to get the feel for the place, and I really feel like I did. This is a beautiful old city with so much to see… I stopped (at Starbucks) halfway through my walk – the walk equated to around 20000 steps – and wrote the following:
Walking up Yonge Street, the apparent longest road in the world, or one of them, I started out at Eaton Centre, where my hotel is, not realising how good of a location this was. After walking past all the big brand shops, Toronto's version of Time Square, past a university (I didn't expect that there) and past the high buildings you find yourself in a weird place. For blocks all you can see is 2-3 story buildings, bottom floor being a range of shops from boutiques, to hair dressers, to 'Mr Cheappies'. It's quieter here, but there's some major construction going on.
As you continue walking you start getting the feeling you are heading into a different neighbourhood again. But maybe the fact that I knew where I was headed made me more aware of the situation. And so with a left turn I am in Yorkville, on Yorkville ave. walking down this street you feel you’ve left the city and are in a small posh town, except for the overbearing high rise building of the Four Seasons. The town library and fire station are two of the first noticeable buildings you come across, kept from a previous era. As you continue walking the old buildings continue, mixed in with some from the 70-80s and some more modern. The streets are really quiet, and the few people you see are a bit older than what you’d see in this type of area in other cities. Walking past the high end boutiques and stores this area is definitely what I expected from the brochure.
Back to current times, I think back to what I saw after leaving Starbucks. I feel like my memories are from London, where a large park, Queen Park, is surrounded by beautiful old buildings belonging to the University mostly. The only difference is the wide avenue’s with lots of traffic, but nothing compared to the traffic craziness of London.
As I kept walking South away from the main road, I found myself in the beard and ‘manbun’ part of town, otherwise known as the Entertainment district, where the Scotiabank Theatre and Bell Lightbox are. Things are much trendier here, there was a large gallery and associated school. With art student types everywhere, smaller streets and much less traffic. I didn’t feel so out of place walking here, where as there were few people walking in the previous areas.
As you head further south you’ll end up in what would be the nearest thing to a tourist area in Toronto, although I think the city itself is a tourist area, in that there’s something cool to see around every corner. My goal was to go up the CN Tower, the second tallest building in the world, and I did it, it takes a minute to get up the 346m to the look out level in their glass elevators. Being winter it wasn’t super busy, but also means that the view wasn’t the clearest. But it was a great way to finish my visit to Toronto.
So my recommendation for Toronto – find a walking tour, there’s lots around, whether it’s a foodie tour, or even a bike tour. It’s a relatively flat city and so easy to get around. And there’s so much to see, so much history. The weather was clear and nice – not too hot, not too cold – but not the season for tourists, so you may need to keep this in mind when looking for tours. And despite it being a tourist destination go up the CN Tower, the views are beautiful: