A day in Toronto
I decided to kick my day off with a stroll down the shores of the Ontario lake. The mighty Ontario lake was just laying lazily with a ferry or a private boat disturbing it every now and then.
Several people were jogging down the harbour front, a girl walking her dog, a few Canadian geese searching for their breakfast and a homeless man finding shelter inside sort of a spherical concrete monument. It was quite cold for me with my hands going numb and I was wondering how these people jog this early in the morning in this cold weather. I walked down to the ferry terminal, checked out the ferry time table and decided to walk back to grab a coffee to kill the chill. My friend Lakmali, had already recommended a double-double Tim Howthorn coffee which I settled for with a bacon and egg breakfast croissant. The coffee was not bad especially me not being a coffee fan.
After my quick breakfast I was ready for my walk to my next attraction, CN tower. When I reached the CN tower it was too early for my already booked edge walk experience. I had a look around and found this open air railway museum which showcased how the early railway system was in Canada. Not a bad way to kill the time.
My walk was booked for 12pm and I still had more time and decided to explore the Ripley's aquarium of Canada next door. It was an excellent experience at the aquarium. So many beautiful fish displayed in elegant tanks. I think I liked it all, especially the anoemonie wall, sharks, sting rays, rainbow reef and the jelly fish wall.
Just when I was about to leave the place there was a feeding session for the rays, a diver got into the tank and fed the rays some shell fish.
 |
It was time for the big event in Toronto. I walked to the CN tower which is just next door.
After an air port style security check, and walk down a souvenir store got to the edge walk office. I was welcomed by a very cheerful front-desk girl and had my life signed off to begin with. Once all the participants for the 12pm edgewalk was there, we were ushered into a nearby room and briefed about the walk, had our valuables locked away and got ourselves into our climbing suites. There were 4 other ladies 3 from the UK and one from Sweden doing the walking with me. We were then introduced to our walking guide, Chris, who was a very cheerful young man, who checked our suites again and took us to the walking entry point in the elevator.
We were hooked from front and back to a guiding system which would keep us attached to the tower at all times, relief... And off we went anxiously stepping behind our guide and was welcomed by sweeping views of Toronto and the lake Ontario. There was a steel mesh podium we would be doing the edge walking on, which was just above the 360 degrees roof top restaurant, the sky pod was another few levels up. Chris made us do a few spine tingling, adrenaline rushing stuff, lean back and lean forward with half of our feet hanging out of the podium and tandem walking along the edge of the podium. The whole experience lasted about an hour. I would highly recommend you do this if you are into that sort of things and visiting Toronto. We were then taken down to the office again and given our passes to visit the glass floor and the skypod of the tower.
After doing the edge walk, the glass bottom floor and the sky pod were not much of an excitement. I first went to the sky pod, went around the sky pod going through the same scenary as from edge walk, this time through a grill. Next came down to see the glass floor, you could see tiny cars, even tinier people and the massive aquarium of Canada, all in between your feet.
Following this I came down to the souvenier shop, got a few souvniers and came out to catch a uber to my next stop, Casa Loma.
My uber ride to casa loma was about 20 minutes away from the CN tower. I had a very interesting uber driver, he is a masters student in Economics from Ethiopia. I really liked the explanation he gave why third world countries remain poor, very interesting guy indeed! He plans to go back to Ethiopia once he finishes his masters and contribute to the booming economy of Ethiopia, I wish him good luck.
Casa Loma is considered the only 'castle' in North America. It has been built in early 1900s by a wealthy Canadian called Pellat who had ended up penniless in the end and having his property owned by the state which was later converted to a tourist attraction. The house has 3 levels with many beautiful antiques. Pellatt of course has lived a lavish lifestyle.
After a quick browse through the mansion I got another uber to go to the distillery district. Toronto's distellery district represents old Toronto with cobbled stoned roads and lots of small cafes and arts shops. A really nice chick place to explore. I had a leisurely stroll around the distillery district admiring the little crafts. Wish I had time to sit and have something to nibble, but unfortunately had to leave as it was getting late to reach my next stop, St Lawrence market.
St Lawrence market is closer to the distillery district. My battery was running low therefore I ordered a uber instead of walking, just to make sure I get to the place before battery died. St Lawrence market is considered the largest food market in the world. Part of it was closed and even the part which was open, was huge. It looked very clean for a food market with many different food stalls of contrasting food types.
By the time I finished my stroll around the food market, it was time to meet my friend Anushaka for a catch up. I have heard of Anushaka through another friend of mine but had never met him. I stopped by the apartment to freshen myself up after a day long walking and met Anushaka at the traffic lights near my apartment. We went to the ferry terminal and took a ferry to Toronto centre island. This time of the year, the only way to see the Toronto skyline is the ferry ride to the center island. The cruises on the Ontario lake commences only during summer. Ferry ride to the center island is only 7 dollars and it takes you on a 10-15min ride across the Ontario lake to the center island. As the ferry left the dock the Toronto skyline was zooming out of our view in all its glory. They sky was overcast by rainy clouds, a sunset behind the city would have been mesmerizing I thought.
We took the same ferry back to the city and drove down to a Toronto suburb to have dinner, a delicious Pakistani dinner as per the recommendation by Anushaka.
After the dinner, Anushaka dropped me back at my apartment. I was determined to see the Toronto skyline at night, therefore I walked back to the ferry terminal in the cold of the night and took the 10pm ferry back to the center island. This time the city was zooming out glimmering with million lights on a pitch black background, what a sight. I was determined to stay on the deck regardless the almost painful cold and absorb the beauty of the zooming out city, what a beautiful way to end my day in Toronto.
The following day I walked early morning to the near by Toronto central station which was quite majestic looking at caught the sky train to the airport to catch my early morning flight to Philadelphia.
Comments
Post a Comment