I wasn't expecting anything because I met many people who have different opinions of this city. First thing which was great : the weather! For 6 days, I only had sun, no rain at all and quite warm. So different from where I went before. I haven't done all the touristic spots like the CN Tower, I just walked a lot, mostly in the centre. I met Leonie, a German girl, the first night I was there and we spent 3 days discovering the city together. It was actually very nice to walk around with someone and we get on well so it was great.
I think I could write pages and pages about the reason why I liked Toronto so much but it's too long to write everything, that's why I'll just describe some places we went to.
The first day we just decided to follow an itinerary we've found in Lonely Planet after we went to Kensington Market. It was a nice walk in the city centre which allowed us to see the main buildings and some historical ones. I like the contrast between "old" and modern. I know they were inspired by European architecture and you can see it clearly, especially the Victorian style of the houses. We saw the Financial District, the Old City Hall, some churches and many other things.
The second day we went to Saint Lawrence Market, a very good place to buy fresh food to picnic on the waterfront, and then we visited the Distillerie District, a kind of arty area full of small shops and homemade stuffs. It was really beautiful and the chocolate shop smelled so good... It's like a giant museum : you can see many beautiful things that you can't afford... After that, we went to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum). I love the building! They built a kind of very modern extension which comes up from the old building : it's like a mix of two eras. The museum was good too but now you can find almost the same kind of things everywhere...
The evening we just went to the roof of the hostel to meet everyone for a great BBQ! The view is amazing! This hostel (Planet Traveler) is honestly the best place I've ever stayed. It's modern, clean, the staff is very friendly, the breakfast is free, it uses alternative sources of energy such as solar panels, it's near everything you need,... in one word : great! And not more expensive than the others!
On Sunday, we just wandered around in the city centre, trying to go to some places we hadn't seen yet, and then we went to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario). Nothing really special. But the building of the School of Arts which is near is amazing!
Monday : first day "alone". I heard about the Contact Photography Festival in a magazine and it looked very interesting so I wanted to go to some places where you can see open exhibitions but I've just found one after having walked for more than one hour. I think it was the first days of the festival and everything was not ready. That's too bad because it really looked interesting!
In the afternoon I wasn't sure of what I wanted to do and I ended going to Casa Loma, a kind of castle built for man who wanted too much... It's just amazing to know that he could only live there for 10 years before being ruined because of it... Stupid guy! Anyway, it's a beautiful place with a nice view on the city!
Then I joined my two roommates, Chaulai and Brittany, for dinner. Chaulai shown us a restaurant of traditional food from Hong Kong and it was really good! She's very nice and we had a very good time talking about many things.
On Tuesday, I booked a tour with Toronto Zoom Tours to go to Niagara Falls.(See the post "Day-Tour : Niagara")
For my last morning I just walked around Chinatown and the University of Toronto before meeting Mario to go to Ottawa.
I loved Toronto. Not as much as Vancouver, which will definitely stays at the first place I think, but it's a very nice city to visit and spend some time. I don't think it's a place where I could live. It's too busy, too crowded. To me, it's like a place where European and North American cultures meets and this is definitely a place you have to see in your life!
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