After a week to explore the historical relics and gorgeous scenery of Greece and Turkey (which still wasn't enough time), Toronto was a whirlwind of a weekend.
Toronto really just feels like an American city, except with a lot of Canadian pride. I imagine the city becomes a zealous hockey and basketball town upholding "We the north" like the Men of the Night's Watch in Game of Thrones, but in the summer it's just another city with a great oceanview of the Toronto Bay.
Very dog-friendly city: My friend the Volkinator recently adopted a pincher dog, and he quite a lot of attention when taking him outside. The dog was allowed to walk on the beach, go on ferries, walk around the Toronto Islands- one of the highlights of the trip, in my opinion. A giant public park in the middle of the Toronto Bay that requires a ferry to get to, equipped with bike rentals, lighthouses, a nude beach, and hedge maze? ( I love hedge mazes)- sign me up.
I have a quirk of visiting Chinatowns in urban areas, just to get the flavor of the ethnic culture around each city. The Toronto Chinatown was.....bustling, but not overwhelming. It's right next to the University of Toronto, which is a sprawling campus basically in the center of the city. I'd have liked to go to school there.
The CN Tower- I'm not as enthralled by really tall buildings in cities anymore after being underwhelmed by the Space Needle in Seattle and the Oriental Tower in Shanghai (I mean, there's so many tall buildings in a city that you can get to!) but the CN Tower's got a bit of uniqueness to it, other than just the usual "transparent glass floor" which makes one kind of leery of stepping on due to the false sensation of falling through the floor, but at night the CN Tower's surrounding balcony lights up in different colors, which gives a pretty cool effect.
I completed my 21st baseball stadium (only 9 to go!) at the Rogers Center in Toronto, and the roof happened to be open! (only happens on sunny days there). Unfortunately the home team Blue Jays lost, an occurrence I'm getting used to now (went 1-9 with home teams in my baseball road trip last summer), but as with most cities I could see that it's a festive atmosphere at the ballpark, not a rude crowd or unfriendly towards other baseball teams at all (I wore a Cincinatti Reds Todd Frazier shirt without any repercussions).
The Hockey Hall of Fame was almost as foreign to me as Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (I know barely a bit more about Hockey than rock and roll) but did like the Throne Room (various individual player awards like The Conn Smythe Trophy, Hart Trophy, no Iron Throne) and the coveted Stanley Cup.
One last bit of warning: Don't be fooled by the latitudinal coordinates of Toronto which to the novice traveler might suggest more temperate conditions in the summer: It's just as hot and sticky as any midwest city I've ever lived in (while, just Chicago and I guess Champaign-Urbana). Be prepared. Going different places in the summer makes me realize how good I got it in Southern Cali-for-nye-A.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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