Oh, Canada
Earlier this year I spent four days in Toronto and Niagara Falls. I'm only now getting around to posting some photographs. Don't ask.
Toronto was lovely. I can definitely see what Peter Ustinov meant when he said it's New York run by the Swiss. There's a lot of glass, a lot of construction, and, pleasingly, the odd stone building wedged in between all the modern architecture. It's the oddest thing to suddenly come across but I liked it, the old (by Toronto standards), small underdog standing defiantly shoulder to shoulder with shiny, contemporary 'scrapers. Aside from having a general walk around the city I went up the CN Tower and stood on the glass floor, 346 metres up; I would have done the EdgeWalk, too, but for the cost. One night I headed to The Rex, a blues bar that I'd read about online. If you're ever in Toronto, you have to go. It's a family-owned and -run establishment that offers great, cheap food and brilliant live music. I can't recommend it enough.
The same can't be said for Niagara Falls. The Falls themselves are incredible, of course, and I went because seeing them was on my bucket list, but the rest of the city is very much a typical tourist trap. There's a lot of neon and flashing lights and arcades, and that's all great for a few hours, but I couldn't really spend more than a day there. It's fairly expensive, too, and the hotel I was in wasn't the nicest; there were several kinds of insect scuttling around the room and the walls were so thin I could hear someone in a room five doors down. But I scratched something off my bucket list, and for that it was worth it.
Toronto was lovely. I can definitely see what Peter Ustinov meant when he said it's New York run by the Swiss. There's a lot of glass, a lot of construction, and, pleasingly, the odd stone building wedged in between all the modern architecture. It's the oddest thing to suddenly come across but I liked it, the old (by Toronto standards), small underdog standing defiantly shoulder to shoulder with shiny, contemporary 'scrapers. Aside from having a general walk around the city I went up the CN Tower and stood on the glass floor, 346 metres up; I would have done the EdgeWalk, too, but for the cost. One night I headed to The Rex, a blues bar that I'd read about online. If you're ever in Toronto, you have to go. It's a family-owned and -run establishment that offers great, cheap food and brilliant live music. I can't recommend it enough.
The same can't be said for Niagara Falls. The Falls themselves are incredible, of course, and I went because seeing them was on my bucket list, but the rest of the city is very much a typical tourist trap. There's a lot of neon and flashing lights and arcades, and that's all great for a few hours, but I couldn't really spend more than a day there. It's fairly expensive, too, and the hotel I was in wasn't the nicest; there were several kinds of insect scuttling around the room and the walls were so thin I could hear someone in a room five doors down. But I scratched something off my bucket list, and for that it was worth it.