Toronto was my next trip after a half year passed by. My stay was 9 days. I actually booked a flight in the last minute because I didn’t think of taking a vacation. I, of course, needed to give myself a break. I talked with my friends via Skype about sleeping over their houses. They live in Toronto and they were my tour guides. It was my first time to travel alone and sleep over a friend’s house. I used to stay in my family’s house and relatives’ whenever I was out of the town.
1st day
Flying from Vancouver to Toronto takes 4 hours and 30 minutes. I had some boring time after reading all of anime books in iPad. There is a small screen on the back of seat. I could watch any movies; however, the subtitles are not available. Therefore, watching Tomorrowland without the subtitle was pretty boring, but it killed my time for good. haha
Terminal 1 at Toronto Pearson International Airport is much similar to Vancouver International Airport. But the interior design is really nice.
I finally met Keri and Kaede in person for the first time. They drove me to Kaede’s house on the outskirt of Toronto. They live in Richmond Hills. But we headed to Kipling station first as I needed a day pass for the next day. It costs $11.50 CAD. I found it a bit surprised that there are the huge highways and plenty of restaurants and cafes open 24 hours. Eventually, I was hungry because of my clock body and I have even eaten dinner I ordered in the airplane. We went to Tim Horton to eat and to have a conversation.
2nd day
I started my travelling day with my friend Keri who guided me to Toronto from Richmond Hills. We walked down to Richmond Hill Centre that is the bus loop. I got VIVA ticket for $4 CAD. It is only used for the outskirt of Toronto. The VIVA bus is very interesting. There are small tables at the back.
Arriving Finch Bus Terminal in Toronto before we went to the subway. I felt being a bit irked when some Asians constantly stared at me. Because I have man bun hairstyle many men don’t have in Toronto. Their hairstyles are more like 2013 trends and business casual. They are really elegant, nevertheless.
The subway astonished me as there are no signals on cellphones, but they are available at a few stations. Some stations have WiFi. And, the subway cars are connected together by the open corridor. I couldn’t believe my eyes that those are very long!
Reaching King Station from Finch Station takes up to 20 minutes. I felt different without signal and the view through the windows. Once we got out of the subway station, I was totally overwhelmed by the tall buildings. I almost had dizziness. I observed the buildings while walking to St. Lawrence Market. Plenty of the buildings are almost full of the bricks and I have a fond of the old-fashioned bricks!
St. Lawrence Market is a public marketplace which they sells produce, livestock and many more. The building was the first official City Hall in 1899. It was then relocated to “Old City Hall” at Queen and Bay Streets.
I finally met my friend Jami after we met in the Philippines 2 years ago. They guided me to The Cathedral Church of St. James and George Brown College where Jami studies at. GBC has many campuses. But I just visited some.
We took a long walk to Toronto Eaton Centre, instead of subway train. We didn’t expect that there was an event called “Busker Festival” at Yonge-Dundas Square. I was lucky to be there at the event. Then, we met Kaede after her work. After Jami went home, we had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. I had relaxing time at a patio and then we went to see ‘TORONTO’ at Nathan Phillips Square.
Jami and I were on Skype and have been organizing a list of places until we slept around 2AM. It was crazy!
3rd day
We got up around 6:30AM. Kaede drove us to Sheppard Centre where she works at. We waited for Jami to meet us at York subway station and then we headed to High Park by train. There is another line called “Bloor-Danforth Line” that the old subway trains run. They are smaller than the ones from Youge-University Line.
Heading to High Park. It reminded me of strolling around a park in Vancouver. We went to see a garden — a large maple is full of red blooming flowers. After that, we went a cafe for lunch. It was a very long way to walk as the park is large. For the first time, I took a streetcar. It is old-fashioned and smoother. I like it so much! haha
Getting down at Museum subway station, we went to visit Royal Ontario Museum as it has unique architectural design like Transformers. Then, going to Brookfield place through the station. The ceiling blew my mind already. The place is with Bay Wellington Tower which is a 49-storey office tower.
The streets were crowded already. We found out that they were on their way to Rogers Centre for hockey. According to my friends, if the seats in Rogers Centre are full, they will be watching the big screen at Air Canada Centre instead.
I came to see Toronto Railway Museum for a short while. Then, going to CN Tower. The ticket price is quite expensive. I wanted to see the sea of houses and buildings, though. I found it frustrated because of the fingerprints on the windows I hardly see through and the crowd.
Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada is very fascinating! The sharks startled me when my friends pointed at them. haha
So, this day seemed very long and tiring to travel. And though it was so much fun!
I AM ENTENG 