Toronto Day 1

Gleam, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Headed to Toronto for 3 nights on Monday. Flight left Vancouver at 9.50am and due to the 5 hour flight and the 3 hour time difference, I didn't arrive into Toronto until 5.15pm. I flew with Westjet, and they have the screens in the back of the seats so that you can watch a number of TV channels (such as Discovery Channel). I think the programming must be straight off the satellite as one of the programs on Discovery Channel was unforunately a show about the investigation into the crash of Swissair Flight 111 off of Halifax in 1998. The investigation found that faulty wiring caused a fire which ultimately led to a loss of control and the loss of the aircraft. Just the kind of thing you want to see on a plane! Headsets are not complimentary on Westjet; you have to bring your own or pay $3 to purchase a set in-flight. Their headsets are a bit better than the ones you normally receive on flight, having better padding around the speakers. Once you've paid your $3, they're yours to keep for future flights.

I didn't have to worry about waiting for me luggage as I carried everything on with me. Caught the shuttle bus ($39 round trip) from the airport to my hotel. The weather was nice (about 24C) with a little bit of humidity. It was, of course, cool and rainy back in Vancouver.

There was quite a bit of haze and smog in the air; obscuring the city skyline on the approach from the airport. It was about 6.30 by the time I got to my room. I'm glad I paid the extra (approx $150/night) to stay smack-bang in the heart of the financial district as everything

was within easy walking distance. For instance I was about 3 blocks away from the CN Tower. That evening I walked around and checked out the downtown area.

Toronto reminds me of Melbourne in many ways. There are many architectural similarities - big, tall, glass buildings alongside Edwardian buildings from the late 1800s. One of the main streets, Queen Street, reminds me of Fitzroy with all it's 'alternative' shops and posters plastered on building walls over many years. By and large, the streets and buildings were clean (except everyone leaves their garbage bags on the footpath) and don't have that 'grit' that coats the buildings and streets in Vancouver (caused by the moisture I guess).

Had a meal and watched a bit of baseball (boring) in a pub before heading back to the hotel.

Toronto Day 2

CN Tower Imposing, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Today was my first full day in Toronto and my main objective was to check out as much of the city as I could as I was off to Niagara Falls all of the next day. My main objective was to check out the CN Tower. A boat cruise on the lake was also recommended.

Today's weather was not as good as yesterday's; it was muggier with a few clouds around and with some darker clouds moving in. The forecast called for storms later in the day.

At first, I just walked around town, following some of the main streets to see where they would take me and worked my way to the CN Tower after taking a short cut through some 'ghetto-ey' looking area. There were a couple of drops of rain, but the weather held.

It costs about $30 to go up the CN Tower, depending on what optional 'extras' you want to take in. I just did the main observation deck, glass floor, and sky pod. From underneath, the Tower looks like a jet engine stuck on a skewer. It takes about 45 seconds for the lift to reach the main observation deck. Once there the view is spectacular; far better than the Space Needle in Seattle. Unfortunately, the clouds had rolled in by then so it was quite grey outside. You can go outside as well up there onto a lower deck and the wind is quite strong, possibly stronger than normal due to the approaching storms. The lower deck also has a glass floor which allows you to stand over and look down on the street some hundred-odd storeys below. Not the place for those with a fear of heights.It gets better though- you can another elevator to the skypod, an obsevation deck even further up. Had to queue up for about 10 minutes before I could go up. Once there, the view is even better.

According to the stats, the sky pod is 147 storeys or 447m (1465ft) off the ground. There were a group of young Australians in the lift on the way down and when one of the blokes was asked what he thought of it he simply said in true Aussie style "it was sick".

After the CN Tower, with sky getting darker I took a one hour tour by boat of Lake Ontario. This tour only cost $16 and gave a great view of the city from the water.

The tour goes out through the 15 islands (14 natural and 1 man-made) in the harbour, past yacht clubs and even an amusement park. Aparently, the Everglades chase scene from one of the Police Academy movies was actually shot around the Toronto Islands. Whilst in the harbour, the name of a moored ship caught my eye: "Capt Matthew Flinders". I found it strange that a ship bearing his name would be about as far away from South Australia as you could get.

The last activity of the day was found purely by chance. I happened to be walking past an old train yard in front of the CN Tower and saw that it had a sign saying 'Steamwhistle Brewery" above the door. Breweries are always good and brewery tours are even better. I'd never heard of Steamwhistle before so thought I'd check it out. As luck would have it, they offered brewery tours and the next one started in 15 minutes. The cost was $8 and that included a number of free 'samples' and a souvenir bottle opener or glass. I chose the bottle opener. Steamwhistle only makes one beer- a Pilsner and it's actually quite good. Slighlty bitter, but a very crisp, clean taste. Had a couple of 'samples' while I waited for the tour to begin. Once the tour began, we were immediately instructed to go to the bar to top up our glass to take with us on the tour. My third free beer of the day. Sweet. We headed outside and sat down to listen to the guide explain the history of the brewery (started by 3 blokes retrenched when the brewery they used to work for was bought out). At this time, the heavens opened up. Like Australia, and unlike Vancouver, when it rains in Toronto, it really rains. Vancouver rain is lighter and prolonged, here in Toronto it just dumps and gets it over and done with. The way it should rain. We continued the tour inside and then headed back to the bar where we had more free beers and waited for the rain to stop. Like the Heineken brewery in Amsterdam, the Steamwhistle brewery gets brewery touring right: an intersting tour, a useful souvenir, is cheap, and free beer. After about half an hour of drinking and waiting I'd had enough of waiting and headed back in to town. By now the rain was easing and it was time for dinner. Had a good meal at a little italian place near the hotel. Linguine and meatballs with ricotta in the centre. Yum.

Niagara Falls (Day 3)

Maid of the Mist, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Today I took an 'Antiki' tour down to Niagara Falls. Costing about $130, it lasts about 10 hours from pickup to drop off (9am to 7pm) and includes an all-you-can-eat buffet lunch. About 3 of those hours are free time for you to do your own thing. On the itinerary was obviously the Falls but your fee includes a 'Maid of the Mist' boat ride and a trip to th historic town of Niagara On The Lake. An optional extra is a helicopter ride over the falls. Weatherwise, it was a perfect day for it, the previous day's muggy then stormy weather had cleared meaning today was nice and warm with an expected high of 24C.

The drive from downtown Toronto to Niagara took about an hour and gave the driver an opportunity to enligten us about Ontario's history. Along the way, we drove through the city of Mississauga and also through the Niagara wine area. Niagara is starting to make a name for itself in the wine industry because of its ice wine. During winter, the temperatures often reach -30C which is perfect for making ice wine. The grapes are left on the vine to freeze and then thaw, then freeze again and so on. This constant freezing and thawing concentrates sugar in the grapes and leads to a very sweet wine. Unfortunately, the grapes have to picked by hand to avoid breaking them so some poor bugger has to go out in -30C to pick grapes. The driver was also kept busy turning the airconditioner off and on as the (mostly older, English couples) passengers alternated between complaining that it was too cold then too hot.

The first stop along the way was the optional helicopter flight over the falls. The price is usually (or so they say) $115 but the tour group only had to pay $85. Onky about five or six of us (out of about 30) opted in for this and it was great. Groups of six were crammed into a Bell 407 helicopter (Niagara Helicopters operates about four of them) for a 5-10 minute flight over the falls and surrounding area. Well, the Canadian side anyway, I don't think the pilot ventured into US airspace. Whilst not exactly cheap, it was well worth it as how often can you do this sort of thing?

All too soon it was over and we were herded back onto the bus.

Shortly after the helicopter ride, we arrived at Niagara Falls proper and disembarked to do our own thing for about an hour before lunch. I was slightly surprised that the falls didn't seem as big as I had always imagined. I'm not saying I was disappointed as they are still bloody huge and make a hell of roar, but for some reason I assumed they would be even bigger. I guess it could be because you actually look down on them from the sides of the gorge. There are two falls, the smaller 'American' falls on the American side and the bigger 'Canadian' falls further up the gorge (the ones you think of when you think of Niagara Falls). One thing I was not expecting (though I should have, this is North America after all) was all the hotels at the falls.

There's a Sheraton, a Hilton, and a number of others. The tour guide explained that Niagara Falls is the most popular honeymoon destination in America. I thought it would have been Hawaii but there you go. There weren't just hotels there; there's a casino, a Hard Rock Cafe and of course the obligatory Starbucks.

After lunch, we ventured down the gorge to board The Maid of the Mist. The Maid of the Mist is a ferry that takes passengers out into the mist caused by the falls. So that you don't get drenched all passengers are given blue plastic ponchos (basically big blue garbage bags) covering you from head to toe. They even have hoods to keep your hair dry. Not necessary for me of course. The Maid of the Mist is fantastic and the best way to see the falls. The best moment is when the boat gets to about 100 or so metres from the Canadian Falls (the big ones). The boat sits there for a couple of minutes getting bobbed around by the torrent of water rushing past on its way down the gorge. Meanwhile, you're trying to stand up straight, getting covered with spray listening to the thunderous roar of the falls. It's great.

The last stop on the tour was the little town of Niagara On The Lake. It's a small, heritage town analogous to Hahndorf I guess, situated on the shore of Lake Ontario, about 15 minutes from Niagara Falls. Many of the buildings date back to the early 1800s and are kept in immaculate condition as are the gardens and nature strips in the town. Other than that, there's not much else to it (the town holds some festivals throughout the year though), but grabbed and ice cream and took some pictures of some squirrels running around in the park.

At 6pm we boarded the bus and headed back to Toronto.

Toronto Day 4

CN Tower from Spadina, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Didn't get up to much today as I had to be at the airport for the 1.30pm flight back to sunny Vancouver. This was the latest I could fly out today and because of this, I only had a couple of hours to look around. Just wandered around having a last look at a few places before checking out and catching the bus back to the airport.

The flight back to Vancouver actually took a bit longer than on the way over and I'm told it's because of the gulfstream that blows in an easterly direction across the continent. On the way over, we had a tailwind, whereas on the way back we were flying against the gulfstream. Arrived back in Vancouver at about 3.30pm.

Vancouver Aquarium

Jellyfish, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

One of the places I'd been meaning to check out for AGES here in Vancouver, was the Aquarium. I don't know why I'd not visited sooner as for the last 4 months I have been a 20 minute walk from it (it's located just inside Stanley Park), but I finally got off my arse and went in.

It's pretty good, though much smaller than I imagined it to be. I imagined that it would house marine life from all over the world, but was very BC-centric. This is not such a bad thing though as I really didn't need to see a Platypus or fish from the Barrier Reef.

The Aquarium consists of about four or five main areas, indoors and outdoors. Indoors, one area shows off BC marine life (such as the jellyfish above). Another area is dedicated to the Amazon for reasons I'm not aware of. This area houses some of the giant fishes and caimans native to that part of the world. Adjoining this is a small replica Amazon rainforest replete with butterflies. It's climate controlled to recreate the heat and humidity of the Amazon rainforest, but it actually reminded me of home.

Outdoors there are four separate pool enclosures housing Sea Otters (I saw a couple in the wild on the beach during one of my morning runs along the Stanley Park Sea Wall); another housing Belugas (big white dolphin/whale/seal cross). I must have visited the Belugas at the wrong time of the day as they were literally just hanging around in the water. Perhaps they were sleeping. Moving along you come to the Sea Lion enclosure. These guys were huge and seemed much bigger than the ones in SA. I was much closer mind.

The last enclosure, the centrepiece of the Aquarium, is the 'Wild Coast' enclosure housing the Dolphins. These Dolphins are native to BC and are dark on top and light on the bottom. Their name escapes me now. At certain times of the day, there is a Dolphin feeding show. One benefit of the relative small size of the facility is that you can get quite close to the animals adding to the spectacle of the feeding show. The show lasts about 15 minutes and consists of the Dolphins performing a number of acrobatic trips for a fish reward. These Dolphins can propel themselves a great distance into the air (probably 10-15 feet) and is all the more impressive when you're 10 metres away from them. Well worth taking in if you visit.

Unfortunately, admittance is $20 for an adult, which, considering the size of the facility and the duration of the visit (about an hour) is probably too much. The Aquarium is self funded and non profit though, and you do get your hand stamped, allowing you to come and go as you please all day.

Just a Little Update

Not that much new to report from Raincouver, and I really mean RAINcouver. Here's why. All last week was nice and sunny with highs in the low 20's followed by a beautiful weekend with temps around 25C.

It gets better. Many parts of BC have flood warnings as this rain will add to the rivers already swollen by the melting snow from the mountains brought on by the warm weather.

I have this week off:

Typical.

In other news, I booked a trip to Toronto for 3 days between the 18th and 21st as I have that week off too. Because Canada really only has 2 domestic airlines (similar to Australia I suppose), it's actually cheaper to fly to London than it is to Toronto. Despite this, I'm looking forward to it as seeing Canada was the reason I came here in the first place. I may actually need the break after I finish my first week in the maelstrom that is my new role at work. CN Tower and Viagra Niagara Falls here I come.

I wonder what weather conditions I will bring to Toronto?