Toronto part 1 - Kirsty

Another week, another blog. In case we were losing our reader enthusiasm we are upping the blog enteries - so please make a cuppa, sit down, relax and enjoy the ride....

From Chicago we once again crossed the Canadian border. This in itself was an adventure after Marie aroused suspicions at Toronto airport. The fact she was in Canada last week, was carrying tea bags in her luggage, was meeting a 'friend of a friend who she had never met' was just too suspicious for border control. That and the mean, criminal dress sense/look meant an interrogation before she was allowed through.

The friend of a friend we were meeting was Vikki, a girl I was in halls with at University. She moved over to Toronto and is living right in the centre. It was lovely to be met by a familiar face and driven to her friends house where we were fortunate enough to be put up. You could not have asked for a better location - walking distance to down town Toronto, hundreds of bars and restaurants and, as it so happened on our first night, the outdoor venue for music awards. We were greeted by hundreds of screaming teenagers announcing the arrival of Mr Bieber and a Mr Sheeran.
Toronto is a great city, and even though I came on a choir tour in 2000, I was excited to explore. It was muggy and hot the whole time which was exhausting but also conducive to outdoor activities, with regular breaks in air con shops. We really enjoyed spending time with Vikki and her boyfriend, going out for dinner and comparing travel stories. It's been so long since I've seen her, but conversation flowed as did the wine. Eating out is a major past time in the city and with Vikki's top tips we embraced the way of the locals. The first day we journeyed to Centre Island, a 15 min boat ride away providing excellent views of the Toronto skyline- dominated by the CN tower- the tallest free standing building in the world (apparently). We decided to branch from 2 wheeled exploring to 4 wheels, hiring a quadricycle for the afternoon. We rode around the island enjoying the afternoon sunshine, beaches and little paths here and there. Just as I thought Marie was getting the hang of her lefts and rights, she led us, quite literally, down a garden path. The path got narrower and narrower, the overhanging bushes and shrubbery in our faces and wheels before we concluded that quadricycles were probably not meant to go down here. With no space to turn around a 'to me, to you' chuckle vision style episode ensued as we attempted to wheel this lopsided vehicle back down the path. 

We enjoyed wandering around the city and spent the next day in the famous St Lawrence Market (it has just won global award for fresh produce) before settling at the 'real sports' bar to watch the England game on TV. Never before have I been in a bar with so many screens, let alone screens and commentary blaring in the toilets. It was quite a location, and if I could have blocked out the Ukrainian girl behind shouting 'someone score... Get the goal' throughout the game, would have been perfect. It was here that we sampled our first Molsen Canadian beer.
On the Wednesday we booked on a tour to Niagara. It's about a 1.5 hour drive from Toronto and in the 33 degree heat we were glad to be in an air conditioned tour bus. Niagara straddles the US and Canada border, on the Niagara river which drains lake Erie into lake Ontario (quote wikipedia). It has the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world with a vertical drop of 52m. It was formed when glaciers receded at the end of the last ice age. We enjoyed the views over the top from the roadside, then up close on the maid of the mist tour boat. As the boat got closer to the falls we felt like we were on a natural theme park ride and got absolutely soaked! Unlike after my school trip, I have not however kept the blue plastic mac as a souvenir.
After experiencing the falls and the tacky Blackpool style of Niagara town, we were driven about half an hour to Niagara-on-the-lake. Again due to the heat and limited time we had a brief walk around the cute town and souvenir shops before resting by the lake. Of course, in true Kirsty and Marie style there was wine tasting tagged onto the end of the trip where once again we got to taste some delicious Canadian ice wine. On the return from our day trip we squeezed in a few hours in the art gallery (mainly to cool off) then went for a drink with Elise, one of vikki's friends who was hosting us. This was our last day together in Toronto, before I flew eastwards- the plan to meet again in a week in Montreal.