Correr Es Mi Destino

Right after coming back from Winnipeg, Feng and I drove to Toronto to… yeah, to escape Ottawa for a little while.

I had landed in Toronto quite a few time since it’s Ontario’s big hub. The city was my first stop in Canada when we came from Brazil in 2002 and I went numerous time since then. However, I never really had the chance to explore it since I mostly went there during winter time. Oh, and I was broke, too. So I was looking forward to exploring the big city.

We started off from the hostel and walked down Yonge Street, Toronto’s busiest district. I felt so good to see people - not that I’m saying Ottawa is dull. It’s just… quieter. Toronto has a really big Chinatown unlike Ottawa’s which is fairly small and quiet. I hadn’t seen big billboards downtown like that since China.

The hostel had a really nice rooftop from where we could see Toronto’s skyline (and smoke cigarettes while trying to hold the camera still for the night pictures) :

We visited the CN Tower and took the elevator up to the last floor. Lucky me, I don’t have vertigo… There’s a glass floor on top of the tower and walking on it is the weirdest thing : a view of 1,122′ straight down can be extremely scary. I mean, the glass is only 2.5 inches but I knew it wouldn’t break. Yet, it’s disturbing… although I got used to it after a few attempt.

We took the ferry to Toronto Island, 20 minutes away from the city. It’s a complete different atmosphere : so quiet, so green, no cars and an okay beach by Canadian standards (yes, I grew up on the Atlantic side of France and we used to have nice beaches before the oil slick).

I love Toronto. The busy streets, the skyline, the diversity, the water nearby (okay, there’s the Ottawa river here… but it’s not quite the same), the buzz. I’m sick of Ottawa, I just want to go traveling again. Gotta get through the summer.