One of the reasons we decided to go to Toronto is that we scored a great hotel deal. Bond Place Hotel, located a two minutes’ walk from Dundas Square, had been under renovation and the price of the rooms was much lower than usual for this kind of location. Lucky us—by the time we arrived, the rooms had been renovated, only the lobby was a bit messy.
Dundas Square is at the intersection of busy Yonge Street and Dundas Street. It’s famous for hosting public events. The square is surrounded on all sides by gigantic commercial billboards, which is fairly unique (and controversial) in Canada.
Yonge Street is said to be the longest street in the world, and is frequently considered to be Toronto’s main street. It is home to the Eaton Centre, the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Canon Theatre, the offices of the Toronto Star newspaper and many more local landmarks.
As you can see, there was no snow at all in Toronto before New Year. This was a big surprise for us because the snow banks are pretty tall in Ottawa, only 400 kilometres away!
I was about to ask you about snow and then I read it. Glad to see so lively place in these winter days.
Beautiful pictures, Zhu. They reminded me of a great weekend I had with my son Santi just two years ago. Similar situation, I was there over the weekend for work, got a good hotel deal, so I brought him along…
.-= Gabriel´s last blog ..Happiness is… – #01 =-.
This reminds me a lot of a spot we stayed at in Montreal…. though that was nearly 5 years ago, so I might be losing my mind 🙂
Or maybe all of Canada just looks the same to us from the States?? haha, kidding.
Looks like a good time!
.-= Monique´s last blog ..Las Vegas, finally! =-.
For some reason, these pictures remind me of Taipei. Crazy I know.
.-= Agnes´s last blog ..Take me to the airport put me on a plane… =-.
Oh I’ve been there exactly where you took those photos! It reminded me of a quieter Times Square in New York City. I did remember thinking that this place was where the lights are.
.-= Linguist-in-Waiting´s last blog ..And It Starts All Over Again =-.
Wow! It looks so colorful and clean too! Hm, too bad about no snow. And hey, pics of the snow bank 😉 would be nice.
.-= Nigel Babu´s last blog ..Backing up with APTonCD =-.
@Nisha – Oh yes, Canadians do go out a lot during winter. I know it’s surprising but you do get used to the cold. In Toronto, it was “only” between -10C and 5C when I was there.
@Gabriel – I was about to ask you if you ever take your family with you, since you travel so much. I have heard it was quite acceptable to do that in Canada, whenever the timing is good.
@Monique – I don’t know Montreal as well as Toronto but I can’t think of any similar place right now… rue Sainte Catherine, maybe?
@Agnes – Not, it’s not crazy! It’s all the lights.
@Linguist-in-Waiting – It’s a cool place to hang out, especially with the Eaton Center right on Dundas.
@Nigel Babu – I took some pics this WE just for fun of the snowbank, I’ll email them to you as soon as I upload everything from the camera 😉
parts of it reminds me of times square in new york- the lights and billboards mainly. i guess you don’t have to take a book or buy a newspaper in toronto, because you can spend hours reading all of those signs.
the longest street in the world? really? i’m trying to imagine. i didn’t realize toronto was so spread out. one day, i *have* to come and visit.
.-= Seraphine´s last blog ..You Have A Good One =-.
Why don’t they have snow?! It’s so eye opening when you drive around in Canada…every city has different climate. :p
Ha ha… Is that Canadian equivalent to American Time Square?
Pretty convincing, I have to say!
Silhouette in hibernation / 冬眠中的剪影 / Silhouette di dalam hibernasi / 冬眠中のシルエット
Go to your local park, it’s the best time to shoot this type of photos this type of the year.
Shall we punt? / 我们撑平底船好吗?/ Apa kata kalau kita pergi berperahu jalur? / さおさしませんか。
Ha ha… Venice is a like water city, whereas Cambridge is like a water village. I guess, it has its own charms and I quite like them both.
UK No 1 / 英国第一 / UK No 1 / 英国の第一
Ha ha… Even the grass can be so English? Hmm… It’s always greener o the other side, young lassie. ;p
My neck hurts! / 我的颈好痛! / Leherku sakit! / 首が痛い!
It’s not too dark, it’s still quite easy to take those photos. It’s only when it’s windy, cold at night, I find it extremely hard to stay still. Ha ha… I need to proper tripod to do this job!
.-= London Caller´s last blog ..My neck hurts! / 我的颈好痛! / Leherku sakit! / 首が痛い! =-.
Interesting, never heard of these streets. I need to make a trip to Canada one of these days, I want to visit all these cities, but most especially I want to go hiking and exploring the nature.
.-= Seb´s last blog ..Star Gun. =-.
@Seraphine – Toronto is huge. The downtown is actually not that big but if you include the GTA (greater Toronto area) it’s quite spread out.
@Bluefish – I was shocked actually. We drove from Ottawa and about an hour away from Toronto, suddenly, there was like no snow in the field and on the road. Same goes for downtown TO. Weird.
@London Caller – Yes, I guess it’s the idea!
@Seb – Canada has plenty of wilderness but watch for squirrels.
[…] bad news is, streets here can be several kilometres long. Yonge Street, in Toronto, is one of the longest streets in the world at 1,896 km. Ahem… enjoy your […]