Toronto

Out of the big cities I've visited in Canada, Toronto gave me the best first-hand impression by far. I'm not precisely sure why, but the view of the Skyline I saw on the way from the airport to OJ's place in Downtown definitely had a lot to do with it. The fancy lit 553 metre CN Tower (the world's highest), at least double the height as any of the other buildings, being the most eye-catching part. Driving towards Toronto at night gives you a cool videogameish feeling :)

Though OJ has his condo by himself, his place was rather busy the first couple of days I was there, since he had two of his (about 40) cousins staying at his place. His condo on 15th floor was probably the favourite part of my stay in Toronto. Never stayed in a place where the elevator makes your ears pop before :) And definitely not in a place with a perfect view of the CN Tower either. Having eaten a little too much fatty food on the trip so far, I was happy when OJ, Chris and Dave and I went for dinner in Chinatown right after dropping my stuff of at his place.

While in Toronto, I really didn't do at lot of sightseeing - since I start uni less than 24 hours after I land in Copenhagen next Tuesday, I won't get any time to just chill out and relax for the next while. So since I had a sweet place to stay right downtown with everything I needed within a radius of 500 m, I didn't bother to have any plans whatsoever :) OJ's working as a freelance real estate agent, so he had plenty of time to take me and his two cousins out for some fun. Thursday night we went golfing at a driving range, really good fun and quite convenient for a first-time golfer like me :) Later on one of OJ's other cousins, who joined us at the driving range, took us to a place where we rented a poker table. Might have been beginners luck, but I actually managed to get 2nd place out of seven :) Won five dollars! Wohoo!

Toronto is definitely a much busier city than e.g. Vancouver, but you still have some options for some outdoor fun - for example the beach which has more volleyball courts than I've ever seen in my life. OJ and I were contended with playing (American) football on the beach though.

Despite my laziness, I did walk all the way to the CN Tower (about 400 metres from the front door, wow!) to go for a elevator ride to the 350 and 450 metre observation decks. Brilliantly, I managed to take about five photos when I got to the 350 m deck, before my camera ran out of battery, even though it had 2/3 bars left - ARGH! Trying to control my temper, I asked one of the guards for help, and luckily, he let me take the elevator down and allowed me to come back once my battery was charged :) I took advantage of this by coming back about 6:30 PM, in time to catch the sunset over Toronto from the Skypod, the 450 m deck, after standing in line for almost two hours. In relation to this, I would like to thank Apple for developing the iPod video, which made me able to watch brainless but highly amusing Friends episodes for an hour and a half while I waited in line for the 350 m -> 450 m elevator. Though "only" 100 metres higher than the lower observation deck, the Skypod at 450 m was definitely worth the wait. Being 10 metres wide at the most, it felt a lot more like you were hanging on the outside of the tower than the more spacious lower deck with restaurants, shops etc. The combination of my SLR camera, my tripod and the brilliant view was enough to keep me entertained for a good two hours, trying to get some good bird's eye view photos of Toronto by Night :)





Other than that, I spent my time in Toronto strolling around the busy streets of Downtown, checking out shops, buying a couple of small paintings from a female painter and comic writer and "treating" myself to a horrible haircut by a scary Asian dude. It was cool to be in a huge international city again - first time since my big trip last year. Despite it's population of five million people, it wasn't the biggest for me to visit on this trip - for more details see the next update :)