Ontario Part 1: Toronto, The Falls and Poutine

Firstly, apologies for my lack of blogging since I have got to Canada, a combination of (a lot of) socializing, having no internet, and using the most temperamental camera ever has made it quite difficult for me to post anything!

However now I am at a more ‘settled’ phase (at least for the next couple of months) hopefully that will make things a lot easier! So… let’s start at the beginning…

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The CN Tower

After about 8 hours in the air, I finally landed in Toronto, Canada. My first port of call was to make my way to the hostel where I’d be staying for the first couple of nights.

Although a great place to meet other like-minded traveling folk, as well as an awesome place for socializing (as it has it’s own bar) it wasn’t the greatest place to get a good nights sleep, which was what I was definitely in need of after my first ever case of jet lag! After the first couple of days exploring and getting our bearings around downtown Toronto (the location of the CN Tower, and the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Stadium) a group of us managed to get a place in one of the University of Toronto halls of residence, and with it a good nights sleep!

Blue Jays Stadium

The next couple of weeks were spent exploring the city that many of the group would call home for the next few months, as well as exploring the new pubs, and watching the world cup (which was surprisingly popular we found out).

Amongst all this I managed to be able to see Niagara Falls for the first time, as well as do a host of other things on the same day. Wine tasting, seeing the world’s biggest natural whirlpool, and visiting a village (with British shops!) called Niagara-on-the-lake were just a few of the things we experienced on that day.

<Pics coming soon for this day, my camera decided it didn’t want to work>

So other than the tax and drinking laws (which were a little confusing at first) it’s been an awesome experience so far, and I intend to keep that up whilst I’m out here. And even though it’s very difficult to get a proper cup of tea here (I’ve had 2 since arriving) the Canadians do have something that almost makes up for it: Poutine. It consists of chips, gravy and cheese (the ‘proper’ poutine uses cheese curds, but I prefer just cheese), and next time I go to the chippy in England… that’s the way I’m going! You know you’re going to have a good time in a country when that’s their national dish!

Poutine

The Known Universe

More, and better quality posts of Canada coming soon (the last one was a bit rushed), and I’ll be making a lot more updates to the blog in the near future, so stay tuned!  But first I wanted to share something with you.

I have recently rediscovered this video it’s still incredibly mind-blowing and just incomprehensible to me, but equally thought-provokingly beautiful. Check it out, stick it on HD and full screen, and enjoy!

Toronto Baby!

(This is actually a draft I forgot to post, it’s from June 14)

OK, so I’ve been in Toronto now for a few days, so it’s about time I stuck some stuff up here! The first couple of night I was here I stayed in one of the the hostels, awesome place to meet people and socialize… not so great to sleep in… So after the first couple of nights there a group of us have moved to some of the uni halls accommodation in Toronto.

Global Village Hostel

It’s actually been brilliant the amount of places in Canada that are showing the world cup, and how many Canadians are supporting England! The last game (vs USA) was such a good atmosphere… but we lost… (i know the result was ‘draw’, but we lost), but it should be great to get to the next game and represent some more!

I went to Niagara Falls yesterday, and that was an awesome day, found a shop selling British goods, so bought some Lucozade, had a Cornish Pasty and a sausage roll… cracking lunch!

Photos from Niagara falls and the CN tower to come soon, but now I’ve got to try and sort out a job!