On The Road #1 Toronto/Niagara Falls

"There's a time for daring and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for." - John Keating, Dead Poet Society

HELLO, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!!

First and foremost, I'd like to pay my respects to Mr. Robin Williams, recently found dead after what is believed to be a suicide attempt. I've been watching his movies since I was child, and he was brilliant in what he did. So here's to the funny man who always managed to touch us deeply one way or another. Whatever reasons there are for his death, it's his life's work that we should admire. May he rest in peace.

Second, I'd like to excuse myself from the belated posting this week. As you'll learn in just a few words, I've been travelling and getting back to French tests right after it, so I didn't really have time to sit down and write.

And now, as you may have noticed from the title, this is going to be another post about a trip I made this weekend. It was a 3 day tour to Toronto, Niagara Falls and a small town nearby called Niagara-on-the-Lake.

It was mindblowingly awesome. And even that doesn't cover it.

Toronto

Okay, so first stop after leaving Montreal was the Thousand Islands Park right on the frontier between Canada and the US. It's this huge lake area, right between the two countries, with over a thousand little islands in its premises. It's really something to see. The region has been transformed into a summertime bay, full of small docks and boats. Specially right now, in the middle of summer, there were lots of crowded houses and people enjoying the sunlight. It was specially hot that day. And the funniest part for me was, on the houses in the US part, every single one of them sported a flag or a sign of extreme Americanness. Whereas in Canada, they were way more discreet. I love y'all Americans, really. And there were this real big mansions; more like castles actually. Very impressive. Also, gimme some of that money, dawg!

Following that we went straight to Toronto. Let me tell ya, what a city. The first impression it made on me was probably the best it could ever make. The mix between old and new seemed perfectly in balance. I thought it a very modern city in all, but it preserves some characteristics of earlier times. It's supposed to be smaller than Montreal in number of people, but I thought it looked bigger. I really did love it. It reminded me a lot of New York architecture-wise, but well, way smaller. I'm planning on spending more than two days over there, sometime.

The University of Toronto has a really beautiful campus...

Hmm who knows?

View from the CN Tower

Niagra Falls

Niagara Falls at nigh

The next day we moved on to Niagara Falls. The waterfalls themselves blew me away. It's not much the size, but the whole scenery was impressive. And well, you can see the other side of the Rainbow Bridge to the US - it's the shortest international bridge in the world. The city behind the falls is like a small version of Vegas. It has all sorts of themed restaurants and gambling establishments you can find in the US - Applebee's, Rainforest Cafe, Hard Rock, etc. There is also a chocolate and candy factory that will make your mouth water - might I add, I spent some quality time there.

Niagra-on-the-Lake

Niagara-on-the-Lake

Also, close to the falls, there is a little village called Niagara-on-the-lake. It developed around a few vineyards, along with Scottish and British culture from its farmers (reminder: this is the English part of Canada. Or, judging by the number of Taco Bell restaurants, it's the American part of Canada). The village still preserves its 18th century-ish architecture; its houses all in victorian style and the main park adorned in that manner. It has lots of little restaurants and cafes with really great food. It was one very pleasant afternoon.

I might have to brag a little. My mom (and travel partner) accidentally booked hotels different from the rest of the group's. We had no idea how, but it resulted in us  staying at the Crown Plaza, with a full view of the Falls from the room. I gotta tell ya, it was fascinating.

View from my hotel room. HA!

Casa Loma Castle

Casa Loma

Ensuite, on the following day - and unfortunately the last one - we went to a castle in the whereabouts of Toronto, called Casa Loma. It was actually a private mansion constructed and designed down to the last brick by a guy called Henry Pellat. He was an entrepreneur of minerals in the beginning of the last century, heir of a humongous fortune. Skilled engineer and electricist, he built a house equipped with phones, electrical lamps and heating when most houses hardly had any fire to begin with. Another curious fact is that he caved a tunnel to be to walk all over his terrain and to his garage/stable when a street was built right in the middle of his property - no such man would abide to have to walk the bloody state-walk. Years later, during World War II, the house, already a tourist attraction; the tunnel proved itself useful for building sonars to detect and equip submarines for the Allies. Also, the garage now is filled with awesome-looking ancient cars.

Tunnel built by Henry Pellat

And from there we went back to Montreal. It was a really awesome trip, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Getting to know the British part of Canada was something I wanted to do for a really long time. And who's to say I won't end up living in Toronto? As I said, first impression was good enough, eh?

SO! Do you live in Toronto? Do you live somewhere cool? Should I visit your hometown? Hit up the commentary section below and tell me why! Afterall, that's what it is there for, folks!

"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." - Robert Louis Stevenson

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