Toronto

The plane from Denver to Toronto travels north north west for 3 hours and as we cross various states, from this height the ground below looks pretty much the same all the way – a pattern of flat perfect squares, enclosing smaller circles of green where irrigation allows. We fly across the Mississippi and then Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and when we land at Toronto the ground temperature is 36. I take a public bus and 2 subway trains downtown and the multi-cultural diversity of the city is obvious. The UN says that Toronto is the world's most multi-cultural city, with over half of the inhabitants having been born in another country. It is also Canada’s largest metropolis and has a Gay Pride Festival bigger than the one in San Fransisco’s and a film festival 2nd only to Cannes. By the time I come up from the subway and walk along the street with my backpack to the hostel the temperature feels even hotter.

I find it rather a culture shock to be back in a hostel after the homely comforts of my week with Peggy – back to sharing everything: kitchen, bedroom and bathroom and living out of my rucksack. This hostel is the least homely of the ones I have stayed in in Canada so far. My room has 4 sets of bunk beds arranged in a line, head to toe in a long narrow room and the kitchen is in the basement, with no external light. But the staff are friendly and I am sure I will soon be back into hostel mode.

The next day the weather is slightly cooler, thank goodness and I buy a ticket for the hop-on-hop-off open-topped tourist buses and spend two days sighseeing in the city. Some of the buses are authentic old London buses, with London destinations on the front and the door at the back left-hand corner, which makes getting on and off in a right-hand drive country a health and safety nightmare for the tour guides, who do their best with announcements about the dangers of stepping into the traffic and a strategically-placed traffic cone. The tour also comes with an informative and often corny commentary from the enthusiastic guides. The tour gives me some orientation within the city; time to get off and spend time where I wish and also ideas for other places maybe to explore further another day.

London Bus Tour

Old and new buildings are mixed up with each other all over the city and there is also a lot of construction going on. Buildings of 100 years old cannot be demolished or altered on the outside. This includes extending them upwards. But they have been allowed to sell the space above old buildings to new developers, who then build above and around them, surrounding and sometimes almost engulfing them with newness.

Old and New Buildings

Selling Fresh Air

St Lawrence Market is a lovely old Victorian building with a n excellent permanent market inside.

St Lawrence Market

The Distillery District is a beautifully preserved collection of old brick buildings and brick paved roads, which was a working distillery from until 1990. The site developed from the original sill on the site in 1837. Now the buildings contain a collection of art galleries, performance venues, shops and cafes. I wander around watch a group from day care out for a walk. In the centre of the main open square there is a piano, with the sign, ‘Play me, I’m yours’. A group of woman in sun hats approach and 1 starts to play Chopsticks while the others take photographs.

Distillery

Day Care Walk

Old Truck and Barrels

Street Piano

I buy a cup of coffee and sit outside the café. Several other people occupy tables. Some are tourists and others more local. A group of 3 people at the table on front of me are having a meeting. Listening in I catch words like ‘post-modernism’ and I gather that 2 of them are looking for a director and the other is a director (which is lucky!). After batting around some ideas the director waves his arms around and says, ‘'There's a certain aesthetic I think you guys are leaning towards.'

Creative Meeting

Back on the bus we go through the main downtown area and then out to the north of the city where I get off to see two historic houses.

Old City Hall

Dundas Square

Casa Lomas was built between 1911-14 for Sir Henry Pellat, a self-made man who made his fortune by investing in electricity made at Niagara Falls and bringing it to Toronto. He and his wife only lived in it for 10 years, before his fortune declined and he had to leave.

Casa Loma

Next door, in complete contrast, is an elegant Victorian mansion dating from 1866. It is now a museum. I didn't go in, but I wandered around the garden.

Spandina House

Children in the Orchard

Coming down some steps from the garden I meet a lady sitting on a wall. She looks so pretty in a blue dress and butterflies from the flower bed fly around her head. As we talk I find out she originally comes from Camelford in Cornwall. She lives in a small town north of the city and invites me to visit her there and we arrange that I will catch a train there on Saturday. I am frequently ovewhelmed by people's openess and generosity of spirit.

I next get of the bus at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The building is again a fusion of old and new. A Frank Gerry-designed geometric structure of aluminum and glass leans into the old sandstone gallery.

Art Gallery of Ontario

I eat my lunch in a small park behind the gallery and watch a group of chlldren who are taking part in some holiday activity programme. They are all identified by their Asian looks and bright yellow T shirts.

Children in the Park

I walk along a street in China Town and then to Kensington, where there are market stalls and shops that spill out of old town houses onto the pavement. I come to one that I instantly love, with bubbles blowing into the street called ‘Dancing Days’. It sells ethic clothing and other things like lamp shades and wall hangings. I like the quote on one hanging apparently from Albert Einstein:

'Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world.'

I talk to the lovely French lady who designs some of the clothes. I try on two wrap-around silk skirts and because I love everything about the shop, her and the skirts I cannot decide between them and buy them both! Such impulsive shopping behaviour is very out-of-character for me on this trip; but it feels good. Maybe it is connected to a feeling that when I get home all my aweful travelling clothes are going in the bin and I am ever after only going to wear silly, pretty, frilly things!

China Town

Kensington

Shop Keeper/Designer

The CN Tower can be seen from many parts of the city. I intend to go up it on the first day, but I have left it until the afternoon and the queue is about 2 hours long. I make the tower my first destination on my second day and beat the crowds this time.  The tower is 553m high and was the highest tower in the world between 1976 and 2010 and then it was beaten by one in Dubai, which is 276m taller!

CN Tower

Views from the Tower

As well as the usual 360 degree observation deck there is a section with a glass floor. Although I have pretty much conquered my fear of heights I can do without standing on this.

Glass Floor

Next to the tower is the Sky Dome sports stadium. It has a retractable roof. On the side is a gargoyle-type sculpture depicting an audience at a baseball game.

Sky Dome

The waterfront is a lively place with a gallery of modern art, which is free to go in and also an exhibition of photographs relating to Toronto Harbour outside on the promenade.

Photographic Exhibition

I take a boat trip across the harbour and around the small islands just off the shore. I always like to get a view of a city from the water.

Boat Trip

Toronto from the Water

Walking back from the bus to the hostel I go through St James Park, by the side of St James cathedral. It is a tranquil oasis within the city. A woman sleeps on the grass, lying under her coat with her bags beside her and a man scatters seed to feed the pigeons.

St James Park

St James Cathedral