1st week - Arrival in Canada

Hi there,

After saying goodbye to our families in Frankfurt, we boarded the plane to Toronto. The flight was very relaxed, although we didn't know where the time went, since we only managed to watch one movie during the 8-hour flight and didn't do much else except for eating and staring into space :O (Martin had imagined a 'movie night' with lots of soda - even the soda was limited :( )

After successfully collecting our luggage, we made our way from the airport to Union Station (Toronto's main train station) by streetcar and subway. Once we arrived there, we had to quickly orient ourselves and walk two blocks to the nearest bus stop. The buses here always arrive on time, but you need a new ticket for every bus transfer, which can be quite expensive. Since it seems like we were the last tourists to board the bus and the bus driver couldn't give us any change, we got to ride for free until our stop. It's really nice how friendly the bus drivers are, as we experienced a few more times in the following days :D From the bus stop, we walked another two blocks to the first hostel, 'The Palmerston'. Overall, it's a pretty decent hostel, although the mattresses are very worn-out, even for hostel standards, but everything else is fine.

The next day, we dove into the hustle and bustle of the Canadian city. First typical Canadian stop -> Tim Hortons and a 'Coffee - Original Blend'. Just awesome and simply huge. Everything here seems to be on a whole other level than what we're used to.

After enjoying our wonderful coffee, we walked through the western and southern downtown areas without much of a plan. The motto was to just go with the flow until our feet were burning. As a result, we saw Queen St W to Younge St, the Harbour Front, Toronto Island with a view of the Toronto skyline, the Rogers Centre (home of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team), and the CN Tower. We finished the evening with a beer and shots with some friendly Canadian acquaintances :D The night at the hostel was very noisy due to the street right nearby and the very poor windows.

We spent the following day in the same free-spirited way. Oh yeah, we should mention that the day before, we spontaneously bought tickets for the really, really cool game opener (first home game of the season) of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team. But more on that later. Regarding the day's activities, we walked at least as much as the day before, but unfortunately, the overall feeling wasn't as satisfying because we only saw St. Lawrence Market Hall and the Distillery District in the eastern downtown area.

Well, we rewarded ourselves in the evening with an absolutely breathtaking event. The game itself was quite interesting, but not that mind-blowing. However, the pre-game show was simply phenomenal. Super intense light show and contributions on the absolutely gigantic screens, along with almost 50,000 spectators and a stadium, we had never seen anything as big in our lives. Tears welled up in our eyes because it was simply overwhelming.

Our last day before we get a rental car on Thursday was also spent in a relaxed manner with lots of walking, but now mainly in the northern downtown area. After a hearty breakfast at the hostel, we checked out the University of Toronto district, including Queen's Park. Both are filled with amazing architecture and old buildings.

At lunchtime, we found ourselves back in the southern downtown area to relax a bit and let our souls hang out at the Toronto Music Garden. We even managed to take a little nap. As the grand finale of our city tour, we indulged in hot dogs + fries and then strolled back to the hostel, where we had to deal with some organizational matters for the following days and cooked rice with vegetables in the evening :)... As a digestion walk, we stopped by the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), where there was a very large and impressive exhibition by the artist Wolfgang Tillmans. Just for your information, apparently he's a pretty well-known photographer, at least if you're in the scene, we had to google him first :D :D

Now the day has come when we get to pick up our rental car. A cute Toyota RAV4 (info for the aficionados :P), with which we will travel through the provinces of Ontario and Quebec for the next 21 days. The first day with the car wasn't that great, as we had to get a lot of stuff, like an air mattress (we had planned to get foam mats, but apparently there's no foam to be found in Toronto), a proper shopping spree for the next few days' meals, and other things. Additionally, we had initially wanted to admire the Niagara Falls on this day. However, we could only truly enjoy them the next day, as we unfortunately got stuck in heavy traffic on the highways when leaving Toronto and only arrived in Niagara Falls in the evening. Nevertheless, it was already very impressive in the evening sun.

The first night in the car was cozy and comfortable, despite the turbulence of the previous day. We got an early start to the day and found a somewhat affordable parking spot near the Falls to have breakfast with coffee and sandwiches topped with bratwurst and cheese, while sitting on a bench with a view of the Falls. It was an amazing feeling. We're sitting in Canada, with the Niagara Falls in front of us, and in the background, we can see the USA, eating canned bratwurst from Ingelheim (Petry's Butcher Shop is the best in town), and thinking, is this really happening?! It's just incredible what we've already experienced up to this point.

From the Falls, we drove a bit north along the Niagara River to Niagara-on-the-Lake, passing by beautiful wineries and vineyards, and then drove a bit south to Dunnville. There, we spent the afternoon and night at a very nice spot by the water, right across from a supermarket (Food Basics), which we used for various bathroom breaks, washing dishes, and using WiFi.

The next morning, we had a delicious fruit salad with granola and a cup of coffee before embarking on our more or less long journey south through southern Ontario. Past Toronto, through Barrie, with a highly recommended detour through the Lake Muskoka area, and finally reaching Huntsville. From there, we will be spending two to three days in Algonquin Provincial Park starting tomorrow, which means that we won't be posting another update until next week. :P:D

On a funny note - we drove through the Lake Muskoka area and it was 27°C outside, but there was about 20 cm of snow in the roadside ditch and parts of the lake next to us were frozen. No idea how that works, it seems like the laws of physics don't apply here :D

That's it for the first week :)

We hope you enjoyed reading and found it somewhat entertaining.

Until the next entry :)

Warm regards - Christina & Martin