Toronto, the financial capital of Canada - The city center has almost an American look and feel. Most of the big and tall skyscrapers are new and impressive. Watching Toronto's skyline, especially at night is just awesome. People in Canada mentioned, that this city is a boring one - I can't approve that. First of all, I had a cool host (but he is actually from Australia). We discovered the citys night life and we were invited to a pancake party - of course with maple sirup :-)
Getting there
I took the night bus from Montreal and after approximate seven hours in the bus, I arrived in Toronto - The financial capital of Canada, people say. This might be true, as the stock exchange of Canada is located here.
Bus depot in Toronto
Sights
In Toronto there a several sights to visit. For me the most impressive one is the CN-Tower. Pretty cool is the skyline of the city from "Toronto Islands".
Skyline of Toronto - Rogers Centre, CN-Tower and skyscrapers
Eaton Centre
City Hall of Toronto
Chinatown
Like in every big city in north America, Toronto has a China town district. But this city has also a "Gay-Town", which is maybe not so common. Well it's not special to take pictures of it, but you can see many gay couples hanging around.
University of Toronto
Downtown of Toronto from CN-Tower
All the houses look so small!
Hockey Hall of Fame
Massey Hall
Casa Loma - Built for Sir Henry Pellatt in the years 1911-1914
CN-Tower from different points of view
The 553m heigh CN-Tower is I think the most famous sight in Toronto
Close-up
In between
At night
In the morning
Impressions
My impression about Toronto is that this city is a very dynamic one. Life is fast and the flow of money is sensible. A city, that doesn't sleep.
Toronto at night
As some of you already know, I am a skyscraper-addict. As you can imagine, I was heavily impressed :-) Here are some pictures I took from them:
Skyscraper in irregular shape
Another irregular shape building
Skyscraper, skyscraper and even more skyscrapers
Steel, glass and concrete!
Early in morning at six: Empty streets
Mirroring the sky
Art museum
Just a church
Just a boat
The skyline from landside
Neighbourhood watch
The city wasn't boring at all for me, contrariwise: I was enjoying this different kind of city.
Conclution
It was an interesting city to visit! Maybe it's not as artistic as Montreal, but that is in fact not important for me. As mentioned I am a kind of skyscraper addict, and there I got one's money worth!
My backback with the Canadian flag and the CN-Tower
After the attacks of 9/11, all the cities started to remove lockers for "security reasons". This is a anoying, because it is difficult to keep your backpack somewhere and sometimes you have no other opportunity than to carry it arround - This happend to me in Toronto too.
Again and my tour, I found a cool Couchsurfing host: Tim from Australia
Me and Tim
We were in a nice pub were we met some friends of him. They invited us to a pancake party for the next evening. And of course, we went there!
Pure maple syrup, fruits and ...
... pancakes!
I really had good company there and as you can see it, it was great fun :-)
James and Tim playing a bullfight with the Austrian and the Canadian flag
James and Tim were very helpful - They recommended places to visit next.
From Toronto I was going to Niagara Falls and afterwards by plane to Vancouver (Articles in progress)
Gallery
See all pictures of Toronto in the photoblog:
Toronto, Canada tour 2008