27/11/2014 Toronto turned out to be a really nice city with great skyline views and some nature retreats as well. I quiet enjoyed my time there, even if I ended up rushing through the highways to catch my next flight in the end 🙂

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Toronto has been a pleasant surprise during my last days in Canada. I did not expect a lot from the city before, but have to say that the skyline is certainly great to look at and the Niagara Falls made up for a great side trip. We were lucky with the weather finally as well after a lot of rain upon my arrival. I stayed with Couchsurfer Brenda, who is actually dutch and decided to live in Toronto for a while.

Some of the things on my ToDo list included the City Hall, CN Tower and the Islands, all of which I was able to see on my last day while it slowly began to clear up. Standing in front of the City Hall, I was wondering how to get a good view from the top and it did not take long to get it. The Shelton hotel just opposite of it features a Club Lounge in their top floor and it just took one little smile to get entrance for some pictures thanks to the nice lady up there. The views were amazing!

Afterwards, I was headed to the pier for the 5:30PM boat to see the skyline during sunset. On the way to the pier, I stopped at the CN Tower and embraced the first bits of blue sky after all the rain in the last days. The islands were nice too and the views on the Skyline alone make the trip worth while. Walking along the promenade, I found a great spot to capture the post sunset moments just near the Ward’s Island Ferry pier, very close to Lenore Avenue.

Both Friday and Saturday evening were filled out with Halloween Parties. I usually never celebrate it, but being in Canada, it was a different story. Thanks to the Brenda’s room mate, I got a cool outfit including an army jacket and authentic Canadian gas mask. It even matched my grey merino wool shirt very well 🙂 I met a lot of great people at the parties and had a superb time, even encountering the first snow of the season during the way home after the first party. Luckily I would fly to warm Mexico in the next morning and certainly made a lot of people there jealous as they had the long and bitter cold winter just in front of them now.

On the next day we hired a car and drove down to the Niagara Falls, joined by another German Couchsurfer. The weather could not have been any better today, featuring some nice double rainbows. Niagara-on-the-lake, however, disappointed. I was expecting a bit more from that place. The next morning, we drove to the east of the town to see sun rise in the beautiful Scarborough Bluffs Park. This location is rather less visited by tourists, but it was certainly worth going! Besides the nice views towards the beach, you should also check out the bridge if you ever make it there yourself, producing some really great mirror images of the tree line in the background.

Getting back to the airport in time afterwards was quiet an adventure. The main highway was just packed and cars did not move at all, forcing me to drive on alternative routes through the complete city with slightly above the allowed speed. In the end, I just barely made it to the airport, catching my flight to Cancun while Brenda enjoyed the car for a few more hours. I had never missed a single flight in my life before and was really happy that this has not been the first occasion 🙂 Now, the 35°C warm waters of Cancun in the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula and complete Central America was waiting for me…

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