One of my goals for 2012 was to go to Canada. It wasn’t necessarily because I had a strong desire to go to Canada, but I really wanted to stand somewhere that wasn’t US soil. It was really exciting for me to get my passport and know that I have a lot of options open to me now in terms of travel.
Matt and I chose Toronto because we were going to drive there. Straight through it’s about a 9 hour drive for us. The drive actually didn’t seem that bad. There isn’t anyone that I’d rather be in a car with, and we also made a stop at the Jello Museum on the way up and Niagara Falls on the way back.
I’m not sure what I expected from Canada, but I think I was surprised. The area we stayed in was a weird version of Times Square. It was less crowded, but had the same vibe. It was kind of dirty and polluted and the hotel was nothing like I thought it would be based on the pictures. The rush hour was absolutely horrendous and the people weren’t as stereotypically nice as I’d heard.However, I have no regrets about going and neither does Matt. We had a good time. It was one of our first big trips together and I’m glad we went. It was not only a way to check off a goal from my to do list, but a belated celebration for our six year anniversary. I like him.One of the coolest things we did in Toronto was attend the tree lighting ceremony. It’s a really pretty tree in Dundas Square, and they had some Cirque du Soleil-esque performers, Wintery characters on stilts, and fire dancers.
The first night, we walked around and saw some beautifully lit twinkle tree streets. We ate dinner at a diner and I had a huge raspberry smoothie.
The next day we walked all around. We went to Kensington Market and saw some great street art and store fronts.
Most of our destinations were stores. I got to go to a really awesome paper store where there was a wall of washi tape. I’ve never seen washi tape in store, so this was an overwhelming treat. And Matt had looked up a cool record store called Rotate This.
Later that night we took the car through the congested city to some destinations not within walking distance. One of them was a really cool comic book store, The Beguiling, that Matt liked. While he looked I walked down the street. It was a really pretty street and then I saw this sign advertising learning how to knit. I spun around and saw two women knitting in a window of a yarn store. I went in and spent an absurd amount on yarn I didn’t even really need. The owner of the store was extremely nice and helpful and she had a yarnbombed tree outside her store!
When I went back to meet Matt at The Beguiling, he had spent, to the penny, the exact same absurd amount on comics that I spent on yarn. So that was really cool.
Oh, and I sent some mail from Canada. That was really exciting.
Have you been to Canada? What area? What were your favorite parts?
