Toronto Road Trip

A few weeks ago, I took a Saturday road trip to Toronto with my friend Ari. We really didn't have a specific reason for going other than a) Toronto is the 5th largest city in North America, b) there is an IKEA there, c) I have only been there once and I don't remember it because I was too young, and d) we both just wanted an adventure!

Ari modeling some IKEA
fashion wear

We headed out at 7 am, crossed the border in Niagara Falls (slightly nerve wracking), and stopped at IKEA (after getting slightly lost trying to find it) before heading into the city. I am a huge fan of furniture from IKEA. I have a few pieces from there (courtesy of my parents and the store in Philly) that look super classy but are affordable at the same time. We ate breakfast in the cafeteria (who knew that existed!) because we were famished, then enjoyed walking through the show room (except where some kid puked in the children's area and it smelled disgusting). Ari bought a few things; I (surprisingly) bought nothing, and we exited ~2 hours later to head into the city.

Traffic heading into the city wasn't bad at all, and we found a parking spot in a garage by the CN Tower. The garage was probably the scariest part of the drive, because it had construction going on, and the ramp was running traffic 2-ways, sometimes with a temporary traffic light, sometimes without. People are idiots and we almost got taken out in there!

We headed up the CN Tower, checked out the 360 view, walked on the glass floor (I did, Ari didn't!), and walked around the revolving restaurant.

view of the city from the tower

Fun Toronto fact - if it's a clear day, you can actually see Rochester on the other side of Lake Ontario! Unfortunately, it was too hazy the day we were there. :(

playing in some fun chairs in the Distillery District

pretty Christmas tree in the Distillery District

Then we spent some time walking around, checking out the public market, eating delicious pastries, and exploring the Distillery District. We eventually got hungry and headed off to this vegetarian restaurant that I had found online: Hibiscus. It was blocks and blocks away from where we were down by the water, so we walked for probably a good 45 minutes before we found the street that it was on. As we headed up the street, away from the busy part of the city, it grew more sketchy. The townhouses looked unkempt, with their window treatments skewed across the windows, people in the homes tapping on the windows at us, and no one on the street. We hurried up down the street which then came to a dead end. WHAT? (Because we couldn't use our cell phones, we were working off of a map of Toronto and an address I had written down at home). We took a left and got the hell out of that neighborhood, only to be relieved to see the lights of restaurants up ahead. We then found the street again (apparently, it ended and then started up again on the other side of a more "main" street) and after walking 10 more minutes, we found the restaurant, which, of course, was closing. Frustrated and starving, we backtracked to another vegetarian restaurant and ate some pretty good food! This whole neighborhood was very hippie, I kind of liked it! We rounded out the meal with churros for dessert and headed back to the car. It was a long walk and my legs were KILLING me (sheesh.. I can do an Ironman but I can't walk around for a day??).

my horn can pierce the sky!
(outside the market)

CN Tower at night

The drive home was much worse - I was soooo tired, but I managed and I think I made it home at 10:30 or so after dropping Ari off. It was a fun trip! One thing I noticed was the high amount of attractive, well-dressed, in shape men. Compare that with the guys you see walking around Rochester or even NYC, and it was a HUGE improvement. Good job, men of Canada! Keep it up and I will continue to cross the border and stimulate your economy just to stare at you. :)