Goodbye Toronto!

I was sad to leave Toronto, there was definitely something fun about the feeling of fighting to survive (almost) when you stepped out the door. And that tingly feeling on your face when you walk into a warm room after being out. Or even just standing and watching the snow, marvelling at the strangeness and beauty of it, from inside or outside. So good. On our last night in Toronto it was -12, and with the wind-chill it was -28, the coldest temperature they had had in 2 years. So of course I walked down to the harbour at about 8pm. It was quite down there and there were boats moored in a little quay with sheets of ice floating between them and the big surprise to me, which was the (seemingly) hundreds of ducks floating between the ice sheets, with only 2 white swans to break up their huddle of brown bodies. It was very still and across the water I could see the few lights on the islands and it was a perfect moment to reflect on where we were. Another thing that is nice about Toronto is that it seems very similar to Sydney. The people are similar in the way that they interact and customs and just their way of living is what we are used to. And although I am in the mind that the point if travelling is to experience the unknown and get out of your comfort zone, it is still comforting to find somewhere like home.

Some fun things you may not have known about Toronto (the locals pronounce it ‘Trono’ dropping the O and T). Their milk comes in plastic bags, even Starbucks uses the milk from a bag, and then you buy a jug to keep the bag in, but you still pour it from the bag :S Their traffic lights don’t make a sound! We had to actually watch the little man to see when to cross or else we would miss it, one thing that was good though was it then counted down how long you had to get across the road. Also their zebra crossings don’t mean the same as ours, it’s the same thing painted on the road, but it just indicating where to cross when the light is green. Their weather reports come with two numbers, one for the temperature, and one for the temperature with the wind-chill factor. Whilst everybody watches hockey (Ice of course) many of them have never been to a game because it is so expensive and always a sell out. There are very few teams, Toronto only has the one – The Maple Leaves, and apparently there is a waiting list for tickets to their games.

So all in all it was great and I can’t wait to go back (perhaps in summer).

Gemma