Finally made it to the east Coast of Canada! Been to New York, been to Asia, but haven't been to the east coast in my very own country.
Side note about the photos. All photos are taken with my travel camera, a Nikon D3200 with an 18-55 kit lens that I got off Craigslist for less than $300. It's Nikon's base DSLR from 4 years ago. I don't travel with my regular camera because its big, heavy, and expensive to lose. Also I want travel to be about the experience, not just taking pictures, though taking pictures does enhance the experience for me!
We arrived late at night and ate at a restaurant called Insomnia. Haven't heard of it previously, only chose it because it's open until 2:30AM and we were still on pacific standard time. No pictures, but the place was bumpin and the food was really good!
On our way back home we passed by Honest Eds. It was a building I wanted to photograph on one of our days there, but we didn't realize it was so close to us so we just photographed it on our first night.
The next day we started off by Going to Casa Loma, which kinda felt like a bit of a tourist trap so we walked around the area to Spadina House and to the University of Toronto before heading for lunch at Rose & Sons. That castle looking building was actually a horse stable, built by the same person that built Casa Loma!
After lunch we went to the Museum of Ontario and spent around 5hrs there! In the past I've spent on average 1hr at museums as a kind of "I was there" thing. It felt like such a waste. History has been something I've gotten into more this year and I really wanted to take my time here and I'm glad we did!
I'm really into big old churches so we visited a big old church on our way to dinner.
Dinner was at Momofuku and holy shit, those pork buns! I've been thinking about those pork buns every day since I've had them and today is no different. I stumbled upon the recipe online and I think I'm gonna have to give it a try!
After dinner we just walked around the city for a little bit, capturing a bit of the city at night.
The next day we went to the Distillery District in the morning. It reminded me of a large Gastown.
Next we went on a bit of an architecture tour, seeing works by Santiago Calatrava and Mies Van De Roe while also passing through Union Station on our way to the CN Tower.
We wanted to be on top of the CN Tower at sunset and we were still a bit early so we decided to get some bike share bikes and bike around Toronto Island for a bit. It was nice to finally be biking again!
Heres the view from the top of the CN Tower. Wasn't too busy luckily, think we got up from the moment we lined up in about 15min.
The next morning we went to Kensington Market. The are is so eclectic! I loved it there and think it's definitely worth revisiting.
After we walked a few blocks to Chinatown and did a quick pass through.
Next we went to Evergreen Brickworks. This place is so cool! If anybody is getting married there, hit me up! Would love to shoot a wedding there. Seems like it would be perfect for a large wedding.
After we went to the RC Harris Water Treatment Plant. It was just a cool building that I wanted to check out. Too bad it was under renovation so we didnt get to see too much.
Next we went to the Scarborough Bluffs. We had to do a bit of searching to see how we could get up top to get the view from above. After driving around we finally found the entrance. It was on Drake St.
The next day we headed to Niagara falls. What a gorgeous day it was to go! Blue skies, and 21 degrees in the fall! My mom went to Niagara falls last year and told me that I have to go take a ride on the Hornblower. She told me it was very worthwhile. She normally doesn't have too many good things to say about anything so I knew I had to do it.
Mom was right. It was definitely very worthwhile! The water is super loud, it gets super bright in there and not to mention it was soaking wet! Before we went in weather-proofed my camera by cutting a hole in a plastic back and screwing that hole onto my lens filter. Worked for the most part. Luckily it was warm out so we dried out real quick.
On our last day we had lunch at Richmond Station. It was recommended by a friend and also came up in a lot of "top restaurants in Toronto" lists. After eating there, I'm not surprised as the food was excellent. When I got home I looked up the restaurant and turns out the head chef is a former Top Chef Canada winner!
After lunch we walked around St. Lawrence Market for a bit. It reminded me of Granville Island. Kinda smelled like the Public Market too, haha.
Thanks for the good times Toronto!
