After rising at the crack of dawn, Craig and I caught a cab to the Calgary airport. Within a few hours, we flew across two time zones and landed at our last stop: Toronto. After getting to our hotel (we stayed at the Chelsea Delta) we started exploring the city, mostly on the lookout for some food. Since we were smack-bang in the middle of down town Toronto, we had a wealth of options. However, we found this lovely little Japanese restaurant and ordered some Bento boxes. It barely cost us anything, which was great because the money we'd transferred earlier still hadn't arrived on our traveller's card. Luckily, Craig and I had kept some back up cash on us just in case but it meant we had to postpone our shopping, at least until the bulk of our money arrived.
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| Toronto's CN Tower |
The next day, we decided to further explore Toronto on foot, to see what the city had to offer. Under the guide of the Lonely Planet, we sought out Toronto's Little Italy. Unfortunately, I made a bad call about to wear that day. While the weather had been cool, it was still pretty sunny and I thought I would get away wearing one of my long silk skirts and some layers over my top half. What I didn't factor in was Toronto's chilling winds! It went straight through me and I was almost tempted to stop somewhere and pick up some gloves and socks. Meanwhile, Craig wasn't the least bit bothered even though he was wearing only jeans and a jumper. Honestly, I don't know how that man does it. Never the less, I was grateful that we were moving at least and generating some heat. I was even more relieved when we stopped for some hot tea & coffee! As we went looking for little Italy, it became apparent how huge Toronto really is. Nothing is quite as close as it seems on the map. We mainly did a lot of sightseeing and enjoyed checking out the Toronto town houses. However, the wind eventually got the better of me after a few hours, we headed back to the Delta Chelsea for more layers.
Later that afternoon, I talked Craig into walking down to Queen's Quay so we could check out the Museum of Inuit Art (or MIA for short) and the Toronto Music Garden. This time, I was dressed for the unforgiving Toronto winds and in a much happier mood. At Queen's Quay, we stopped to check out the Harbourfront Centre and the various boats docked at the pier. We spent an hour wandering through the exhibits at the MIA, which was littered with both miniature and large carvings from stone, bone and ivory. We ended our walk at the Toronto Music Garden, before turning back and calling it a day. All in all, it was great exercise exploring Toronto on foot. And man were our feet sore!
Our third day in Toronto was spent exploring the very famous Niagara Falls. We travelled there by tour bus, on which was a grumpy old man, several noisy Japanese youths of which one had a cold and instead of using a tissue, would just snort his phlegm back loudly... and more. Despite the unruly sound effects, it was all made up for by the sight of Niagara. We got to see it first hand on the Maid of the Mist. This is the very fashionable outfit we had to wear since you do get a decent spray getting up and personal with the Falls...
It goes without saying that we really enjoyed checking out Niagara. The sheer volume of water and sight of it is truly something. And having lunch with Niagara just out the window was pretty sweet too. It was definitely a highlight of the trip. Going underground and behind the falls was spectacular too. You can see the water cascading against the rocks but the noise was thunderous. It really gave you a taste of how powerful that volume of water can be.
We wrapped up our day trip with some wine tasting. The funny thing was, the lady explaining the wine tasting process was actually a little bit nervous of Australians, as they tend to argue with her about the quality of Shiraz and how the stuff Australia produces was so much better. To her relief, Craig and I confessed that we knew absolutely nothing about wine, let alone how to taste and compare it. She relaxed after that but more importantly, Craig and I got to sample some wine. My favourite was the Canadian Ice Wine as it's concentrated and produced from frozen grapes. Naturally, it's more expensive as it's more difficult to produce but it suited my sweet tooth just fine. But since it's designed to be a dessert wine, you don't really want more than a third of the a wine glass. Anything more and it would probably be a bit much.
We spent our last day in Toronto mostly shopping. Naturally, Craig wasn't crazy about this but I'd been saving all the shopping till the last leg of the trip, so we wouldn't have to lug lots of stuff throughout the honeymoon. However, I only picked up a few small items and we probably did more window shopping than anything significant. We also spent the evening checking out Toronto by night and savouring the end of our honeymoon.
And that folks, pretty much wraps up our honeymoon! We hope you enjoyed reading about our crazy adventures and all that we got up to. Soon we'll be back in Australia and nothing much will have changed, except that we are now officially happily married!
Lots of love,
Demi & Craig.
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