Toronto - Canada

Locations covered : Scarborough,  Toronto, Niagara-on-the-lake
Trip dates : 14th to 17th April 2012

I basically had nothing planned for the long weekend which came with the Patriots' Day vacation. But like I mentioned in my previous post, I needed to make the most of my short stay in the US. I looked up for places to visit in the US itself, but having already been to New York, Washington etc.., I was out of new places to visit. Since the holiday was only 4 days, I could not venture too far out of Boston. I had previously planned to go and meet a few of my friends in Toronto during the Spring break, but I could not make it because my Canadian visa was delayed. This time, with the visa in hand, I realized that it would be best to go and pay my friends a visit as promised, during these four days. I took an Air Canada flight from the Boston Logan International Airport to the Toronto Pearson International Airport on Friday night, and thus begins my tour of Canada...

Toronto skyline with CN tower

Staying with friends meant staying up late, and staying up late at night meant late starts in the morning. On the first day, my friends showed me around downtown Toronto, and then took me to this place (I don't recall its name) where the Toronto skyline could be seen clearly across the waters of Lake Ontario. 

Toronto skyline

The photos on the right were taken there and I included them here to share the majestic view with you readers as well. 

Rogers Centre and CN Tower

Later, we went to the vicinity of the famous CN tower, and also had a look inside the Toronto Blue Jays' stadium (Rogers Centre). We had a walk around city and also visited the Toronto Union Station. Since it was a bit late, we decided not to visit the CN tower on that day, and went back to my friend's place in  Scarborough. 

Inside the Blue Jays' Stadium

Toronto Union Station

On Sunday, since everyone was devoid of committments, we decided to visit Niagara-on-the-Lake. The original idea was to visit the Niagara Falls  itself, but since I had already seen it from the US side and taking into account the distance and travel time, we decided to go see the ship locks in the Welland Canal at Niagara-on-the-Lake.  

Ship lock on the Welland Canal

It took us a few hours to get from Toronto to Niagara-on-the-Lake, which is about a 150 km drive. We arrived at one ship-lock on the Welland Canal, and were lucky to witness the entire process of a ship passing through the lock. Note the difference in water level between the two photos below; it shows how the entire ship is lifted so that it can sail out of the other end of the lock. The whole process took about 30-45 minutes.

Ship entering the lock

The lock is being closed and the water level is raised to lift the ship

Abandoned ship

On the way back from the ship locks, we also stopped to have a look around this abandoned ship which was clearly visible to passers-by on the highway.

Later in the evening, after arriving in Toronto, we visited the world famous CN Tower that defines the Toronto skyline. The view of city at night from atop the tower was breath-taking, and the view of the ground some 140-odd floors below, through the glass floor was no second. We also visited the revolving 360 restaurant, which is unique in the sense that it completes a full rotation every 72 minutes, providing diners with views of the entire city below them. Amazing experience indeed. 

The following morning, we visited the largest zoo in Canada, the Toronto Zoo. It provides a different viewing experience compared to other zoos I've visited, because the zoo has taken a commendable effort to accommodate the animals in an environment that is similar or close to their natural habitats. See below for some snaps I took inside the zoo.

 

Animals at the Toronto Zoo

We spent almost the entire day walking inside the zoo, and gladly covered all of its sections. After an interesting bit of drama to get out of the Zoo's car park, which I will not go into details here, we returned back to my friend's place. My short holiday was also coming to an end, and considering the fact that some of us may not meet for quite a long time again, we decided to throw a beach barbecue in the evening. But this beach didn't belong to the ocean, rather, it was the beach of Lake Ontario. 

And that brings us to the end of my adventures in Toronto. I flew back to Boston the next day to resume my uni routine as usual. I'm extremely thankful to my classmates from Sri Lanka for putting up with me for those few days and showing me around. :)