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Toronto - Part 1
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
With a weekend in Toronto, our review focuses on the restaurants, the shopping.
For her 29th birthday my wife felt that it was the perfect time to go on a small shopping trip to Toronto, Canada. After I went to a conference in the great north and explained the joys and benefits of a favorable currency exchange, she decided the perfect present for herself would be to go shopping.
We flew to Toronto on Air Canada. I was very happy about the fact that the entire flight was less then an hour and a half door to door. By the time you get your complimentary bag of cashews the plane is already on its descent. This was shorter than most people commute to work! Within 20 minutes we were on the Airport Express bus heading to our hotel, The Bond Place. Regrettably, there was nothing about the Bond Place Hotel that was even remotely as charming as James Bond. It was a very reasonable priced room, but the pipes coming out of the walls in the bathroom though were charming but not necessarily my taste. I do have to say that it was a nice surprise to see how centrally located the hotel was to everything we chose to see! We didn't have to get a taxi, we could walk everywhere. We decided the best way to start off this get away was to get a bite to eat.
We chose to eat at The Elephant and Castle. This place looked a little bit like a quaint British pub. There were funny statues of elephants all over the place, in one they were on a boat rowing. The atmosphere was nice, seemed like a good place to go and talk. It was here that I learned that everybody has their own definition of "hot wings" when you order their buffalo wings. They were tasty, but not too hot....
Friday
We walked in the underground PATH system. I'm not sure what PATH stands for but it can be explained best as a mix of corporate basements and underground malls connecting most of downtown Toronto. You can basically walk for a number of days without seeing the same thing twice yet draining your wallet in various shops pretty rapidly. It's a completely separate city under the city. It was a good feeling to know that no matter what the weather was on the rest of our trip, we always could go down there and have something to do.
We popped out of the PATH by Union Station and found the "Olde Toronto Tours" Trolley. Not really a trolley, but one of those bus/trolleys that looks rather quaint and makes you think about real trolleys of days gone by. This is one of the highlights of the trip. For one set price you basically get this little tour bus that you can jump off and on of at your leisure- the next one just comes by in 45 minutes. I liked that it was flexible, we could get off the bus if we liked something or wanted to get a snack, but we could also stay on the bus and continue the tour if we wanted. Our particular tour guide was a Scottish man whose accent you would only hear in the movies... or in Scotland.
We rode around on the bus for a while and got off at Casa Loma. This was the home of one of the richest men in Toronto (who died broke). He decided that he should have a modern day medieval castle in downtown Toronto. You wouldn't know it by looking at it, that it wasn't even 100 years old yet. Everything about it looked authentic and elegant. Even though it was raining when we arrived it still looked beautiful. The rainy day almost fit the mood of the medieval castle.
Back on the bus in an hour and a half, we headed over to the Royal Ontario Museum. They had more European artifacts than some European museums' I've visited. Okay, not many of the European museum's were beaten by it, but it was still a rather impressive collection. I recommend heading over to the Chinese exhibit. When you stand in the midst of some statues from a tomb you'll think that you're right in China. The artifacts from the ancient Roman, Egyptian and Greek empires were pretty impressive too.
We got back on the bus and then made our second smartest decision of the trip... we headed over to the T.O. Tics booth to see what half priced tickets we could get for shows that evening.. We won out and got tickets to see a show at the Second City Comedy Club.
We walked back to the Bond Place Hotel changed, and went to dinner at Captain John's. Captain John's is this seafood restaurant/boat permanently docked in Toronto harbor. It's all lit up and looks exciting and dramatic when you drive past. One of your, "That restaurant looks great, therefore it must be great" type of restaurants. The lobster was outstanding, the service was outstanding, but the side dishes for the lobster were comparable with a high quality American diner. Overall, everything was enjoyable, I would come here again if I was in town.
After dinner we had a LONG walk along the water to the Second City Comedy Club. For those who don't know the club, it's basically the predecessor to Saturday Night Live. Name the comedian and he or she probably came out of Second City. Mike Myers, Dan Akroyd, Rick Moranis, Eugene Levy, Ryan Styles, and dozens more... the show changes every season and it is basically different skits, just like you're watching Saturday Night Live. After the comedy show there are two more improvisational comedy shows, which are completely free. This was tied for the best experience in Toronto in my book... a great way to end the night.
From there it was a short walk to King Street which seemed to be the central nightlife of Toronto.... club after club after dance hall in a row. My wife was a little hungry though and she suggested we go somewhere for Buffalo wings which was odd as this was the second night in a row of Buffalo wings. I can never understand women- they'll get upset if you look at other women but then they'll want to take you to Hooters for wings! I figured that this was some sort of test so I just averted my eyes from the waitresses and focused on the wings. She kept claiming that she wanted to go to Hooters because the wings tasted so good, but I determined that this was an elaborate plot to catch me at visual adultery and I did my best to prove her wrong. I only wish we had more time to go to the clubs and spend time... the clubs alone could be reason enough to come here... maybe next time we come up it will be just to go dancing at the clubs. When you walk down the street and you see dozens of people waiting on line and hanging out even in the rain, you start to really wonder what you're missing.
Read part 2
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