Autumn in the city

This was one of the only trips I’ve ever done in a group, it was a completely different experience and I’m not sure if it’s something I’d like to repeat. Traveling to Canada with a group meant that you had to follow someone else’s schedule, planned activities, eat and stop when they plan and have very little time to actually do the kind of exploring you want to do. Still, it was all worth it just to be able to discover the beauty of the places we visited.

Toronto is a beautiful city, an amazing combination of a lively city with a more relaxed and green town; there’s so much to see and enjoy. One of the places I loved most in the city was the CN Tower, this is one of the hottest tourist spots and I immediately understood why. The tower itself is absolutely beautiful and once you go up the view of the city in spectacular. You can see every single park, building and everything beyond from up there; being able to walk around in circles lets you see a continuous view of this great city, as well as step onto pathways made from glass so you can look straight down and realize how up above the ground you are. Between walking around the city and stopping at places such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, or the High Park we got a great feel of the city and what is has to offer. Still, for me one of the best experience happened since the days we were the coincided with Halloween; we were able to find a residential area of the city, get all dressed up and actually go trick or treating in the city. This was the most unique and unexpected event and I would love to try that again sometime.

While in Toronto, we has some daytrips planned. Since we were travelling as a group, everything was arranged and all you truly had to do was show up and enjoy. Thus, one day we took a bus ride all the way to Niagara Falls. To be quite honest, I was very surprised once we got there. From all I’ve heard of the falls, I was expecting a natural park where you looked over them, take some pictures and be on your way back. This was nothing like that, of course the magnificent falls were there, but it felt like arriving at a small town, or theme park; there were hotels all around, a bunch of great stores and restaurants where we were distracted most of the day, at what’s called Clifton Hill. If you have the time available to stop for a nice, long lunch you must head over to Skylon Tower, an observatory where you get an incredible 360 degree view of the falls and can stay at the revolving restaurant on the top.

Another planned daytrip that we took was a bus ride all the way to Niagara on the lake. This is a beautiful little town about two hours away from Toronto, or about half an hour from the falls themselves. A calming walk through this lovely town is a must, this will allow you to go past the beautiful buildings, specially those which are marked as a historically designated building because of their architecture. In a short afternoon you can visit the towns history museum, or relax by the Queen’s Royal Park with a picnic. This is a wonderful place to unwind from the city and get to know a different part of Canada.