Toronto is the largest city in Canada, and the sense of 'big city' was definitely evident after spending the past two days travelling through the 'countryside'. Our entire stay in Toronto spanned two and a half days. But as we arrived late on the first, and filled the second (very rainy) day with shopping at an outlet mall (Vaughan Mills), we only had one full day to explore the city and its sights.

To this end, we began our explorations by the Toronto Waterfront, which consisted of several beautiful parks, marinas, and even a pseudo-resort styled beach, complete with beach umbrellas.

From the waterside, we then wandered through the central business district. One thing you'd note when visiting Toronto, was how the CN Tower dominated the city skyline. Almost everywhere you went, the tower would be there, towering (pun not intended?) in the background. We did eventually head to the foot of the CN Tower itself, but we decided not to go up.

From there, we then visited the Distillery District, a neighbourhood that had been gentrified from its former use to one of 'hip' cafes and craft shops. Food choices there were a little lacking, but I did like how they preserved bits of the history of the place, which gave a much more insightful experience.

From the district, our wanderings then took us to the University of Toronto. I love old (or old-ish) buildings that have vines growing on them, and the university had several.

After that visit, we returned to the waterfront to catch the ferry to the Toronto Islands, a group of small islands just offshore in Lake Ontario.

The islands had a very different feel from the big city, and was beautiful in its tranquillity. It was a perfect place to get away and unwind a little, something that's definitely needed for a city as big as Toronto.

We spent the later half of the day on the islands, casually strolling and enjoying the exceptionally good weather that we had, and left only when the sun was setting.

And what a sunset it was.

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Till the next time,

Raylen