O, Canada!

Just coming off the high of 10 days in (insert adjective: cold, diverse, fun, beautiful) Toronto. The trip was exciting/extraordinary and comfortable/relaxed, in equal measure. Don't bother deciphering the contradiction-- it is one of those things that just IS.

The main purpose of the trip was business - Cathy and I were supposed to appear before the US consulate in Toronto to get our work visas extended. Yes, you actually need to leave the US to get the US work visas reissued/extended. Go figure.

In any case, we took advantage of the situation to experience Toronto. We arrived the Friday before our Monday appointment with the consulate, and extended through the next weekend to sample what the city had to offer.

O-rdinary days

We got in late on Friday and went straight to Charles and Nina's (who graciously agreed to put us up for the weekend). Charles, who immigrated a few years back, had recently moved to the 'burbs. This weekend provided us a good vantage of day-to-day life in Toronto. Over the next two days, we went malling, food tripping, and grocery shopping. It was a good immersion in the northern part of the ever-expanding Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Apart from an appearance at the lawyer's office and the US consulate on Monday, we spent the rest of the week working from the Toronto General Offices. The GO conveniently sat on top of a subway station so we were able to make our way around our city very easily thanks to the efficient transport system. (The subways also sheltered us from the wicked weather and snow.

O, what fun!

Since Cathy and I have both travelled to Toronto before on separate trips, there was no pressure to visit all the tourist spots. We did get to visit Casa Loma, CN Tower, Chinatown, and Niagara Falls over the two weekends. Most memorable was the glass floor on the CN Tower. The tower, still one of the highest free-standing structure in the world, has an observation deck with a glass floor. It gave the illusion of a straight drop how-many-stories below. The prospect of standing on the glass terrified me. I've been on it on my last trip and, then as now, it took a lot of psyching up before I took my first shaky steps. It was exhilirating though still downright scary. Cathy and I took the requisite photos (she didnt seem to mind it as much) which captured the best specimen of my forced nervous smile to date.

Meanwhile, the trip to Chinatown was a lot more familiar. Much like San Francisco, it was the quintessential Chinatown--- Chinese herb stores, stalls of fake DVD, shops selling feng shui odds and ends, amahs hurrying past. We didnt tarry in this part of town but I marked it down for future exploration.

Speaking of Chinatown, much has been said of Toronto's diversity. I really could not but be amazed by it. As one friend described it, it's like the UN-sponsored city. It wasnt just the obvious diversity of the mix, it was the fact that no one seemed to pay it any mind. I'm sure they deal with some ethnic related issues but if so, these werent immediately obvious to me.

O, glorious food!

In any case, the ethnic mix lent itself to the highlight of our stay: food tripping! In the course of the week, we sampled Japanese, Indian, Mediterranean, Korean, and (authentic) Chinese food. And of course: Filipino food - turo-turo (cafeteria) style. Charles introduced us to Jesse Jr that first weekend and we came back to it two more times in the course of the week. We really took our Filipino food craving to heart (stomach, more like). From our hotel downtown, we needed to change subway trains three times and take the bus for ~5 minutes (total travel time: 1 hour each way) to get to the resto. Still, it was worth it. I used the travel time to rationalize my ordering enough food to feed 4 people. On our trip there the Sunday before we flew back, I ordered kare-kare, laing, pork barbeque, and palabok -- for myself.

Summing Up

Needlessly to say, we thoroughly enjoyed Toronto. The sights, the food, the people-- what a trip! We can't wait to visit again in the summer when the city has thawed out and we can see what excitement-- and what ordinary days -- summer in Toronto has to offer.

Sidenote: 'O, Canada' is the Canadian national anthem. I heard it the first time ~8 years ago while touring Disney's Epcot Center in Orlando with my family. We visited the Canada pavilion and watched the feature on Canada in a 360 degree theater where they showed images of life in Canada with 'O, Canada' as the background music. The melody stuck. What a melodic come-on =).