Toronto, Ontario

With its population of 2,504,000 Toronto is the biggest city in Canada. I was very apprehensive about going there because of its size, but when I arrived it wasn’t as bad as I thought and I felt quite comfortable walking about on my own.

I went up the CN Tower and I was lucky enough to get a completely clear day and was able to see for miles over the city and Lake Ontario! Toronto regularly suffers from bad smog, which makes it feel like you are walking around in a cloud… you cannot even see the top of the buildings in financial district through the cloud as they are so tall.

I went to the St Lawrence Market and walked round Toronto’s Old Town. I walked along vibrant Younge Street to the Eaton Mall, where I saw Jude Law and Forest Whitaker filming Repossession Mambo.

The weather has been fantastic, sunny almost every day, which isn’t normal for the autumn. I made the most of it and took the ferry over to Ward’s Island, 5 minutes from downtown Toronto, It is a beautiful place, I spent the day walking on the white sand beaches and along the waterside board walks, I accidentally walked onto a nudist beach… and walked off even quicker! You get a fantastic view of Toronto’s skyline from the island.

I took a trip to Niagara Falls for the day, the falls are pretty amazing! They are made up of three sets of waterfalls, on the America side there is the American and Bridal Falls and on the Canadian side there are the Horseshoe Falls, collectively known as Niagara Falls. I went up the Sky Tower and got an amazing view of the river and the falls, it was another clear day so I could see for miles! On the way back to Toronto I visited a little village on the banks of Lake Ontario called Niagara on the Lake, it was a very pretty little place with old style houses and tree lined roads. I stopped at Magnotta Vineyards, Southern Ontario’s 3rd largest winery, for a wine tasting, which was great!

Ottawa, Ontario

Ottawa is Canada’s capital city, chosen in 1857 by Queen Victoria, she chose it over Quebec City, Montreal, Kingston and Toronto because it was basically in the middle and half English, half French speaking.

The hostel I stayed in was once the Ottawa jail house and the site of Canada’s last hanging, I took the tour to find out about it’s history, I saw the cells, some of them were only 3 ft wide by 9 ft long…I also saw the gallows were they hung three people from death row.

I took a boat trip on the Rideau Canal, which was built between 1826 and 1832 and runs 202km from Kingston to Ottawa. I went to Parliament Hill and up the Peace Tower for an amazing view over the city, the clock faces replicate those of Big Ben and it chimes the same tune.

I walked Sparks Street Mall which is Canada’s first pedestrian mall and the Byward Market which has been running since the 1840`s. I visited Rideau Hall, the main residence for Canada’s Governor General.

I visited the RCMP Musical Ride Stables where all the horses are black to emphasize the red tunics, the horses have to be between 16 and 17.2 hands and only have small white areas on their faces or legs. They are mainly thoroughbreds and black Hanoverian broodmares and stallions so crossing them produces a well tempered horse. There is an auction every two years to sell off any horses that are not acceptable to be in the Musical Ride, there is one happening on October 6th 2007.

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