Our last night in Canada is about to commence...but before Sascha and I open that bottle of wine that we bought in the beautiful little town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, I am gonna sum up our impression of Toronto and our trip to the Niagara Falls : ) Our bus ride to Toronto from Ottawa got a little delayed unfortunately since I woke up on our day of departure with two heavily swollen and nasty-looking eyes...No idea where I get that allergy from once in a while - but it wasn't the first time this happened whilst travelling...So I knew it didn't have anything to do with us supposedly staying in a house that was haunted and also what I had to do to de-freak myself again: 1st step - scare the hell out of your roommates, 2nd step - find doctor, 3rd step - get him to prescribe some cortisone, 4th step - get a massive late breakfast with a side of chocolate (even though I must admit that I only found out about this extremely effective 4th step this time around). So we left Ottawa with our tummies equally full of excitement and food - which both somewhat distracts your sticky eyes from itching. And what can I say - Toronto skyrocketed to my personal pole position of all Canadian cities we have seen. Sascha is still debating with himself whether Vancouver or Toronto deserves that medal. I simply loved and totally soaked up the cultural diversity, the busy streets, the culinary variety, the friendly people, the arty bits and pieces spread all over the city and all the green spots that were unexpectedly sprinkled over the city centre.
This sudden and all-consuming love affair with Toronto had a direct and fatal impact on my purchase behaviour. My subconscious sort of went: "If you can't take the city with you then at least grab as many dresses and shoes as you can..." I went a bit mental from thereon and I was glad to have Sascha on my side. Not only because he was patient and kind enough to carry my bags - but also because he was long-sighted enough to drag me away from stores after I had seriously breached my spending limit. (That was probably motivated as much by his feeling of responsibility towards me as to the fact that he was utterly starving by the time he got me out of the last shop...). So off we went to Chipotle's (just another innocent love affair of mine...we had a really fantastic 3 months together back in the States) for some serious Burritos.
On our way back to the hostel we grabbed the local newspaper, the New York Times as well as the weekly international edition of the Guardian - which we lay directly in front of us just for company whilst we were watching a really shitty and brain-dead DVD. I loved everything about that first day in Toronto and my head kept on going: "I am soooo gonna move here..." And that feeling didn't really change much at all. I loved Kensington Market with its little thrift stores, fruit stalls, coffee shops, catchy people, colourful flowers - simply everything about it, even the way it smelled. We enjoyed a beautiful breakfast - probably the best 10 Dollars I've spent and the opportunity for people-watching came totally free of charge : )
A train and two bus-rides away a very different atmosphere and scenery lay in front of us - the super busy and popular Ontario Science Centre...however, we chose the less educational programme. It's almost embarrassing to give this piece of information away...but Sascha and I lined up with the kids from 5th grade to purchase a ticket for the Harry Potter exhibit. Tease me all you want - I utterly loved it! I saw Hermione Granger's wand, Ron Wesley's Howler and the Snitch Harry Potter is meant to catch during a game of Quidditch. I had the time of my life in there : ) I thought we wouldn't be able to make that day any better than it was already - but we managed: the icing on the cake was a wonderful, delicious and massively huge Pizza from appropriately named restaurant "The Perfect Slice". We did manage however to finally ruin all that happiness and state of bliss by making the rash decision of getting our hair cut. So from that evening on, we patrolled the streets of Toronto looking a little less like ourselves and a little more like the Chinese hairdresser wanted us to look like...Anyways - we didn't have much time to come to terms with the new hair cuts before we went off to the Niagara Falls...And what can I say - even though we were warned in advance on a few occasions - walking up the Niagara Falls' Entertainment District really felt like entering a kid's version of Las Vegas. What a circus...but nevertheless - we dived right into it: obediently buying over-priced sugary stuff, exchanging our cash for Casino tokens, oooing and ahhing in rhythm with the fireworks and all the rest of it.
The hostel we stayed in was recommended to me by one of my favourite and role-model travellers. It was as central as you can get and we paid 30 Dollars for a private room including freshly-baked muffins for breakfast. Pretty good deal even though the manager got a little annoying after a while pointing out a few too many times that this hostel had been given an award...blablabla...He even allowed me/forced me to touch his trophy - which sounds a lot more dirty and exciting than that experience was...Anyways - in our three days there we looked at the Niagara Falls, took pictures of it, bought postcards of it, watched an IMAX movie and went to an exhibition about it, climbed behind it and took a boat to get as near as possible to it...when we felt we were all niagaraed out, we finally did something that really took our breath away - and that a lot more literally than Sascha had wished for. I made him cycle almost 50 kilometers in a day - which neither he nor his bum appreciated and will forgive me anytime soon. However, the views over Lake Ontario were absolutely stunning and the nature beautiful. Even Sascha's bruised behind can't deny that : ) That way we found out that the area around Niagara is truly magnificent and utterly beautiful - almost as soon as you leave the tourist crowds and the Niagara Falls behind you.
Two more highlights included wine tasting at a winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake and Karaoke singing at a cocktail bar in Niagara. Even though Sascha and I didn't really sing...We were simply mistaken with a couple that delivered a truly engaging performance on stage and did resemble us quite accurately. There was only one minor difference that the audience seemed to have overlooked thanks to the consumption of a sufficient amount of alcohol: the performing couple was in their forties...I blame the new hair cuts!
Back in Toronto we went straight back to Kensington Market for some Grilled Cheese and orange Soda and to watch the eagerly anticipated movie "Eat, Pray, Love".
We also managed to spend a whole day on Toronto Island - a beautiful retreat from the city (not that I felt I needed it...) and I challenged Sascha to eat a whole Pizza at "The Perfect Slice"- a task that sounds a lot easier than it actually is. We spoke to the manager who recognized us again straight away and he hadn't managed to do it - ever. We got half of it for free just for trying and some extra greasy sauce on top to make it even harder...but Sascha was simply invincible. He ate it all and to me it didn't even look like a struggle. I might have managed to impress him with my cycling skills, but he surely impressed me with his eating capacity.
And this is it really...Tomorrow we will have our "last supper" or really breakfast at Kensington Market, followed by a short trip to the Shoe Museum (I gotta see that), a final yogurt ice cream and a trip to Lawrence Market.

This last week has been so much fun. I wish I would be trapped in a little time bubble for another week...but only one - cause I am also really looking forward to coming back home : )