Toronto

The weather one our arrival into Toronto wasn't favourable but luckily it picked up ver the few days we were there so we were able to explore the largest Canadian city!

Through the hostel, we secured ourselves 'discovery passes' which included a day trip to niagra falls, a 2hr city bus tour, a brewery tour and bike rental! With not long to spend in the city and no idea where to start looking we figured this was ur best option to ensure we saw as much as possible in the small amout of time we had

The day we arrived we checked out the hockey hall of fame and learned about the history of the NHL and ice hockey in general (but I should probably just call it hockey as apparently only the tourists call it ice hockey!!) we saw the Stanley cup and a bunch of other trophies and even though we don't know all that much about hockey it was still a pretty fun afternoon!

The next day we did the bus tour around the city which was great, the bus took us throughthe city, past all the attractions and included a very enthusiastic tour guide! She was great, told us all about the history of the city and all the buildings. The weather wasn't the best but we managed to stay dry on the bus tour and then headed into the underground shopping malls to dry off after the tour!

Luckily the weather cleared up for our trip to niagra falls! The bus, which was packed full of Asian tourists and oldies, picked us up from the hostel and took us straight to the falls. Our tour guide Alex, who really liked the sound of his own voice and was super enthusiastic, talked us through the history of Canada and kept side tracking himself on the 1.5hour bus ride to the falls!

We ventured to the Canadian falls but had full view of the falls on the American side as well. Essentially, they had 'drawn' a line straight through the middle of the river and half was Canadian and half American. 

Our first stop at the falls was for photos and the second was for a trip on the maid of the mist, the boat that takes you out to the falls themselves. It was so touristy but we lined up, got our bright blue plastic ponchos and joined the queues. 

On board the boat we jumped straight to the top and tried to get to the front. Touristy as it was it was still pretty impressive sitting at the base of the falls listening to all the water crashing to the bottom. There was also a lot of spray and we all got very wet, Rhys more so than the others as be had failed to put his poncho on properly! Typical !! After our ride, we found out that the company, maid of the mist will no longer be running the tours to the falls and will stop at the end of October, to be taken over by a different company for the first time since 1845!!

We stopped for lunch on a very Vegas inspired street while we waited for the bus to pick us up and take us to our next destination, niagra on the lake. It was a very cute little lake side town which reminded us very much of montville in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, QLD.  We wandered the shops and had the best iced coffee ever as we sat down by the lake, looking across to New York City! On the way back to the city we stopped at a winery and tried some ice wine which is oh so super sweet. Ice wine, which is a type of desert wine; the grapes are picked when frozen and the wine made while the grapes are still super cooled.  Canada is the largest producer of the wine and according to regulations the grapes must be picked when they are at least -8degrees outside!! I can't imagine anything worse than picking grapes when it's that cold outside!

On arrival back in Toronto we headed straight to the nearest pub in order to catch the first NHL game of the season. We picked a good pub which had multiple gianormous screens and was packed full of 'leafs' fans. (The Toronto maple leafs were playing the montreal Canadiens) 

We filled the rest of our toronto stay with a very quick bike ride (riding in the city street sucks!!) a visit to Kensington markets (very hip), a walk along the waterfront and a trip to the steam whistle brewery. 

The tour through the brewery itself was really interesting as neither of us had ever really seen brewing beer! We were also given lots of samples of beer, so many so that I caved in and tried it.. Can't say I loved it but I can still say I drank beer!!

We also took a visit down to the 'brewery district' which was an old area which had been developed and was full of cute little galleries, cafes and some yummy restuarnts! We started with chilli chocolate mochas, had some delicious traditional Mexican for lunch and cocktails and finished with coconut and dark chocolate sorbet! It was a great end to our time in Toronto and prepared ourselves for the epic journey to Chicago!