Christmas in Toronto

So I made it safe and sound to Toronto and spent the week looking around, getting to know a bit of the city.  Because sometimes I forget about things (get the camera, right... ooooh, what's that?  Shiny!!) I didn't have my camera a lot, but I really enjoyed myself.

Toronto is a different kind of city.  Now I can honestly say as a child of the West, we sure aren't raised with any kind of love for this city.  We're actually suspicious of it, even a little hostile toward it.  I can even think of times when I've thought "Oh god, s/he's from Toronto, this outta be good" when being introduced to someone new - bad, I know, but true!!

Since living in Korea though I've met tons of people from tons of places, and while I'll admit that many of them help keep the stereoypes alive and well, most of them are lovely as lovely can be, making me so glad that I got away from home for awhile!

When I travel, it's rare for me to go to a new place to check out their cities.  I've been to HongKong, Beijing, Bangkok, Hanoi and HoChiMinh, and Sydney, but the cities were my least favourite of all those places.  I was trying to explain it to my mom the other day and said something like "I'm not much of a city girl" and she guffawed at me, hahaha, and with a laugh she said, "You are such a city girl, I don't know what you're talking about."

She's right, really, my poor mom.  I don't like to live in little places.  I want to live somewhere with art, and culture, and sports, and parks, and fun things to do - I grew up on a farm and spent plenty of time occupying myself but I love having choices of things to do.  I'm certain she still scratches her head and wonders where the heck I came from most days, with the way I have this need to travel, and adventure, and be out exploring the world.  Sometimes I wonder too why I'm not more like the rest of my family, but I'm happy they love me despite all my craziness!!  :)

So Toronto... did you know there's a CASTLE in Toronto??  It's called Casa Loma.  Now, not having Kings and Queens and such running all over the land, and being a baby in comparison to most of the rest of the world, Canada is NOT full of these things.  This one was built by a man who had a lot of money at the time (sad story eventually, he had to give it up when his finances took a turn for the worse... you can read about the history of the place here if you're interested!).  It looked like it must be beautiful in the summer, and I can imagine that thousands of wedding photos are taken there every year, it really was incredible (for the girl who has never been to a castle before!!).  I didn't get to go inside this trip (long boring story) but when I'm back again I can't wait, it's something I'm looking forward to!!
 

Casa Loma from the parking lot



The lion and unicorn from the Canadian coat of arms are on the roof



The unicorn was my favourite



Great lookin' place!



I also went sightseeing just wandering around in the neighbourhood where I stayed.  The houses were nothing like Calgary and Edmonton, and real estate prices were RIDICULOUS!   

Residential street in Toronto - Just off Dundas I think?

Also, as if there was any doubt that I would go looking for it, I found Koreatown in Toronto.  It was about a 25 minute walk from the castle - a FREEZING 25 minutes I might add!!  It was just like home, a few blocks of stores and services in Korean, I loved it!!  I dragged my friends to Korean food twice  :)

Koreatown, Toronto

Along with the restaurants (which were cheap and SO good) I also found the big Korean market and I was practically beside myself.  In Calgary and Edmonton there were little Asian markets where you could find some things, but this was a full-sized store that carried all SORTS of things for normal (not Import) prices.  And the outside of the market looked cool too:

BiBimBap Mural on the outside of the Korean Supermarket

When I wasn't walking around I caught the subway or used the buses to get around, and it was easy-peasy.  Not as simple or effective as Korea, but not bad either - WAY up there compared to what I'm used to in Alberta!  Mixed in with my forays into what kind of culture I could find at my fingertips in Toronto I also managed to get a haircut (yay!) and find a heap of SHOPPING!!!!  Boxing week sales were fantastic and I managed to get a few new things for work back in Korea.  Not ONE person told me I was too fat to shop in their store, and SOMEtimes I even fit a size SMALLER than I originally picked up - I love you Canada!!!  :)  The Eaton Centre Mall took most of my money this trip - a gorgeous tree sponsored by Swarovski was set up in the middle of the mall - the only thing I didn't like was the 13% sales tax, when in Korea it's included in the prices, and in Alberta it's only 5%.  However, I shop! shop! shopped!!

Eaton Centre Mall, Toronto

Lastly, I ate... I ate a LOT of good food... Mexican, Indian, Korean, Greek, ohhhhh how I ate.  And then, there was a box of these chocolates... I ate most of them too!!

Overall it was a good trip, and makes me excited about moving.  Well, really - why the heck not?  Come August, it's you and me Toronto!!

Headed Home for Christmas

Beijing Airport

Originally, I had planned to spend Christmas in Thailand (yes, I have an addiction to Thailand!).  I was about to buy my tickets when a friend suggested I visit Toronto and see what the city was like.  I had been talking about whether to move to Vancouver or Toronto when my contract was up, and it made sense that I could maybe head over and check it out, see if might like to live there!



Beijing Airport

At first I thought it was a dumb idea, but when the ticket became a Christmas present I kinda stopped arguing, haha... me and my big mouth!

So, I went to Toronto.  I am always in awe of Incheon Airport (Korea's airport) when I go there - there is NO other airport in the world that runs as well, I swear!!  My flight took forever.  I flew out on Christmas Eve (boss was nice enough to give us the extra day off so nobody would be flying on Christmas day - How nice was THAT?!). 



Beijing Sunset, Christmas Eve



By mid-afternoon I was in the Beijing airport wandering around aimlessly (beautiful airport, but NO convenience stores so it was a pain in the ass to be there for 3 hours).  When it was approaching sunset I wandered over to a huge bank of windows and camped out on the floor to watch the sun sink below the horizon, it was beautiful. 

When I boarded the plane it was half empty, so the flight attendants moved the person who was to have shared the row with me and I had ALL 3 SEATS to myself!!!!  The flight attendants were great, the food was good, I had pillows and blankets enough to feel like I was in a hotel AND there were good movies - the FIRST time Air Canada scored a perfect 10 from me - wow! 

When we got over Ontario, about a half hour from landing I opened my window shade and the sun was setting.  It occurred to me that it was Christmas Eve, and I was seeing the sun set on BOTH sides of the world because of my lucky timing... for real? 2 Christmas Eve sunsets in one day??  That's magical.

This coming year, something tells me it's going to be a good one... Merry Christmas, everyone!