Day three began in Toronto, a city often called "New York North" due to its similarities to our most cosmopolitan city. Indeed, Toronto is the fourth largest city on the North American continent, and offers world class dining, entertainment, and accommodations.
The British were the first Europeans to settle this area, which had previously been inhabited by the Wyandot and Iriqous natives. The French had set up trading posts here as early as 1750, but it was the British army officer John Graves Simcoe who established the town of York, which is now the city of Toronto. 40 years later, the village of York had grown such that it's residents advocated for incorporation, and thus the city of Toronto was officially established in 1834.
My hostel was in the Kensington Market neighborhood, a multicultural spot with Victorian row houses and vast outdoor markets. Eclectic doesn't begin to describe the area. All along Spadina Avenue are various Asian markets and vendors selling fresh produce, t-shirts, and phone cases. Most buildings are decorated with massive, colorful murals, and new developments exist alongside historic structures.
Next to Planet Traveler sits St-Stephen-In-The-Fields Church, a Gothic Revival parish church built in 1858. Across the street from it, Toronto Fire Station 315, whose two-story clock tower--built in 1878--is still a prominent sight among the neighborhood skyline.
I started and ended my day touring this neighborhood. In the morning, I walked in the direction of The University of Toronto, whose 180-acre urban campus lies about a mile north of Toronto's downtown financial district.
The most significant structures on campus date from 1858 to 1929. Coming from the southwest, I soon made it to the campus green, whose main building of University College sits at the far end. This building demonstrates a variety of architectural styles, and was declared a Canadian National Heritage Site in 1968. Soldier's Tower, part of that structure, was added later as a memorial to fallen alumni.
It was already a cloudy morning, and once I'd finished meandering the old campus, I started to feel raindrops. Soon after, the rain grew a bit steadier. I decided to keep going, glad I'd thought enough to grab my umbrella from the car before setting off.
As I was taking pictures of the Legislative Assembly Building, I noticed groups of people starting to jog past. When I turned around, I saw that there was a much larger crowd than I could have imagined. I remembered someone in the hostel wearing a marathon number that morning, but really didn't think much of it. A couple minutes later, though, massive waves of runners began passing through the square. I'd stumbled right into the marathon course, and I'd continue to follow it as the morning went on.
From the assembly building, I walked south, towards the downtown high rises and in the opposite direction of the runners. Toronto's downtown felt very much like that of any other large American city. Big banks and hospitals towered over, along with one of Donald Trump's hotels.
A couple of turns later and I found myself in the middle of the City Hall complex, where both the original Toronto City Hall building and the New City Hall, a modern twin-towers design built in 1965. This was also the end point of the marathon, and runners had already started to flood the pavilion.
I'd later find out there were 26,000 people participating in the morning's marathon, or almost the entire population of my college town. Here, that number constitutes about 1% of the population. After stopping at Tim Horton's for breakfast, I headed back to my car, which was about a mile away.
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| Not the actual Tim's I stopped at, but one of the over 4,000 locations worldwide. The chain started in nearby Hamilton, Ontario in 1964, and it's trademark "original roast" is the most popular coffee in Canada. |
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| This museum certainly isn't short on curb appeal. This abstract, angular structure called The Crystal was added in 2007, and now is the main entrance to the museum. It's attached to the original building and eastern wing, which opened in 1933. |
Despite what I'd found in my Youtube research, Toronto is a surprisingly walkable city. If you've got time on your hands, you can see most of downtown and quite a few interesting neighborhoods in a morning. When I got back to the car, I decided I'd drive to the Royal Ontario Museum, which is on the north end of the university complex.
ROM is a fairly unique establishment, both in its exterior appearance and in its function. What they've done is mixed a natural history museum with world culture, including art and artifacts from around the world. It's Canada's largest museum, and attracts more than one million visitors a year.
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| Actors dressed in Greek military gear give a demonstration in Samuel Hall |
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| The Byzantine-inspired rotunda at Royal Ontario Museum. The ceiling is adorned with glass mosaic tiles, and in the center reads "That all men may know his work," taken from the book of Job in the Old Testament. 16 surrounding symbols in the mosaic represent Mediterranean, American, Asian, and European cultures. |
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| Four totem poles adorn the main staircase. Carved from red cedar, these Nisga'a and Haida people's poles range from 33 to 81 feet in height. These poles came from the coast of British Columbia, and were constructed between 1840 and 1910. |
Downstairs, there's a gallery of Chinese architecture, the largest collection of such outside of China. Around 200 artifacts from 300BC to 1900 AD are on display, including a reconstruction of a Chinese Imperial palace and several tombs.
In the accompanying wing, the museum houses a collection of Chinese and Korean sculpture. 14 large freestanding sculptures, most depicting Buddha and other deities represent over 2000 years of Chinese sculpture. Every classic medium is represented: wood, marble, brass, and ceramic.
Moving upstairs, the next gallery I encountered was the Samuel European Gallery. The central theme of the gallery is "European Style Through the Ages," and it contains over 4,600 objects mostly presented in home life displays.
More specifically, the gallery follows the progression of living standards for different families in Europe from the middle ages to the 20th century. During this time, innovations in agriculture, social standards, economies, and industry changed how Europeans lived, worked, and spent their leisure time.
At one point in the gallery, an audio tape told me how work and leisure standards changed with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. It was around this time that the 40 hour work week became standard; before this both children and adults would work grueling shifts of more than 12 hours a day. With this newfound free time, the notion of the vacation was introduced, and beaches became leisure destination. It was also around this time that movies, music, and other forms of entertainment began growing in popularity.
By the time I'd explored my galleries of interest, it was early afternoon, and I decided I'd try to squeeze in one more sightseeing attraction in an already full day. Thankfully, the rain had stopped, and I navigated my way by car to Casa Loma.
Located in an otherwise quiet neighborhood. Casa Loma is a gothic revival style home commissioned by Henry Pellatt in 1911. Pellatt is most notable for bringing hydroelectricity to Toronto through early investments. Casa Loma, which took three years to build after being delayed by World War I, was the largest home in Canada at the time it was built.
300 workers built the 98-room mansion on what was then a rural tract of land outside of Toronto. Soon after its completion, Pellatt started feeling the strain of maintaining the massive residence. He made several real estate investments, ultimately unsuccessful, and had to sell $1.5 million worth of his art collection to make the payments.
But that wasn't enough to save his dream home. Pellatt was hit hard by the Great Depression, and soon property taxes on his mansion rose to astronomical levels. In 1923, only nine years after it was constructed, Pellatt left Casa Loma, moving to his farm house in King City, north of Toronto.
Afterwards, Casa Loma operated for a short time as a luxury hotel, becoming a popular prohibition-era party spot for Americans. This life was hard on the building, though. Run down, it was eventually seized by the city of Toronto in 1933. During World War II, the house was used as a hub for sonar research, and in 1997 finally underwent a 15-year, $33-million restoration.
The crowds at Casa Loma were immense, and after snapping a few pictures, I decided it wasn't worth the $22 admission to keep fighting them. Instead, I walked around the building, which is perched on a hill overlooking greater Toronto. I circled the neighborhood, walking down the Baldwin Steps in Spadina Park, then back up the hill and into the surrounding neighborhood.
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| Part of the original estate, but now separate from the mansion are the stables, which served as the secret headquarters of the Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee during World War II. |
After a full day in Toronto, I checked into a downtown hotel, got a pizza, and prepared for the next day. Day four would involve driving from Toronto to Ottawa, the capital of Canada, and onwards to Montreal, where I'd spend the night.
Roll on over to Day Four, where I head to Ottawa and Montreal.
Keep scrolling for more photos from Toronto.
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