Toronto – the capital of Ontario, known for its iconic skyline, sporting prowess and inspiring arts scene is a magnificent travel destination.
A daunting opportunity yet one that just couldn’t be turned down; through NTU the offer was to study podcasting for a month in Canada.
My previous travel experience can be summed up very quickly – I’ve never travelled on my own before and the other chance through Trent to do a semester abroad I didn’t take so this was a no brainer.
The impressions I had of Canada as a whole was a little America and in reality it felt that way.
The bright yellow school busses (which are horrendously uncomfortable) to the lockers in the school looking like they were straight out of High School Musical – it was almost as if it was exactly like it is on TV.
Joining the trip was exactly like restarting uni all over again – knowing nobody and hoping we became good friends.
Which in classic uni fashion, is precisely how it went after a few drinks.
Classes were what the trip was for, it was a summer school, but as they only ran until 11:30 am, it really allowed us the time to explore the new surroundings and with that being said, here are the main three tourist experiences I would recommend.
Niagara falls: quite possibly the most beautiful natural sight I’ve ever seen as during peak daytime tourist hours, more than 168,000 m3 of water goes over the crest of the falls every minute.
In the boat tour there is nowhere safe as no matter where you stand you are guaranteed to get soaked by the sheer volume of water coming down which, in the 32 degree heat is very much needed.
As beautiful as it looked it did have a feel of home about it as when turning away from the falls and looking behind me there was a look of Blackpool about the area.
The definition of a tourist trap with haunted houses, laser mazes and breweries – the antithesis of the beauty so close to it, yet, it was still very fun to be in this area as there is something for everyone.
Boat Party along Lake Ontario: the more you see this lake the more you can’t believe it isn’t a sea.
It is 7,340 square miles, so big that one person asked if there were any whales in this lake – there are not.
Having a good time with new friends across one of the five great lakes of North America is a dream experience.
Blue Jays game: the Rodgers Centre is a marvel in itself.
The roof opens in 20 minutes to reveal the vast expanse of the Toronto skyline and the iconic CN Tower and under all that is a baseball game.
These games are nothing like English sports.
First of all, there is no away end and people clap when the other team does well which is unimaginable in a Premier League game.
Secondly, between every round there is music and as the teams swap between batting or the pitchers changing, each player gets unique music played for them – this would feel weird if done for a football substitute yet in these American style games it works.
Finally, on the 7th innings for the home team the song ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ is sung by everyone – a truly family friendly and feel good moment – yet if something like this was sung in the 70th minute of the football I can only imagine it being booed out of the stadium.
As different as it is to English sports this isn’t a negative and it was a hugely enjoyable night out – so much so I took my parents a week later.
Another surprise was the fascination with the British accent, something I thought was only seen in movies or trashy telly shows, yet on multiple occasions in bars people came up to me and when hearing how I spoke asked to hear more ‘British things’ because this, for some people was the first British accent they had ever heard in person.
This was a trip of only highs until the last day where people left and many tears were spilled.
Hopefully we stay in contact as everyone agreed it was the best trip they had ever been on.