Our long trip: 1. Toronto, Canada
We only had a two-day stopover in Toronto, which got off to a somewhat complicated start. We were originally supposed to arrive there on August 20, on a direct flight from Prague. But… just before our departure, Air Canada cabin crew announced a strike. And even though we hoped until the last minute that our flight would eventually take off, we received an email the evening before departure informing us that our flight had been canceled. What a great start! So we spent Monday and Tuesday trying to call the Air Canada hotline and get our flight rebooked. We will probably never forget the Air Canada hotline’s hold music… Finally, on Tuesday afternoon, we managed to get through (unlike many other unlucky people, as we later read). The only possible flight until the end of the week was on Wednesday morning — but from Munich.
Fortunately, our parents were willing to drive us to Munich, so we left home at 2 a.m. on Wednesday and flew out of Munich at 9 a.m. Instead of a pleasant direct flight, we had a layover in Charlotte, USA. There, we were greeted by a long line at border control. When it was our turn and we told the border official that we were not going to stay in the USA, but were only transferring, they immediately lost interest and let us through. An amazingly useful hour-long wait in line. Fortunately, the flight to Toronto was problem-free.
Passing through Toronto airport was a much quicker process than transferring in the US. Fortunately, they have automatic gates for passports with chips, so we didn’t have to wait in line for an official anywhere. After arriving, we were exhausted, so we took an Uber straight to our accommodation. We had a pleasant chat with the taxi driver, complaining about what was happening south of their border and asking how things work in Canada. The accommodation was self-check-in, and we received the room code in advance in a message, so we went straight to bed.
The next day, we found a café for breakfast and took the subway to the center (Union Station). But oops, the subway stopped just before Union and didn’t go any further due to a malfunction on the train in front of us. Fortunately, we stayed at the transfer station, so we still made it with a transfer.
One of the reasons why we liked the stopover in Canada was that we ordered a tent there. A tent from a Canadian company Duston, which is pitched using trekking poles, weighs less than 1 kg and has received nothing but good reviews. It can be bought in Czechia, but for almost double the price, which was more than I was willing to pay for a tent. So we used our stopover in Canada to buy it for cheaper. Our first steps in downtown Toronto led us to the place where we had it delivered (Penguin PickUp). It worked out even better than I expected when I ordered the tent from Czechia a few weeks ago.
We also visited downtown Toronto, City Hall, took a look at the Hockey Hall of Fame (with David Pastrňák’s jersey on display), sat by Lake Ontario, and had lunch in the PATH underground shopping mall.
In the afternoon, we took a bus to Niagara Falls. The bus (Megabus) took much longer than the booking website said it would, but we got there.
Niagara Falls is truly impressive, especially Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. American Falls is a little less spectacular. We skipped the tourist attractions, of which there are many in the area (although we did consider taking a boat ride directly under the falls), as well as crossing the bridge to the American side (one wait at the US border the previous day was enough for us). But even so, we enjoyed the view, especially when it was topped off by a rainbow that appeared over the falls.
We returned to Toronto on the penultimate bus around 11 p.m. and then took the subway back to our accommodation. And here we encountered a slight hiccup: the entry code to the building worked fine, but the code to our room did not. We have no idea why we didn’t notice this the day before—maybe the door was open, or we were too tired, who knows. In any case, our (increasingly desperate) attempts to contact the host were unsuccessful. We were seriously considering spending the night in the hallway wrapped in blankets when, after 40 minutes, the host responded, apologized, and sent us a backup code. Fortunately, it worked, we got into the room, and went straight to bed.
On our second (and last) day in Toronto, we decided to take a trip to the islands in Lake Ontario. So we took the subway to the center, which got stuck again. This time I lost my patience and called an Uber right after getting off the subway. I don’t understand how you can use something so unreliable when you’re in a hurry…
We stored our luggage in a locker at the station and walked to the waterfront, where public ferries ran to the islands. However, we arrived during a break of more than an hour when no ferries were running. We didn’t have much time, as we had to be at the airport in the afternoon, so we were about to give up, but luckily we came across a water taxi right next door. At first, it seemed too expensive, but we found out that it wasn’t so bad (yes, it was a little more expensive for the trip there, but you can use the public ferry for free on the way back). So in the end, we made it to the islands. The view of Toronto from the islands is amazing.
The islands seemed to us like a relaxing zone for the entire Toronto city. There were a lot of people sitting on the grass. Luckily the beach where we wanted to go to was almost empty. So we went to the water at least for a while and so we even managed to swim in Lake Ontario. After swimming and drying off, we took the ferry back to downtown Toronto, picked up our luggage from storage, and headed to the airport by UP train. The train seemed a little expensive to us, but it saved us a lot of time, so we didn’t bother with anything more complicated.
Overall, we really liked Toronto. It is very multicultural, with all kinds of cuisine, friendly people, walkable and clean. Hopefully, we will return to Canada someday.