The adventures of “lionheart” the Nomad Dougal: First Impressions of Downtown Toronto

It is Tuesday, my second day in Toronto. Jacky, who is renting the granny flat, has kindly offered to show me the ropes on how to get from North York (where we live) to Downtown Toronto. I am excited, - it's the little things in life!

Downtown Toronto is laid out in a grid, so quite easy to get around without getting lost. A map helps though...

We take the bus to Finch Street Station - you need either tokens or exact cash, which you throw into a box on the bus. By the way, public transport is cheap - a single token all the way into town by bus and metro only costs C$3.00. They don't have zones here - it all costs the same. If you buy weekly or monthly tickets etc, it's even cheaper...

Jacky leaves me at Eaton Centre (the biggest shopping mall downtown). I happily wonder around all afternoon taking in everything around me. The first thing I see upon exiting the Eaton Centre is 'The Hard Rock Cafe'! My brother Michael collects Hardrock t-shirts from around the world!

In the foodcourt, there is a juicebar (hurray, the Canadians are healthy!!!). There is a 'market place' where you can buy fresh food and drinks. Me, being the last big spender, I buy a large cup of tea and a muffin for C$2.60 incl. tax. Soo cheap! I was actually tossing between the hotdog (they have hotdog stands everywhere in the streets) and the muffin. I discovered they also sell 'mild' German and Polish sausages, so next time I definately have to try one (for C$3-4.00). Soo cheap!

Wow - fresh fruit and vegetables....

There is also a coffeeshop culture, yes, they do have Starbucks, BUT they also have plenty of other cafes everywhere. I feel so much at home here, it really reminds me a lot of Sydney - lots of similarities, still different.

People are 'normal', not excessively, artificially friendly, just 'normal'.

AND... people bycicle!!! Even downtown! AND.. you can hire a bycicle for C$5.00 for 24 hours, what a bargain. From the 'Tourism Toronto' website: "

Plenty of Toronto’s major streets have bicycle lanes nearest the curb. Please respect cyclists in the city – they’re environmentally friendly!"

I love it!

Public transport consists of bus, metro and streetcars (downtown). And a few different tourist buses.

Downtown you have a lot of quite boring, grey looking highrises. However, in-between there are some old buildings, which are quite beautiful. Some contrast. And lots of inner city living....