Toronto was the last stop on our one month North America trip in summer 2016. Though it’s only been a bit over three month that we were there it already feels like an eternity away.
The other day when I was feeling this distinct ping of pain because I am here in my hometown and not somewhere else exploring and having an adventure I flipped through my travel journal and couldn’t stop giggling to myself with the memory of this one day in Toronto. So I thought it would be a fun idea to share this day with you.
7.00 am – I am waking up tired. I don’t know why but I am tired all the time these days. I still drag my body out of bed and retreat to the couch of the airbnb living room. It’s the last full day on vacation and I’ll be doomed if I waste a precious minute. As usual I scroll through my social media, catch up with a few blog posts and also pity myself a bit that in two days time I shall be at the office again.
7.30 am – I am done stalking and so I decide it’s time for Stefan to get up. As always he’s pleased by my early morning enthusiasm and is grunting something that I interprete as ‘I couldn’t love you more’ while he rolls out of bed. He’s such a sweetheart!
7.45 am – As we have plenty of peaches left from our shopping haul in Niagara-on-the lake I make oatmeal with peaches for breakfast. Meanwhile the man gets us coffee.
8.30 am – My early morning enthusiasm dissolves into deadly laziness. Stefan makes good use of the washer and dryer and washes all our clothes. So we won’t come home with too much laundry. Meanwhile I sit on the couch and surf on the internet. We’re a good team. As in the German acronym for TEAM: Toll, Ein Anderer Machts. Loosely translated it means: great, someone else takes care! That makes me giggle. He asks what is so funny but I can’t tell him. He would for sure get mad at me and thus demand my help.
9.45 am – We’re finally dressed, have packed the bags and peed once again before we leave the house. There’s a kitchen supplier around the corner and I need new food props because I am running critically low on cute bowls.
10.45 am – We have shopped the absolute necessities and are ready to tackle the day. But first we quickly go back to the airbnb, drop off the bowls and stuff and pee again. Our family is infamous for their small bladders and when you mention it we all get offended.
11.15 am – We walk down Church Street, chat about everything and nothing at all and grab a quick coffee we share on the go. We have a table reservation at 1 pm so we have to kill some time till then. We decide to do that at St. Lawrence Market.
12.00 pm – I get a freshly pressed juice with a lot of ginger because I am hipster healthy freaking love ginger. We also shop some pastries for later.
12.30 pm – We arrive at the Destillery District – my favorite part of the little I have seen of Toronto. We wander around a bit and I soak up as much as I can. The sun is pretty hot by now and my feet hurt already. So I am looking forward to sitting down soon.
01.00 pm – We arrive at El Catrin and I love it. The decoration is so nice. I love the colors and the spicy smell of hot food. I am even cool with sitting in the blazing sun and dealing with our fake-friendly waitress because I am happily sipping on a giant margarita.
01.15 pm – Our mortar of guacamole arrives and I am in heaven. They make it freshly at the table and I eat most of it just with a spoon. Stefan eats half a fish taco before he realizes it’s not the chicken sandwich he had ordered. But fortune favors fools and he gets his sandwich on top of his free fish tacos. Our waitress is even more fake friendly than before. I can’t be bothered. I am stuffing my face silly with guacamole and whatever I had as a main dish. The guacamole has taken over my brain. Some might blame the margaritha on a pretty empty stomach but there’s surely no evidence for that!
02.00 pm – We roll out of the restaurant. Happy but in pain. I haven’t challenged the boundaries of my stomach like that in quite some time. Walking is painful and so we decide to have an espresso to support digestion. Judging from how I feel like I’d need half a liter of espresso to make that happen. We sit down at a little café, order the coffee and then just sit there a bit in the shadow, cool down and enjoy the nice surroundings. We don’t talk much – we’re busy digesting!
3.00 pm – We have two hours left until we have to meet up for our Toronto Island Bike Tour so we stroll through downtown taking pictures and avoiding any idea of food. It’s a pretty hot day and we try to stay in the shadows. Toronto is a beautiful city and we look forward to exploring the islands later. We retreat to a Starbucks for a much needed pee free wifi our afternoon caffein fix.
4.30 pm – On our way to the bike tour, we get lost, find the right way again and finally arrive at the meeting point for our Toronto Island Twilight Tour. The day before we had been on a beer tour just us and the guide. This time our tour group is considerably bigger. Besides us there is one other girl.
5.30 pm – We fill in the waivers, get our bikes and helmets and practice a little in the underground car park. I am not a great biker. And I am a granny and need a backpedal break. Of course these bikes have none. The guide explains the basic rules of Toronto downtown rush-hour traffic and off we go.
5.45 pm – I ride a bike in a big city. In traffic. Without having a backpedal brake. But it’s actually really fun. I almost get run over by another biker and a car gets pretty close to me but I cling to the promise that our ride through the city would be a mere 10 min before we arrive at the ferry terminal.
6.20 pm – After a quick ferry ride we arrive at the islands and start exploring. This is so much nicer than biking in the city even though my butt hurts a bit already. We stop at different viewing points, get to know information about the islands and the city and have a good time.
7.30 pm – My butt really hurts.
8.00 pm – We stop at the beach to watch the sunset over the city skyline. It’s breathtaking. I am a little sad because we will have to leave the next day. But the view is amazing and we are very lucky to have brilliant weather. We also eat our pastries for dinner. The evening couldn’t be better.
8.30 pm – I need to pee but we have to hurry to get the next ferry back to the city. The terminal is absolutely overcrowded and there is no chance to get on the ferry. There is also no chance to leave the queue to go to the restroom. We are trapped.
9.45 pm – After a loooooooong time waiting for the next ferry to arrive and a short journey back to the parking garage we are finally back. The whole building is closed already and there is no chance to go pee anywhere. I am dying! We start walking back home in a slightly faster pace than usual. It’s not the time to dawdle.
09.55 pm – We finally find a Starbucks and while I basically run straight to the toilet I try to explain the barista that we’ll be out in a minute and are well aware that they close in less than 5 min. Stefan meanwhile buys alibi orange juice.
10.00 pm – I sip orange juice while we walk home. We’re both pretty done. The lit up city is very beautiful. I do like Toronto a lot.
The feet hurt, the butts hurt and we’re both still/ again pretty full. We find a bottle of wine on the way and end the last full day of our trip on our airbnb couch. Even though we are not even back at home my wanderlust is kinda painful already again!
My bladder can relate to yours a little too well. It doesn’t help we consume so many liquids either between the coffee, the booze and the juice. Small price to pray for refreshments.
I’m glad you had a lovely time in Toronto. It’s a beautiful city.
yeah, you need to stay hydrated, right 😉
I really enjoyed Toronto. Not as much as I enjoyed Cleveland though 🙂
Ahh this is awesome (besides the painful bladder thing… that’s never fun in the moment). I’ve never eaten at El Catrin – but now that I know they make their guac at the table!? Um, what!?? I’ll watch out for the dippy waitress though.
I’ve always had some sort of “interesting” experience when on the Island. Usually it involves a very panicked run back to the ferry, or missing the ferry, or getting lost, or nude beach surprises… it’s never been a dull time. Glad you got out there so you could see that Toronto isn’t all cement and angry business people. That’s what I cringe at most when people say they don’t like Toronto. There’s actually a lot of green spaces and beautiful hiking paths that people just don’t know about. Also glad you spent the day in the Distillery and St. Lawrence area. Its a unique part that not many people get to – even of those who live here.
What area did you end up finding an Air BB in?
The guac was really worth it 🙂 The food in general was really good.
That’s funny because I found Toronto quite green and layed back. And one of the most diverse cities I’ve ever been to. With the beaches, the destillery district, the parks and Kensington Markets (we had Tacos there 🙂 I wouldn’t consider it grey and business-y. I really enjoyed it. And thanks again for all your recommendations!
Our Airbnb was on Charles Street. Pretty close to where Yonge and Bloor cross. It was a really good area to stay.