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After our late departure from Washington we arrived an hour late into Toronto airport, bear in mind we had to be at the hostel for midnight when the reception of our hostel closed, and it was now 11.15. So we frantically grabbed our bags and attempted to work out the best way of getting there. We decided to send half of the group in a taxi and the rest of us, me and 3 of the boys took public transport so that we didn't have to pay for two expensive taxis. We eventually made it to the hostel at 1.45am and went straight to bed.
On Monday it was Sam's 19th birthday, so to celebrate we went to Toronto Zoo. Being in a group of 9, it took forever for everyone to get up, showered and dressed. We eventually left for the zoo at lunchtime in the sweltering heat. Two hours later we arrived, the joy of buses, subways and trams! We then commenced our tour of the zoo, the highlights of the zoo were the gorillas, the polar bears, the white lions (which were honestly adorable), the elephants, the Australasia great barrier reef display, the zebras and penguins. After nearly melting in the heat, we returned to the hostel to get ready for the evening. We then continued Sam's birthday celebrations on our rooftop bar with the most amazing view of downtown Toronto and birthday cake of course. We then head out to a bar down the road from the hostel, called Sneaky Dee's where there is karaoke on that night. A few of the group do some undeniably amazing renditions of Golddigger (Fran and Dom), Rockstar by Nickelback (Sam and Owen) and These boots are made for walking (Alex), unfortunately the bar closed before it was my turn. It was so nice to be able to go out all together for once as the drinking age in Canada is 19, as opposed to 21 in the US.
On Tuesday, we wandered around the famous Kensington Markets and the shops in Chinatown which were right next to our hostel. They were more expensive than I imagined but Dom and I, who somehow lost the rest of the group, still managed to find a good few bargains. Following our mini shopping trip, we walked to the CN Tower, stopping at the local Tim Horton's, a Canadian version of Starbucks on the way, which definitely became our new favourite place. We arrived at the CN Tower since there was a long wait to go to the top of the tower we decided to go on went on the ride simulator and return later to go to the top. The ride simulator had the most bizarre storyline; it was called Himalamazon and was about the creation of a super tree, so we went on the journey of this super tree and got sprayed with water. Needless to say we were all rather disappointed by the ride simulator. Following this we wandered down to the harbour and stumbled upon a place to hire canoes, costing $10 for half an hour. No one really wanted to pay this so we all walked away; however Dom and I were still both really up for it, so the two of us ran back and hired the canoe. It was difficult to row as it was quite windy and there was just the two of us and the guide, but let's face it the guide pretty much did all the hard work. We rowed out into the harbour and stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the amazing views of the Toronto skyline and the sunshine. After that, we met back up with the rest of the group, and then walked the short distance to Rogers Stadium for the baseball game that evening between the Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland. As a group of Brits, we didn't really understand what was going on, actually we had no clue, except that someone was throwing a ball that you had to hit and then you run, but we enjoyed the atmosphere and the experience of seeing a live baseball game. After the game, we returned to the CN Tower and actually went to the top this time. The CN Tower is the only thing I can vaguely remember from when I was last in Toronto when I was 5 years old, so it was a very strange experience to stand on the look-out glass floor which terrified me last time and not be fazed. I also admired the 360⁰ views of Toronto at night.
On Wednesday, we continued using our City Pass which we bought on Monday and gave us access to 5 top sights in Toronto. So on Wednesday we headed to Casa Loma, which is a medieval style castle built in the early 20th century for Sir Henry Pellett, a rich Canadian business and military man. The castle was stunning, as well as the gardens and the views of the city. It was hard to imagine that people actually would have lived there and we all decided we wanted to move in. After the castle we went to the Royal Ontario Museum, which was massive, so we decided to only see the exhibits we were really interested in. These were the Chinese and Japanese one, the exhibit on the settlement of Canada by the English and French, the dinosaur exhibit and finally the Ancient Egyptian exhibit where there was actually a mummy on display. After our long intellectual and cultured day, we returned to the hostel and prepared to go on the bar crawl which the hostel organises every Wednesday night. It was a really fun night but the drinks were so expensive and there was torrential rain so we ended the night early.
On Thursday, we finished off our City Pass by going to the Ontario Science Centre. The Science Centre, although it was interesting it was absolutely packed and full of kids so it was very hard to actually do anything there. We did see a Space Academy show in which we got saved by a group of alien invaders, it was definitely for kids. Then we wandered around the space exhibit and an exhibit on why all people are different, and what is truth. It was just far too busy to enjoy, so we left and went downtown the Eaton Centre, which has to be one of the largest shopping malls I have ever been in (and I have been in many). Whilst there, our friend Sam got scouted by Elite, a top model agency, which was very exciting for us all. I was literally in shopping heaven there, I felt right at home wandering around Pink, Victoria's Secrets, Mac, Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister and many more. After spending a small fortune, we walked back to the hostel. That evening we had a very chilled night and just spent the evening relaxing on the rooftop.
The next day, the group had decided to go to Niagara Falls, as I have been before and very recently I decided I didn't want to go. It was really nice to just have a day to myself, I set off in the morning and walked to downtown Toronto, and wandered down Yonge Street (the central street) towards Dundas Square which reminded me so much of Times Square. I then continued my shopping spree from the day before, picking up a few essential items. After again spending a small fortune I walked back to the hostel, met up with the others and we all went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner.
Saturday, was our final morning, we packed up and headed to the airport, went through US Immigration and Customs. Unfortunately one person had a few problems getting through for no reason whatsoever but all was fine in the end, so we boarded our Air Wisconsin flight and flew back to the USA.
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