Toronto is among the world's top international tourist destinations, ranking at 40th place. However my visit to Toronto, which is halfway around the globe from Malaysia, is just as a stopover to Niagara Falls. Don't get me wrong, Toronto is a nice place to visit even though there aren't many must see destinations.
From Toronto Pearson Airport, getting to Downtown Toronto is cheap and easy as the transport system is very good. The Airport Rocket 192 is a public bus which takes you from the airport terminal to Kipling Station. From the station you can hop on to the Bloor-Danforth Line and continue to your destination using the extensive subway, buses and streetcar networks.
We were on our way back from Niagara Falls and our bus stopped at the Bay Street Coach Terminal. The terminal is linked to the Dundas Square through the shopping complex called the Atrium. After checking in at the nearby Bond Place Hotel near Dundas Square, we went for our late lunch at the Urban Eatery, a food court in Toronto Eaton Centre, the largest and busiest shopping centre in Toronto.
The food court is very large and there is a lot of variety of food served. Even though it was 3 pm, the place was still so crowded and we had a hard time looking for a place to sit. We wanted to come back for dinner later at night but were shocked to learn later that the place was closed after a shooting incident which happened there at 6pm . Even the Dundas subway station was closed and we had to take a bus back to Dundas Square instead of taking the Subway. More about the shooting incident later.
For our visit, we only planned to go to St Lawrence Market, CN Tower and take a ferry ride to Toronto Islands. But as it was raining in the evening, we cancelled the ferry trip to the islands. There is supposed to be a nudist beach at Hanlan's Point on the islands but in this cold and wet weather nobody will be going there, clothed or unclothed. So we changed our plans and just walked to the waterfront area after visiting St Lawrence Market and later took a cab to CN Tower.
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| St Lawrence Market |
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| London? No Toronto! |
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| The CN Tower |
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| At the Toronto waterfront |
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| Ferry to Toronto Islands |
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| Lake Ontario and Toronto Islands in the background |
The city's most prominent landmark is the CN Tower which once stood as the tallest free-standing land structure in the world until 2007 when it was surpassed by Burj Khalifa of Dubai.
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| The view from CN Tower |
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| Guess why they are on the floor? Trying to capture great shots on the glass floor of CN Tower! |
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| Not for people with phobia of heights! |
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| If you are brave enough you can try this walk along the edge! |
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| The instructor carefully supervising the "walk" |
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| The towering CN Tower viewed from the base. See the person on the edge? |
Later at night, we found out about the shooting incident. We heard that a gunman opened fire in the crowded food court where we had our lunch 3 hours before. The incident killed one person and seven people were injured in the pandemonium.
