i hadn't been to see sneha in canada since 2019 so i was thrilled when i asked if i could invite myself up for a week in june and she was free. on my last visit i barely had 20 hours in toronto and wanted to see more of her neighborhood and meet her fri…
i hadn't been to see sneha in canada since 2019 so i was thrilled when i asked if i could invite myself up for a week in june and she was free. on my last visit i barely had 20 hours in toronto and wanted to see more of her neighborhood and meet her friends and get my bearings in the city, and having a week allowed me to see and do a lot without it feeling overly hectic.
thursday.
first of all, i love that the flight from laguardia to toronto is both faster and cheaper than the flight to memphis. i landed on thursday afternoon and caught the up express train from the airport to toronto's union station where sneha met me. we took the subway from there to her neighborhood and walked the few blocks to her building, stopping at the bulk barn on the way to stock up on chocolates for the week.
after some time to settle we walked over to church street so i could see some of the church-wellesley village area before strolling over to cabbagetown to do the same. from there we took the streetcar to chinatown and stuffed our faces with dim sum at rol san. we would have wandered more after dinner but it was raining and we were getting sleepy so instead we made our way home.
friday.
friday morning i took advantage of toronto's incredible weather and went for a mid-morning run which allowed me to see a little more of the neighborhood. sneha was working so after a shower i went for a walk, eventually winding up at yonge-dundas square. i grabbed something to eat at the eaton centre food court and then went home and had a lovely nap.
we began our friday evening at el rey mezcal bar with some of sneha's friends before walking over to mahjong bar. it was so lovely to get to know some of her friends, and both places were fun. once the music at mahjong got too loud for us we went to get well which was maybe my favorite stop because you know i love a good dive bar and especially one that sells slices of pizza. there was a street festival happening outside on dundas street so we had a great time people-watching and wandering through the stalls on our adventures.
saturday.
since friday was a late night we slept in and had a lazy saturday morning while we plotted what we wanted to do with our day. food was the first order of business so we set off for bisou which has delicious sandwiches and pastries and great outdoor seating.
once we had stuffed ourselves we caught the bus downtown to pick up snacks and get the ferry over to "the island" as the locals call it. we chose ward's island for our adventure where we checked out some viewpoints before settling ourselves on the beach. we snacked, we read, we napped, and we generally enjoyed the fresh air and the breeze and eavesdropping on other people's conversations. when we were ready to move again we walked along the boardwalk before meeting up with alina and catching the ferry back to the mainland.
we had a chill saturday evening, grabbing dinner at ajisen ramen and then watching part of the early drag show at the upstairs bar at o'gradys. we were both pretty tired, so during the changeover between shows we made our way home for some couch and reading time.
sunday.
on sunday we invited ourselves over to sneha's aunt and uncle's house in scarborough for lunch so we could have some home-cooked food and watch the india-pakistan cricket match. her aunt and uncle are incredibly sweet and lunch was delicious and i licked my plate clean.
when we got back to the city we grabbed snacks from rooster coffee shop on broadview and sat for some time in riverdale park east. the park sits on a hill and you get a great view of the toronto skyline and we had a lot of company out there enjoying the sunday sunshine.
we rounded out our sunday evening with a swim at sneha's ymca and then watched reruns of new girl and it was excellent.
monday.
on monday i met my friend chris from undergrad for lunch at seven lives taco. the tacos were great and it was lovely to see chris for the first time in i think 21 years and catch up on what we have each been doing. when he returned to work i wandered a little more around kensington market, stopping into blue banana to pick up a souvenir and some postcards.
once sneha finished work we went over to walk through graffiti alley — sneha knows i'm a sucker for street art, and along the alley you'll see everything from basic tags to elaborate murals and i loved it. and it was perfect because it was around the corner from chubby's, our dinner spot for the evening where we got to catch up with jasmine on her one evening in town. [ps the curry goat is most excellent]
tuesday.
while sneha worked on tuesday i had an adventure day with alina and we covered a lot of ground [literally — i had 20,000 steps by the end of the day].
we began our day in greek town with stops in re: reading and book city because alina's love language is also wandering in bookshops. from there we walked down broadview past riverdale park and were figuring out what we wanted to eat when we happened upon completo and took it as a sign it's where we were meant to eat all along. and thank goodness because my churrassco sandwich was excellent.
after lunch we took a streetcar to woodbine beach where we enjoyed a nice leisurely stroll along the boardwalk, stopping for a rest before carrying on to the end. when we circled back around to the street we decided to stop at beaches brewpub for a drink and to rest our feet. from there we took a walk through little india before catching the streetcar home.
sneha had a work event in the evening, so i ate leftovers at home and read until she got back and then we of course watched more new girl episodes before bed.
i wish i could convey to you in words how good this was. toronto, canada. may 2024.
wednesday.
my flight home was late wednesday afternoon and sneha had to work but we used her lunch break to grab an egg sandwich for her from egg club and a sausage and cheese croissant for me from bake code [and omg it was amazing] and enjoy some final time together before i had to leave for the airport.
know before you go:
if you're travelling from the states toronto uses the same 2-pin and 3-pin plugs we do; they also use the same +1 country code
toronto is in the eastern time zone
the currency is canadian dollars but i used my card everywhere and never needed cash except to tip one of the drag queens so i borrowed $5 cad from sneha; as of this writing $1 usd = $1.37 cad
for transit you can get a presto card and reload it in the subway stations or you can use tap-to-pay on all subways, buses, and streetcars [just make sure you're using a card that doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee!]
depending on your phone plan your roaming might automatically apply
when i was there in june it rained intermittently almost every day and i was very glad to have my rain jacket
if you fly to toronto, the airport is in mississauga and the easiest and fastest way to get from there into the city is the up express train which runs every 15 minutes and gets you into downtown in 25 minutes for under $10; for comparison an uber from the airport to downtown will cost around $40-60 depending on time of day and traffic
and that's how i spent my week in toronto. i had a blast and loved how walkable and easily accessible the city is — the food is great, the people are nice, and the weather even in the first and second weeks of june was excellent [it's already *very hot* in nyc in case you couldn't tell].
and above all it was so lovely to spend a full week with sneha, getting to explore her neighborhood and meet her friends and live her life with her for a bit. it's so nice to have one of my bangalore family so close and i hope to make this an annual-ish visit.
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