canada

MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED
DATE: MAY 17, 2009
PLACE: TUNDRA @ HILTON TORONTO, TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA

It took me awhile, but I finally set foot on Canadian soil for the first time and knocked back a Guinness in Toronto.

Damon and I were in Buffalo, New York for our friend Keith’s wedding, and the three of us (along with new friends John and Steve) spent an afternoon taking photographs on the American side of Niagara Falls. (Okay, the four of them were taking photographs, and I was posing with parrots.) Given that I could clearly see Canada from where I was standing, and that Toronto was a mere 90 minutes away, I just had to hop over the border and cross Canada off my list.

For those of you who are unaware, Niagara Falls is the border between Canada and the United States. There is a healthy amount of debate over which country’s side is best. I now have an answer: the American side is far prettier, but only when viewed from the Canadian side. (The opposite view — looking at Canada from America — is basically a long row of very tall hotels.)

While not related to Toronto, I am obligated to mention that the most amazing buffalo wings ever can be had at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, which — perhaps not coincidentally — is where buffalo wings were first invented. Prior to this trip I thought I didn’t care for wings. I was wrong. It was like they injected butter into the chicken … plain delicious. (NOTE: The Anchor Bar at the airport, despite having the same name, does NOT serve good wings. Go to the real, stand-alone Anchor Bar in downtown Buffalo.)

If you’re in Buffalo for the wings already, you should also try Beef on Weck, a local specialty sandwich that is surprisingly delicious and, more importantly, that I have never seen anywhere else.

The drive from Buffalo to Toronto was uneventful and crossing the border into Canada took about five minutes (on a Sunday afternoon). The line from Canada into America, however, looked really, really long.

Seattle is known for its very pretty Space Needle and I knew Toronto had a CN Tower that was supposed to be even better. I was disappointed to realize the CN Tower looks like an Egg McMuffin on a skewer. Sorry, Canadians.

Seattle’s Space Needle:

Toronto’s CN Tower:

Damon felt I didn’t give the CN Tower a fair shake and convinced me to ride to the top. After paying $30 and waiting on four different lines for a total of nearly an hour, we got in the elevator to the top and looked down. Yawn. The only entertaining part was watching a woman with a fear of heights freak out about the glass floor.

Once it got dark, the CN Tower lit up and became passably more attractive. Still, I do not recommend visiting it.

I typically avoid tourist attractions and planned itineraries in favor of wandering a city and feeling its vibe. Canada didn’t feel any different to me from the U.S. (although Toronto didn’t quite feel like any other city I’ve been in, with the possible exception of Minneapolis), and the only differences (currency aside) I noticed were that the “Walk” sign symbol appears to be doing jumping jacks instead of walking, and only being able to buy beer at The Beer Store is hugely, hugely lame.

We spent the rest of the day wandering Toronto and Damon took a lot of pretty photos while I shivered in the cold. Unfortunately we got there too late (and on a Sunday, to boot) to see much … Kensington Market was basically closed (although we found some really great tapas at Waterfalls and I tried mango lhasi for the first time, which is OM NOM NOM) and so was the Eaton Center by the time we walked there.

Sadly, this was the most boring Guinness to-date. I picked out Fionn MacCool’s as my Irish pub of choice because I liked their website and they were behind my hotel. They were supposed to be open until 11pm, but when we arrived at 9:30 they were closing up. Lame. Cold and tired, we walked back to the Hilton and discovered the hotel bar, Tundra, had Guinness on tap… so we ordered a couple pints and then crashed for the night. The next morning we drove back to Buffalo (this time customs took 20 minutes) and hopped a flight back to Seattle.

As always, thanks to Damon for photographing the trip. Make sure to check out all his photos from Toronto.

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