Day 42: Toronto / Niagara Falls

📍 Location: Toronto, Ontario, CA

My four days in Toronto have been a blast. In general, my time in Canada has been a blast. After Montreal it was hard to believe that it would be that great anywhere else, but luckily in Toronto there was Jasper from Germany. I read somewhere that chance encounters are what keep us going. And by traveling I found out that I couldn’t agree more. We were staying in the same room in the hostel and got along very well immediately, so we’ve spend the days in Toronto together. Breakfasts at Wanda’s Pie in the Sky, then walking/biking around the city a little bit and in the evening going out to eat ramen, Persian food or lots of sushi before we went to a bar to get some drinks.

We also did a trip together to the Niagara Falls. We drove up there in Jasper’s rental car, wearing stupid touristic shirts, singing along the songs from the playlist that we’d put together and eating out of the bag filled with snacks. After a 90 minute drive we arrived at the waterfalls - they’re beautiful but to be honest a bit overrated - and I drove us back home. It was a good day. I can only hope that my upcoming adventures will be as good as this one.

So yeah, my time in Canada has been filled with good memories. I’ve really began to love this country. And compared to New Yorkers with whom I have surrounded myself for four weeks, the Canadians seem almost from another planet.

Good example: when I went doing my laundry in New York a few weeks ago, I forgot to correctly put the cap on the detergent which caused a full bottle of laundry detergent to empty in my bag.. I know, i know, how clumsy can you possibly be? There was soap everywhere. My phone and wallet were literally swimming in a puddle of soap.

And no one seemed to think: hmm well, that girl and all of her stuff are covered in soap now, maybe she could use a hand. No, don’t count on it. Nobody cares in New York. When I asked the guy who worked there for a paper towel to clean up my stuff, he looked at me and literally gave me one paper towel. Just one. What a dick. Yes, thanks for the help. That will help me to clean up two liters worth of soap. Make sure that you’re not doing too much in this world. No good karma points for you there man.

And then there’s Canada. The people are so nice, so friendly, so generous. The people with whom I stayed with Couchsurfing in Montreal and Ottawa represent the Canadian spirit for me. I literally had to pinch myself when someone held a door for me, when I entered a store and the cashier greeted me instead of giving me a withering gaze, when I asked directions to someone and they pulled out their phone in the pouring rain and made sure that I would arrive at my destination.

What a nice country. And the minimum drinking age is 18+ instead of 21+, which makes me love Canada even more. Hopefully I can surround myself with these kinds of people again soon.