Southbound to Toronto

This is my reason for Toronto. I took a train from Montreal down to Toronto which was the same price (they have pretty good internet deals) as taking the price and way faster by 2 hours! It was so good to see Derek and Sun again. The last time I saw them was 4 years ago back in Malaysia. Oh, I've missed them Too Much!

Toronto is a pretty cool city. Very young, very vibrant. I loved how they've managed to build around the old houses and the vintage looking street cars was a fun way to get around town. According to Derek, Toronto is city of parks. There was so much green around and it was lovely to walk and cycle for days on end. I loved wandering along Queen's west admiring the street art and funky stores, Yonge street, Chinatown, checking out cute Kensington Market (which kinda reminded me of the markets in Thailand somehow but triple the price!), not forgetting the trendy Distillery District and of course St Lawrence market for all the food you could ever want! One day I even spent a few hours at the ROM (for those who actually know me, there was a heavy downpour on that fateful day. enough said) and was duly surprised by the interesting Mesopotamia exhibition (babylon, assyria, tower of babel).

I think I walked for days, and I every day there was always something new. The thing that I liked most was how everyone was uniquely dressed. The styles ranged from preppy to punk, trendy to conservative. Yet, no rules applied and it didn't seem like anyone cared.

Catching up with Katie, Angie and Mirium whom I hadn't seen for years was one of the highlights of Toronto, other than losing very badly in a game of Catan (which Derek & Sun take very very seriously, hence I was happy to lose). I was also seriously informed that the Torontonians take their beer very seriously. That is a fact.

My big east Canadian Adventure

I arrived in Montreal totally exhausted. That was entirely my fault due to my never-ending excitement of non-stop in-flight entertainment, I spent 12 out of 14 hours of my flight to Toronto with eyes wide open glued to the small screen. All hopes and dreams of not suffering from jetlag totally flew out the window.

This is my second time in Montreal. Due to circumstances I still find this vibrant city a little sad for me. Denise picked me up from the subway station at Henri Bourassa. She is lovely. We talked like I just saw her last week. Nothings changed even though I was last here more than a year ago.

I did manage to get to the city more this year. Manuela and I walked up Mount Royal. It was a beautiful walk and we were blessed with blue skies and sunshine. It was so good to see her and we managed hours of giggly "girly" talk. Its what girls do when we get together. We even managed a trip down to McGill. I've always heard so much about this university. It was as beautiful, classic and elegant as they say.

My favourite part is of course Old Montreal. The small winding cobblestoned streets with small cafes lined side by side illuminated by little streetlights almost brings you back in time. Horse drawn carriages riding along the water at the old port somehow brings back the romance in me. I could just about see gentlemans in tall hats and elegantly dressed ladies stepping out of the carriages to attend a ball. There I had dinner with Magaly. It was good spending some time with her as last year I didn't really have the time amidst all the chaos. She was starting school again, just as I was ending mine.

Somehow this square is similar to Innsbruck, Austria and Bern in Switzerland

In the weekend, Stephane and Manuela brought me to Mont Tremblant. When we got there, we were surprised at the amount of people that was getting there, and belatedly realised that the Iron Man was having a race there. However, undeterred we still decided to go up the mountain. It was a gorgeous hike. We took the hard hike named "The big burnt" (translated directly from French). It was a 3 hour hike up to the peak and well worth the time. I don't know what is it about being at the peak, it always takes my breath away when you get to see just how big and beautiful the world is. There I'm always reminded that no matter how big your obstacles are, they will never be as big as the entire universe. I like that. I am and always will be a mountain kind of person.

The ironic thing is just as the world is so big, it is also small in many ways. After the hike, as I was walking down at the village, I bumped into Janice, Aaron and their newborn baby Winter! Now this is purely coincidental because they live in Niagara Falls with no knowledge that I was in Canada (let alone Montreal). We were so stunned we just screamed! It was such a good coincidence though because the last time I met them was years ago back in Malaysia. Like I said, our world so big yet so small.

I left after a week of spending time with Denise. She's now off on one of her long trip this time to Italy - Africa. I'll miss her. I'm glad I managed to spend some time with her. She's after all like family to me.