An opportunity to experience a piece of Canada

A little bit of background

I spent three weeks in Toronto in July-August 2022 as part of my role as the Global Education Manager for an international travel assistance company. The organisation assisted travellers in emergency situations from the help number listed in their travel insurance policy. The organisation I worked for was owned by a large insurance firm and it provided travel assistance to a number of other insurers and organisations.

After almost 25 years in academia, I made the big leap into the corporate world in 2021, taking on a newly-created role at a time when the business was planning to uplift their staff training in preparation for the post-pandemic return to travel. I was based at the command centre in Brisbane. The term 'command centre' sounds very fancy, but it essentially means an operations centre, as the organisation's mission is to assist travellers with emergencies who have insurance policies that are associated to it. I remember when my daughter came to visit me at work once, she commented that the place looked like a newsroom.

The organisation also had a command centre in Toronto with plans underway to set up a new centre of operations in London. I had already been to London earlier in the year, and was to head to Toronto to spend three weeks with my Canadian Trainer, AA.

This post is the second in a series of a four that documents my travel experiences as the Global Education Manager for an international travel assistance company during 2022 and 2023. You can read my reflections on what the Toronto trip meant to me at the end of this post. The first post covers my first 2022 London trip. After Toronto, I went back to London twice, at the end of 2022 and again in 2023.

Travelling to Toronto

This was my first trip to Canada so I was thrilled to have the chance to see just a little piece of the country. That said, the trip to Toronto was long and gruelling, despite the advantage of flying business class. I had to fly from Brisbane to Sydney then to San Francisco before the final leg to Toronto.

I left Brisbane on a Virgin fight to Sydney ay 6am on Friday 22 July and had a couple of hours once I landed to switch over to the international airport for my United Airlines flight to San Francisco. I arrived in SFO early the next morning but didn't depart for Toronto until the evening.

If I recall correctly, my layover was 10 hours. I had fully intended to catch a train into the city and spot the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time, but once I arrived in SFO, I just didn't have it in me to leave the airport. I kind of regret it now, but at the time I was anxious about travelling into the city on my own and getting back on time for the next flight.

I managed to fill the time in just fine, working for a bit in the business class lounge then wandering around the airport people-watching before I boarded the third flight. At the risk of sounding like a privileged twat, the United Airlines and Air Canada business class seats were nowhere near as good as Qatar, whom I'd flown with to London in April. Still business class, though!

I was completely exhausted by the time I finally arrived in Toronto at 1.30am on Saturday 23 July. I'd booked a hotel right next to the airport to get a few hours' sleep before making my way to the Airbnb condo I was staying in for the duration of my visit. I didn't fancy trying to find the place in the dark even though that meant only a few hours in the hotel.

I was quite discombobulated when I arrived, so staying in the airport hotel proved to be a good move. Actually, I was so disoriented I nearly followed a dodgy cab driver from the arrivals hall to his car. Fortunately an airport security guy intervened, told me the cab was bogus, and directed me to the proper taxi line. Man, I felt stupid. The poor proper cab driver only got a few dollars out of me, though, as the hotel was literally right next to the airport. Oh, well.

I fell into a deep sleep after I got to my room. I can scarcely remember anything of the hotel other than the bed was comfortable. I woke up around 9am so I'd actually had a decent sleep, although I still felt a bit out of it. I've done plenty of long haul flights before, but the long layover in San Francisco at the early morning arrival in Toronto really threw me.

My first weekend in Toronto

I caught an Uber to the condo mid-morning. I'd missed the breakfast service in the hotel, but my body wasn't sure what time it was anyway. I'd come from winter, and it was a slight shock to the system to switch to warm weather.

The condo was in a building on the corner of two busy streets on the western side of the city. I found the address easily but couldn't find the right apartment. I wandered around in a daze for a bit until a woman holding a baby came out of one of the apartments and realised who I was. She and her partner own the Airbnb and live in a condo on the other side of the building. I'd been given the wrong apartment number (121 instead of 112, or something like that) so I was glad she was around to put me straight.

Here are some shots of the condo building to give you an idea of what I mean. The building is dwarfed by other taller apartment buildings that surround it. You can see the city in the background of the bottom left hand shot. Very cool.

The condo worked out to be around $200AUD per night. That's about the same as a hotel, but I had no ground transportation costs as the condo was a 5-minute walk from the office. I bought groceries for the most part, other than a few lunches. I'm a pretty cheap date seeing as I prefer to cook my own food 😉.

The place was perfect for me and I was so grateful that I could stay there rather than in a hotel in the city. I loved staying in the condo, and it really did feel like home for those three weeks.

The downstairs had a small kitchen and a living area with a desk where I could work. Upstairs there was a decent bathroom and a nice big comfy bed in a double-aspect room. I felt safe staying there, knowing the owner was close by and I was in a residential area away from the city centre.

I couldn't find the washing machine at first. Turns out it was in the cupboard in the bedroom, the door for which can be seen on the right side of the photo at the bottom of this collection.

It was early afternoon by now and all I wanted to do was sleep, but I forced myself to keep going for the rest of the day. I went for a short walk and found a Starbucks right across the street where I had a toasted sandwich for a late lunch. I then went to the city market on the other corner of the intersection near the condo to stock up on groceries.

Browsing in supermarkets in foreign countries is one of my favourite things to do. Two things struck me right off the bat: the food labels in French and English and the cost of groceries. I thought food was expensive in Australia, but Toronto was next level!

I think the market I went to was an expensive one so I didn't buy much from there for the rest of my stay. I took a walk further west and found more supermarkets that were cheaper. I also wandered down to the office so I would know where to go on Monday. I somehow managed to stay awake long enough to crawl through to an early dinner. Honestly, the trip from Brisbane had really taken it out of me and I was so glad I was going to have Sunday to ease into things.

King West Village: My home and place of work while in Toronto

Surprisingly I felt fine on Sunday but it helped that I'd had a good night's sleep. I set off in the morning to walk into the city centre. Toronto is very walkable as it's flat and there's a grid of main streets that make it fairly easy to navigate. I got onto Queen Street West, only a short walk from the condo, and just followed it all the way into the city. The walk was about 40 minutes, shown on the below map.

It might have been travel fatigue, but I felt slightly overwhelmed when I first set out to walk into the city. There was something about the vibe on Queen Street West that made me feel a bit uneasy. There are marijuana shops dotted along the street and that might have done it! I felt fine once I made it to the main shopping area and found myself surrounded by people.

Here's a selection of shots from my city wanderings. I love that the buildings in Toronto are a mix old and new, blending Victorian and Georgian buildings with modern designs of glass and steel.

The Toronto Sign is pretty cool, too. It sits 3 metres tall and 22 metres long in Nathan Phillips Square. Those dimensions don't include the maple leaf after the last O, added in 2016 to mark the 150th anniversary of Canadian confederation, and the medicine wheel adjacent to the first T, added in 2018 to represent Canadian First Nations peoples.

The bronze sculpture in the middle right photo was made by American sculptor, Tom Otterness. It is titled Immigrant family and stands 3 metres tall. The figures have water flowing from their hands and backpacks which I understand is meant to symbolise the challenges and resilience of newcomers navigating a new life.

The shopping centre in the top right hand photo is the CF Toronto Eaton Centre, housing shops and offices in the heart of the city. It is North America's busiest shopping malls when commuters and tourist traffic is taken into account, as it sits on top of two subway stations. I had a wander around and bought a couple of Old Navy t-shirts (not packed, thinking it would be cooler than it was) and a delicious frozen yoghurt. I spotted this in the shopping centre, too: a Cake boss cake dispensing machine!

My city centre wanderings gave me my first glimpses of the famous CN Tower. I was looking forward to going up the iconic Tower the following weekend. I walked back to my condo later in the day along the Gardiner Expressway, the grey road you can see at the bottom of the above map. I walked about 10km that day and was pretty had it when I got back to the condo. I needed a rest then to prepare myself to start work the next day.

The work part of my trip

I worked in Toronto for three weeks. This was my first opportunity to work in person with AA, the Canadian Trainer in my fledgling global education team. I'd selected AA as an internal hire as the first member of my team a year earlier but had only ever interacted with him via video conferencing. I was super excited on day 1 (and a little nervous, if I am honest) to meet AA in person. We spent most of the three weeks holed up in one of the conference rooms while I learnt more about Canadian operations from AA and AA learnt about learning design from me. We started working on redesigning the induction training program and I had the chance to sit in on an all-day training session that AA facilitated. We got on really well and the in-person time cemented our working relationship.

I met some of Canadian team but this was the tail end of the pandemic and most of the staff was still working from home. That's pretty much all I am going to say about the work side of things. I know I was new to the corporate world, but my experience with the company had a lot of ups and downs. I did learn a lot about what matters to me professionally and I'll always be grateful for the opportunity the role gave me.

Some other good bits: I did enjoy working at the command centre in King West Village on King Street West as the space was rather fancy. Some of the team came in on my first day in the office and we had yummy Thai for lunch. By and large, AA and I were the only ones in the office, but it was still nice to see everything in person and gain a better understanding of the Canadian side of things, at the time quite different to the Australian operation. I had been working with the digital team remotely and AA and I went for pizza with two of them one day when they came into the office. I had fish tacos at dinner one evening when the CEO was visiting from Sydney and took us all out.

These were my pre-vegetarian days although I was really only eating fish and chicken at this point!

It had been a productive three weeks, but also a tiring one. I was still maintaining my global role, so there were lots of late night meetings with Australia and the putting out of fires. Being in a constant state of alert is not a way I like to work.

This is AA and me, on my last day. I was actually rather sad to say goodbye to him 🥲.

My second weekend in Toronto: Niagara Falls

I was beyond excited to have the chance to experience Niagara Falls while I was working in Toronto. I booked a bus ticket for my second Saturday that I think was about $30AUD for the round trip. I took the bus from Union Station terminal around 8am and returned around 4pm. The below maps give you an idea of the journey - a bit over 2 hours skirting Lake Ontario to the south to Niagara Falls (the town) and then down to the Falls themselves.

i was so excited as we pulled away from the Niagara Falls (town) bus terminal and headed to the Falls. The first thing I noticed was all the hotels and casinos on the road leading to the Falls. I guess that wasn't surprising given the popularity of the Falls.

This is what you see first, as the Falls aren't visible until you get right on top of them. This shot shows the hotels and casinos and Skylon Tower (right side of the photo) from the American side.

Source of image noted

If you ignore the hotels and casinos, it's rather breathtaking to be suddenly greeted by the sight of the iconic Falls. They're massive and just as impressive as I was expecting.

There are actually three falls:

1. American Falls, a 286-metre-wide flattish waterfall on the US side.

2. Bridal Veil Falls, a 13-metre-wide waterfall to the immediate south of American Falls on the US side.

3. Horseshoe Falls, the semi-circular 823-metre-wide horseshoe-shaped waterfall on the Canadian side. These falls are also called the Canadian Falls and the falls most people probably associate with Niagara.

The whole shebang is an absolutely magnificent sight, of course, but the tacky tourist stuff and theme-park vibe aren't really my thing. That said, there's loads to do besides just stare at the water, especially if you have plenty of money to spend. It's really up to you as to how much time you think you'll need and how much your visit will cost. I managed to fill the whole day up, but I could probably have taken an earlier bus back to Toronto. The last couple of hours I spent wandering up and down the viewing areas, and just chilling and people-watching. It was a long day for me as I also walked to and from the central bus station - about 4km each way.

I was expecting it to be busy, and it was, but it was also a glorious summer Saturday and that alone would have drawn the crowds. My suggestion is to get there early if you can! A good place to start is the Table Rock Visitor Centre. There's a food court-type area in the centre and a cool (and huge) gift shop. Tickets for the attractions can be purchased at the Centre. I had a lovely time browsing in the gift shop before it got too busy. (I just love browsing in gift shops even if I don't really buy much.) I bought a cool t-shirt and photographic print of the Canadian Falls in autumn.

I've worn the t-shirt a bit and the print is coming off, but I kind of like the artsy vibe to it now.

I returned to the Centre later and braved the crowds and the long lines for my sandwich lunch. I didn't take a photo of the Visitor Centre but I have included a shot below from its website. It's in a great spot, as the photo shows.

This collage also shows the absolutely delicious maple ice cream that I ate while watching the zip line riders after lunch.

All the travel tips will tell you that Niagara Falls is best viewed from the Canadian side and I can see why. The Canadian side provides three 'sections' to explore, all affording their own unique perspective on the Falls. At the top end near the main car park - in the quieter space away from the Visitor Centre, the crowds, and the rides - is the horseshoe perspective. I honestly stood at this part of the Falls for ages, unable to quite comprehend the power of the water. It's a magnificent sight, my photos barely doing justice to my experience.

On the other side of the car park, even further away from the crowds, is the Niagara Power Station. I decided to do one paid activity during my visit and a colleague in the Toronto office suggested I explore the Power Station. I'm glad I took her advice! At the time of writing this post, entry tickets were $32CAD but that includes admission to the Power Station and The Tunnel experience.

The Niagara Power Station is a super interesting museum, the kind that I love as it tells a story. The museum provides an historical narrative around the history of hydropower and the feats of engineering developed by Nikola Tesla. The power station operated from 1905 until 2006, diverting water from the Falls to run giant generators that provided electricity to industry in the area and to the city of Buffalo. The museum opened in the decommissioned hydroelectric power station in July 2021.

The top left hand shot is taken from the Power Station website. The other two in the collage are mine.

The best part of the power station experience, though, is The Tunnel, only opened a few weeks before my visit. The original tunnel is around 120 years old. It took four years to build and once carried 270 0000 litres of water from the Falls, hewn out of the rock by workers using lanterns, pickaxes, shovels and dynamite.

Source of image noted

The Tunnel is 55 metres under the power station and 670 metres out to the viewing platform. The first part of the journey is taken using a glass elevator, past six levels of engineering infrastructure that was built to generate hydropower. Below are the photos I took as I wandered along the tunnel. Very cool.

An incredible view of the Falls can be seen once you emerge from the tunnel. The main photo seen here gives a fabulous perspective of the viewing platform. It's the closest you can get to the Falls without doing the Maid of the Mist boat ride. I could feel the spray on my face as I stood in awe of the powerful water. The second shot below is one I took, showing the perspective looking back up the cliff.

Source of main image noted

I took loads of shots while I stood on the viewing platform and was fortunate to watch a Maid of the Mist boat travel into the Falls and turn around to head back to the dock. I could have stood there for ages! A guy standing next to me offered to take my photo and he did a good job of it, I reckon. As a sidebar, as soon as he heard my accent, he wanted to know all about Australia. Ha!

Here are some other perspectives on the Falls. As I noted above, there are lots of different spots to view them and from different angles. There's a path that snakes along the whole Canadian bit down to Rainbow Bridge (that crosses the Falls to the American side) and it's a fair walk from end to end. The top right hand shot below was taken from the street that runs alongside the Canadian side of the Falls, Niagara Parkway.

These are three of my favourite shots from my huge collection taken on the day. I love the one showing the Maid of the Mist boat approaching the massive spray, its red colouring standing out against the water and mist. The top right hand shot shows the mist up close, and the bottom righthand shot was taken from where I spent most of my day, fascinated by the huge body of water flowing over the top of the horseshoe.

I'll finish this part of my Toronto trip with a collection of my terrible selfies. I'm woeful at taking them but I just had to capture myself in the photos to document my experience. It truly was a bucket list item ticked off and I will never forget my day at Niagara. The incredible display of Mother Nature's power literally blew me away. I would say it's 100% worth the trip out to the Falls, especially since the bus is easy to use and cheap. You can spend your time just taking in the incredible sight of the Falls, or spend a heap of money and time on the attractions.

My second weekend in Toronto: The CN Tower

On the Sunday of my second weekend in Toronto I experienced another iconic site: the CN Tower. Here are some fab shots I took of the Tower the previous morning when I walked by on my way to catch the bus to Niagara Falls.

I walked to the Tower from the condo and back again (around 2.5km each way) on another beautifully warm and sunny day. If you think the Tower looks high, that's because it is! The Tower stands just over 553 metres and is the world's 10th tallest free-standing structure on land. The antenna on top is longer than a football field and apparently gets struck by lightning on average 75 times per year. The Tower also actually sways in the wind! Here's my favourite shot, taken as I got up close to line up to go inside.

The CN Tower is a communications and observation tower built in 1976. It's not exactly a beautiful structure, but it's pretty impressive just the same. If you're wondering about the 'CN', it refers to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower. For 35 years (1975-2007) it was the world's tallest free-standing structure until it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

The below right hand shot is of the entrance area. There was a line up to get in, but I had a timed ticket and I found the entrance process to be super smooth. The building next to the Tower is the Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays. There was plenty of activity around the Centre that weekend as there were home games scheduled.

I took the below shot in the entry foyer. The stats show the total height of the Tower at 553.3 metres and the height of the various levels and viewing platforms. There are different levels to the Tower, from the 342-metre outdoor observation level, to the main observation level at 346 metres, to the EdgeWalk at 356 metres (just above the 360 Restaurant) and then up to 447 metres at the SkyPod level. I bought the full experience ticket (around $50CAD at the time of travel) so I could go up to the SkyPod.

FYI: The EdgeWalk opened in 2011, allowing thrill-seekers (not me!) to walk on and around the roof of the main pod at 356 metres. It is the world's highest full-circle hands-free walk, with a tether to an overhead rail system. (The walk is closed in winter and during stormy and windy conditions.)

Here's a collage of some of the incredible views from the various observation levels. i was fortunate to be there on a beautiful day and the views were stunning, allowing me to get the best view of Lake Ontario, the city of Toronto, and Rogers baseball field. I hope my photos give a sense of the height and views. For perspective, the highest point of observation at the Eiffel Tower is 276 metres and at the Empire State Building, it is 381 metres. I was 447 metres up at the SkyPod!

I'm super proud of myself as I am partially deaf and my balance is terrible, so being up so high was no mean feat for me. Even though it was a Sunday at the end of July, it wasn't too busy, unlike when we went up the Empire State Building in 2016 and had to battle the crowds for the good views.

Travel tip: If you want to see the city falling away below you as you travel up in the glass elevator, jump in and get the best spot. I gave mine away to a kid who was clearly in awe of the views. It was rather nice to see his face light up as we travelled in the elevator.

Ultimately, the CN Tower is like other tower experiences around the world, I guess, but if you like that kind of thing (and I do) and it's a sunny day, then it's worth the money. I was on my own, but it would be an expensive outing for a group. The gift shop was lovely, but expensive as well. I bought a cool Tower key chain and a gorgeous black and white photographic print of the Tower from across Lake Ontario. My purchases set me back a bit.

The best views of the Lake are from the CN Tower. It doesn't look like much when you walk alongside it, as the bottom left hand shot shows.

I walked back to the condo after my Tower visit, stopping in at Kettlemans Bagel for lunch on the way. Kettlemans is a Canadian chain of bagel stores, opened in 1993. Apparently the bagels are made by rolling, kettling (literally cooking in a kettle) and baking traditional Montreal-style bagels in a wood-burning oven. A bagel lunch felt like a Canadian thing to do, on top of the maple ice cream I'd had at Niagara Falls the previous day 😉. It's rather overwhelming trying to decide what to order, though, as there are so many bagels on offer. I had something with chicken in it, as shown in the below photo. I remember it being tasty, but hard to eat sandwich-style. There's not much space for the filling!

The two shots inside Kettlemans at Bathurst were taken from their website.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon resting to prepare for the week ahead and stocking up on groceries. I had found my go-to supermarket on the first weekend: the Metro at Liberty Village. The Village is located a 10-minute walk from my condo but first I had to cross over the railway line at King Liberty Bridge, right near the condo complex. The below shots show the bridge and the view of the CN Tower from it.

Shot of the supermarket taken from their website.

My third weekend in Toronto: The Ontario countryside

It was another glorious day on the Saturday of my third weekend in Toronto. I spent the day with my friend, SF, whom I'd met when I was presenting on my PhD research at a conference in Utah in 2019. I was keen to see something of the Ontario countryside so when SF asked me what I wanted to do on our day together, I suggested a country drive. We headed west of the city, as shown on the below map. The two places we visited were Alton (near Caledon) and Elora Gorge.

We stopped at the pretty town of Alton for lunch. Alton is a small community of just over 1000 people in Caledon, itself considered to be part of the Greater Toronto Area. The town dates back to 1820 and has a lovely artsy village feel. I had a delicious vegie burger and salad for lunch at a pub in the main street and then we wandered across the road to check out a gorgeous house for sale. There didn't seem to be anyone around and the house was open so we just poked around until the owner finally appeared and came to chat to us. The property had a stream out the back!

Our afternoon activity included a wander around Elora Gorge, stopping first to pick up some fresh corn at a roadside stall. How cool is that?

I can report that the corn was delicious! We ate it with our dinner at SF's place that evening. The corn stop was notable for my chance to drink in the beautiful countryside. Take a look at this stunning shot!

Elora Gorge is a natural park in the Grand River Valley. It's a popular place for hikers, with many riverside trails affording views of the water below the gorge. It's a hot spot for kayakers and tubers. We mustn't have been in the part of the park where you can see the gorge properly, but we did have a nice time wandering around the pretty forested area and watching the tubers.

We stopped for afternoon tea before we drove back to SF's place in the city for a meal cooked lovingly by her Italian-born husband with produce from his garden plus the corn we bought. I remember SF laughing at my keen desire to see the basement in her home. Basements are definitely NOT a thing where we live!

Where did we stop for a break? Tim Hortons, of course! There are over 4000 Tim's locations in Canada, making it the largest quick-service restaurant chain in the country. I'd never heard of it before I got to Toronto, but I believe there are Tim's in 13 countries these days (and Google tells me there is even one in Sydney). The chain was founded in 1964 by Canadian ice hockey player, Tim Horton (with partner, Jim Charade, who died in 2009). Horton died in a car crash in 1974, aged 44 and the chain is now owned by Restaurant Brands International, also owner of Burger King.

The restaurant is pretty much an institution in Canada and everyone seems to buy their coffee there, partly because it only costs a few dollars. I can vouch for the Timbits (cake pops) as I tried the birthday cake and chocolate flavours with SF that day (as per the below photo). The main photo below is the Tim Horton's cup I bought that day with SF, sitting on my desk at work when I got back to Australia, that I still use everyday.

Timbits and coffee cup images taken from the Tim Hortons website.

My third weekend in Toronto: City wanderings

I had plans to visit museums and other places of interest in Toronto but when I woke up on my last Sunday in the city, I just didn't have it in me to do it. I walked everywhere while I was staying in the city so I decided to spend my last full free day wandering around and taking in the vibe. Anything more than that required taking an Uber or trying to figure out the public transport system, and I just wasn't up to it. I actually loved walking around the city once I got used to it. The homes are gorgeous and it's easy to walk around the grid-based streets. On the Friday before, I'd finished work early and took a walk over to the Dufferin Mall from the office (a 6km round trip!). Here's a selection of the beautiful homes I strolled past during my walk.

The shots in the below collage were taken over the course of my stay, some from my early morning wanderings into the city the previous weekend. The Essery, the building in the top right hand shot, started construction the year after my visit. The building was part of William Essery's manufacturing company in the late 1800s and will be a set of fancy condos (costing between 1 and 4 million CAD each!) when construction is completed in 2026.

I wanted to check out the University of Toronto as universities are totally my thing. U of T is a public research university, founded in 1827 and sitting on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. I love universities that are embedded in cityscapes and the St George campus is a lovely example of historic buildings blending in with modern architecture. I understand that the university is the birthplace of insulin, stem cell research, the first artificial cardiac pacemaker, and the site of the first successful lung transplant. Cool.

The pretty St George campus of the University of Toronto

Here I am chilling in Queen's Park. The park was opened in 1860 by Edward, Prince of Wales, in honour of Queen Victoria. The University of Toronto actually owns the land but it has been leased to the City of Toronto since 1859, for a 999-year term. The statue in the below collage is of King Edward VII, created in 1911.

I did a bit of poking around souvenir shops before heading back to the condo, stopping along the way for a poke bowl. I bought a fab Canada notebook (notebooks are another of my things😆) and this bag:

I mean, I just had to buy it!

Rolling into my final week in Toronto I managed to fit in another catch up with SF. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner on the Tuesday night before I flew home the next weekend. I'm so grateful for my international friends and for the opportunities I have had to stay connected with them and spend time with them in person.

There was a slight drama that evening, though, when SF was dropping me back at the condo. We were sitting at a red light at a major intersection when there was suddenly a bang at the back of SF's car. A guy on a motorbike had collided with a taxi and slid underneath SF's car. We stayed with him until the ambulance, fire service and police arrived and SF gave a statement. Fortunately, the guy wasn't too badly injured which was surprising given he wasn't wearing much safety gear. It was all a bit surreal: Talking to a police officer wearing a huge gun and trying to explain that I wasn't a resident while the taxi driver was denying culpability (we didn't see what happened). We later found out that the motorbike rider didn't own the bike and had given a false address to the police officer. SF and I were both a bit shaken by the experience.

Homeward bound

The trip home was just as exhausting as the one over. Both international flights were delayed so I ended up missing the connection in Sydney back to Brisbane and had to wait for the next flight. Chaos reigned at Sydney Domestic Airport, I guess because travel post-pandemic had only just resumed. I remember being so relieved to be home!

My Toronto experience

Looking back on my three weeks in Toronto, it was a pretty crazy time. Travelling internationally for work sounds glamorous, but it isn't, really. Working for extended periods overseas provides incredible opportunities to experience other countries but trying to manage your job (and the multiple time zones of a global role) while living in an unfamiliar place is exhausting. That said, I tried on each of the four trips I made overseas in that global role to live as if I was living there, not just visiting. Staying in the condo in Toronto and using the gym each day in the building next door made me feel that way. I soon established a routine of getting up and using the gym, making my breakfast and lunch, and taking the short walk to the office.

Toronto is a lovely city and it certainly made me want to explore more of Canada. I walked everywhere and that gave me such the chance to soak up the city's vibe. I loved the architecture of the city and it's American-English feel. Along with the gorgeous homes that I've showcased in the photos in this post, there are bazillions of apartment buildings. Here's a snapshot from Liberty Village, across the railway line from my condo.

I was so lucky to have been able to experience Niagara Falls and the CN Tower, two iconic places to visit when in Toronto. I was able to catch glimpses of the CN Tower each time I crossed over the railway line to buy groceries in Liberty Village. My two catch ups with my friend, SF, helped me learn about life in Canada, as did my time spent with AA, my Trainer. I was limited in what I could do without a car to venture outside the city, so I was glad I had the chance to take a peak into the Ontario countryside.

I'll always be a Europhile at heart, but, Canada, I hope I can come back someday soon 💞.