Travel Memories: Toronto, Toronto, Canada

‘T-Dot. It’s short for T dot O. As in Toronto, Ontario’, some Canadians had explained to me, having casually thrown the term around enough for me to finally ask in bewilderment what the heck they were on about (apparently this is now an outdated name, however. The cool kids these days refer to the city as ‘the 6’, in reference to its area code). Whatever you want to call it, I landed in Toronto for what would be my second trip to Canada in 8 months. And I had once again headed to the country’s far east, but this time to the province of Ontario, where I was looking forward to experiencing Canada’s most populous city - and one of the biggest in North America.

My first impressions were that it reminded me a lot of Australian cities - a modern downtown area interspersed with older, heritage structures (including St Andrew’s Church pictured below), grungy, hip inner-city neighbourhoods, wide streets, and a good mix of buildings, nature and water. Under the clear blue skies of late-spring/early summer, it looked particularly fresh and functional.

The trams (known locally as trolley buses) are a cute additional element to the bustling traffic scene in and around the city centre, as pictured below near Dundas Street, one of Toronto’s biggest and most historic arterial roads. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).