Canada, part II

August 02, 2018

Canada, part II

As I told before, I was in Canada last June. While the photos I've shared with you earlier mostly concentrated on Niagara Falls, here are some more photos from my mobile phone (Niagara Falls cannot be avoided here either).

I recommend the Journey behind the Falls: it was so exciting to be under that huge amount of water and then to be able to see it up close.

As I told before about "having a problem with the room", now I feel only very hilarious, but it wasn't much of a fun when jetlagged, having slept 36 hours ago and then the room being like this:

Which was why I ended up at the bus station before 5 am.

And a couple of hours later I ended up at the breakfast at Applebee's which was the only place I could find besides Starbucks that was open. The bacon was very crispy and tasty, but the French toast was tasteless. While in Canada, enjoy maple syrup, right?

But then again, they serve their coffee in ceramic cups. WIN! And a plastic straw. Why?

Later for dinner I went to try French fries, gravy and cheese curds aka poutine. The fries were soggy and greasy, the gravy slimy and bad.

The smallest coffee maker! It was perfect having it in the hotel room so I could have my morning coffee around 4-5 am.

Lunch sandwich, potato salad and fruit.

Black sesame ice cream at Millie Patisserie

Desserts at the exhibition opening.

More desserts


I was thrilled to find Tsujiri there, like you might already know if you follow our Instagram. Although I mostly like to try LOCAL stuff while travelling, I have always a soft spot for anything Japanese, anywhere :)

Their shiratama parfait *heart*

I don't remember anymore the name of this Korean restaurant, but it's the immediate neighbor restaurant of Tsujiri. We had a great dinner there with some of my ex-colleagues. Their food was so tasty, service so quick and polite but still very casual and friendly, that one feels very welcome straight away. They were very ready to take into account our allergies (as one of us has a very serious fish allergy) and the waitress really knew their foods.

Nap time for a raccoon! Little did I know that time that I would be having soon a raccoon of my own *heart*

Canadian pedestrians (the traffic light man) walk to the right. How is it in your country? They walk to the left in Finland (I think).

At the conference party we were served all sorts of foods, also butter chicken poutine. Because of my previous bad experience with fries+gravy, I asked not to have the sauce. This one was much better! The fries were crunchy and the chicken bits tasty. I liked the green mayo-kind-of-sauce too. The cheese curds were still too much for me :D

My flight left quite late, so I had most of the last day for sightseeing. I went to see the botanical gardens. I took first the metro and then walked the rest of the way (about 4 kilometres). Most of the way had a pedestrian sidewalk, but some roads were meant only for cars (like in some Finnish residential areas). But as no one would stare you in Finland if you walked there, people did stare me there :D I made a shortcut through a forested park, which was a bit scary as the path seemed to not been in use for some time. When the sun started to warm

There was a small river by the gardens in a nice park too. The garden part is quite small (I'm comparing it to the wonderful botanical garden of Göteborg, Sweden), but has some nice details like a this small conical mound where you can look down to the geometrical garden. (I don't remember anymore the real name of it, so that's why I call it a conical mound, sorry...). They had a nice countryside-style cafe with lots of home-baked stuff (I ate a rhubarb scone, which was delicious!). They were quite a long way from the center and not that big, so if you don't have any other business to that direction, I wouldn't go there but maybe go to another park or Toronto Islands instead.

After the botanical gardens I spent a good time travelling back to the center and on the way I made a stop to visit a ballet shop by the national ballet school. I found a pair of tights and leggings and got a nice bag also. I had still quite a lot of time left so I decided to go to Toronto Islands. There was this huge swan who tried to make friends with some tourists having a picnic.