Toronto..... anyone?

molested_cow

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Planning to take a day trip to toronto next week, possibly Wed( spring break here). Also I want to visit the falls as well.

Toronto a lot to see? I plan to tour the city by foot, so I need to know what's cool out there(architecture, scenery etc).

So here are some questions:

If I plan to leave the car somewhere for a day and walk the city, where will be the best place to park?

I want to capture both Toronto's night scape as well as the fall's. Since I only have one night, what's the best way to do it? I plan to drive to Toronto and arrive in the noon on Wed, walk the hell lot of it till night. capture the night shots I want, then head to the falls for more night scenery. After enough film killing, find a small hotel or something and spend a night. Next morning, revisit the falls, then head back to Detroit.

Any suggestion?
 
The falls, you mean niagra? One thing you'll want to consider is traffic. If you hit the falls in the afternoon you'll be heading into rush hour traffic going into Toronto, most of which will be heading out but the downtown will be a mess. Maybe park near a subway on the outskirt and ride it into downtown, this way if you want to leave early in the morning you won't have to drive out in traffic. Early evening check out Kennsington market and spadina, very cool and very ethnic then as night falls head back down to the Eaton centre area where your bound to get some great photo ops.

Sorry about the horrible grammer.
 
Definately plan to avoid traffic. If youve got just one night, spend it in TO. instead of trying to rush to niagra and visit the falls in two shots. Its still dark early (about 6pm) so getting night shots in both TO and the falls is possible if you can stretch out your second day. If you cant--save your sanity and watch to not get stuck in traffic.
Also, Niagra is a tourist town so try to find a place to stay before you go or youre likely to get gouged.
And I definately agree about hitting kensington market and parking near the subway.

Have fun.
 
Sorry for my language but here's what happened:

My friend was to drive another friend to the airport first, but that asshole took extra long to get ready for his own flight, so we were delayed. Then we headed to Toronto, took a while to move through the traffic and finally sat down for lunch with a guy we know that lives there. We ate and then my friend started to feel sick, probably something he ate earlier on. We walked around Chinatown and it was getting late fast, so there goes my plan of touring the city( and it was damn cold). So we went to the CN tower where I planned to take nightscapes of the city, only to find out that my remote switch to my camera doesn't work! So no night shots at all!!!

My friend was throwing up and stuff, and he's stomach hurts real bad( not that he needs to crap, but it just hurts), so we quickly rushed back to the car and I was driving around in this city bigger than I expected trying to find a drug store. So I felt like I was driving an ambulance and found a Shoppers Drug store, got him the medication( when I have no idea what's causing the pain) and quickly found a hotel so that he can rest.

So no Niagra Falls nightshots.

There wasn't any other hotel at where we were, just an old Hoilday Inn. It was CN$128. I was like WTF?! So with the AAA membership I get it for $116CN, still WTF. Then he says it doesn't include breakfast. WTF?! So while my friend was resting, me and another friend went out to get something to eat. That was when I realize how heavy tax is in Canada. Our meal cost about $23CN, but $27 with tax.

We got back to the hotel, only to find out that the shower wasn't working. So they let us use another room's bathroom. WTF!

The next day, my friend wasn't really feeling any better. We tried everything we can think of, even my Chinese herbs didn't work. We headed for Niagra Falls since it was 45min away. Got there, nice weather, took some shots and had lunch. Then we headed back.

I missed an intersection to merge from QEW to 401, so we had to spend another hour in the rush hour. Then as we drove towards London( yes, Canadians are too original when it comes to naming), it started to snow really bad. The road was covered with snow within a short 45min even with cars on the road constantly and ABS certainly didn't help. Visibility was bad and I had to drive under stress of not disturbing my friend who was in pain.

So we got to Windsor and was crossing the border. This is when I found out what professional jerks mean. The US customs. This guy was totally a jerk, not that he made things difficult, but his attitude and strange logic. Here's the conversation:

We pull in and before he asked us for our documents, he said,
"Where do you come from?" since My friend was causian and I am not.
"I'm US citizen and they are from Taiwan..." My friend said
"Where do you guys live?"
"Detroit"
"So wth are you guys going?!"
"... back to Detroit!"
"Do you have any thing to declare?"
"Nope"
Then he gave us this really dirty look of disbelieve, and went back flipping through my VISA papers.
"At least the papers are signed"

Just before we drove off, a couple of customs walked across from our booth to the other side, then the custom that we were dealing with had another guy behind him, and said,"Yeah, go reap that guy off his car"

We drove off and back to Detroit.


So what happened in these 2 days and 1 night? Pretty much nothing planned happened, but a few surprises like being ripped off by Canadian government, stupid lousy hotel and retarded US custom jerk. Awesome experience for long waited spring break.
 
It's ironic that before I left for Toronto, my other friend was telling how nice Canadians are based on their own experience, but most of whom we had to deal with are Asian Canadians and they aren't too helpful at all.

Even though I'm Chinese, I felt that Toronto has be violated by the massive number of Asians that took over the cities. The ratio of employees at the CN tower of Asian to causian is probably 6:4.
 
Just came back from the emergency room. My friend's pain worsen so we drove him to the hospital. The doctor didn't know what's wrong and they will do a CAT scan on him, may even need to perform surgery.

7am, I need to get some sleep.
 
Wow. Your trip sucked!!!!
Try not to judge us Canadians too harshly by this experience... I swear, most of us are really nice... dispite the taxes we pay :blushing:
 
Wow that trip really sucked, too bad. I would chaulk this trip up as having really s***ty luck.

Toronto has so much to offer vistors. When I lived in Toronto I took advantage of the diverse cultures and enjoyed the varied music and food offered to us by it's recent citizens. Downtown does have a large amount of people from asian backgrounds, but in other parts of the city you will find other neighbour hoods with europeon backgrounds or it's totally mixed. The wounderous part is that mostly everyone lives in harmony with one another, even if in their original country is at war or civil war. All this culture gives photographers ample shooting opportunity. Not to mention all the parks and most of the waterfront is park unlike most other large cities.

One thing I did notice about Toronto (not unlike other big cities) is that people seem to have very little time for chit chat so it can be hard to meet strangers.
 
Appendix rupture. Appearently the pain that sent him to the emergency room is a ruptured appendix. My guess is the bad food in his system got into the appendix and the pressure ruptured it. So he's got internal infection and the doc did a surgery on him.

I went to visit him after he had the surgery. Everyone is busy, it will take an hour for anyone to respond to a request, and I never got to see the doctor. My friend should be there for a day or two more, but I doubt he will be fit enough to take the 8 hr ride home.

Also, he doesn't have health insurance. So don't take your good health for granted.
 
Well, if I am a foreign student in Canada, I pay high tax for everything I spend. When I get sick, will I receive the same medical coverage from Canadian? Very unlikely. I think the tax should come from income tax or a separate medical insurance plan fee instead of charging it from everything on the shelf.

See, in US, I work as an intern. When I get paid, the company deduct standard tax off my check, but I get those money back from the government later, so I am still getting what I worked for. Those tax include things like medicare and so on, which I am not eligable for, so I don't have to pay for those. Tax is about 6% in Michigan, which is still acceptable as compared to NY or California.
 
Wow! Very interesting reading such negative stuff. Coming from Toronto you would not want to hear my impression of Detroit. The United States is such an amazing country but look deep inside many of their cities and it is not a pretty sight. I will pay my tax dollars any day for the care I get from my government. I find a lot of your comments very narrow minded. I would not judge all of the United States from my experiences in Detroit. Sometimes things go as planned and other times they downright suck as this trip did. Learn from it but don't let it ruin your next trip. If you worry about the money you spent try changing Canadian dollars in to US :( Toronto is one of the most amazing cities in the world and I hope your next visit is more pleasurable as Toronto offers many great photo opportunities. If you venture back the best night shots of the City can be found at the Docks on Cherry Street in the east end of the city.

time02b.jpg

Toronto from the Docks

time13b.jpg

Wide eyed view from the streets of Toronto.

Cheers eh!

Eric
 
This is not about country VS country. This is about the trip. I'm not an US citizen nor did I dismiss Canada just because of the tax. I had more stress in those 2 days which I was supposed to be enjoying than the entire semester here, and if anyone has been to my school before, only about 40% freshman graduate.

and I never said that Detroit is great either.
 
The 8% PST and 7% GST *15% taxes on sales* doesnt cover medical bills as far as I know. We pay higher income tax than americans, which in part covers our medical system. And at least the 15% hasnt gone up a single bit since gst was introduced in 1987 I think it was. The state I go to regularly, thier tax has been going up bit by bit every 6 months for the last couple of years.

Im surprised your hotel cost so much. When going to Toronto we usually stay in a Best Western and its $100 a night for 2 people. A motel would be 2/3's that probably or less.

Niagara falls is also cheaper to visit this time of year since barely anyone goes there. We were there a couple of years ago around this time of year. the parking was free, which normally isnt very cheap. Hotels were reasonably priced. We got a motel in the actual city part, not the touristy area and saved a fair bit. But it didnt help that the heat barely worked and it was still winter outside. Also I wouldnt eat near the falls, the prices there were way over priced. I think Denny's menu was x2 for everything compared to a normal denny's, which is already over priced.
 

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