observations on toronto

borrowing a page from my sister julie's blog, i have compiled a list of observations on toronto, a city i had occasion to visit this past week.

1. being a born and bred albertan, now west coaster i was fully intending to hate toronto, but it won me over. turns out it is quite an enjoyable city, with excellent food.

2. people move faster in toronto. i noted this almost immediately upon exiting the airport. everyone was moving about 15% faster than they would, had they been executing the same task in british columbia. this includes, but is not limited to, crossing crosswalks, ordering sandwiches, going through automatic doors, exiting parking spots and skidding to a stop through crosswalks.
which brings us to the next point:

3. there are a lot of bad drivers in toronto. and not just because it is a populous city. i saw more spastic driving in downtown toronto than i have seen anywhere else. midintersection accidental brake stands, 5 point parking spot exits and numerous rim/curb abrasive encounters.

4. the food downtown is fantastic. i stuffed myself with shwarma, falafels, and baklava, unavailable in chilliwack, as well as roasted chicken pitas and philly cheese steaks. there was carribean, indian, lebanese, or thai food on every corner.

5. the waterfront is quite nice. my friend dave mentioned that the toronto waterfront was notoriously ugly, however the portion that we explored was lovely.
6. i have it on good authority that the greater toronto area produces more pollution than the oilsands.

7. at night the streets are all jazzed up like brussels. apparently some people are up in arms about the corruscating light show on the cn tower. maybe its extra glitzy right now b/c of tiff? but you dont install coordinated purple backlights in the top 5 floors of your office building just for a film festival.

8. torontonians are fantastic hosts! in my random study, with an n of 2, i can reasonably conclude that all residents of downtown toronto are warm and welcoming and are happy to share their apartment with you and walk you to work and show you the best shwarma places.