Toronto & Niagara

In last part I explained how we enjoyed the CN Tower and Aquarium. We really enjoyed the colorful aquarium with so many different species of fishes, specially the sharks and the divers feeding the sharks and playing with sting rays. We came out and saw a Railway museum just opposite CNT. I have strong fascination for trains and it was free (The only free thing in Canada)… we went inside the park where different locomotives, trains and old stations were on display.

The next day was reserved for looking around Toronto.  We went to the nearby train station and boarded the train and reached Toronto in 35 minutes. The day was started early and we decided to take a city bus to see around Toronto. We booked the tickets online….36 dollars per person including a boat tour to the Islands facing Toronto. We reached the Union station from Mississauga and waited for the bus. The first shock came when we boarded the bus. If you have never traveled in a far village of UP from “Moondhi” to Aurangabad in a local bus, operated by a local goon, you will not understand my plight. Now saying that tourism department kept the bus that way, was to keep its antique look, would be over-gentleness. The bus was older than the city of Toronto, with wooden seats (as u find in parks in India), with over-heated interior. The driver’s seat had newly fixed springs and on every jump, his head almost hit the roof and it took him 2/3 jerks to settle down in his position. Then came the announcement, due to bad weather, there would be no boat tour and no money would be returned (They actually sounded -Go to Hell, type statement)… but the statement was made by a beautiful guide…. a Canadian version of Preety Zinta with similar dimples on both sides. I pardoned her for our Bollywood look alike and decided to settle down. We had seats on the back and both window panes were having metallic netting (For reasons even not known to bus owners)… so it was impossible to shoot passing streets and buildings from inside the bus. I think they need another evolution to know that a tourist spending money to travel in their bus is there to shoot through the windows. Well the bus zig-zagged through narrow streets of Toronto. Preety Zinta was continuously speaking, causing harsh squeaks in my ears and to the best of my luck, the bus stopped at Eaton Centre and we got down. The driver came down too and was looking like a desi. He revealed his identity that he was from Guyana and an Indian…rather lost Indian.

we went to the Eaton center, a mall not better than our Malls in Gurgaon.

I first visited the Downtown camera shop and purchased first ever DSLR a Nikon D-5300 (The next day fotos will be from this camera). Canadians have a funny way to fool people… they write all prices without tax without even a mention of it and suddenly when you pay, they will charge you 13%, which is not reimbursable even to tourists going out of the country with goods. Well the camera which I had to purchase for $ 999 came finally in $ 1125. I also purchased a bag and a remote and asked him to gift a thread to keep the lens attached to camera… but he shamelessly charged $2.5 for that “Dhaga” and I came out… at least to own a DSLR. I would thank some of my photographer friends to show me good fotos and waking the urge in me to try shooting something sane

Then we went to Cassa Loma, Chinese Market, Ontario museum, Srinarayan Temple and ended our day happily. Some fotos of the day.  Casa Loma was a little on height and was looking magnificent from outside.  It started raining heavily and we had to catch the next bus in 45 minutes… so no time to go inside, hence we shot some photos from outside and came back to catch the bus.

The next stop was Ontario museum and Chinese market.  Chinese market looked magnificent…. we went into a shop and asked for tea.  To our surprise the lady prepared tea in traditional Indian style by boiling tea and adding milk and boiling.  In foreign countries, good tea is normally not available… we enjoyed the tea while looking at the chinese market

 

 

Saturday, the day three was fixed for Niagara but the weather was so bad that we decided to change it to Sunday, the forth day and spent Saturday around Missisauga, enjoying a tasty langar in local Gurudwara, visiting Swami Narayan temple and some forest areas around. As I entered the Gurudwara, it had all the slogans like “Khalistan Zindabad” … Raaj Karega Khalsa….  My mood was upset so I did not click any pictures there and then we went to Swami Narayan temple..

 

The temple was a piece of art.  The beautiful carvings on the marble were magnificent.

Alas they did not allow photography inside, otherwise I would have shown you the mind-blowing carvings in side which can not be explained in words.  Then we had a tour of nearby jungle which was, although it was still not summer yet looked beautiful.

The weather became good on Sunday and started off to our main desination…… NIAGARA !

(To continue in next part…. )