After my freaky encounter @ the airport, my uncle gave me a tour of the Pearson Intl Airport (huh), actually we got lost and had to walk a bit to find the car. My uncle has a poor sense of direction and it was funny to be guided by my cousin. I've two girl cousins, one a
ged 12 and the other aged 8. Lets call the older one C-12 and the younger one C -8 ( no they are not carbon isotopes). I was very excited to see my uncle and his family. I was meeting my cousins after three years. Both are so cute and adorable.
The highways looked very similar to the ones in US. The only difference - everything was in 'km' as opposed to 'miles'. The directions were in both English and French. For example, a freeway will be ' 403 South /Sud'. The shops looked more similar to the shops in India strangely. I liked the buildings and architecture in this city. Most communities in suburban USA have houses that look very similar. Here on the other hand, the houses are very different. The buildings are also more creative and different. I also found many high-rise condos in the suburbs. This confused me a little bit and I mistook them to be some sort of 'downtown'.
The traffic is quite terrible like any other big city. But, I found very few traffic cops on the road. Coming from texas, I am used to strict driving and it was strange to see hardly any cop cars. People drive recklessly here. Not many observe the traffic rules ! Pedestrians don't really get any importance ! More than once , I
thought I would be run over !!
The public transport quality is very good. The buses and trains are very comfortable and nice. But I found that there is not too much information/help. Having got used to free maps and time-tables available in US, I was surprised to find that they were a little hard to find here. As a tourist, I would surely appreciate more information and maps !!
There are lots of restaurants here. All types of cuisines are found. Coffee shops like starbucks, Tim Hortons, Second Cup are common. But somehow, food stores are not as common as US. I mean, you will have to really hunt to find these stores. There are fewer restrooms too !! For example, while waiting in CN Towers for hours, we had to struggle just to get coffee !! My cousin C-8 was hungry and the poor kid got nothing to eat ! Nothing was open for her to eat ! In Niagara, only certain places had restrooms !
Toronto is a beautiful city. I love the downtown. Its so refreshing to see water everywhere.
Like any other city, it has many pros and cons. I was surprised to find so many differences in both the countries despite the proximity and similarity.
And I did come across many Canadians who ended all their sentences with an 'aye'.
:-)
ged 12 and the other aged 8. Lets call the older one C-12 and the younger one C -8 ( no they are not carbon isotopes). I was very excited to see my uncle and his family. I was meeting my cousins after three years. Both are so cute and adorable.The highways looked very similar to the ones in US. The only difference - everything was in 'km' as opposed to 'miles'. The directions were in both English and French. For example, a freeway will be ' 403 South /Sud'. The shops looked more similar to the shops in India strangely. I liked the buildings and architecture in this city. Most communities in suburban USA have houses that look very similar. Here on the other hand, the houses are very different. The buildings are also more creative and different. I also found many high-rise condos in the suburbs. This confused me a little bit and I mistook them to be some sort of 'downtown'.
The traffic is quite terrible like any other big city. But, I found very few traffic cops on the road. Coming from texas, I am used to strict driving and it was strange to see hardly any cop cars. People drive recklessly here. Not many observe the traffic rules ! Pedestrians don't really get any importance ! More than once , I
thought I would be run over !!The public transport quality is very good. The buses and trains are very comfortable and nice. But I found that there is not too much information/help. Having got used to free maps and time-tables available in US, I was surprised to find that they were a little hard to find here. As a tourist, I would surely appreciate more information and maps !!
There are lots of restaurants here. All types of cuisines are found. Coffee shops like starbucks, Tim Hortons, Second Cup are common. But somehow, food stores are not as common as US. I mean, you will have to really hunt to find these stores. There are fewer restrooms too !! For example, while waiting in CN Towers for hours, we had to struggle just to get coffee !! My cousin C-8 was hungry and the poor kid got nothing to eat ! Nothing was open for her to eat ! In Niagara, only certain places had restrooms !
Toronto is a beautiful city. I love the downtown. Its so refreshing to see water everywhere.
Like any other city, it has many pros and cons. I was surprised to find so many differences in both the countries despite the proximity and similarity.
And I did come across many Canadians who ended all their sentences with an 'aye'.
:-)
13 comments:
Toronto downtown looks real nice (or are they multi-storeyed condos!!!?)
Public transport is something that sucks in the US, there have been lots of days when I would have preferred riding a bus home than driving my own car :(
"Aye"?? I didnt get the meaning!
What u doing on the weekdays though?
ah canada. you should visit montreal while you're there. it is the ultimate student city. i was lucky enough to be there for three years, and i must say i had a blast.
toronto is more of a freshly-working just-graduated sort of city, i feel.
oh, and aye is more like eh. heh, and its used at the end of almost every sentence. you see what i mean, eh?
u missed a point - there are more desis than ur place :D.. well most of it the same as i noted but i thot ppl do get preference while they walk.. anyways opinions differ.. but ya the traffic leading up to toronto and in the city is awful - I remember it took me 4 hrs to get to the border (normally its 2) and i had to put off seeing niagara falls for another time.. but i loved to walk there as i love to in NYC -
yeah Toronto is a nice city!! I was there once for a long weekend, a coupla yrs bak!! n all these differences tat u see, most of them, I hav noticed too!! pretty obvious observations, eh??
Prabhu,
No its Toronto downtown taken from CN Towers. More stories to follow.
The expl for 'aye/eh' is already given by Cyberswami.
Rahul,
The Canadian accent has a strong British influence. And they end their sentences with 'eh'.
Cyberswami,
Thanks for dropping by. I cannot goto Montreal this time...but I will put it on my list and go next time.
Vivek,
Yeah I forgot abt the desis part. There are tooo many !!!
Abt the pedestrian thingy - they get pref but not always - i found them to be more rude here.
Kutti,
Yeah some *observations* may be obvious and opinions differ ofcourse.
Enga-ya did you hear ppl ending sentences with an "eh"? Enakku onnum nyabagam illai :-(! I was eagerly listenting for that on the first day I guess but after that maybe I did not notice!
Archu,
It was after u left hehehehhe.
My uncle's friend came home on the tuesday evening and he was a typical canadian. Then yday we went to Costco and I was talking to one of the guys who works there and he too kept saying 'eh'.
kewl aye !!! have fun there.... did i see a comment about you visiting saravana bhavan.....hoping you will mention it in you next blog...... man, i so miss good indian food living in kansas.
C-8 and C-12 carbon isotopes! hee hee that was funny ... nice account on Canada ... the pics are great yaar ... looking fwd to hearing more ...
Bharat,
I will write abt SB soon. Just wait eh.
Archana,
yeah it sounds funny. we took tons of pics, esp in niagara.
Hey nice. Waiting for more. Will give that to us soon, aye? You should also send a link to all the pictures :--))
In other words I enjoyed the driving there in Toronto, no cops no rules (at some places) like India
Syam,
U r right - its just like driving in India !!
Madsies,
Not this time around. I will add it to my list along with Montreal :-)
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