"Oyy Yeahhh" Toronto

I've always wanted to go to the airport without any idea of where I would go next.  I love the idea of taking spontaneous trips.  So I am always thinking about easy opportunities to go to new places.  I was in class and a thought about going to Canada for a weekend popped into my head.  I immediately texted one of my roommates and without hesitation she said she wanted to go.

Unlike adventures you say you are going to plan, but never do...this one actually became a reality. 

It only took us a little over four hours to get there.  We arrived in Toronto just in time for lunch.  I told my roommate we had to go to this dim sum restaurant on the harbor of Lake Ontario.  The Pearl has one of the best dim sum menus.  My mom goes to Toronto just to eat at this restaurant.  Dim sum is a Chinese dish that is made of a variety of different foods served in steamers.  The different items on the dim sum menu are pushed around the restaurant on carts and when they come to your table you can chose what you want to eat.  They have all different kinds of steamed dumplings, from pork to shrimp to vegetable.  They have sticky rice that is served inside a lotus leaf and many different types of noodles and wontons.  And of course they have dessert.  I get the same dessert no matter where I get dim sum:  Jin deui.  It has an unexplainable consistency.  It is a ball of dough that is rolled in sesame seeds and inside is a sweet bean paste.  Delicious!

I believe eating is a huge part of exploring a city.  But that is not all we did while we were in Toronto.  We walked through Eaton Centre, which is an enormous overwhelming shopping hub.  It was so crowded, we decided we did not need to buy anything.  Once we left, we just walked.  Looking up and down and all around.  We took a break from walking and enjoyed the live entertainment in Dundas Square.  And the last touristy thing we did was to glide to the top of the CN Tower.  At the top level of the tower, there is a section of the floor that is completely glass allowing you to look 1,465 feet down.  I am not afraid of heights, but I definitely felt an uneasiness in my stomach as I lifted my foot and lowered it onto the glass floor.  A lady caught on to our laughter that was generated by an uncomfortable emotion and told us the glass is actually stronger than the concrete!  I found that fact to be absolutely incredible. 

We ended our trip by driving to Greektown, which was only a ten minute drive from our hotel.  And besides walking down the street peeping through windows, we stopped to eat lunch at Mezes.  We ordered Dolmades (or grapeleaves), lamp chops, Gemista (which I tried for the first time and loved), and Skordalia.  This is my favorite way to eat:  trying a little bit of everything!  That saying is also true for how I like to live my life!