Touring Toronto

As I was traveling by bus from Buffalo to Toronto, there was unfortunately no stamp to be had on my passport, but the double-decker Megabus proved an efficient journey! I made my way to Toronto's bus terminal to meet up with my lovely hosts, Victoria Nguyen and Rachel Taguicana. Through CouchSurfing, they were originally my guests in Los Angeles.

Tip: When traveling from the U.S. to Canada (or vice-versa), it is much cheaper to fly domestically to say, Buffalo Airport, and take a bus over the border than to fly internationally.

One of Greater Vancouver's signature restaurants

Right away, we dropped my backpack in the trunk and headed out to explore downtown. We had a savory Italian dinner at Milestones which overlooked Dundas Square, a mini-version of New York's Times Square. After catching up, the girls were nice enough to give me a quick walking tour of Downtown.

Toronto's Old City Hall - nice shot, Victoria!

We found ourselves in front of Wanda's to taste some of Toronto's finest Belgian waffles. The "hole-in-the-wall" shop provided a delicious mix of caramel, ice cream, whipped cream and powdered sugar all on top of the waffle. A must stop for any local or tourist!

Classic Belgian Waffles with whipped cream? Don't mind if I do!

To my surprise, we stayed at Rachel's parent's house since that was closer to Toronto than their university. What a nice surprise! We spent a good half an hour catching up with them before bed and told them of the sites we had planned to see the next day, including the Casa Loma castle.

"Oh, I used to live in the Castle Loma," Rachel's dad commented. "But then I moved out because the government taxes were too high!"