I spent three weeks in Toronto over the Christmas and New Year period and I had an absolute blast. It’s a beautiful city with a lovely feel to it but it’s the people I met there that made my time there so completely unforgettable. I honestly cannot express what an incredible time I had in Toronto and it really was down to the amazing group of people I met there. I was staying in the best hostel I’ve ever stayed at (The Planet Traveler Hostel in Kensington Market if anyone needs a recommendation), and it is such a sociable place. It was super easy to meet people here but my god did I luck out with who I met – Lucy, Florine, Malen, Marlon, Alexis and Fran. Whether we were playing board games, ice skating, wandering around the city, eating pasta or just watching films, I enjoyed every second with you. You are all incredible and I hope to see you all again.
Before I got to Toronto, everyone I had met had compared it to New York and given that it is the biggest city in Canada, I was expecting it to feel crowded and busy. But it didn’t. Yes, it is a big city, but at no point did I feel like I was in a big city. It manages to keep a small, friendly feeling throughout the city, or at least in all the neighbourhoods I visited. It never felt too crowded or too busy, in fact, it felt remarkably quiet in comparison to other cities I’ve been to in Europe and North America.
The hostel was located in Kensington Market which is a really great part of Toronto with a fun, bustling feeling with plenty to see. As the name suggest, it’s kind of like an open air farmer’s market but as an entire neighbourhood rather than just a market square. There are independent restaurants, shops selling fresh produce as well as some really cute hand crafted products and a tiny hole in the wall place which sells the BEST doughnuts. It’s also right next door to Chinatown so there are tonnes of different cuisines to try, all right on the hostel doorstep.
I went for a long walk around the city and along the harbourfront. Old Toronto has some truly beautiful buildings and its location on the water is pretty magical. As it was the lead up to Christmas, it felt only right to visit one of the winter markets. I headed to the Distillery District with a friend from my dorm one day and had a lovely time bimbling around the stores. It was the only time that Toronto felt busy. There were so many people there – couples, families, friends. Everyone was just enjoying the Christmas spirit, looking around the stalls and occasionally partaking in a glass of mulled wine.
Our little group went to a street party near the hostel to celebrate the Winter Solstice. This was so much fun and we got to experience some of the traditions of the First People which was really amazing. There were huge puppets going down the street, with traditional singing, music and dancing. After the main event, there were acts throughout the neighbouring streets with different performers.
On Christmas Eve, three of us went for a walk through Downtown and ended up in one of the Eaton Centre. They have the biggest indoor Christmas Tree in North America there – standing at nearly 35m high. The tree itself is already pretty impressive but what really added the Christmas magic was the lights show that plays out for 3 minutes on the tree itself, ending in ‘snow’ falling from the roof so I felt like I really was in a winter wonderland. The hostel staff put on a Christmas dinner for everyone staying in the hostel on Christmas Eve so once we got back to hostel, we helped the staff to chop and prep the biggest pile of potatoes and butternut squash that I have ever seen. However, the saying ‘many hands make light work’ is pretty accurate and we got through it all in record time. To be honest, helping prepare vegetables with friends was probably the point at which I felt the most Christmassy. When I spend Christmas at my family home, I usually end up helping my mum prepare the meal – chopping and peeling veg or shelling sprouts – and so helping out at the hostel was actually a huge part of my Christmas experience, and a lot of fun. The meal itself was a really fun time, and I learned a new game where you try and flip whipped cream from the back of your hand and catch it in your mouth. Anyone who knows me will vouch for the fact that my hand-eye co-ordination sucks so you can make a pretty good guess at how successful I was at this game.
When we came downstairs on Christmas day, we found that the hostel staff had put a Christmas present for every person staying under the tree. They had also put on a special Christmas breakfast of freshly made waffles for everyone. Our little group spent most of Christmas Day just relaxing and watching Christmas films – very different to my usual Christmas. In the evening, 10 of us went ice skating at The Bentway. We were a complete mixed bag of abilities, from people who had never skated before, to ice hockey players and one girl who wanted to work on figure skating moves, and everything in between!
One day between Christmas and New Year, two of us took the ferry over to Toronto Islands. The islands are beautiful. When you stand looking out on one side of the island you have an unbelievable view of the Toronto skyline, if you stand on the other side of the island then you have an uninterrupted view across Lake Ontario. It’s unbelievable and despite it only being a 15 minute ferry ride, you can’t hear the sounds of the city at all. In winter, the islands are super quiet, it felt like the only people there were the tourists coming over from the city. There are a couple of really quaint neighbourhoods on the islands, with characterful houses. I was told that a lot of artists and writers live on the islands and I can absolutely see why. They are incredibly peaceful and picturesque and would provide a wonderful creative working environment. We walked over to the centre island where there is an amusement park. Whilst this is open in summer, and I imagine incredibly popular, it was closed and completely deserted when we visited. It was a very surreal experience. It honestly felt like we were walking through some post-apocalyptic landscape, waiting for a zombie to appear from one of the shut up cafés and start chasing us.
New Year’s Eve was one of the best I’ve had in ages. The hostel threw a party for us on the roof terrace with cheap drinks and hostel manager playing DJ for us. It’s difficult to put into words what a magical experience New Year’s Eve was. Up until that point, there hadn’t really been much snow in Toronto but around 9pm it started snowing. Really snowing. I was with a guy from Mexico who had never seen snow before and watching him see it for the first time was so wholesome and heart-warming. Of course, I am also a big kid when it starts to snow and so I quickly started a snowball fight with him, and then with a few others – it wasn’t the only snowball fight that night either. We had an absolute blast pelting each other with snow until we couldn’t feel our hands anymore and heading inside to carry on dancing. Our group celebrated the New Year singing, dancing and laughing together and I couldn’t have asked for better people around me to see in the new year with.
I’m finding more and more that it’s the people I meet that are making my experiences here so special. And I think that’s true for life in general. It’s the people we surround ourselves with that make life so amazing.
Ro Wells Travel 
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