Category Archives: Toronto

Bye bye Toronto!

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I’m not a big fan of saying goodbye to people or things, that’s why this ‘goodbye’ is somewhat delayed. After a week filled with goodbye cocktails, goodbye dinners, goodbye barbecues, lunches, coffees and hugs it was time to leave Toronto and our friends, oh nooooo!! Luckily we have great memories of the wonderful time we had in Canada. We’ll come back one day for sure!!
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And now… we’re ready for our newest adventure: HONG KONG! Actually, we’re already in the middle of it. It’s HOT, humid, busy, but we love it!
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GOODBYE Toronto Diaries 🙂

Opposites attract

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Almost two years ago, during our so called orientation trip to Toronto our tour guide drove us to the impressive campus of the University of Toronto. It happened to be the exact moment of graduation. The big green field filled with students wearing their gowns and hoods for the graduation ceremony made me feel like I was part of an American movie (as a European I’ve never seen anything like this before). I immediately subscribed (for a postgraduate e-business/e-marketing) and last week I started my last course of the e-business certificate on this beautiful campus (which always reminds me of Harry Potter hehe).

Right after my Thursday night class, Friday put me back in the mother role haha, when Faye and I went for the first time to the YMCA with friends. This is a great place where kids can play with each other. At the YMCA you can find a gym for toddlers, a big swimming pool and a lot more (ymcagta.org/en/kids/index.html). This adventure ended in the first cold including a runny nose, but isn’t that part of the deal?!

As true North Americans Sunday night was all about the Superbowl. Except for Bruno Mars’ halftime performance, I was more occupied with chatting, eating and drinking at our neighbours’ Superbowl party than I was with the game. Well, what’s new?

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Parties and sheep

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Having a little one is always searching for the perfect balance. After a few week(end)s of parties, birthdays and dinners it was time for a more child friendly program for last weekend. Although I doubt whether she notices the difference! Toronto has hundreds of parks, one of them is Riverdale Farm which represents a 19th century Ontario farm and reminds me of the Dutch ‘kinderboerderij’ haha. Anyway, it’s kind of a normal park but with some animals like sheep, goats and chickens. We pretended that a three (and a half) month old baby would love to see this. Funny enough she fell asleep almost immediately after we entered the park…

The icing on the cake was the Santa Claus Parade this Sunday. Yes, sounds familiar: last year we went to watch the Parade as well.  But this year we managed to see Santa whoop whoop! Together with our Dutch friends we cheered as true Torontonians… What a weekend!

Happy Halloween!

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What to do with your Halloween pumpkin after the big night’s over? In Toronto they’ve found an answer for that: Pumpkin Parades on November 1st throughout the city! Everybody brings their pumpkin to a park or a road near their home, and gives it the opportunity to shine one more time. The idea has started in Sorauren Park, where the biggest annual Parade still takes place. But lucky us.. on the way to our dinner party at THR & Co. (thrandco.com, great restaurant!) we’ve enjoyed many unique pumpkins on Harbord Street. My personal favourite: a tiger pumpkin LOL. But the ultimate winner was of course… Mommy’s little pumpkin!!!

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More hotspots

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September 24th was exactly one year ago that we were on the plane from Amsterdam to Toronto to start our Canadian adventure. It’s bizarre to realize that we’ve been through all seasons while living here, and this late summer weather reminds me of our first weeks here. Although I’m a big fan of the summer, the autumn is maybe the prettiest season in Toronto. Soon it will be Indian summer again, and is every Canadian totally into Thanksgiving and Halloween. This weekend we went to Fall Fest in Uptown Yonge, which is a really nice neighbourhood (north of Eglinton) where we don’t come so often. This festival was organized to celebrate and welcome the new season with live music and many fashion boutiques and restaurants promoting them selves on the streets. And there are so many nice boutiques in this area! I have to go back there for more shopping; shops combining fashion, interior, jewellery and accessorizes are the best (e.g. White Castle Blue Jeans). One of my favourites is the Drake General Store (drakegeneralstore.ca), which is not only located next to the Drake Hotel and in Hudson’s Bay, but also here on Yonge Street.

And as I wrote in my previous post, it’s time to share a few of my favourite restaurants again, please let me know if you have some more suggestions!

One in Yorkville (one.mcewangroup.ca): great outdoor patio, perfect for Sunday brunch (no better place to watch the rich and famous of Yorkville) ~ Lee (susur.com/lee):  best food ever! Need I say more? ~ Boehmer (boehmer.ca): nice interior, great food, might ne my new favourite ~ Bannock (oliverbonacini.com/bannock): casual lunch, Canadian food, and it’s another option to have lunch near the Eaton centre except Mercatto ~ F’Amelia (famelia.com): great food, lovely people, nice place, both inside and outside ~ Garbadine (thegabardine.com): fun place for lunch in financial district ~ Momofuku (momofuku.com): I started at the 3rd floor (Shoto), then I’ve tried the other 3rd floor restaurant during Summerlicious (Daisho), and last but not least I’ve tried the Noodle bar at the ground floor which is great for lunch ~ Gusto (gusto101.squarespace.com): old time favourite, both inside and outside, both lunch and Friday night dinner and drinks ~ Joso’s (josos.com): best seafood in town! ~ Lakeview (thelakeviewrestaurant.ca):  this typically North American restaurant is open 24/7, and they have the best milkshakes ever ~ Earls (earls.ca): did I ever mention Earls? One of the first places we had dinner and drinks in Toronto, and still the best outdoor patio downtown for lunch and late night drinks & snacks (best sushi) ~ Pamenar (cafepamenar.ca): a nice little coffee bar, famous for their delicious paninis and beautiful garden.

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Back again!

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It’s been a while… But I had my reasons: our little Canadian is born!

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This means discovering the city in a whole new way. Instead of – no besides of – new restaurants, shops, and so on I’m now an expert in postnatal yoga classes, nursery shops, obstetricians, doulas, paediatricians, diaper sales, and last but not least stroller friendly restaurants. And I have to say Toronto is stroller friendly!

TIFF is in town (Toronto International Film Festival, tiff.net)! This means a lot of events AND stars in the city. Celebrating our first anniversary, we had lunch at the Spoke Club, where Nikki Beach had taken over during TIFF. Pretty cool, and besides that: stroller friendly 🙂 Love it.

Aye aye, captain!

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Toronto keeps surprising me. This weekend felt like a weekend spent outside the city, but actually this time we only went 200 meters away from home. It wasn’t solely the lake and our rented sailboat that contributed to this holiday feeling, it’s also the renewed Harbourfront that is becoming more and more fun (check out harbourfrontcentre.com)!

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The ultimate Canadian experience

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My Canadian friends told me it would be the ultimate Canadian experience. Spending the weekend in a cottage on the lake. We were invited to spend last weekend 3,5 hours north of Toronto, in a beautiful cottage on lake Joseph, lake Joe for friends hehe. Located in Northern Ontario, the lake is surrounded by cottages. A weekend full of barbecuing, roasting marshmallows in the fire (my favourite!), swimming, fishing and boating on the lake to peek at all the cottages and boathouses. Did you know a boathouse is a house for your boat(s) and not a houseboat (where you could live in)? Definitely a small cultural difference, or maybe something linguistic… Anyway, love the Canadian style! Every boat deserves a pretty garage.

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Pride and other places to be

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As the so called gay capital of North America, Toronto proudly presented the annual Gay Pride again. For us, it felt a little bit like Amsterdam again with all the parties on the streets. And WOW… what a colourful appearances!

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Time for a little update regarding the places to be in the city. Although it’s tempting to go back to favourite spots, I try to keep discovering new hot spots. Hereby a few of my latest findings.
Best brunch spots: Artisan Baker on Yonge Street (theartisanbakers.com), School in Liberty Village (schooltoronto.com), on the patio of Origin on King Street East (origintoronto.com) and I’ve mentioned it before, but the Drake Hotel on Queen Street West is great, especially now the patio is open again (thedrakehotel.ca)! When it’s raining, it’s fun to have lunch at the Art Gallery of Toronto (ago.net), currently there is this impressive exhibition of the Chinese famous and controversial artist Ai Weiwei. Furthermore, Union on Ossington Street (union72.ca) is a great place to go.
Having a coffee (or a chai latte) at Aroma Espresso Bar at Queen Street West (aroma.ca) is good, but if you really want to enjoy your drink in the sunshine, you should go to my favourite place: the Distillery District. You can choose to sit on the bigger terrace, but there is also this nice little spot called Furbo (caffefurbo.com), you will love it!
You could live forever in Toronto and go out for dinner every night, and still you could find new restaurants. Nice places I’ve been lately are Table 17 in Leslieville (table17.ca), Patria on King Street (patriatoronto.com), Blu in Yorkville (bluristorante.com), Spice Root on King Street (spiceroute.ca), Brassaii on King Street (brassaii.com) and The Grove on Dundas Street West (thegroveto.com). After dining in The Grove you should go to The Cocktailbar (hoofcocktailbar.com)!! But I was really impressed by the two following restaurants. Canoe (oliverbonacini.com/canoe) because of the food AND because of the view from the 54th floor, and Momofuku Shoto (momofuku.com/toronto/shoto) is really cool because of the fantastic surprise menu (ten courses!!). Soon more about great places to eat, drink and have fun in Toronto!

Living the good life

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Summer holiday in Toronto 🙂 …. it could be worse. Living the good life 

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