Toronto welcomes us! And we welcome Toronto!

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Monday, July 14, 2008

After spending a night at a hotel in Ridgetown, we hit the road for our final destination: Toronto.

It was a four hour drive, not two, as we initially thought. Spoiled by our American friend, GPS, we had a little trouble getting around in Canada (it doesn't have Canadian map in it), and had to go back to the old advisor: the map.

The landscape of the area between Windsor and Toronto was very much like this of Poland and Ukraine, and we felt like home. Nevertheless, we couldn't wait to get to Toronto! ... And there it was! Big city! Modern, beautiful, crisp, and tall. We booked a hotel in the downtown and went out in the evening to have a beer and meet with Roman. We haven't seen him for almost three years!

on Canadian highway...

Toronto skyline in the background

Toronto view from the hotel_1

Toronto view from the hotel_2

Toronto view from the hotel_3

Canada uses the metric system, and it's so funny to learn to drive to speed limits in kilometers! It took us a while to realize that distance to the city was provided in kilometers, not miles! We noticed that warning road signs and information was written in both, English and French. Near the border, we also saw big the conversion charts for drivers! There are a lot of French names here, like streets or stores, so I guess we have to learn how to read and correctly pronounce French now...

What surprised us was the exchange rate of American $ versus Canadian $. It's different everywhere! Many stores would accept American dollars and treat it as 1 = 1, but others would have their own exchange rate and pay 95 Canadian cents for 1 American dollar. Banks would give about 98 cents. We are wondering if we should keep exchanging money at all, since you can pay with American currency here in Toronto. But the most shocking was the rate at the border: we had to pay a toll of: $ 3.50 American or $ 4.50 Canadian!

Tomorrow we are moving in to a rented apartment!

issa