Toronto and Montreal

I had actually planned to visit Canada during the long May holidays by taking 7 days of leave and having 14 days of holiday and stay at Zhihui's apartment. So I asked Evan to see if he's interested then he suggested Amsterdam, because one of our friend just moved there and the flights are much cheaper. But her apartment wasn't ready so we dropped that idea and went ahead to Canada!

I bought flight for Shanghai first then to Toronto because star alliance doesn't fly direct, and it's actually the same price. Then my company wanted to send me to Shanghai for training 3 days before my actual Shanghai flight. Argh buggers. So I had to forfeit the flight that I actually bought myself and get on the other flight that they put me on.

No monetary loss for me, but it's just the feeling of not using the things that you bought yourself. Luckily, I could make a refund of the flight taxes so that saved me a little cash.

I flew on 26th April, attended 2 days of boring training, and then off to Toronto!



First day we were nursing out jetlag because it was 12 hours behind. Eaton Center, St Lawrence market and packing for our Montreal trip the next day. Sunset was at 8.30pm everyday so the day felt so long.

ZH had helped us booked the 2 hour flight to Montreal at the domestic airport, which you had to take a shuttle bus, change to ferry that will take you to the terminal. Porter airlines was really really amazing. The lounge had two full fridges complete with juices and coke etc, and free coffee and tea, cookies and nuts and a room of Mac computers. It's the first time I was on board a small propeller plane! So cool.





Here's Montreal, the French speaking city of Canada. Even the trains announcements are in French

Back to Toronto after 3 days in Montreal, here's the CN tower, Rogers center, Steam Whistle brewery

Niagara falls day was probably the highlight of the trip. We rented a car, drove to the falls and then went for some wine tasting at some good local wineries, bought some icewines and went outlet shopping, where we spent most of our cash.

Museums

and more shopping at Eaton Center.

We had a transit flight at Vancouver airport before returning to Shanghai. The airport was filled with icewines and stuff that tempted me to buy. The flight itself felt so fast because I kept sleeping.

The shopping experience was better than I thought. It was a little bit more expensive version of US but overall I didn't expect myself to be on a such a shopping spree. These are what I bought back:

2 Abercrombie Tee
1 Abercrombie Shirt
1 CK Tee
1 American Eagle Shirt
1 Spiderman Junkfood Tee
5 CK underwear
4 Bath and body works body wash
3 Dove men body wash
1 Dove men shampoo
3 Chocolate bars
1 Kate spade bag
3 Pilliteri icewines
3 Assorted ice wines
1 Banana granola peanut butter
1 Cranberry coconut granola
1 Champagne vinegar pearls
2 Reese pieces
1 Reese pack of 4

Sounds little, but my 2 luggages back to Singapore were 35kg in total. 0_0 Luckily the flight was quite empty so I wasn't charged extra. That ends my 2 week holiday!

Toronto and Montreal is not as crowded as Shanghai or Singapore, so it might feel a little boring or lack of crowd. We wanted to visit one of the National parks but it wasn't the season yet.
I'm quite sure I will not return to travel leisure in the city again, maybe to skii or snowboard if I'm sick of Japan. It's also my last trip to Shanghai as my training has ended officially. So long, Shanghai!

Having major withdrawals now.