Hi guys, back again after some time!
First of all im happy to see steemit seems to really been picking up lately and im sure it will continue to do so with this awesome interface!
Today im going to write a bit about my stopover at Toronto, as I have said in previous posts I work as a flight attendant and traveling the world is one of the perks to my job.
Although the blog is named the 24 hour stopover travel blog, due to the long distance of the flight to the destination and that there is a lower frequency of flights weekly it was a 70h stopover which for me is much better, more time to explore, enjoy the destination and actually rest a bit!
I am based in the Middle East, and its approximately a 15h flight to Toronto, we do get a little rest during the flight but its just not enough, fatigue kicks in easier up in the sky and on arrival to be honest I felt absolutely dead! Could not wait to get to the hotel and take my shoes and tie off..
Next morning after a not so good nights sleep (although being extremely tired jet lag is a ***** and couldn't sleep more than 5h!)It was time for breakfast and to start our trip to the main attraction that I wanted to see, The Niagra Falls. Tour companies know that everyday airline staff fly in and tend to want to visit the location, two days before even traveling I had received already an email with this gentleman's tours and prices so obviously he has inside contacts to tell him who is staff on the flight and their email address's. We were a group of only 5 as the other crew had already been before, we were picked up from the hotel and set out on our journey.
Took just over an hour to reach our destination with a much needed coffee stop along the way and many interesting facts that our tour guide explained during the journey. When we finally arrived it was as amazing as expected if not more.This was around 1 month back from now and the weather was not as cold as I have heard it is currently (-35c!), I have just seen a recent picture and it is all frozen over which would have been amazing to see although not sure if I would cope with the cold being used to living practically in the desert!
Quick shot of the view when arriving of the American falls that are just before the Niagra falls:
Niagra falls
And me freezing my ass off trying to not look like it in the picture:
Shame the sky was cloudy and picture didn't turn out as well as I liked.
Next stop of the tour was lunch already, we went to a classic British pub, one of the oldest in the region and had some real warm up food and a beer to keep the crew happy!
Beef and onion soup, and a Guinness steak and kidney pie, Delish!
We continued on to a wine cellar, to do some wine tasting and check out the vineyards and to see how it is all made although I noticed a lot more interest in the tasting part on behalf of the group.. Didn't take any pictures but would definitely recommend it as the tour guides make it very enjoyable and the prices on the wine are discounted from normal retail price. I had never really heard of Canadian wine and was told due to low production its hardly exported, so they keep it for themselves. I have always noticed that wine is a thing that everyone pretends to know about and not many people really do, we were taught how to try the wine in the correct manner and how to distinguish good and bad wines and many other things so that now I can also pretend to know what im talking about.
That was that day over, time to get some good rest!
Next day we explored the city, went for lunch trying local cuisine and just being plain tourists around the city. When discovering new cities I like to search online for hidden cool spots and not just the regular tourist cramped places. I saw this place and couldn't resist not passing by to get a quick pic.
Its in the back of a shoe shop, we walked in, pretended to be interested in a pair of shoes for about 15 seconds and went straight to get a couple of pics..
That evening we went to the Christmas market which we were all looking forward to, as Christmas in the Middle East doesn't feel at all like christmas.. The vibe was great, very movie like I have to say, with the kids playing around, choirs on stages singing Christmas carols and mauled wine here and there.
Saw someone walk past with one of these bad boys and had to look for the stall selling them, mission accomplished.
Those are the main activities that I did during my stay, rest of the time was mainly resting preparing for the long flight back!
Hope you have enjoyed the read, please feel free to fire away with any question about the job or destination, will be more than happy to answer.
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