Okay, I know this is over a year late and I honestly don’t have any excuses. I outlined the entire thing and started writing it back in March 2018, but never got around to finishing it. When I added the “Travel” tab to my blog menu recently, I realized that the only post under “Canada” was my initial announcement, which pushed me to FINALLY complete this article.
Before reading the post, I highly recommend reading “My Spring Break Travel Plans (And The Story Behind Them)” because it gives context to how this trip came about.
I won’t hold you in suspense any longer. It’s already been eighteen months, so let’s get into it.
Tuesday//March 13, 2018
3:30 AM – alarm goes off
My flight was at 6:40 AM and because it was an international flight, I had to be at the airport two hours early. I woke up at 3:30 AM to start getting ready. I had to be out the door by 4. My dad told me to never book a flight this early again, so I told him, “I’m a poor college student. The later flights were more expensive,” to which he responded that he would pay the difference so that he would never have to wake up that early again. My dad sleeps really late, so getting up at 4 AM was torture for him.
Since it was so early, there was no traffic on the way to the airport. After saying goodbye to my dad, I went inside to get the gate number. The airport was pretty much empty since it was 4:30 in the morning on a Tuesday (but it took me a long time to find the AirCanada desk because it was tucked into a dark corner). I got through TSA pretty quickly and my gate was near the TSA exit, so I didn’t have to walk far or take a subway car to another part of the airport.
I had an hour to spare, so I went to one of the charging stations and plugged my laptop in. After editing the blog post I scheduled before the trip, I just surfed the internet and read other blogs. Time passed pretty quickly.
My flight started boarding at 6:15 and I got on at 6:25. Thankfully, the seat next to me was empty, so I could recline my legs.
6:40 AM – Plane takes off
The plane took off right on time. There were a lot of good movies on the Air Canada screen, but I didn’t feel like watching any of them. I listened to music for the first half of the flight then watched YouTube videos I downloaded on my tablet via YouTube Red for the rest of the flight.
8:45 AM – Plane lands in Toronto
After the plane landed, I had to go through immigration. It was organized the same way as U.S immigration but wasn’t nearly as crowded as it was when I came back from Bangladesh earlier that year since it was a Tuesday morning in March, not early January when everyone is coming back from their Christmas holiday.
I filled out the Canada immigration form on the plane, so I just walked to one of the machines, scanned my passport, inserted the form, and answered the questions on the screen. After getting a printout, I got in line to go to the interview desk.
After getting through immigration, I called my cousin (Verizon works in Canada, so I didn’t need to get a sim card) and she told me to wait for her at the Tim Horton’s.
9:20 AM – Found My Cousin
From now on, when I refer to my cousin, I will say “Boro Apu” because that’s what I call her. It pretty much translates to “oldest big sister” because she is the oldest of thirteen first cousins on my mom’s side.
There are apparently two Tim Horton’s outside of two different immigration exits and we waited for each other at different ones. We eventually found each other and she bought me breakfast from there. I have to say that I don’t see the hype. Tim Horton’s is a staple in Canada and I’m glad I tried it, but I would be okay with never having it again.
9:45 AM – Got On The Bus Then the subway
Boro Apu and I got on a bus at the airport, which took us to the subway. It was a long commute, but we just talked and caught up for an hour. Her apartment complex is right next to a subway stop, so it wasn’t a long walk to her apartment.
11:00 AM – Arrived At My Cousin’s House
When we got there, I gave a hug to my nephew, Saad, who I hadn’t seen in over a year. My cousin told him, “See, people from my side visit,” because her sister had also visited recently. We spent a few hours talking and hanging out before heading out to lunch.
3:30 PM – Head To Lunch
The three of us ate at a restaurant near their apartment. Boro Apu’s husband was in Bangladesh at the time, so I didn’t get to see him. Lunch was fun, and we started making plans for the rest of the week. The only thing I really wanted to do while I was there was to visit Niagara Falls, so I was open to anything she had planned.
6:00 PM – Leave House
If you read my trip announcement post way back when, you know that my friend Deya had been in Canada for four months. This was before she moved back to America later that year, so the last time I had seen her was when we reunited after ten years in Dhaka. Anyway, the plan was that I spend the first night of the trip at her aunt’s house to spend time with her, then the two of us would come back to Boro Apu’s apartment the next night so that she could come sightseeing with us.
7:00 PM – Arrive At Deya’s
Deya’s aunt lives in the suburbs outside of Toronto, so it was a bit of a drive since my cousin lives in the city. It was really great to see them again. Topy Khalamoni (Deya’s aunt) used to live in Atlanta, so my parents were happy to talk to her on video chat. She cooked us a three-course French-Canadian dinner that night, which was absolutely delicious.
We honestly just spent the next few hours talking, watching Netflix, and hanging out with her younger cousins. It was a super relaxing night.
2:00 AM – Go To Sleep
Deya and I stayed up until 2:00 AM talking, so at that point, I had been awake for almost 24-hours before finally being ready to crash. My friendship with Deya is kind of weird in that we were basically sisters the first ten years of our lives then separated for the next ten years. We had missed out on each others’ middle and high school years, so we were pleasantly surprised at how well we clicked after so much time. I’m grateful that friendship has stayed so easy and strong over a year later.
Wednesday//March 14, 2018
My second day in Canada was pretty chill. We didn’t go out that day. I woke up before 10:00 and took a shower. Deya and I video called both of our parents and also video called my cousin Orinta, who was missing us a lot.
Topy Khalamoni was working from home that day, but she went out to grab breakfast from Tim Horton’s that morning. I ate a sesame seed bagel with garlic cream cheese and a chocolate chip muffin. We ate downstairs and hung out with Deya’s cousins. While Deya took a shower, her cousin and I played ping pong in the basement, and I remember him telling me that I was pretty good.
Deya is super into makeup, while I am completely and utterly makeup-illiterate, so I was happy to let her do my makeup in her room. I took pictures of her in the back yard. Even though it was March, it felt like winter in Atlanta and there was still snow on the ground.
Again, this was a really chill day. We just hung out, watched movies, and played board games until we were dropped off at my cousin’s house in Toronto. Deya and Boro Apu also had a reunion and Deya also did the old person thing with Saad where she said, “I remember when you were a baby!” Since Saad is my nephew, he calls me “khalamoni,” so when Deya told him to call him “apu” I joked about her about trying to stay young.
Anyway, we changed into our pajamas and all watched Big Fat Liar while eating dinner together. (My Boro Apu cooked all my favorite Bengali food 🙂 She and I have the same taste in movies, and we talked about how our cousins in Bangladesh were super into horror films and didn’t understand our love of Disney/feel-good movies.
Thursday//March 15, 2018
9:00 AM – Wake Up Call
We all woke up at 9:00 AM sharp in order to get ready and get to the transit bus on time. I had a lot of acne during this trip, so I actually put on makeup that day (Deya did most of it). We ate breakfast then headed to the subway station.
11:30 AM – Bus To Niagra Falls Departs
After arriving at the bus stations, we got quite lost looking for the bus stop. After finding it, we sat in an indoor waiting area until we could board the bus. It departed at 11:30
1:30 PM – Arrive At Niagra Falls and spend the rest of the day there
We finally arrived at Niagara falls at 1:30. The ride didn’t feel as long as it was and the bus had comfortable seats. We all spent the rest of the day walking around the falls, taking pictures, and exploring the surrounding city. We also rode the giant ferris wheel showing off the view. We took hundreds of pictures that day, so I’ll insert several below.
5:45 PM – Bus Departs To Toronto
After spending four hours at Niagara Falls and its surrounding city, we walked back to the bus stop to get onto the nice warm bus. We were all pooped after walking in the cold, so Deya and I just sat in our bus seats, sharing headphones, listening to High School Musical songs.
When we got back to the apartment, we all showered and got into our pajamas. We ate dinner together and watched Wall-E while going through and sharing all the pictures we took that day.
Friday//March 16, 2018
9:00 AM – Wake Up Then Go Back To Sleep
Our plan was to wake up at 9:00 that morning to get an early start to the day, but all four of us snoozed our alarms and went back to sleep.
11:00 AM – Everyone Actually Wakes Up
All of us actually woke up at 11 AM. We needed the rest from the day before, but we all got ready quickly before sitting down for breakfast
12:00 PM – Leave Apartment & Head Downtown
We left the apartment at around noon, then took a streetcar downtown. The first part of it was underground, but the majority of it was above ground, so we could look out into the city. It was pretty cool.
Grafitti Alley
Deya’s friend had told her about this place and it seemed really interesting, so we looked it up online. It’s pretty much what it sounds like. It’s an alley where all the buildings are covered in murals. It took us a while to find it, but once we did, we took sickeningly cheesy Instagram-worthy photos for an hour. It was a lot of fun. Here are a bunch of the photos we took:
Downtown Toronto
After exploring Graffiti Alley, we walked around downtown Toronto for a bit looking for a place to eat lunch. Everyone was super indecisive and we kept walking past restaurants thinking maybe something better would come along to the point where we walked into sections with no restaurants at all. We finally ended up separating for lunch since my cousin and nephew weren’t in the mood for sushi, while Deya and I were.
3:00 PM – Lunch + Explore Toronto More
We picked a restaurant at around 3:00, so we were quite famished. I’m glad we waited to pick a restaurant because that was genuinely the best sushi I had ever had. It was so good. Most of the sushi I ate after that didn’t live up to what Deya and I ate in Toronto. It was heavenly. (The restaurant was called Sushi Time, and the restaurant was pretty fancy considering the generic name.)
After lunch, we walked around and explored the city more. We walked around the shops and bookstores and just enjoyed each others’ company.
6:30 PM – Deya Gets Picked Up
We all rushed back to the streetcar to head back to Boro Apu’s apartment since Deya’s uncle was going to pick her up at 6:30. She quickly packed before we said our goodbyes for another four months (before she FINALLY moved back to Atlanta).
After that, Saad, Apu, and I got ready to head to the movies.
7:00 – Head To The Movies
If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know I’m a huge Marvel fan. Black Panther had just come out about a month before, but I hadn’t seen it yet. I had super high expectations because my nephew said he could watch it multiple times without getting bored, and it still exceeded them. It was a super fun way to end the day. Especially since the three of us love superhero movies.
Related – My Marvel Movie Ranking | Pre-Avengers: Endgame
9:30 PM – Head Back To The Apartment
We headed back to the apartment at around 9:30. The rest of the night consisted of eating dinner, looking through pictures, checking into my flight, and getting some homework done while the second Percy Jackson movie played in the background.
Saturday//March 17, 2018
I don’t have any timestamps for this day.
CN Tower
It was just me and my cousin during my final day in Toronto. My nephew had had enough of all the touristy destinations he had seen before. My cousin and I took the subway downtown and walked to CN Tower. The CN Tower was the tallest free-standing building in the world for 32 years. It was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in 2007, but it is still the tallest in the western hemisphere. My cousin actually got tickets to the very top, so we were able to walk around in the less crowded area of the tower. The view was amazing, and the weather actually wasn’t as cold as it had been the past few days.
We walked around the city for a while and people watched. It was very entertaining because people were dressed up for St. Patrick’s Day. We headed to the mall, where she bought some sweets for my family. She also bought me a Pandora bracelet with a Canada charm along with a few others. I will eventually get other travel charms to add now that I’ve been to a few more places, but I’m not willing to spend the money right now. It was a really nice gift and is one of the few pieces of jewelry I regularly wear.
Fly Home
Once we got back to the apartment, I managed to stuff all my things into my carry-on without crushing anything. I laid in bed and almost took a nap, but I had to get up and head to the airport. After saying goodbye to my nephew and cousin, I boarded my flight home. It was only a two-hour flight, so I wasn’t able to finish the movie I was watching (The Shape of Water, the movie that won the Oscar last year). I still haven’t watched the ending.
In my last Travel Diary, I said I’d start adding random travel tips into each recap so that the posts can be a bit helpful. Here’s mine for Canada.
Travel Tip #2 – If you are visiting Niagara Falls, start walking back to the tour bus 30 minutes before it leaves
All the transport buses that take you from Toronto to Niagara park in the same place. It’s a bit of a walk from the Falls, so I recommend you walk back to the buses at least half an hour before it departs just in case because they will leave without you. It may look like a fifteen-minute walk, but I wouldn’t risk it if I were you.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten little details here and there, but that’s pretty much what I did during my Canada spring break trip. It was a pretty relaxing compared to the other trips I’ve taken in college. Normally, I’m go-go-go every day, but the purpose of this trip was mostly to see my family and friends.
I’m pretty open when it comes to talking about money, so I’ll share how much the trip cost me. I don’t remember the exact number, but I know it was a little over $500 (plane ticket prices went up since it was Spring Break time). That cost was a lot lower than it could’ve been, mainly due to my very generous cousin. She’s always been generous, even when I was a kid, and I would love to be as generous as her someday when I have the means.
I hope you all enjoyed this post and I’ll see you next time!
Related – My Spring Break Travel Plans (And The Story Behind Them)
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Have you ever been to Canada? What were your favorite parts of the trip?