After a less than (Sami) / really (Ela) enjoyable 6,5-hour flight from Reykjavik we landed in Toronto around 19:00 local time ( = 02:00 Finnish time) last friday. We were rather excited about the border control procedure. After we (rather confusingly) explained our itinerary, the border guard let us in. Sami was slightly nervous about the border control stuff because being a legitimate tourist for ~5 months is one thing and proving it is another.
Having collected our luggage, we started looking for a cheap transport solution to our hotel in the "Financial district" downtown. We are great fans of public transport so that was our choice also now. The problem was that we had not made much research on how to actually use the public transport and North America is not known for great public transportation infrastructure..
Because of a lack of proper signs & unpreparedness we let two of our buses pass while fussing about the right line before a nice local helped us and told us how to change to subway (local metro). This gave us a very positive first impression of the Canadians. The cost of 3 Canadian dollars per head is a bargain compared with the about 50 CAD with a cab.
Funny thing is, the bus drivers don't have change. Our driver laughed at us and joked that there would be a couple of Hell's Angels guys now driving the bus if the bus drivers carried money around. Nevertheless, the subway ride felt very safe, even more so than a ride in Helsinki metro on a Friday evening! (Ela disagrees & feels fine on Friday 8pm in Helsinki). The subway cars are clean, it doesn't smell like urine at the stations and the city seemed to be rather sleepy. (But then again, our hotel + subway stop is in the Financial district which stayed calm all weekend.) When we surfaced at our stop we were a little lost again - which is unusual as we usually take time to prepare but this trip is different! Some young man saw us fumbling around with a map & spontaneously helped with cellphone navigation. As a reason for the nice helped he said on his European trips he was helped a lot.
CHEERFUL HELPFUL people these Torontonians!
Having collected our luggage, we started looking for a cheap transport solution to our hotel in the "Financial district" downtown. We are great fans of public transport so that was our choice also now. The problem was that we had not made much research on how to actually use the public transport and North America is not known for great public transportation infrastructure..
Because of a lack of proper signs & unpreparedness we let two of our buses pass while fussing about the right line before a nice local helped us and told us how to change to subway (local metro). This gave us a very positive first impression of the Canadians. The cost of 3 Canadian dollars per head is a bargain compared with the about 50 CAD with a cab.
CHEERFUL HELPFUL people these Torontonians!
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