The Ultimate Jet Setter

Day 1 Today my friend Alison and I went for lunch in The Beaches, an area in Toronto which is like a little beach town within Toronto. There are lots of cafes, pubs, restaurants and boutique stores on the main road and a beach obviously. The houses in this area are quite cute too. We went to a restaurant called Green Eggplant which do really good salads and sandwiches. I had a salmon salad which was incredibly filling as rarely salads are. My friend had a chicken and chargrilled vegetable salad which looked really good too. It's on Queen Street East so if you're ever in The Beaches you have to check this place out.  We then went to Alison's cottage for the weekend in Stony Lake, about 2 hours from Toronto. Three of us were staying at the cottage along with Alison's parents Bill and Carol, her sister April, the family dog Abbey and a hedgehog named Maximus that April was babysitting. I don't think I've ever seen a hedgehog other than in the road so this was prett...

To get around downtown Toronto you can take the tram which is $3/€2.20/£1.90 per journey or subway. As you should know by now I like to walk, just give me a map and I'll be on my way. So I walked to Yorkville. A nice part of Toronto with designer stores, boutiques, restaurants and hotels. It's on the right side of Bloor St in the opposite direction to Koreatown. I walked Bloor to Yonge Street which has several restaurants, bars, pubs, fast food joints and salons along there. After a few blocks you reach Dundas Street which is described as the Times Square of Toronto. It does have some resemblance as there are a few advertisements in neon lights and lots of bars, cafes and restaurants in a small area.  I had a classic Canadian lunch of Poutine which is chips with cheese and gravy. It sounds weird I know and doesn't look particularly appetising but it's actually quite nice.  I then walked to the Distillery district which was about 20-30 minutes walk from Dundas so take a ...

One thing I noticed when I first got to Canada was how much it reminded me of home. There is a lot more greenery here than LA, there are several street names and areas named after places or people in England. Queen Street West, Winston Churchill Boulevard, Princess of Wales Theatre and so on. Toronto is also incredibly multicultural which I love. Today I went to Queen Street West which is a road with stores and boutique stores. I also went on a Tour Guys walking tour which is 'free' but you have to tip so it's really a $5 walking tour. It's an hour and a half walking tour, we didn't really go very far or see many places but I found out a lot of information on Toronto. There was also another walking tour I found later on Dundas Street called Free Discovery Tours. They meet at Dundas Street behind the Eaton Centre everyday at 11am and 3pm. The tour is the same amount of time but from the map I was given you see more places and cover more areas which I think is better....

Today myself and my 5 friends went to Niagra to do a wine tour. Niagra Falls is a pretty tacky and run down place, the only good thing about the area is the Falls. There are a lot of chain restaurants, bars, hotels, motels, breakfast places and a casino.  Wine tours are a very popular thing to do in Niagra. There are several wine tours in the area, we went with Grape Escape Wine Tour. It's $75/£47/€55 and you get picked up from wherever you are in Niagra so Grape Escape picked us up from our hotel. The tour is about 5 hours long and you visit 4 vineyards and taste 4 different wines at each vineyard. We had a 45 minute tour of one vineyard and a wine tasting, then just wine tasting at the other vineyards. There is also several opportunities to buy wine at each of the vineyards.  If you ever go on a wine tour in Canada and you are a fan of sweet wine like me then you have to try a Canadian dessert wine called Ice Wine. It's incredibly sweet and expensive at $20/€14/£12 for 200ml...

Today I went to Santa Monica with my aunt, cousin and little cousins. There were 6 of us altogether. I'd been to Santa Monica before but it was a long time ago. First we went to the pier which has a combination of restaurants, Starline tours of famous Malibu homes, souvenir stalls, rides and other eateries. The pier is pretty big and if you've got kids its great for them and even if you haven't its still pretty fun. All the rides are pretty tame, a mixture of bumper cars, mini roller coasters,  ferris wheel and other rides. Certain rides are $3/£2/€2.30 each and others are $5/£3.20/€3.80 and for unlimited use of rides its $15/£10/€11 per person. My cousins went on the rides, I just sat and watched the joy and happiness in their faces whilst on the rides.  After that we went to the beach, it was a relatively hot day but because of the sea I guess it was a bit more windy and chilly than other parts of the city. The water wasn't anything like Thailand and I'm sure it w...

Today I went to Madame Tussaud's on Hollywood Boulevard with my free ticket. If you were going to pay it would be $27/£17/€20 for an adult. I went about 30 minutes after it opened so it wasn't busy and there was no queue.  There are 3 floors with waxworks of famous and influential figures present and past, old and new. There are also sometimes props next to the waxworks to try on and pose with. Some of the figures include Beyonce, Audrey Hepburn, Jack Nicholson and Bruce Willis. In my opinion some of the waxworks are better than others, some are really good, others average. I've never been to Madam Tussaud's in London so I don't know if this one was the same calibre or not but I would imagine so.  Photos and touching is allowed but just no touching on the face.  After Madam Tussaud's myself and a couple of friends went to the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. This is another shopping area but close to the sea so a bit cooler than the rest of town. There are ...

Today was a pretty busy day for me and I walked a lot. If you're someone that doesn't mind a bit of walking then you should follow my lead. If not then you should take a bus or taxi some of the places I went today.  Melrose Avenue is one block from my hostel and is a major shopping street in LA. It's also quite a trendy area, some of the stores on Melrose include Helmut Lang, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith, DVF, Marc Jacobs and Diesel.  If you walk far enough down Melrose you will hit Robertson Boulevard, another shopping street. Robertson is quite cute with stores a little less high end including Lulu Lemon, Splendid, Ted Baker and American Apparel. After Robertson I walked to Rodeo Drive which is probably a 30-40 minute walk.  Even though I can't afford anything on Rodeo Drive I always like to wander down there when I come to LA. It's really pretty and something about the elegance, palm trees and wealth that I'm drawn to. As you can imagine Rodeo Drive is full ...