In which Layla and Roz visit cool areas and drink cocktails in high places

by Layla

After breakfast in our flat, Roz and I splashed out on more day transit passes and hopped on a streetcar to St Lawrence's Market, a nice under-cover market not dissimilar to Borough in that it sells lots of delicious food. We wandered around the stalls, indulging in a little sampling and getting into conversation with stall owners, before heading slightly further east to the Distillery District, actually an arty complex developed from one of the world's largest previous distilleries. The architecture and vibe are lovely, and we drank lemonade in the sun and spent a while pottering around galleries and crafty shops and watching people hiring segways, and had a very pleasant time indeed. After a panini and gin lunch, we decided to head to the waterfront. A meander along the cycle path brought us to a very nice bar right next to the water, with comfy sofas and a view out to the islands. We promptly acquired more gin, and a large bowl of chips, and read our books in the sun for most of the rest of the afternoon.

Home on the streetcar, we again relaxed with our books, finally feeling in the holiday vibe, til we realised that we were meeting a friend of Roz's boss in the Hyatt rooftop bar, and I'd entirely misidentified its location on the map. We leapt to attention and changed for the evening, before hopping into what proved to be a poorly chosen streetcar, as I'd randomly assumed that when we needed to make a turn we could hop on another one. Alas no such joining streetcar existed so we marched several blocks along the road at some speed and made it to the rooftop bar just a few minutes late. The woman we met was delightful. A lifelong Toronto resident, she further persuaded us of the merits of the city. It's an odd city, in my opinion. It feels more like a town, or even perhaps a suburb, with its quiet residential streets of two-storey houses and picket fences and little local parks, and apparently low crime (an argument between a streetcar driver and a passenger made the front page of the local major newspaper, as did a collision between a cyclist and a pedestrian). But it also has fabulous restaurants, cool bars, and a great arts scene (the previous evening's ill-chosen play excluded... and on a side note, Roz posted a summary of our views of said play on Twitter, only for it to be immediately found by the play's cast, who must have been somewhat crushed - the guilt!) The view from the rooftop bar was fantastic - right over Toronto - and the mohitos and G&Ts weren't bad either. Nor the tasty snacks (oops more chips...). Afterwards we headed home with falafel to watch a film, streamed from the internet onto the wall of our flat via our laptop and a projector - very cool indeed.

This morning Roz has been to hot yoga, in a studio right next to our apartment, while I devoured Annabel by Kathleen Winters, a great book. I refuse to believe it's our second last day in Toronto...