I recently visited Toronto for the first time, and I was excited to check out this "international" city. Even if it in a different country, it is only about 500 miles away from Chicago, making it the largest city within driving distance. Also, Toronto is the same size as Chicago, with just over 3 million people, and it is the fourth largest city in North America.
My reason for visiting Toronto was to see a huge Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition that had traveled over from the Tate Museum in London to the Art Gallery of Ontario ("AGO"). This would be the only North American stop for the exhibition, and with Toronto only being a 90-minute flight from Chicago, I decided to make a weekend of it.
I flew Porter Airlines to Billy Bishop Airport, and while both my out and back flights had delays over an hour, I would probably fly them again if I ever go back to Toronto. The reason is that Billy Bishop Airport is only a short 15-minute shuttle ride from Union Station in downtown Toronto, while the major airport near Toronto is further away. Plus, Porter Airlines provides the shuttle for free.
When I arrived to the city, my first stop was PAI, a Northern Thai restaurant (yay). PAI is the most-reviewed restaurant in Toronto, and even though I got there around two o'clock on a Friday afternoon, the only open seats were at the bar. The decor was festive, and the ambiance was fun and laid-back, so I could see why it didn't lack for customers.
From there, I headed to the AGO for the rest of the day. I had a timed-entry ticket to the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition at four o'clock, and I also had a ticket to attend a sold-out curator's talk on the exhibition at six o'clock. I was serious. I had actually planned to visit Toronto earlier in the spring, but when I found out that there would be a curator's talk over Father's Day weekend, I rescheduled my trip just to attend the talk.
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| A designated "selfie-station" at the photography-prohibited exhibition |
The exhibition was amazing, and I actually cried a little when I saw some of the paintings that I had been wanting to see. The exhibition had been put together with a lot of pieces lent from museums around the U.S., and I got to see some pieces that I had missed when I had visited those museums because they had been off view (eh-hem, Whitney Museum and MoMA). I also got to see some pieces that are usually at museums that I had never been to before. It was a bit overwhelming to see so much of her art in once place, and I got more emotional about it than I thought I would. I also thought about how 15-year-old Alice, who first discovered Georgia O'Keeffe at her high school library, had no idea how much this art would mean to her so many years later.
After the exhibition and the curator's talk (which was amazing and worth the special trip), I headed to my AirBnB for the night. For dinner, I stopped by Bahn Mi Boys for a Vietnamese bahn mi sandwich (pork belly), and it was delicious.
On Saturday, I got up early to get in a solid half-day before I would need to head to the airport. I didn't have a set plan on where I would go, but I knew there were some landmarks I wanted to see, and I figured that I wandering around would get me to most of them eventually.
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| Toronto City Hall |
My first stop was Graffiti Alley, a few blocks of buildings lined with street art. It is legal to write graffiti here.
I gave myself a bit of an architecture of Toronto, checking out works by Mies van der Rohe and I.M. Pei. The AGO was actually redesigned by Frank Gehry, who was born in Toronto.
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| A view of downtown Toronto from Corktown Common park |
At nine o'clock, I met up with my "Toronto Greeter," and she took me on a long walk through some neighborhoods that I had no idea about, and I got to see a lot more than I expected to. We saw some beautiful homes and gardens in Cabbagetown, brand new developments in Corktown, the historical and beautiful Distillery District, and the world-famous St. Lawrence Market.
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| The most unexpected thing I saw in Toronto - a dog fountain |
