I recently
met a couple from Manhattan , New York who sat beside me during a dinner
out downtown Toronto .
I started chatting with them and they told me they had come up to Toronto to visit the city for a few
days. I had overheard the woman ask our
waiter what the large tower we could view from the restaurant was called (the
CN Tower…once known as the largest free standing structure in the world), so I
knew they hadn't done a lot of research on their vacation destination before
travelling. They asked us what we would
recommend seeing in Toronto – and I was stumped. I absolutely love giving out travel advice,
and thought bragging about my hometown would be easy but when the New Yorkers
asked…I sat there like a deer in headlights.
Stumbling
over my words, and naming random places I've read about in recent blogs, I
thought of Kensington Market, Toronto Island , and Bloor Street shopping. I was truly embarrassed I didn't have a
readily available list, and worse so…hadn't visited many of the attractions I
later thought to mention well after we had already left the restaurant and the
couple.
I've never
thought of blogging about my hometown – it's tough behaving like a tourist in a
city you just think of as home. So,
between adventures abroad, I am planning to blog about my favourite city of all
– Toronto .
The PATH
Truth be
told, I never considered the PATH a tourist attraction. I work as a 911 dispatcher, and I only
considered the PATH to be a nightmare location for an emergency call. The PATH is a complicated series of
underground walkways which run throughout the downtown core, that seem to spin
everyone who visits there in circles having them forget direction, and
location.
But as a
tourist, the PATH is pretty fantastic, especially if the weather is rainy, snowy,
hailing, or just unpleasantly cold or hot.
Our journey started off at Union Station – Toronto 's major transportation hub, located
on the southeast corner of Front Street and York Street .
Toronto 's subway, as well as GO trains (local commuter trains) and VIA Rail trains (national railway
trains) all come into Union Station, so by far the best place to begin any
downtown adventure.
From Union
Station, we headed north towards the Brookfield Plaza . Our ultimate goal was to
eventually get to an Outdoors shop close to where the PATH ends on the west side by Metro
Hall. A weekday off of work, we had no
exact time to get there so we began, Amazing Race style, and tried to navigate
our way through the walkways. According
to the City of Toronto website, there are over 60 decision
points where a pedestrian has to decide between turning left, right or
continuing straight. Adding to the
"thrill" of getting lost, there are very few maps guiding the way. To be fair, signage has improved drastically
over the last few years but unless you are familiar with the routes, it is an
easy place to get turned around.
Interesting
facts about the PATH :
·
According
to the Guinness World Records, PATH is the largest underground shopping complex with
28km of shopping arcades.
·
There
are approximately 1200 shops and services in PATH , and it employees about 5000 people
·
The
first underground path in Toronto originated in 1900 when T. Eaton's Co. joined its main store and its
bargain annex by tunnel. By 1917 there
were five tunnels downtown, and when Union Station opened in 1927, a tunnel was
built to connect the Station with the Royal York Hotel across the street.
With only a
few wrong turns, (that led to discovering a few fun stores to shop in I
wouldn't have found otherwise), it didn't take long to reach our first
destination. It's easy to see why so
many commuters and tourists alike use these underground tunnels daily. There are over 50 buildings connected
directly with the PATH , 5 subway stops, six major hotels and major attractions
such as the CN Tower, Hockey Hall of Fame, Roy Thompson Hall, and the Eaton’s
Centre. Although getting lost can be
half the fun, if you do need to find your way out all staff are used to
"Where am I?" questions – and Toronto's a pretty friendly city, so
never hesitate to ask a local.