I Visited Toronto From Calgary For The First Time & These 8 Things Shocked Me
I had some serious misconceptions about the city!
Charlie in Toronto. Right: Toronto.
This Opinion article is part of a Narcity Media series. The views expressed are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
After moving to Calgary two years ago, I was excited to get out and explore more of Canada than the places on my doorstep. This year, I finally had the opportunity to head to Toronto for the first time and I was so excited to see what the city had to offer.
I really wasn't sure what to expect from the city and I was low-key prepared to dismiss it for being overpriced and overhyped, however, there were some really huge surprises that I hadn't accounted for at all.
After heading to Toronto, these are the things that surprised me the most about the city.
It's so green
The second I landed in Toronto, it was like spring had truly sprung. I'm used to living in Calgary where the grass is pretty brown and trees don't tend to sprout any leaves until a little bit later into spring.
It was so nice to see greenery and blossoming trees, despite being immediately ambushed by hay fever.
There's less outdoor space
As T-Dot is a much larger city, I was prepared for it to be a lot more built up than Calgary. But I did feel like in general, there was less access to parks and places to just relax compared to Calgary, especially around downtown.
We headed to Trinity Bellwoods on a Saturday and it was a sea of people and while Calgary parks do get busy, there's just a lot more choice of places to catch the sun without being cramped.
People were super friendly
There's a lot of big city stereotypes of things being very "go,go,go" and a bit isolated. I'm used to living in Calgary where most people are so friendly and up for a chat and I wasn't going to Toronto expecting to experience the same.
However, almost everyone I met from servers to retail workers and friends of friends that lived in the city was so open and happy to give out all their recommendations of what to do while visiting.
We got so many great recommendations from locals and it was so handy when the decision fatigue set in.
It wasn't that expensive
City life is notoriously expensive and I was heading to Toronto prepared for everything to cost a small fortune. The accommodation in Toronto was so pricey and I'd expected going out for meals and drinks to be extortionate.
Yes, rent in Toronto is obviously a lot more. However, the restaurants and bars we went to were actually so reasonably priced and it cost about the same to head out for a nice meal as it does in a smaller city like Calgary.
There's a lot of ground to cover (but it's way easier)
Being blessed with some incredible spring weather on the trip also meant there was a lot more walking. However, walking so much also made me really appreciate how much bigger Toronto is compared to Calgary.
Almost every block was at least double or even triple the length of a similar block in Calgary so I drastically underestimated just how far any walk was. It was so nice though to be able to just walk to places, unlike Calgary, which is so hard to navigate without a car.
We barely scratched the surface in the time we were there and we definitely could have covered more ground if we used public transport more.
There are so many restaurant options
Something I've missed about big city life is just how many food options you can get and Toronto had some of the best selection I've seen. You can basically get any cuisine you're craving around the city for basically any price point without even having to travel far.
It was so nice to be able to escape from the same old spots I usually visit and check out some new places.
It has a lot of charm
I was really expecting Toronto to look a lot more like Vancouver with so many shiny, glass high rises but I was pleasantly surprised that the city still has so much charm.
There are still so many older buildings. It reminded me a lot more of London, U.K., with huge high rises downtown but so many more cute streets of bars, restaurants and stores all around.
It was bustling
Especially in winter, Calgary can be a bit of a ghost town with empty streets. While the weather in Toronto was amazing which definitely drew people outside, it was so nice to be in a bustling city.
There was just such a different energy that Calgary rarely gets.