I spent last week in Toronto with my sister and had a great time! I visit Toronto relatively often. I have family there, and the city is not too far from where I live in the States. However, having never done so, my sister and I decided to be tourists during this trip. If you don’t want to read about it, here’s a quick video recap:

My sister Aliya and I stayed in an apartment in downtown Toronto, courtesy of Airbnb. This was our first time using the service, and we were not disappointed. Our apartment was in a nice modern building that was in a great location with an awesome view.

One thing I like about traveling to countries I’ve previously visited is already having “starter cash” on hand.

Out of all of the times I’ve been to Toronto, I’ve never gone up the CN Tower. The views were incredible. The CN Tower, or La Tour CN in French, is 1,815.3 feet (553.3 m) high. It has the world’s first glass floor, and it’s the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere and the ninth tallest in the world!

After returning to the ground, we hit Graffiti Alley. The alley was a lot longer than I expected, and it was fun to walk down and observe all of the really dope art. The spot is certainly a photographer’s dream, and at the very least, provides great Instagram material.

Tom and Jerry is my favourite cartoon.

We took the bus and a streetcar to get to Chinatown. While walking through, I noticed a spot called Arctic Bites with the words “Thai-Inspired Ice Cream Rolls” on the window. Having previously seen online videos of Thai men and women preparing ice cream on the street in a very dope way, I had to go inside to see if it was the same thing. It was, and it was amazing (make sure you watch it in my video above)!

I had the Nuts For You polarolls, made with vanilla base, peanut butter, and Nutella and topped with whipped cream, peanuts, chocolate sticks, and chocolate drizzle. It was truly a dream.

During our stay, Toronto Men’s Fashion Week (TOM*) was going on. TOM* is the world’s eighth men’s fashion week and Canada’s most influential platform for menswear designers and brands, so we decided to be a part of it and saw the show for XIAN’s Fall/Winter ’17 collection by Chinese designer Xian Wang.

Photo: Che Rosales 

Photo: Che Rosales

Photo: Che Rosales

Photo: Che Rosales

Later, my sister and I dipped just out of Toronto to Pickering to spend time with our family. Afterwards, we headed to Toronto’s Distillery Historic District where the Toronto Light Festival was taking place. Here, at Toronto’s first and hopefully annual light festival, we saw a lot of alluring and radiant light art pieces from people all over the world, including Toronto.

Run Beyond by Angelo Bonello, Italy

One of the Digital Origami Tigers by LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture), Australia

My Light is Your Light… by Alaa Minawi, Lebanon

Bands of Friendship by Vikas Patil and Santosh Gujar, India

On our last night, we went to a comedy bar called Comedy Bar, but not before doing an absolute must – visiting Nathan Phillips Square and taking photos of the popular Toronto sign. Even late at night in the freezing cold, people were playing hockey on the famous ice rink. So Canadian. 😉