Toronto - what to see and what to skip?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree w/ Queen St West. Eat at Persian restaurants. Bloor & Younge shopping mall. Check out University of Toronto. I liked the horse racetrack - the people were dressed up - ladies in wide-brimmed hats and everything! Rent bikes and ride along the lake path - unforgettable. Basically, go where the locals go.
Skip the CN Tower and the museums - every major city has musems.
If you can change plans - Montreal is much more quirky and interesting. Ottawa's architecture is also very unique.

You're recommending a mall over museums? Yikes.

The OP said "a couple of days". So that's 2-3 days tops. So part of this is how to maximize the time and still feel like you got a sense of Toronto. Will You, smarty pants, get this if spend most of one or two days inside, indoors, in museums? You think Toronto is "cool looking but curated artifacts in a museum? Yikes for you!
Now if the OP had a whole week, or there are some bad weather days, yea, sure, do some museums, galleries, whatever. Your comment also shows your ignorance since Younge & Bloor is not an actual mall - the way you'll find it in average American suburbs.

When I go to big metros and visit their museums, I'm often looking at special exhibits that are time-limited and rare. They become a special memory of something I did in that city. This is more interesting to me than shopping for clothes which are produced in Asia and often no different between Canada and America.

The Bata Shoe Museum had an exhibit on 1980s shoes when I was there. The shoes of my youth. Funny to see them behind glass. It's a good memory from Toronto.

Also, Canadian museums tend to have excellent collections of First Nations art.

One of the museums I went to had many examples of architectural models from Ancient China. I haven't seen that kind of collection anywhere else.

It's not for shopping clothes, it's for people watching. And it's for going where Canadians/Torontonians go and observe - what kind of people, how they behave/interact, how they speak, even what what THEY buy. This is more interesting. Ancient China, Japanese, Egyptian, Greek artifacts are in most major metro museums. Chicago, New York, London. But whatever. Spend all your time in museums, if this is what you like. I would go to a hockey game because this is their thing, see how their fans support although as theirs if a NHL (American/USE) franchise, I am not sure how different it would be from say, the Capitals or some other american NHL team.

I call bullshit. Nowhere in your initial post did you present this as some sort of sociological study. Face it, you suggested consumerism over culture, were called on it, and are now quickly backtracking to make your materialism seem deep. No one’s buying it. But enjoy your Canada Goose and Aritizia!

PP. There are Canadian people to watch inside the museums too.

I don't care much about watching other people dressed in Western clothes walking around on streets in any metros. Or sportsball/sportspuck. I'm not interested in pastimes where the involved get their faces smashed as collateral damage.