Toronto from the top

Toronto… what a fantastic city! It’s the largest city in Canada and it is the fifth most populous city in North America. Toronto is one of the world's most diverse cities, with about 49% of the population born outside Canada. Toronto is also consistently rated as one of the world's most livable cities.

I had the opportunity to see the city from  its highest point (550 m tall), the Canadian National tower, CN tower for short, and it was great to see the top of the buildings, the traffic, the streets…

As a tourist, I was invited to buy some souvenirs!! You may be wondering which souvenirs Toronto have, right? I can make you a list:

• Maple. Maple every­thing: maple syrup to drench your pancakes, waffles, French toasts, or oatmeals, maple can­dies, maple tof­fees and so on. You know, you can make maple syrup by boiling between 20 and 50 liters of xylem sap (from the Maple trees) in order to obtain 1 liter of syrup. 
• Smoked salmon from Vancouver.
• Ice wine: a sweet dessert wine produced with frozen grapes.
• Clothes, decoration, toys and other stuff with wild animals printed. Mooses, bears or beavers... Pick one! 

 Kiss, kiss

JB*

  

PS: Don’t you forget to go to Tim Hortons, known for its coffee and doughnuts, to complete  your Canadian experience!


Check here the photos from Niagara Falls, in case that you missed the post ;)

Um Jantar à Portuguesa

(this time, in Portuguese)

Já há muito tempo que queria fazer um jantarzinho especial para os meus colegas de laboratório. Aproveitando umas coisitas que trouxe do supermercado português (no Canadá) resolvi fazer assim um jantar caprichado, como nós gostamos de fazer. Um jantar à portuguesa!

Foi um sucesso, eles gostaram muito! Dei-lhes a conhecer os tremoços, a chouriça e a broa, e acharam imensa piada ao nome ‘Baba de Camelo’ hehe. No final ainda tiveram direito a umas caipirinhas (um abraço aos nossos irmãos deste lado do oceano ;))

Uma vez que não tinha espaço para todos se sentarem à mesa, foi uma coisa mais relaxada, informal; houve música portuguesa, guardanapos vermelhos e verdes e ementa escrita em português (e inglês). Haha É sempre giro pô-los a falar português! E pelo que parece temos sons muita difíceis de pronunciar..

Aqui estão algumas fotos. Que tal? Aprovado?

Kiss,kiss

JB*

 

 

Niagara falls

As you know, I went to Canada last week and, somehow, I've experienced the Canadian way of life that I've always heard about. Is the US/Canada relationship the same as the Portugal/Spain one? Who plays who? I know about the funny differences and I'll tell you some in the next posts! heheheheh

First of all, I'm not going to tell you which country I love most because if I did, I would be in a lot of trouble!! However, I have to say that I found Canada very North American style; for me they are on the same page, except the fact that the Americans put the milk on plastic bottles and the Canadians on bags (google it ;)). Haha

Like I told you, I went to Canada for Spring break to visit my family (uncles and cousins), in the Province of Ontario. The vacations were all about hanging out with them, get to know them better and practice their portuguese which, by the way, most of them speak fluently! (PROUD!) 

The first place we went: Niagara Falls! Does it need an introduction? It has a vertical drop of more than 50 m and the average flow rate is about 1,834 m3/s. The Niagara Falls include 3 waterfalls: the Horseshoe/Canadian Falls, the American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls (yes, it seems like a veil ;))

They are located between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York.

Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean. Because of the interactions of three major rock formations, the rocky bed did not erode evenly, resulting in these powerful waterfalls.

Did you know you can have a lot of fun at Niagara Falls and I’m not saying jumping into them (actually it’s not fun at all, you can hurt yourself!)? There is an all-new world nearby, full of different attractions from wax museums to haunted houses, old fashion pubs and lights, a lot of lights!!
I hope you enjoy the photos :)

Kiss,kiss 
JB*

Ps: The pictures that I took during the day were the Canadian waterfalls, at night was the American ones.

Ontario in pictures

Just a sneak peek...

@RIC airport

What a perfect day for flying, at least in Richmond! The sky is so bright and clear...

I'm so ready for my Spring break trip, yeah! I'm very excited to know Canada and I'm pretty sure that I will take tons and tons of pictures, so stay tuned! ;)

kiss,kiss

JB*