Toronto Fast Track 2009

Another fast track for Toronto to help catch up!

Roller Derby!

After Hockey and Curling, and probably a few others, Canadians like to get their Roller Derby on. Basically, its two teams of 5 players competing on a small oval track to get points by getting there Jammer to the front. This is mostly a female sport, and they are on roller skates, but it is most definitely full contact. Players are constantly hitting the cement floor, but are back on their feet in seconds. They do wear knee pads and helmets etc, but one girl hit her landed on her chin and was taken away in an ambulance! Drew Barrymore made a movie about it last year, I have no idea how successful it was outside of North America but it might give you an idea about the sport (NO I havent seen it).


I actually stumbled onto Kensington my first day in Toronto, its a hippyish area with loads of local produce shops, health food shops, veggie restaurants etc. It also happened to be a Sunday where they close off they streets to cars, allowing for street stalls and entertainment. Great summer fun.

Canadian National Exhibition

This huge festival goes for 2 weeks over August and September, featuring a fair ground with rides, shows etc. I didn’t actually go into the show however, my main interest was the air show! For days before you could hear the Jets fly past downtown, very low and very fast. From the city, it was hard to spot them, as by the time you heard them and could turn around they were already gone! So I went down to the harbour front both days to watch. Most impressive were the Blue Angels of course, pulling ridiculous stunts at crazy speeds. Loops, dives, pulls, near misses, flips, upside down maneouvers. Awesome stuff. There was another larger, very powerful jet that could basically hang vertical.

Fort York

Don’t visit Fort York. Honestly. We went because it was free and something to do, but there is nothing there but some cottages and a few old cannons and outfits really. I imagined something like Old Sydney Town but there weren’t even people walking around. Maybe its different in summer, but in winter its totally lame.

Downsview Park Fair

A very small fair and it takes about an hour from Downtown, but the best part was we got to carve a pumpkin! For Free!

There’s some other photos too but read the caption for explanation 🙂

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