One of the things I haven’t talked that much about on The Toronto Traveler is the outdoors in Toronto.  Most of the things I mention are either places you can visit or things you can do inside one of the many buildings located in the city, but I have yet to discuss something that you can do outside if you’re just looking for some time to kill or want to get some fresh air.  Well, there are many great places that you can walk in Toronto, but one that should definitely get first mention because of its close proximity to many of the main tourism areas in the city is Philosopher’s Walk.

Beautifully crafted thoroughfares like the one shown to the left are commomplace in Philosopher’s Walk, which is a walkway that starts on Bloor Street West between the Royal Conservatory of Music and the Royal Ontario Museum and continues southward to Hoskin Avenue.  The walk itself is only a few minutes long, but it gives you a chance to bask in a beautiful walkway and take the pulse of the city in a very real way.  It also gives you the chance to encounter a number of people.  University students, music performers, city residents that live nearby and tourists walk back and forth through Philosopher’s Walk all day and with the benches that are available for your use you can just sit there and watch them come and go.  It is a great place to reflect and a great place to relax.

One final point that is worth mentioning about Philosopher’s Walk is the fact that it allows you to branch off and visit many of the other nearby areas.  In addition to being able to visit the Royal Conservatory of Music and the Royal Ontario Museum, you can also go take a look at the University of Toronto’s Varsity Arena and field as well as tourisn some of the nearby campus buildings, most notably the very beautifully constructed Trinity College.

Philosopher’s Walk is also located walking distance from St. George, Bay and Museum Subway Stations; if you check out the subway line map and take a look at many of my past posts, you will notice that these three subway stations form part of the downtown core where most of the action takes place vis-a-vis tourist attractions in Toronto.  That is the main reason why Philosopher’s Walk is shorter than normal, but there are other places in Toronto where you can take a really long walk without stopping that I will talk about in later posts.

Photo Credits: Flickr, Flickr, Flickr

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Toronto is a city with lots of fantastic artwork attached to it.  Sometimes, as in the case of the above photo, the artwork manifests itself on one of the walls of the city or some other such public place.  However, in most cases, to see great Canadian art you have to head to one of the many artistic venues in the city such as the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, which from now on will also occupy a place on The Toronto Traveler’s blogroll.

The MOCCA as it’s known for short is exactly what the name implies and between May 2, 2008 and June 1, 2008, they are going to be having an exhibition of art entitled Between Memory and History: From the Epic to the Everday.  Here is a partial list of people that will have works on display at the event:

Raymonde April

Raymonde April is indicative of the large pool of French Canadian artistic talent that Canada is privileged to have.  She’s one of the contemporary photographic artists that Canada has built a reputation for turning out and ever since she got her start in 1979, her photographs have been in high demand for display around the country.

Robert Burley

Robert Burley, like Raymonde April, is a design photographer and one that has been working for over two decades.  According to his website, the work he does explores the relationship between nature, architectures and the overall urban landscape.  He has many excellent pictures that deal with the meat of this conceptual area, including very awe-inspiring pictures of large pockets of nature next to significantly smaller urban areas.

Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a man that refers to himself as the “chronicler of our age.”  He is a man that has been highly critical of mainstream media photography and serves to counter that photography with what he refers to as “criticism, seduction and humour.”  This gives us a chance to take a look at his interpretation of many famous media shots over time and that in itself is a very interesting thing to do.

MOCCA’s Location

MOCCA is located at 952 Queen Street West, which puts it at a major intersection nearest to Queen Street West and Ossington Avenue.  This is actually somewhat far away from the Subway, although there are busses that run along Ossington Avenue from Ossington Subway Station on the Bloor-Danforth line as well as streetcars that run along Queen Street that intersect both the Yonge and University Subway Lines, so the TTC coverage to this particular location is still extensive.

Summary

Event: Between Memory and History: From the Epic to the Everday
Location: Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), 952 Queen Street West
Dates: May 2, 2008 to June 1, 2008
Museum Hours: 11 AM to 6 PM Thursday-Sunday, closed Monday
Admission: Free to the gallery
More Information: 416-395-7490 or mocca@toronto.ca

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

You’ll meet people of all kinds at the Mink Nightclub and whether you are looking for a fun night of drinking and dancing or are actually interested in meeting people, the Mink Nightclub is definitely a place where you can make it happen.  They bill themselves are being “The Hottest Nightclub and Lounge in Toronto” and don’t hesitate to snatch an opportunity to call themselves “Very Hot, Very Stylish and Very, Very Sexy!”

Location

One thing about the Mink Nightclub that people tend to love is the fact that it is located right in the heart of downtown Toronto’s entertainment district.  Its exact location is 150 Pearl Street, with the closest major intersection to that point being Adelaide Street West and University Avenue.  Mink’s location on Pearl Street actually puts it a block and a half west and one block north of the St. Andrew Subway Station, allowing you not only easy access to it through the main transit vein of the city, but also placing it in close proximity to many of the other excellent attractions that the City of Toronto has to offer.

Inside the Mink

The inside of the Mink Nightclub is decorated extremely well, with a sleek and elegant design that is conducive to dancing or simply hanging out with friends.  The nightclub is divided into the main lounge area where most of the action takes place as well as a roof top patio with VIP booths that seat 12 people.  It was actually voted as being the best patio in Toronto by the Toronto Nightclub Awards for each of the last four years.  There is also a heated area within the patio where smoking is allowed.

Weekly Events

There are many weekly events that take place at the Mink Nightclub, with Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays being the three major days of the week when most of the special events happen.  There is also a dress code on both Fridays and Saturdays so if you want to visit on one of those days, you need to make sure you follow it if you want to get into the club.

The Mink is definitely indicative of the entertainment district in Toronto, which features entertainment that can definitely cater to the needs of singles while at the same time remaining elegant and tasteful.  If you enjoy partying on your vacations and want to see what Toronto has to offer in this area, then the Mink Nightclub would definitely be a good place to start.  I’ll be adding a link to the Mink Nightclub in the blogroll so that you’ll always be able to access their main website from The Toronto Traveler.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Here are some fun facts regarding the CN Tower pulled from http://www.cntower.com for your amusement:

1) The CN Tower is 553.33 metres tall
2) The CN Tower’s glass floor is 342 metres above ground
3) The CN Tower was opened to the public on June 26, 1976 which was was three months before its official opening on October 1st
4) The original building cost of the CN Tower was $63 million, which is over $250 million today when adjusted for inflation
5) The building time of the CN Tower was around 3 years, 4 months
6) Over 1,500 workers participated in the construction of the CN Tower
7) The CN Tower elevators normally travel at a speed of 6 metres per second, although in high winds they lower that speed to 1.5 metres per second for safety reasons
The total staff of the CN Tower fluctuates between 400 and 550 depending on the time during the year
9) Over the course of an entire year the CN Tower draws approximately 2 million visitors
10) The revolving restaurant at the top of the tower does one revolution every 72 minutes

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Photo Credit: Massey Hall by hobvias sudoneighm on Flickr

Many people have undoubtedly heard of Finger Eleven already, especially if you happen to be into the alternative rock genre of music.  Even if you’re not and you’re looking to expand your horizons a bit, the musical performance of Finger Eleven that’s coming up tomorrow is a pretty good way to do that.  They’re an all-Canadian band as well, which perhaps adds to the flavour of the performance for people that are viewing it from out of country.

Details

Event: Finger Eleven at Massey Hall
Date: March 8, 2008
Time: 8 PM
Cost: ~$35
Location: Massey Hall, 178 Victoria Street (MAP)
Nearest Subway Station:Queen Subway Station on the Yonge Subway Line
More Information: Phone 416-872-4255 or visit http://www.masseyhall.com

Venue

Massey Hall is perhaps the second most recognized musical venue in all of Toronto.  After Roy Thomson Hall, Massey Hall is the next most desirable location not just for musical events, but also for stage productions as well as lecture talks on occasion and it is this conglomerate of potential events that continues to make Massey Hall not just a premier musical venue, but also a premier general venue in the city of Toronto.  It also happens to be located in downtown Toronto right near all of the other big venues and this makes an event at Massey Hall quite easy to combine with other tourist events in the city and because of that reason Massey Hall concerts tend to be on the list of potential events for most tourists visiting the city of Toronto.

Event

As I previously stated, Finger Eleven got their start in Canada; in Burlington, Ontario to be exact.  Burlington’s not too far from Toronto and like many of the other great Canadian bands, Finger Eleven started out as a group of high school students that decided to get together and create a band.  That was a decade ago and since that time Finger Eleven has been all over the place in touring and has seen their music climb the charts at an almost meteoric rate.  They now have fans not only in Canada, but also in North America and even some places overseas.  They’re coming back to Toronto for another concert fresh off a successful appearance on the Jay Leno show and while tickets are still available for the event, you might want to get yours right now rather than wait until you get to the door.

Post from: The Toronto Traveler