Toronto, Canada

My summer holidays began with a trip to Toronto, Ontario in late June with my sister. This unique city embraces the fact that 49% of its residents were born outside of Canada, turning multiculturalism into the face of Toronto. It is a mecca of delicious food from all over the world, as I was fortunate enough to discover during my visit there! My two favourite restaurants in Toronto were Fresh and Rawlicious - read about them here!

We explored Kensington Market, a colourful neighbourhood that boasts a bohemian mix of vintage shops, record stores, art galleries and hipster cafes. We walked along Dundas West, to the rapidly changing area of Little Portugal, where we picked up a fresh juice at The Goods, and then strolled down Queen Street, browsing the independent fashion boutiques and pausing for a lunch break at Café Bernate.

In terms of culture, The Bata Shoe Museum is every woman’s dream museum especially if you are a shoe-a-holic like myself, showcasing more than 1000 shoes from over 4500 years of history! The exhibition took me on a journey through time, from the days of the Chinese binding their feet, to displaying famous shoes from history and pop culture such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.

We also visited the The Art Gallery of Ontario. The AGO has one of the best collections of work from the Group of Seven, Canada’s emblematic group of landscape painters from the 1920s and 30s, as well as two floors dedicated to contemporary art.

No trip to Toronto would be complete without a jaunt over to Niagara Falls. Only an hour and a half away, it is one of the world's greatest natural wonders. The view can only be described at breathtaking: three waterfalls converge and plummet to the raging river below, which never slows down, the water just keeps rushing with no end. It seemed like a larger-than-life miracle of nature! This day trip also involved a visit to an impressive butterfly house with dozens of exotic species, as well as a stroll through the adorably traditional village of Niagra-on-the-Lake.