I actually loved being a tourist in my hometown for a couple of days on our cross-country Canadian Contiki.

Some activities I would join the group, other times it was fun to take my friends on local-guided tours of neat areas.

We were first given some free time in the Distillery District, which is kind of like a taste of Europe in the city.

This was when our little group kind of got locked in: my first German friend Line, my roommate Janine, my bestie Sophie, and myself. For the rest of the trip, the four of us would spend a lot of time together.

*Contiki pals at the Distillery District (July 2022)*

Even though I live in Toronto, I was super excited for our first evening.

First, we went to a Comedy Bar show. I love comedy shows in general, and this one was so much fun. Sophie and I got a drink and some chicken fingers to enjoy during the show, because this was just the pre-game for our night.

The rest of our group would be going to a country bar called the Rock’N’Horse Saloon – definitely a good time, but not my vibe. So Sophie trusted my judgement and instead we went to Crews and Tangos, a gay bar in the Village that has incredibly fun drag shows and dancing. I had always wanted to go, but never had anyone to go with.

We had such a fun time watching the performers and dancing to iconic queer anthems all night.

The next morning, the group was going to head to the CN Tower – the classic tourist activity in Toronto. As someone who has both seen and been up the tower more times that I need to, I suggested to Sophie that we go for a walk instead.

We walked through Chinatown and I showed her graffiti alley – a side street where the graffiti art stretches up every building, around every corner. Then we walked through the very quirky Kensington Market and popped into some shops. I hope she enjoyed it more than going up a tower for a view of the city.

Then later that afternoon, we met up with the rest of our close group, Line and Janine, for a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game. Going to Jays games is a classic Torontonian activity, since tickets are usually pretty inexpensive (compared to the rest of the city).

We got t-shirts and hats and drinks, and spent the afternoon watching a game in the Rogers Centre with the dome open. Perfect for a gorgeous summer day.

*At a Toronto Blue Jays game (July 2022)*

It was just so much fun to show my new friends my favourite old haunts.

The whole group got together for dinner at a pub that night. Our Canadian Contiki was split into two halves: East Coast and West Coast. A lot of our East Coast-only friends would be leaving the tour the following day, as a handful of us would be heading to the airport at 4:00 a.m. and hopping on a flight to Vancouver to continue on.

So we said our goodbyes at dinner and headed to get some sleep before a very long day.