I don’t think I could live in Canada, atleast not in the winters. I usually get headaches at the drop of a hat and the cold and wind here is just making it worse for me. So to avoid more pain than needed, and because I enjoy it, I’ve been going to museums the past couple of days.
The first one I went to was the ROM which is the Royal Ontario museum. This is a museum of world cultures and natural history. It is one of the largest in North America with more than 40 galleries and 6 million items ranging from art from Africa to Asia, displays and artefacts showing the history and journey of Greek and Roman kingdoms over a few 100 to 1000 years, minerals, gemstones and meteorites and the worlds largest collection of fossils from the Burgess Shale (which is the worlds most celebrated fossil field).
World culture and history about different empires is not my thing but even so, I found the exhibits really impressive. I skipped the textile exhibits completely and spent more time in the natural history section instead. No matter how many times I see fossils and minerals and gemstones I still don’t lose interest in it! The fossil and gem stones collection was huge and much more interesting than the Harvard Museum of Natural History but the mineral display at Harvard was beyond compare!
The museum is also currently showing the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition which comes from the Natural History museum in London. I have recently become interested in photography and am trying to learn as much as I can so I made sure I had time to spare for this exhibition. This section has about 100 pictures in various categories like wildlife, underwater, flora and fauna, nature, etc. The competition was also split by <10yrs olds, 11-14, and 15+ and it was mind blowing to see stunning photography by such young kids. it was interesting not only to see the pictures but also to read the technical details and the story behind the each image. Some of them the photographers had tried for a year before capturing the image that made it to the competition! For me, the photography exhibition was the highlight and I would highly recommend it to anyone even mildly interested in photography.
The other museum I went to was the Aga Khan Museum which hosts paintings, objects and architectural pieces from Muslim civilizations around the world. The museum houses beautiful objects like ceramic jars, decanters, candle sticks, Quran engraved wooden blocks, architectural panels and rugs, some of which as old as the 9th century but still very well preserved. The classical music playing in the background was very calming and we were lucky to have avoided the crowds that came in towards the end of our visit.
Other than museums there was more food to eat, obviously. On one of the days I went to a Korean Grill house with my friend and her hubby where we chose the unlimited grill menu. Needless to say, there was a lot of food. We ate Chicken, sausage, beef, ribs, pork, salmon, squid and white fish which we cooked on the grill embedded in the centre of our table. We also had sides of bean sprouts, tofu, radish, kimchi, beef broth and rice. This was followed by drinks and dessert at the Paramount restaurant (which is on the 52md floor of one of the towers giving a very good view of Toronto at night) where we ate the most delicious red velvet cake ever!
The next day I was out for Indian dinner with family which was equally good. The highlight was definitely the salted lassi!
Despite eating so much I was really proud of myself as on both the day I hadn’t eaten much throughout the day, just some oats and fruit. Not very healthy but I am trying not to outgrow my favourite pair of jeans!
Oooh …I forgot to mention the amazing mehendi (henna) my sis-in-law drew for me! 🙂
Hungryrover 