And there were additional perks! As we were on the first shuttle bus on the very first day of the new shopping season, we were each given one goodie bag and CAD$20 worth of shopping credits. Now, that’s not bad after all.

We had 3 hours to shop at the huge mall, which I initially thought would be boring and excessively long. I was wrong.

After looking at potential gifts (wallets) for family members, and then personal items like watches and shades, and also a brief hour when we split up to shop on our own, we realized it was soon time to board the shuttle bus back home. I ended up only getting wallets for the family, and 2 tees for a cousin, and left without getting a watch nor a desired pair of shades. As a non-shopper myself, I was surprised that I actually felt ‘disappointed’. Now I had quite some spare cash left. 

Back at Toronto, we continued our momentum of shopping at a souvenirs market, where we could get perishables like maple syrup cookies and maple syrup chocolates. Maple syrup is huge in Canada, by the way.

Our final night was spent at a rooftop bar. It was the last time that we could savour Canadian dishes (like my favourite Poutine!) and had some beer. We had a nice chat and looked back at the many moments of this epic vacation. We concluded that it was a pity to end the trip at Toronto instead of anywhere else (like Vancouver or Banff/Jasper etc), as Toronto was considered a ‘low’ point of the trip. But we agreed that Canada was such a great country that we would have no hesitation to come back again if we could.  

I guess I will really miss Canada and the happy memories here, for a long long time.