I’m just going to count all posts about my trips to Toronto as travel posts, because I don’t live in Toronto, haha. I don’t think they count as lifestyle posts really? I’m not sure, because I talk about restaurants, bars, aquariums, etc. But anyway, this post is all about what we (myself, my sister, my boyfriend, and some close friends) did in Toronto this past weekend for my birthday! Please continue reading if you’d like to find out about all of the shenanigans! Note: the entire weekend will be posted in a series of three to four parts.

This adventure started on a Saturday. After spending an hour or so at the market (eating butter chicken meatballs for breakfast, and buying a dozen lavender macarons in lieu of a cake), we popped over the mall (where I bought a pair of Aldo boots that I’m in love with). Once that was all done, we headed home, got fancied up, and drove to Toronto! (Note: the picture of the macarons is not my own, but was labelled in Google Images as re-usable without modification … and gosh, I wish that I had more of those macarons to eat right now!)

The first thing that we did when we arrived in the big city was go find out Airbnb apartment, one of the floors of an older house. We picked it because of the location, because of the space it provided for us (6 guests), and because of the large windows and high ceilings. I absolutely love old houses, and really want to get one of my own! There’s just something about them that I’m drawn to. Here is a link to the apartment that we stayed in, in case some of you ever want to visit Toronto and stay a night or more. Also, if you haven’t yet made an account with Airbnb , you will get $45 off your first trip if you use this link to create one! Enjoy! (P.S. Airbnb did not sponsor this post, but I do get $25 off my own trips for every person that signs up through me. I just want to be honest about that!)

After we dropped off all of our things, and parked our car at a nearby parking lot, we set out for the nearest subway station so that we could get day passes for the local transit system, and make our way to a restaurant that we’d been wanting to try out ever since we saw a video about it on YouTube. The restaurant is called Momofuku, and has a few locations in the States, and this one location in Canada (as far as I know). We had wanted to have dinner at the Daisho level of the restaurant (since it has multiple levels, all of which serve different things), but they’d closed that level down for construction, which kind of sucked. So, we made a reservation for the Noodle Bar level, because we figured it would be busy, and we didn’t want to spend hours waiting for a table … so imagine our surprise when we ended up having to wait 20 minutes despite our reservation.

We didn’t eat before setting out for Toronto, because we figured we would be seated at the time we reserved, and would eat soon after. I won’t lie, I was a little annoyed. Then we were finally seated, and I tried to cheer up. The menu looked great, and I decided to order a cocktail because it was my birthday. My sister pointed out a drink on the menu that had my name written all over it because the flavours were a mixture of peach and lavender. I was so excited and intrigued! But when my drink arrived, it tasted like water and lemon. Sigh. But I wanted to stay positive, so I remained excited about the food that we ordered. I asked for some bao buns, which were delicious. I told myself that the price of food can go up in the big city, but the amount of food still didn’t match up to the price we paid. (I was so hungry that I completely forgot to take a picture of the food I ordered, but I was able to grab a picture of the buns that Google says I’m allowed to use, haha).

So, the only highlights from our trip to this restaurant that we were excited to try out were the flavours of the food, and the fact that a famous actor was eating at the table next to ours, haha. Jay Baruchel was enjoying a meal just a few steps from us! But we were too embarrassed to say hello, and didn’t want to be those annoying fans who interrupt someone else’s meal. So we just talked among ourselves about how awesome it was that he was there, then paid our bills and set out for the next place. (Despite our negative experience, my boyfriend and I also decided that we would give Momofuku another chance when they re-opened the other 2 floors back up. I don’t know about everyone else in our group though.) Keep an eye out for Part 2 of my birthday weekend, to see which place we hit up next!

ALL PHOTOS WERE TAKEN BY ME EXCEPT FOR THE ONES OTHERWISE-INDICATED! PLEASE ASK ME FOR PERMISSION IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO USE THEM ANYWHERE. THANK YOU FOR READING THIS POST ABOUT MY 2018 BIRTHDAY WEEKEND! HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO TORONTO? OR DO YOU LIVE THERE? AND IF SO, WHAT DID YOU ENJOY DOING THERE MOST? ALSO, WHAT DID YOU DO FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY THIS YEAR (IF IT ALREADY HAPPENED), OR ARE YOU PLANNING ANYTHING INTERESTING (IF IT HASN’T YET HAPPENED)? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!