"I chose a very peculiar day to go to the CN Tower. December 26th. A Monday. A blue, cloudless sky painted Toronto and I decided to walk there from Sherbourne and King. As I approached downtown I could already see the type of people I'd meet on the tower; people that walked downtown Toronto the day after Christmas: tourists.
Once there, the line was bigger than expected. I decided to wait for it to get smaller, as I people-watched. It's the perfect place to play "guess where these guys are from." Saudi Arabia, Germany, France or Quebec. You can't really tell with Spanish people. One large group showed up; a dozen parents and twice as many teenage boys. They wore all the same red uniform, along with their light blond hair and the brightest blue eyes. I told myself they were the junior Swedish national hockey team. The whole group eventually joined the line and got in. Well, I should get in too. A short moment after that, I was already buying tickets, joining lines, walking towards where I was pointed to, seeing people entering souvenir stores and leaving with merchandise related to either bears, mooses or red leafs. Once on the surprisingly small elevator, the ride began.
We could see the bottom of the tower getting away through the partially glassed floor. We could tell the elevator was extremely fast because suddenly all surrounding high-rises were already beneath us. The first floor or main part of the CN Tower had restaurants, other elevators, stairs for the strong hearted and a great view. On the last inches of the wall, where it ended and the view began, you could see names written through time. Couples, mostly. Boy and girl, and then the year. Some dated 10, 15 years back. I wondered if some of them were still together. The inside walls of the building was filled with information about the tower and towers in general. It lead me to the glass floor.
To that moment, I still wasn't sure either I was afraid of heights or not. I decided that I was. The glass was enforced in a way that even if elephants were on top of it, it wouldn't break. Some guy was lying on it as his wife took a picture of his head aside of the ground, miles and miles down. Yet when I stepped on the glass, I made sure to put some pressure on it to see if it really wouldn't break. No chance in hell I'm standing here with my two feet, I thought and then I went to the Skypod. Now there, the highest tourists could go, I was impressed.
A very small circular area was destined for people to walk, while everything around us was Toronto and the lake. Whoever is walking down the street is a dot to you on the Skypod. Even the tallest skyscrapers seemed small, as if you were on a helicopter watching over the city. Except instead of the deafening noise, there was only the wind. You could see the waves on the lake. thing, uneven lines starting on the shore and going on and on. You are so faraway that you don't notice they are moving. The sunset made the water dark blue, the color of the ocean. Eventually one plane landed on the airport island. And then another. And to my other side, the North, there laid Toronto.
It was a holiday so all those important and signature-of-the-city-skyline buildings were empty. How many hundreds would go there to work within the next 24h? They go up and down and back home and from here you didn't even see it. Home. Not only everyone worked somewhere my eyes could see, they also lived somewhere down there. This is Toronto and this is all there is to it. I'd say it's as big as my eyes could see but close to the horizon there were trees and no more streets or buildings. That's where North started. But this is all Canada."
