Vacations

I'm going to vacation in Prague in about a month. I am excited but sad at the same time because a lot of my favourite bands are coming to Toronto in the time that I'll be gone; Switchfoot, Mariana's Trench, The Fray...

I had already bought tickets to see Switchfoot, but ended up selling them to a friend. My mom promised to make it up to me by taking me to sell a music event in Prague. I want to see the best of Prague, not just the tourist attractions.

I know I have a few favourite areas of Toronto that don't appear in the Tourist sites. These are my favourite Toronto areas:

1. Kensington Market
2. The Harbourfront
3. Independent Theatres
4. Bloor Cinema
5. Queen Street
6. Yonge Street (from Bloor down)
7. Yorkville
8. Smaller Concert Venues
9. Yonge/Eglinton (I love uptown neighbourhoods)

Areas That Could Potentially Make it to the Above List: (but need more exploring)

1. St. Lawrence Market
2. The Danforth
3. West Eglinton?

Anyway, the point I'm making is that my favourite areas about Toronto don't usually correlate to the ones that the tourist guides point out. I thought about becoming a tourguide this summer to show people my favourite areas, because I'm sincerely excited about these places, and of course, when you're excited, you want more people to know why you're excited.

The last thing I want is to go to Prague to get the same over-priced touristy destinations that I avoid in Toronto. Sure the C.N. Tower is worth a look at, but what really makes Toronto special for me is the culture. I want to get to know the culture of Prague too.

I find that following a tour in another country is the worst idea ever. Once, I went to Brazil and we followed a tour, and it was the most commercialized piece of crap. Sure we got good hotels, and we did cool stuff that is cheaper in a group package, but there is no freedom to discover a city yourself.

My favourite trip was probably California last year because we didn't follow a tour at all.

Cities Around the World that I like:

Rome
Malaga
Toledo
Tokyo
London
Sydney

Cities that I Probably Would Have Liked: (but were ruined by following a tour)

Paris
Holland
Austria
(and then a bunch that I have lost from my memory because I just don't want to remember bad experiences)

Moral of the story: Tours are no fun.