Snowy December Visit to the Distillery District

Hey Guys! It's been a while since I've updated and since I have a bit of time on my hands this week, I figured I'd do an update on recent events. :)

So this week, I got to hang out with my coworker from Yellowknife after work at the Distillery District. I couldn't think of where to go in Toronto but I figured the Distillery District would be a fun place to go and something that's unique to Toronto.  I first came to the Distillery District for my Urban Geography assignment in 4th year. The Gooderham & Worts Distillery started in the 1800's and at one point produced much of Toronto and North America's liquors. You can still see a lot of the equipment used for distilling on display. By the 1990's however, the area was used for movie production and by the early 2000's, it was re-opened as an arts and entertainment destination in Toronto. 

It was a cold winter night after our first snowfall for the year so it was kind of nice to just walk around and check out the lights and snow. It's not a big area but there's permanent art installations throughout the district.

There's actually a Christmas market here every year before Christmas where you can get your artisanal goods and lots of people come to visit. Unfortunately, I came when the market was over but it was nice because it wasn't too crowded.

Nice view of the giant Christmas Tree

We wandered around checking out some of the stores in the area. Unfortunately, most of them don't seem to be open past 6.

 We finally found a little Italian restaurant near the front entrance called Archeo Trattoria. I decided to try their flat bread pizza and added hot Italian sausages to compensate for the lack of protein.

I couldn't resist taking one more shot of the area before we left since the lights were so pretty!

Extras

I've been going to a lot of parties this month with the holiday season and of course that means eating a lot of food. My favourite so far has been the quail dish I got at Habits Gastropub . The meat was tender, flavourful but not overcooked, just...amazing!This was my first time at a Gastropub and I will be sure to try more in the future!

I used to eat a lot of quail when I ate dimsum with my parents back in the day. These days, it's really hard to find them anymore so if you know a good quail place, please please please let me know.

Finally, I'll be starting a new travel series at the end of the this month when I'll be visiting China! This is my first time back in more then a decade and I'm really excited to discover my heritage! Look out for more entries in 2014 as I blog my way through my China trip.

 It's been an amazing year going on all my adventures, from going to Italy to Seattle and trying Stand-up Paddleboarding. I hope there's more adventures in store for 2014! Have a very merry Christmas everyone and a super happy new year!