Toronto Girl Trip June 11 2023: It’s a Wrap!

Sunday, June 11, 2023

Greetings from T.O (as many signs indicate for Toronto) on our last day in the city.

Began Sunday with a bit of a late start because we needed to pack and check out of the hotel. Then we headed to the Aga Khan Museum which is about 20 minutes (by taxi) from downtown.
Before talking about our day and the museum, a few points about Toronto that I haven’t mentioned yet.

The city of about 3 million (nearly 7 million if you talk about Greater Toronto) has a nice vibe, is very urban, yet has lots of small and large parks scattered about and is clearly growing— especially vertically. No way to count the number of cranes and construction of skyscrapers as they seem to be everywhere. Lots of glass towers and a changing skyline. There are rivers and some deep ravines, people of many ethnicities and origins (more than 50% were not born in Canada), and is the third largest tech hub in North America. It’s very livable and walkable and seems to have a good deal of cultural facilities and respect for its many First Nation peoples. And unfortunately, like all cities, it’s clear that homelessness is alive and well with tents and unhoused people sleeping on the streets in what seem to be random locations. This trip to Toronto was the first visit for me in at least 25 years so the city looked very different from what I remembered. The long waterfront and harbor as well as the islands remain but I remembered lots of small neighborhoods filled with Edwardian and Victorian buildings and family-sized houses. Some of that still exists, but the overall impression is of glistening, towering (probably expensive) residential towers and also many financial institutions. And many industrial sites have been transformed into eating and entertainment destinations like the Distillery District. I’m guessing that many of those old neighborhoods that I remembered disappeared to make way for all those high rises. Already in 2011 there were about 2,000 buildings taller than 10 stories and when it comes to real skyscrapers (taller than 30 stories), Toronto is set to outpace Chicago in the next few years.

The architecture includes great variety with some buildings dating back to the early and late 19th Century and others newly built. Somewhere I saw a quote that said something like “Toronto is a brash, rag-tag place—from mixed periods and styles.” The CN Tower, completed in 1976, was the tallest building in the world until 2007 when the Burj Khalifa was unveiled in Dubai. And I would be remiss not to mention that when walking we were often on wonderfully shaded tree-lined streets and often found ourselves edging wonderful buildings of the University of Toronto which seems to sprawl throughout the city with its more than 60,000 students and which probably also makes the city feel young and adds to the vibe I’ve mentioned before.

Ok… so on to the Aga Khan Museum. We arrived in time for an early lunch at Diwan, the restaurant inside the museum. The space with its towering ceiling (about 30 feet?) is an interesting mix of modern, sleek, and ornate. There are decorated wood panels that are hand-carved and from 18th Century Damascus… but also very hip and beautiful dinnerware and large glass windows looking out at the gardens. Approaching the grounds (they have a huge parcel), one is immediately struck by the 5 large granite-lined pools into which the buildings are reflected. And the center pool houses a wonderful reflected “sculpture” that is really a series of large black letters that sit at varying heights on simple poles coming out from the pool. The letters are upside-down and backwards and from a distance look like a two-dimensional graphic display against the sky and the building behind. But as you get closer and look into the pool, the letters reflect (in their proper right side readable form) to create a statement in the pool. I think the letters and statements might be changeable, but maybe the statement that is there is permanent. It read “There is a voice that does not use words,” which is a quote from Rumi (and there is currently an exhibit that focuses on Rumi). So perhaps the statement changes with each exhibit. I was mesmerized by the sculpture and could have watched it forever since it’s always changing as the light changes and as the wind moves the water. I loved it.

The site includes two buildings around this formal garden (where the pools are): the museum and the Ismaili Center, a religious and social building which is oriented toward Mecca. Inside the museum there are several galleries and also a glazed courtyard. The main exhibit at the current time was the one on Rumi which was interesting, although difficult to enjoy because some tour guide was explaining the show to a group of tourists and they didn’t use headsets, so you kept hearing her booming voice wherever you went on that floor. Having been to Konya in Turkey some years ago and having sat through the whirling dervish’s performance, it was interesting to see some of the visuals related to that. (When we saw the dervishes, I was dizzy within 5 minutes, and I was just sitting and watching). There was also a “themed” exhibit.. this time on “water.” The exhibit focused on pieces from the museum’s collection that pointed to the importance of water as a life-giving source in Muslim art and literature – from ceramics and paintings to architectural elements and metalwork. And there was an exhibit called “Cultured Pallets” by Canadian-Iranian artist Soheila Esfahani, that included about 100 shipping pallets that were transformed by painting patterns in geometrical ways on the pallets and other everyday objects that are used as temporary holding areas for objects. Each pallet was laser-etched in a process that takes about 700 hours to complete for the whole installation. Then they are hand-painted, with color and some golden areas. Sort of interesting, albeit a stretch to see the artist’s conception regarding “the feeling of in-betweenness — a space where those experiencing migration often find themselves negotiating identities and cultures.”

As we left the museum, we had another chance to watch the pools and re-read Rumi’s statement.. and then it was a taxi to the hotel to get our bags and off we went to the Toronto Airport. 2023 “girls trip” was over and we each went to our respective flights. Unfortunately, my flight left two hours later than scheduled, which meant I would land at SFO around midnight… and then there was no gate at SFO for my flight so that took nearly 45 minutes.. Finally got my car at SFO and was at the house around 1:30 am (body time 4:30 am)… But still, it was a great trip and now we need to plan the 2024 trip.

Best
Fern