Buenos Aires and Toronto, different but the same

Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina, Toronto is not the capital of Canada but it is the most important city of the country financially speaking. Buenos Aires is a financial city as well. Buenos Aires City and Toronto have almost the same population: 3 million people. However, if we take into consideration the surrounded area, there are 5 million in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), while there are 11 million in the “Conurbano Bonaerense” (GBA Greater Buenos Aires). That makes us a little more overcrowded.

It is said that Toronto is the most multicultural city of the world, no doubt about that. However, Buenos Aires is a multicultural city too. While Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Hindus and Arabs choose Toronto as a city to settle down; most people from Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay choose Argentina to immigrate. If you walk in the street you can hear many different languages in Toronto. In Buenos Aires you are able to hear the same language (Spanish) but with many different accents, mine (the santiaguenio) included.

Toronto has the “CN Tower” as a symbol of the city; Buenos Aires has “El Obelisco”. However, I can’t understand why we can’t go up to the top of that building. The view from the CN Tower is amazing.

Toronto has the largest street in the world: “Yonge Street”. Buenos Aires has the widest one: “9 de Julio Avenue”. However, if we take into account the location and importance of the streets, “Yonge Street” could be compare to “Corrientes Avenue”. Both of them drive you directly to downtown and they have a very nice sightseeing to look and walk. While in the middle of Corrientes Av, we have our “Abasto Mall”, in the southbound of Yonge Street is located the “Eaton Center”, the biggest mall in Toronto. It is huge, believe me. Perhaps it is two o three times our “Abasto”

Buenos Aires the same as Toronto have subway system. While in Buenos Aires the main company is called METROVIAS, in Toronto it is called TTC (Toronto Transit Comission). There are three main differences between METROVIAS and TTC. Firstly, while METROVIAS owns only the subway trains, TTC owns the subway, the buses and the street cars and they are all connected. If you want to use public transportation in Toronto, it is better if you buy the Metro Pass (monthly pass) which enables you unlimited access to the transport system and you pay only once. If you want to use public transport in Buenos Aires, you pay every time you want to use the service and you need one way pass for the subway and coins for the buses. There are not transfers between buses and subways here. The second difference is regarding the “rush hour”. While in Toronto everyone tries to be “safe and considerate”, in Buenos Aires you need to be inconsiderate if you want to be safe. While in Toronto you travel as a human being, in Buenos Aires you only try not to loose your human condition. And finally, there is another important difference. I think that the most important one. While TTC goes on strike once in a while, METROVIAS lives on strike… hahaha. TTC has the policy to announce when they are going to stop the service; METROVIAS stops the service without announcements. And listen to this, this is the best one: If TTC goes on strike, they give your money back for the days they didn’t give you the service! On the other hand, if METROVIAS goes on strike: Who is responsible for the time and money that we loose? Anyone knows? Hahaha.

Despite those differences, “Bloor and Yonge Subway Station” could be the equivalent to “Carlos Pellegrini- 9 de Julio” in Buenos Aires. In Bloor and Yonge the green line meets the yellow one. In “Carlos Pellegrini” you can transfer from the red to the green and to the blue too.

If you take a look to the map of these cities, what will you be able to visit? Toronto has many distinctive areas that you “must visit” such as: China Town, Korea Town, Little Italy, The Greek Area, The Annex, Bloor Ville and the Lake Shore. There you can eat traditional food, do window shopping, shop, walk and spend a good time. Buenos Aires has many distinctive areas as well. If you stay few days in “la City Portenia” you must go to: La Boca, Palermo, Palermo Soho, Abasto, San Telmo, Recoleta and Puerto Madero. They are beautiful places to see and stay.

If you come to Toronto; you will see that “ice-hockey” is the most popular sport. In Buenos Aires is “soccer”. Toronto is next to a lake (Ontario Lake) while Buenos Aires is next to a river (River Plate). Both cities have an island too. In Toronto you can take a ferry to go to Centre Island, in Buenos Aires you can cross the river to visit “Martin Garcia Island”.

If you like going to the gym, Toronto will offer you three main fitness chains: Fitness Extreme, Good Life and Curves. Buenos Aires will give you many good options too, for example: Megatlon, SportClub and WellClub. If you want to eat hamburgers you will find Mc Donald’s all over Toronto and Buenos Aires. The competitor of this global company in Toronto is “Wendy’s” and in Buenos Aires is "Burguer King". If you feel like eating Pizza: “Pizza Pizza” in Toronto is the equivalent to "Uggis Pizza” in Buenos Aires. The main difference is in the size of the portion: in Toronto one slice is two times bigger than in Buenos Aires and they don’t offer you “empanadas” as well.

Everything is huge here. “The bigger, the better” they might think. You can buy “Jumbo Cereal” (a box of 1.5 kg) or a pack with 4 sachets of milk and a 1.5 litres bottle of ketchup. However, they don’t have as many low fat products as I thought it would be. The sweetener is only powder, no liquid. There is no Hellmann’s Light. Can you believe that? Instead, they have Hellmann’s half and a half, but it has too much fat from my point of view. Cookies and Crakers? There is nothing similar to “Ser Cookies”, and nothing similar to “Criollitas Crackers”. Diet jam? Forget about it. I couldn’t find anything. However, they have “Dulce de Leche” made in Canada. Unbelievable, isn’t it? And the Yogurt is OK because you can find “Danone” everywhere.

When in Buenos Aires you eat one “factura” or “vigilante”, in Toronto you will buy a “donout” or a “muffin”. Our “Dulce de Leche” it is their “Maple Syrup”. If you want to drink a coffee or a tea, in Buenos Aires you will go to “Café Tortoni”, “Los Angelitos” or “Las Violetas” and you will sit and spend time while you enjoy your “espresso”. On the contrary, in Toronto you will drink your coffee on the fly. Tim Horton, Timothy’s, Starbucks and Second Cup are the most popular coffee shops. In Buenos Aires, “Aroma Café” could be the comparable, but they are not the same. Our ‘Hoyts” Cinemas are their “Rainbow” movie theatres and our “Dr. Cormillot” line products, their “Weight Watchers” system to lose weight.

If you turn on the TV you will find more than one similarities: “El Gen Argentino” = “The Greatest Canadian”; “Cuestion de peso” = “The biggest loser”; “Operacion Triunfo”= “American Idol”; “Bailando por un suenio”= Dancing with the stars” (of course, there is no Marcelo Tinellu here hahaha). Everything seems to be the same in this “global television world”.

Finally, what else can I add? In Buenos Aires as well as in Toronto, you can meet good people, bad people, and crazy people. In Buenos Aires as well as Toronto there are homeless and people asking for money in the street. However, you don’t see barefoot kids neither windscreen cleaners in each corner and may be here you can walk more relax with your backpack in your back.

Nevertheless, despite that, Toronto is not so different from Buenos Aires or viceversa. That is why sometimes I don’t miss the city because I feel that I am just around the corner. And I strongly believe that if you can live (and survive) in Buenos Aires, you can live anywhere in the world, but, even though, there is no place on earth like my “Santiago Querido”.

:o)