5 interesting facts about Toronto that I like the most

I was just having a conversation with someone about something and somehow we mentioned Yonge Street.

I've been told, as every tourist probably, that it's the longest street in the world. And this person told me that, despite common belief, that's not true. Of course, I needed to double check that online, which is how I came across some other interesting stuff about Toronto in general.

Among tons of interesting facts, here's top five I like the most:

1. City of Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world.

It's also one of the most clean, safe, peaceful, large, cosmopolitan cities on this planet. Ok, we kind of knew that before, but it's good to know that's still true. Also, Toronto has the third largest percentage of immigrants at almost 50% (right after Miami and Dubai). That means that almost half of Toronto population was born outside Canada.

2. There are over 1600 named parks in Toronto.

Uu I love that one. Parks are everywhere, really. There are small ones (I wouldn't even call them parks, but they do have that table with the name on it and a few square feet of green grass and some flowers), and there are big ones. The largest public park in Toronto is High Park, but there's plenty of big parks and gardens all over the city. There are areas where you can feel like you actually live on a farm instead of in Toronto.

3. Toronto hosts over 70 film festivals every year and  Jim Carrey lived here!

The most popular is Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). In fact, TIFF is known as second most prestigious such festival in the world, right after the one in Cannes.

Jim Carrey was born in Newmarket and has lived in Scarborough and Burlington. Mike Myers was born in Scarborough. Sandra Oh was not born in Toronto, but she's also from Ontario, as well as plenty other famous people I like.

4. Bien sur je parle francais! Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?

Even tough Canada has two official languages, English and French, French is the 12th most spoken language in Toronto. Actually, over 180 different languages and dialects are spoken in the city. That kind of speaks for itself about the Toronto population.

5. Yonge Street is the longest street in the world. Is it?

It's not. It's not 1896 km long, as people think. However, it was listed in Guinness Book of World Records as the longest street in the world, because apparently it once was, or at least it was considered to be, going all the way from Lake Ontario (Queens Quay) to Lake Simcoe up north. Yonge Street is actually 56 km long, and the rest of it is Ontario's Highway 11, which people have mistaken for Yonge. So, technically, it's not, even though some people still say it's true. Either way, it's famous for it.

And I don't really care where it ends. I love where it begins, right at the lakefront, downtown. A beautiful place to hang out on a lovely spring day with a camera in your hand...