Canadiana Backpackers Blog

We often like to say that working in a family friendly hostel like ours, we meet travelers from eight months to eighty years old. And every once in a while, you meet a backpacker who breaks the traditional mold.

Barbara didn’t really begin backpacking until after she had retired. After years working in the field of education in the UK, she packed her backpack and headed for New Zealand.

Barbara who is attractive, adventurous, intelligent and well-read met a Kiwi on her travels and got married. She lived there three years until her husband passed away with a sudden heart attack. Barbara moved back to the UK.

But she’s still traveling looking for a place where she can have a good lifestyle in a decent climate. She stayed with us for several days before leaving us and heading west.

After she found changes in England that did not sit well with her, Barbara settled on the Island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean (which a lot of English people seem to be doing) but in time she found the summer heat far too oppressive. As I write this, I have checked the current temperature on Cyprus. It is a scorching 45C right now!

I think Barbara is out in Calgary or in the mountains at present. And we hope she is enjoying our summer weather! But we are quite sure that she won’t find the ideal climate here in Canada.

Our summers can be beautiful; however, our winters are another story!

Barbara (top left) – a game and adventurous soul – pictured on a war canoe trip to the Toronto Islands.

There are a lot of Irishmen at the hostel at present. And like a lot of true Irishmen they love their native games.

One of our guests goes outside to play with his “Hurley” and “Sliotar” which I suppose corresponds to the hockey stick and puck in our National Sport. He brought these things to Canada with the hope of finding a team to join.

Damien is here on a working/holiday visa and, as a result, intends to be here for the better part of the year. Sadly, he found out that no one participates in the sport of Hurling in Canada.

In Hurling, players use an axe-shaped wodden stick “Hurley” or “Hurl” and a ball called a “Sliotar” (pronounced “Slitt-er) to try to put the ball over goalposts for a point or under the posts for three points.

The sport predates the recorded history of Ireland and is arguably the fastest team sport in terms of game play. As one of Ireland’s native Gaelic Games, it shares a lot with Gaelic Football such as; the field; goals; number of players and a lot of the terminology.

Fortunately, they do play Gaelic Football here in Canada. Damien and another Irish working visa lad by the name of Paul have each joined one of the six Toronto area teams. Paul is heading off to Ottawa this weekend to play a team located in the Capital City.

Gaelic Football has certain similarities with Australian Rules Football or “Footie” as he Aussies call it. The field is a different shape and the ball isn’t the same either.

Apparently, there are enough similarities that an “International” form of the game can be played (with modified rules).

Like “Footie” Gaelic Football can get pretty rough. So we’ll try to get a photo of Paul when he comes back from Ottawa if he’s all banged up!

A typical defensive formation in Gaelic Football; but, to the untrained eye has all the tactical sophistication of a street fight!

“Gay Pride Week” in Toronto just ended last weekend with a parade attracting over 1,000,000 people! The parade marks the end one of the largest annual festivals for the Gay, Lesbian and Trans-gendered.

There are now Gay Pride Celebrations all over the world; from Sydney to Sao Paulo; Chicago to Calcutta.

In Toronto Pride Week is a fun and festive occasion; but it wasn’t aways so. This is the 28th edition of Pride Week in Toronto. This vibrant festival that actually began as a protest march against police raids on “gay bathhouses”.

As recently as 1990, the then Mayor of Toronto refused to sign a proclamation declaring “Pride Week”. This year, parade participants included the current Toronto Mayor.

Pride celebrations take place the world over and usually in late June. This is to commemorate to the 1969 “Stonewall Riots” in New York City that were in response to the continuous police harassment of homosexuals.

That was the same year that a confidant and forward thinking Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, made his famous statement: “The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.” He then acted to have homosexuality decriminalized.

This year recruitment booths were set up at the festival by, at least four regional police forces and the Canadian Armed Forces. You see, at Toronto’s Pride Festival “Don’t ask and don’t tell” is not what is required or even asked.

Now what they are saying is you are what you are and you will have the same rights and opportunities as anyone else – no more, no less and as it should be.