Canadiana Backpackers Blog

Merel our girl from Holland left on Sunday heading for Quebec. She is in Canada on a working holiday and worked for us for several months. She’s a lively and adventurous soul who thought she’d best move on before winter set in!

She arrived at the hostel some months ago, after a grueling two-day, non-stop bus ride across the Canadian Prairies from Saskatoon! She’s been a welcome addition to the hostel ever since.

As is or tradition, we all went out for drinks at a local pub to say goodbye. It’s something the hostel does for staff and friends on birthdays and farewells. The draft beer flowed freely and we order enormous platters of delicious Chicken Wings that the Fox and Fiddle is famous for!

Oops! Although we thoroughly enjoyed them, we forgot that Merel was a vegetarian! No matter, the platters of wings had celery and carrots as a garnish!

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On the patio at the “Fox and Fiddle” our “local”.
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Merel (on the right) with her trademark smile!

We’ve got a bevy of beauties from mid-Western Canada staying with us at the moment! They are all third-year Interior Design students at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg).

When we in the East think of Winnipeg, we think of brutally cold winters and hot summers with floods and mosquitoes the size of sparrows!

That’s all quite an accurate description of Winnipeg! But after the arrival of this group of lovely ladies, we have been forced to re-think our opinions of that city!

They are all gorgeous and, if they are a typical of the ladies out there, a lot of guys will be heading west!

As might be expected, they all have excellent “fashion sense”. When they got dressed up for a hostel “Nightclub Event” they turned a lot of envious heads!

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The lovely ladies from the? University of Manitoba’s Design School. The only non-lovely one spoiling he photo (middle/left) is Pearcey our Entertainment Coordinator who can never resist having his photo taken with good looking women!

We’ve got a staff member named Wouter from the Netherlands who is in Canada for a year on a working/holiday visa.

He took a break from work for more than a month to travel around North America with a friend by the name of Doree who came over to share his summer adventure.

They purchased a camper van that was older than they are and headed south. They crossed the entire United States to California and included a side trip to Tiajuana in Mexico.

From there it was up the Pacific Coast highway to British Columbia then across the vast Canadian prairie back to Toronto. All in all, a trip of more than 20 thousand kilometers.

The trip was a real adventure and they saw much of North America in the process. And it was not without problems. Their faithful vehicle gave up and died n the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and needed a replacement transmission before taking on the second half of the trip.

It was a costlier adventure than they had anticipated as a result; however, the freedom of their own vehicle alowed them to see much more of the continent than asny alternative mode of transportation.

Their van is back in Toronto with Wouter now and will be up for sale soon. It’s a pretty good buy because it should prove to be very realiable now; after all, it has a brand new transmission!

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Doree (left) and Wouter beside a rental car they used while their van was being repaired.

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Their faithful 1989 camper van.

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Doree with his eyes smarting in a U.S. city’s smog!

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Using public transport in North America.

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Yellow Cabs, Latino style!(The lads faithfully wearing their Canadiana T-Shirts!)

There was a legendary group that was formed here at the hostel a little over two years ago. The were a fun loving group of five young lads we (affectionately) called the “Canadiana Lager Louts”. There were also a few female members of this group we dubbed the “Animalettes”.

They were a fun-loving, ribald collection of backpackers who became fast friends - a typical example of life-long friendships formed by people in hostels.

After quite a few months of their alcohol fueled antics. The group drifted apart as they continued their travels or returned home. It was a very diverse group of individuals that formed the core of the original Double L’s and Animalettes. They hailed from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Australia and Mexico.

They were a fairly harmless group who carried on their booze filled antics in god spirits with malice towards none. As a result they were a pretty well-liked group of party animals.

The funny thing about this collection of backpackers is that they have ALL returned to the “scene of the crime” (so to speak) for a Canadiana reunion.

The last of the returnees, Mitch from Kinross, Scotland arrived last Saturday and we hardly recognized him! He’s back n Toronto with his financee? who is a local? girl he met in Glasgow. Needless to say, he’s modified his behavior in anticipation of meeting her parents.

Welcome back Mitch!

Mich with Emily (his beautiful Canadian snowbird!)

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Five of the “Originals”. Lager Louts (left to right) Simon, Pearcey and Jonno wth the “Animalettes” Madeline and Genesis.

The 70’s party

Cuba is a great place to visit. Especially now when the mighty U.S. exerts little influence on the local populace.

There are great deals to be had for the vacationer to Cuba. An all-inclusive one week sojourn to Cuba can be had for as little as $600 for a week. The average cost is around $800 (Canadian dollars) and as mentioned, is all-inclusive.

What exactly does that mean?

It means Airfare + Hotel (3 to 4 Star Accommodation) + Meals + Drinks!!!! By drinks, I mean cocktails and Beer. All you can handle!

There is of course a downside to traveling to Cuba off-season! Two fellows by the name of Gustav and Ike have conspired to cause a vacationer a lot of grief!

Gustave and Ike are category 4 Tropical Storms. Hurricanes, if you will! They have savaged the Caribbean causing death and destruction in Haiti and savaged both the east and west coast of Cuba.

They say that in the face of climate change, the storms they say are becoming more severe. They say that both Gustav and Ike are far fiercer than Katrina that destroyed much of New Orleans three years ago.

One of our regular guests Miroslav, who travels to Cuba several times a year got caught in the final throes of Gustav and then was in Cuba for the savaging winds of Ike.

This is the season where there are great deals to be had for the intrepid traveler. However, be prepared and be warned! You get what you pay for.

Hurricane Gustav visits a popular resort….

….while Hurricane Ike drops in on Havana…

…and both leave plam trees swaying in the wind!

There’s a saying that; “…if you can remember the ’60’s, you weren’t there”! What a lot of people don’t realize is that the ’60’s era was actually the last half of that decade and the first half of the 1970’s.

In a bit of nostalgia the hostel held a ’70s Party. Participants dressed the way they imagined people in the 70’s did and managed doing a pretty fair job of it. It’s mostly because they had John Travolta and the movie Saturday Night Fever to go by.

The patio was decked out with enough psychedelic flashing disco balls to trigger an epileptic seizure. And, of course, the music was all to a dance inducing, thumping Disco beat!

To those of you for whom Rapping is nothing less than the irritating noise it really is and feel that it will NEVER go away; take heart!

Disco filled the airwaves or most of the decade before quickly going the way of the Passenger Pigeon right along with the 8 Track Stereo Tapes upon which it was recorded!

With the clear wisdom of hindsight, I really must say that the ’70’s were a kinder, gentler, more brotherly and socially committed time that today.

It was the era of peace protests and free love. A time when Bill Clinton didn’t inhale and Barack Obama did - frequently!

Recreating that exciting era is something we try to do every summer. It also gives a new generation a feel for why we used to say back then, that: “Disco Sucks!”

Another very popular hostel “event” is put on by the Magic Bus Company. They are one of the tour groups who do a daily tour from Toronto to Niagara Falls.

They pick up every morning right here at the hostel and deliver you right back at ur doorstep before dinner time.

They have several other tours such the Toronto Zoo and Canada’s Wonderland; but one of their very popular tours is not by bus at all. They organize 3-hour cruises (like on Gilligan’s Island) around Toronto Harbour.

It’s known colloquially as the “Booze Cruise” merely because there is a cash bar on the cruise boat. A cocktail or cold beer goes well with the evening tour.

It is a well known fact that the best views of the Toronto skyline is from the water. The boats spend the evening cruising around the harbour while the passengers enjoy the view, music, a drink and conversation.

The cost of the “event” is a mere $15 per person and it even includes transportation to and from from the waterfront. Magic Bus delivers you safely back to the hostel. Drinks are about $5 for a cocktail or bottle of beer.

There are several companies offering tours (or Booze Cruises, if you will) all departing Toronto’s popular Harbourfront. They all average around $15 and can be found docked by the popular waterfront cocktail patios the city is known for.

However, Magic Bus is the only company that includes return transportation between the hostel and Harbourfront in the cruise price.

She’ a little girl from France by the name of Sabine and she was with us for a month in the summer while she was studying English. She’s back now at the beginning of September for a two week extension course!

She was very popular at the hostel because she was so sweet and so, very pretty! She’s the kind of girl that makes the hostel a little more beautiful by her mere presence! We’re so glad she’s back!

She really was one of those guests that it was so hard to say goodbye to! You really just knew how much you would miss seeing her.

The downside is that lovely Sabine left yesterday for home; her two-week course having been completed!

We don’t know whether or not she’ll be back for any further studies but it really was so wonderful to see her again!

If she doesn’t come back for another English course well have to just go and see her in the City of Lights! And we made sure that we got her contact details before she left!