Martin is a young man from County Louth, Ireland who is on his second visit to Canada. He was here four years ago; but this is his first visit to the Canadiana.
He stayed at a budget hotel located nearby and when we asked him why, he said that “he didn’t know about us, at the time.” His loss! Even a budget hotel will cost a lot more than our hostel.
This trip, he also booked into a low-cost hotel but he had some friends who were staying with us. One visit to them here convinced him to change his accommodations and book with us to save some money!
According to Martin, he wouldn’t stay anywhere else now. (We get a lot of that here!)
Martin has returned to Toronto on a year long working holiday visa and has just found a flat in the city. He is still a regular visitor to the hostel because he enjoys the camaraderie ad convivial atmosphere of the Canadiana Hostel.
(We get a lot of that too!)
Martin chose to spend his working/holiday year in Canada because he is a fanatic for our National sport. He is a Hockey fanatic! According to Martin there is but a single ice area in all of the Irish Republic and it is in his hometown.
He discovered the game and plays in a local league filled with Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians, Czechs etc., thanks to the European Union. Perhaps there are even a few expatriate Canadians.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Irish have taken to our national sport. After all, hockey is well known for the number of fights in an average game!
Martin wants to be in Toronto until after the New Year and plans to spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve with us at the hostel. He has had reports of our famous Christmas turkey dinner and our festive New Year’s Eve Party.
As are all of our former guests who are still staying in the city, the will be most welcome! That’s because we want it to “feel like home” here!