Canadiana Backpackers Blog

January 26 in Australia is high summer. In Canada it is the dead of winter. It is also Australia’s National Day and there are always a lot of expatriate Aussies in residence.

So the 26th of January is cause for a huge celebration at the hostel. (Not that Aussies suffer from a lack of excuses to party!)

Fosters Beer is in evidence in tins with the same capacity as wine bottles. The Aussies guzzle the brew while exclaiming that “No one drinks Fosters in Australia!” Maybe not. But they certainly did here!

They party hard and can’t seem to get their heads around the fact that this is NOT Australia and it is definitely not summer.

So after some tins (lots of them) of liquid courage, they all go outside (some dressed in tee-shirts, flip-flops and draped in Aussie Flags) in -20C (+) temperatures to sing a rousing chorus of Advance Australia and Waltzing Mathilda.

Luckily none of the celebrants has suffered frostbite or double virus pneumonia as of yet.

Nonetheless, Aussie Day at the hostel was (as usual) clean, crazy, booze-addled fun.

It’s January 26th and about -26C. Singing “Advance Australia” and “Waltzing Mathilda”. Nuts!

Don’t try to tell me Aussies don’t drink Foster’s Beer!

The most common explanation for how Toronto derived its’ name is that it is the Huron word for “Meeting Place”.

It is likely true although there are alternative explanations. Why? Glad you asked.

A lot of people “meet” here in the city (in general) and at the Canadiana (in particular).

Toronto does a huge convention business as the city has excellent amenities plus it is know to be the safest large city in North America.

Harry is a Sikh from India who has worked in the UK as a bookkeeper. He also practices the art of therapeutic massage and planned to open a studio over there.

Harry is not one to do things in half-measures and decided to enroll in an MBA degree course at Toronto’s york University. He plans on doing everything he can to make his planned enterprise a success.

So he will be in the city for, at least, another year. He arranged to meet his good friend Trang, a lovely young lady from Vietnam here in the city known as the “Meeting Place”. It’s just another example of how people come together in the city.

We’ve had, at least, six marriages (that we are aware of) as a result of meetings at our hostel and countless long-term relationships as well as a myriad of life-long friendships.

Harry and Trang hail from vastly different cultures; but can find common ground here in the what is arguably the world’s most multicultural city.
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Harry and Trang at the Canadiana.

Laura is a pretty blond from the UK who first came here to take a course at the University of Toronto. She stayed with us during her studies.

Upon completion of the course, Laura stayed in Canada on (I believe) a working/holiday visa.

She moved to Little Korea, one of Toronto’s many “ethnic areas”. And like all ethnically homogeneous areas it is safe and inexpensive.

But Laura made more than a few friends here at the Canadiana. Her birthday was yesterday and she returned to the hostel to celebrate with her friends.

Diana and Franzi (the German girls on staff) baked her a cake. Actually it was a pie! It was covered with whipped cream and a bit sloppy.

However, it tasted absolutely heavenly. We didn’t get a picture of it because by the time someone thought of it, they had already eaten every morsel of it!

Laura and her friends polished off a bottle (or two) of rum at the hostel. When that was finished, they retired to our local the “Fox and Fiddle” for a few drinks.

We asked Laura if she could think of another hostel where this would have happened for her. Her answer was simple. Nowhere, but at the Canadiana.

It feels like home. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!

Matt from Oz has been with us (on and off) literally for years!

He’s a great guy even though he is one of the original Canadiana Lager Louts! He was one of the first members of that illustrious group whose wretched excesses have been well-documented (albeit, heavily censored) in this blog.

He has always been known as a hard worker as he likes to earn enough money to subsidize his high living ways! Matt has calmed down quite a bit of late!

He met lovely Franzi from Germany here at the hostel and the two of them have become an “item”.

They are both leaving is a week or so to travel to Mexico and points south. They plan to meet up with pretty Genesis in Mexico City. Genesis is another “original” member of the “Animalettes”!

We’re glad that Franzi is going along to keep them out of trouble. We KNOW that we haven’t seen the last of Matt here at the Canadiana!

But when he leaves for his trip to South America, it will be the first time in years that at least one of the “original” Lager Louts har Not been in residence at the hostel.

Sarah is one of the newest additions to our “Front Desk” staff. And, without a doub1t, she is one of the sweetest women to work for the hostel since “Muffin” (Myriam) left for Southeast Asia.

If Sarah were a Judge in Criminal Court, she would give miscreants “a stern talking to!” She would reserve a “slap on the wrist” for Serial Killers!

Most of our front desk gals are bi-lingual (English and French) and Sarah is no exception! She lived and worked just outside of Paris for a year honing her French language skills.

Almost every staff member at the hostel speaks a second language. Besides French, Portuguese, Dutch, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Afrikaans are spoken here.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!

Do you think Steve Martin is “wild and crazy”? Wait until you meet Vera!

Vera is a Canadian citizen who was raised in The City of Angels in California. Come to think of it, L.A. is where Steve Martin and a lot of other outrageous people live.

Vera has moved back to Canada and has been working at our hostel since her return in the summer of 2007.

It is difficult to describe Vera because she changes her hairstyle, hair colour and mode of dress depending on her mood of the moment.

Vera is what you might describe as “extremely gregarious” and makes friends easily and mixes well with other guests.

Since she began working here at the hostel, she is likely to put in a full day at work then accompany residents on the nightly “event”, especially if a pub or nightclub is involved! She will party hearty until the wee hours of the morning then rise early to repeat the entire process!

Vera has seemingly boundless energy. Most of the staff have problems keeping up with her because she is a veritable hurricane of energy!
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Vera sporting her hair colour du jour with the Visser brothers (Wouter and Hans) from South Africa whom she calls “Meerkat” and “The African”.

Vera on New Year’s Eve kissing both boys AND girls!

If you have been following this blog you maight know that we devote a lot of space to “connections” that are made through choosing to stay at the Canadiana.

Enduring, life-long friendships have been made so often and between people of vastly different cultures and continents.

Even the entry preceding this one speaks of the impromptu reunion in Glasgow of a group formed fully three years ago in this hostel. The Canadiana “Lager Louts” have invaded Scotland!

An earlier entry tells of Stew from Oz and Katy from Venezuela and how Stew has just made his third long flight from Australia to Venezuela in less that two years! A real connection.

At least five marriages (that we know of) have come from chance meetings right here at our Backpacker’s Inn.

Jannick is a personable young German lad who was visiting Canada on a year-long working/holiday visa. We employed him for several months right here at the hostel.

He had long planned to move on to South America to visit exotic places from Macchu Pichu to Montevideo.

But he hit a snag.

He met an attractive blond Canadian girl named Samantha (Sam) and he was loathe to leave her behind while he continued his adventures in warmer climes.

Nonetheless, he left for South America last week.

Sam is still here at the hostel just counting the days. She has left her job here in the city and abandoned her plans to move back to Toronto permanently.

In just a few weeks she will be flying south to Columbia where Jannick will be waiting for her at Cartagena’s airport. Just another example of “connections” made right here!
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Sam(antha) and Jannick.

Glasgow, Scotland, has a reputation of being quite a wild town and especially, so the song goes. after “a couple of drinks on a Saturday…”

We’ve done quite a few entries in this blog on a legendary, infamous, boisterous group affectionately referred to as the “Canadiana Lager Louts and Animalettes”.

This hard partying group was formed by seven of our long-term guests a little over three years ago. A lot of their party antics cannot be recounted in a blog that is family oriented. Some of their past stunts have been seriously insane!

They have been the subject of several of our past (heavily censored) blog entries.

Of the seven original members of this rapidly expanding club only Matt from Oz is still here at the moment on a return visit toToronto . And little Genesis. an original Animalette, is back home in Mexico awaiting Matt’s visit in about three weeks from now.

But right now fully five of the original seven have invaded Scotland and are planning a “party” (that will likely last for days) in Glasgow, Scotland.

Simon and Pearcey, both from England have joined Jonno from Oz and Madeline from Germany in Glasgow for an impromptu reunion. They are still waiting to hear from Mitch from Kinross to arrive.

This will mean that five of the original seven will be back together to threaten the public peace of Scotland!

If you think Glasgow was a wild time before, just wait until after this weekend!

Simon. Madders, Jonno and Pearcey (getting ready to destroy Glasgow!)

Toronto has a reputation for free, quality public events, especially in the summer.

But if you have a thirst for adventure, you’ve got to come here in January or February - the coldest months of the year!.

““Cold “snap” is an appropriate term: when the temperature dips this low, things tend to break

- The Toronto Star, January 15 2009.

We’ve been experiencing temperatures of -23C (+) and if you factor in the “wind chill” effect the temperature exceeds -40C!

The above quote from the local newspaper was written this morning when the temperature has risen to a balmy -17C!

Still, water pipes burst; locks freeze shut; cars won’t start; people gladly fork over 20 bucks for young, hardy souls to take their dogs for a walk!

Do you like danger? Well, these are temperatures that can actually kill you!

Canadians are well equipped to deal with double-digit, sub-zero temperatures. We all have appropriate clothing and ALL houses and buildings are well-insulated and centrally heated!

In the downtown core, there are fully 27 kilometers of interconnected underground shopping complexes with (literally) thousands of stores. It is called the “PATH SYSTEM”. However, it is very easy to get lost in this underground (heated) labyrinth.

To people like our “Muffin” - Myriam, a former staff member (now in SE Asia) who spent a year in the Northwest Territories, -23C is NOT cold weather. It’s about the temperature that northerners consider buttoning up their vests! (”Muffin” got to be pretty “Macha” after her year in the far North!)

But a dog walker was confronted by a frozen latch on the gate of a public park. She had just purchased a cup of hot tea so she poured some over the frozen latch.

It snapped off! And she was in.

Cooling a beer on the back patio (takes about 3 minutes!)

Two years ago we had a long-term English language student from Venezuela named Katuiska (or Katy, for short) staying with us at the hostel.

Katy has been described by Teresa (our Head of Housekeeping) as being, without question, the nicest, kindest and loveliest guest that she had ever met.

Most of the staff are inclined to concede that point to Teresa!

Katy shared room #41 with two other language students, Clara from Taiwan and Melanie from Switzerland, who were both also strong contenders for the title of “nicest guest ever” in the hostel. All in all, a wonderfully matched trio!

They have become fast (albeit long-distance) friends and all developed strong English skills having been put together for eight or nine months with no common language.

Katy says she wanted to “work for an Ambassador” when she finishes university. Those who have met her don’t think she’ll “work” for an Ambassador. We tend to think that she’ll be an Ambassador one day!

Katy has an unusual double barreled name that we hadn’t encountered before or since - until the other day! An attractive young girl from Venezuela checked in as a long-term English language student about three days ago.

Her name is Viviana (or Vivi, for short) and it turns out it she is Katy’s little sister who has come to Canada on exactly the same study program!

We told Teresa of her arrival and she is anxious to meet Vivi. Because if she’s anything like her big sister, we have a pretty terrific young lady with us!

Photo of Vivi taken this New Year on a trip to Spain. That’s Little Katy (5′3″) behind her along with Big Stewart (6′5″) from Oz. They met right here 2 years ago!