Canadiana Backpackers Blog

There was a bit of a war here last night in Toronto at the Rogers Center.

The Venezuelan National Baseball Team met Team USA in the World Baseball Classic!

We have some young Latino residents from Venezuela staying at the hostel. They are not backpackers but language students!

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has never been very popular among Venezuelans living abroad. But he has made his mark on the world by consistently showing his disdain for former U.S. President George W. Bush!

So most Venezuelans in Toronto went to the stadium to cheer on their team and to boo Chavez’s Minister of Sports who was in attendance!

Anyhow, from our Latino student’s perspective the game (war) went well!

The result? A five to three victory for Venezuela! Now it is off to Miami for the second round of the tournament where they have claimed top seed for Round Two!

One of the top players on the Venezuelan Team, Endy Chavez shares the same surname as the President.? At each turn at bat he was greeted by the chant “Endy, si! Chavez, no!”

It’s pretty obvious where their sentiments lie!

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Endy, si! Chavez, no!

She’s a sweet young thing from County Wicklow, Ireland, At least, that’s where I tink (sic) she’s from!

A good number of our backpackers are true Nomads. Like June Izumi or the blind backpacker Tony the Tiger either of whom you might find on the road anywhere from Albania to Alaska!

Others like our lovely little Megan are homebodies! She misses her Mom and Grandma and the green hills of Eire!

But to her credit, she has thrown caution to the wind for the opportunity to travel! She’s here in Canada on a year-long working-holiday visa!

She has decided, however, that if a good job is not forthcoming, she’ll pack up and head home after St. Paddy’s Day!

The only thing is that she doesn’t seem to be looking all that hard for a job!

Megan is a doll and it should be pretty easy for this lovely young lady to get a job in an Irish Pub perhaps (and Toronto has lots of them!) You can make quite a bit of money if you are a good barmaid!

We’ve got a little wager going that she will pack up and go home although we hope she doesn’t. She’s made a lot of friends here and we’d like to keep her for a while!

And if you’re reading this Grandma, little Megan has been attending Mass faithfully!

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I’m going to Mass. Honest, Grandma!

Blue-eyed Michelle is one of the most popular guests at the? Canadiana. This lovely young lady from Oz has one of the kindest dispositions we have encountered in a long time. In short, she is a friend to all.

She is also the hostels “cultural leader” organizing impromptu trips to music venues such as Toronto’s world famous Massey Hall to hear the South African singing group “Ladysmith Black Mambazo” or to Roy Thompson Hall to hear the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

She is here on a work/travel visa and spends a lot of her free time? studying Spanish. Michelle plans to move to Cuba, the home of her “significant other!”.

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Apparently, Barack Obama has his own profile on Facebook.

So do we!

It all happened quite spontaneously too! A former guest started the group sometime last year and it already has more than 400 members!

It is open to anyone who has ever stayed, visited, worked in (or currently works) at Canadiana Backpackers in Toronto.

Hostel ratings are pretty crucial to an establishment’s success. And if you really want to know what people think about us, check out the Canadiana group on Facebook and read the glowing (and totally unsolicited) comments that have been posted thus far!

If you have been a guest here and care to leave your own impression of our backpackers inn, I’m sure your added comments would be most welcome.

If you’ve never been a guest here before, remember to check us out when you visit Toronto.? Then stay with us and become part of our growing family!

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It’s the latest craze in card games and there are even “World Series” high-stakes games on television with huge jackpots of $100,000 and more.

They play it at the hostel almost nightly. But not for money. That would be illegal. They play for chips and bragging rights.

Strangely enough, they seem to take the game quite seriously despite the fact that nothing is actually being wagered or risked.

The game is called “Texas Hold ‘em”. Presumably because the game either originated or was popularized in Texas and you “hold” the cards.

I haven’t got a clue how the game is played but anyone is welcome to join in and the others will gladly instruct newcomers to the rules of the game.

All I can ascertain about the game is that each player starts out with an equal number of chips and the object seems to be to clean everybody out of the chips hey began with.

The winner is the only one left with chips!

So if you see a game beginning in the common area of the hostel, ask to join in! You’ll be most welcome!

She’s a lovely young lady from Russia – a city near to Kazakhstan, of Borat fame.

Her name is Olesya. When she told me that I said, “Well there’s a name you don’t hear everyday!”

To which she replied, “Well, actually I do!”

This is not her first visit to Canada, Toronto or the even the Canadiana. She stayed here last year for a month studying English and made a lot of friends.

After returning to her native Russia, Olesya really missed Canada. She decided that she would return to further her studies. She picked Vancouver.

She headed for the west coast of Canada where she had enrolled in a school to study Motion Picture Production but, alas, she missed Toronto!

So Olesya threw caution to the wind and canceled her school enrollment and headed east.

She is currently applying for Film Production Courses at Ryerson University and Seneca College in Toronto.

Olesya likes Toronto! And Toronto likes her! We’re glad we get to keep her!

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Alright, we know what you’re thinking. There are a lot of Englishmen in Toronto. Right?

We’ll grant you that.

However, there seem to be more and more young men from the U.K. in Canada these days. They are victims of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression of 1929.

We all know about the current financial crisis. Billion dollar companies collapsing, the failure of venerable banking institutions in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe. (Canadian Banks are just fine, thank you!)

Jeremy is a young recent grad of the University of Exeter with a degree in Politics and Philosophy. And just as he prepared to face the working world, job opportunities began to evaporate!

His options were to seek menial labor work at home or sign on to the dole. Rather limited choices and neither very desirable!

Option three was to strike out for other shores on a severely restricted budget to try to gain some experience. It takes guts actually.

Jeremy has come to Canada to try to get some work in the Oil Sands of Western Canada. He’s stuck in Toronto for a while to try to earn money for his trip west.

He appears to be a pragmatic young man of action. A take-charge, do-what-you-must person. Were pretty sure he will do well and wish him all the best!

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He’s just back from Kandahar Province, Afghanistan where he served as a Captain in combat.

Justin was an armed forces officer in the Canadian Reserves who has transferred to the regular forces to receive para-medic training.

It’s actually quite a commitment when you consider the fact that we are currently at war!? But, having said that, there is also no time when those particular skills are more needed.

Justin did his reserve officers training at the Royal Military College, in Kingston, Ontario. (RMC Kingston is Canada’s equivalent to West Point, Sandhurst and St. Cyr Military College.

When he finishes his training, Justin will owe the army another six-years of service to “pay” for his rather expensive training.

It is also likely that he will get “hands on” experience in a war zone since our commitment to NATO will see Canadian troops in harm’s way in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future.

In addition, the Americans (namely Barack Obama) are trying to get us to extend our troop deployment in the region.

The Canadians have proven their worth doing much’ of the “heavy lifting” among NATO troops in the war zone.

Justin’s skills and dedication will be much needed by our troops in the field and much appreciated by all Canadians!

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Hostels the world over are, more often than not, scenes of youthful exuberance and (let’s face it) wretched excess. As a result, most hostels are not what you’d term “Family Friendly”.

We are.

In the past, we have hosted such diverse groups like Boy Scout Troops; the Manchester Boy’s Choir; visiting school groups; and couples with children – a good number of infants among them!

This week we have a guest whom we believe is the youngest ever to stay with us. His name is River and he’s just 11 weeks old! In addition to being the youngest ever guest, he is also, by far, the littlest.

River decided to make his entrance into this world a full seven weeks early and still weighs in at just a little over eight pounds!

Thew family is from Kitchener, Ontario where new mom, Emily is a Geologist (specializing in Gold Exploration) and dad, Danny, works for Research in Motion (the people who supplied Barack Obama with his Blackberry.

Mom was in town for the annual Geologist’s Convention held every March in Toronto. She must have enjoyed her stay and our facilities because? she’s already booked again for next year’ s meeting.

We hope River comes back for another visit! Soooo cute!

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Mom and Dad with little River.

Nicole is from outside of Melbourne in Oz. When she tells people that it prompts a lot of questions.

Because “outside of Melbourne has been the scene of some very catastrophic and tragic bush fires!

Fortunately for Nicole. her family lives west of the city and the raging fires were all to the north of the town.

Nicole has been traveling for nine months, mostly in Western Canada.

When she leaves here, she plans to spend the last three months of her year abroad in Europe.

She plans on visiting the continent from the U.K. to Croatia with as many stops in between as possible.

We’ve been fortunate to host lovely Nicole for the past few weeks and she will be missed by everyone here who has met her.

I think what Nicole will miss (a lot) are the delicious Chicken Wings and low-cost draft beer at our “local”, the Fox and Fiddle.

We all wish her a wonderful tour of Europe before going home to Oz.