Canadiana Backpackers Blog

I suppose suppose you might safely say that Dominic has a certain afinity for numbers.

He’s an American grad student from Stanford University in California currently working on his Doctorate in Mathematics.

He is busy checking out our city because he has decided to transfer to the University of Toronto where he plans to complete his dissertation.

His adviser, a professor at Stanford, accepted a position at the U of T and Dominic has been carrying on long-distance communications with him for more than a year.

It just isn’t the same. Face to face meetings he has found are often required and he has found can be so much more beneficial.

So far, this California man has liked what he’s seen here.Toronto does, indeed, have a lot to offer.

We’ve asked him if he has experienced our winter. Well, not yet. (Boy! Is he ever in for a surprise!)

Nonetheless in the short time he has been with us, Dominic has shown himself to be personable, popular, affable and adaptive. If he doesn”t mind a little cold and snow, he should be a pretty good fit here in Toronto.

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Winter is coming. Just you wait Dominic!

Andy is a lorry driver in London, England. If you are familiar with London’s traffic snarls, you’ll know that it isn’t an easy occupation.

Andy had been trying to take a holiday to Canada for some time. He even booked one last year. Unfortunately, the airline he booked on (Zoom Airways), zoomed into bankruptcy before his trip!

But some things, it seems, are just meant to be. Andy was surfing the net and won a T-Shirt from a computer company.

And where was this company located?

You guessed it. Toronto! (In fact, it was only a couple of kilometers from our hostel.)

Andy informed them that he would be in town shortly and he could pick his prize up at their offices without too much problem.

And when things conspire in your favor, they seem to do so with a vengeance! He managed to find a real bargain airfare if he would stay 16 days in Canada.

He has picked up his T-Shirt (the company also bought him lunch and beer) and he’s walking everywhere exploring our city.

He’s also meeting a lot of new friends on the patio where you can find him in the evenings sharing the convivial atmosphere with his new friends and a few bottles of cold beer!

This summer really is “old home week” at our hostel in Toronto!

A while ago, we posted blogs on past guests who were returning to the hostel this summer. Those were the one’s we knew were returning.

Yesterday two old friends, Kerstin and Curtiss, from Munster Germany pitched up unannounced! I was quite a pleasant surprise!

They are both health-care wokers in Germany. As well as being a couple, they work together as nurses.

Curtiss (Jones) is in fact, an American. He is the son of an American serviceman and a German mother and was born in the U.S.A.

He was raised in Germany when his father died in an accident more than four decades ago.

This marks their third visit to our hostel and our city. Curtiss is so happy to come to North America because he is elated with the elecetion of Barack Obama in the U.S. and the ouster of the Republican Party from power! (Who isn’t?)

Curtiss is also a big fan of basketball (he’s 6′6″) and an avid follower of the Toronto Raptor’s!

Although this isn’t basketball season, Kerstin and Curtiss just had to take advantage of some pretty low-cost flights on offer from Germany to Canada.

Curtiss also says he missed thev taste of Canadian beer! And that comment is coming from a German - the aknowledged masters of the brewer’s art!

We must be doing something right!

When you add the word “chan” to a young Japanese girl’s name, instead of the traditional “san”, the honorarium becomes an endearment.

We’ve been lucky to have Rei-chan with us for over three months. She is here from Tokyo upgrading her English skills.

Rei’s hobby is reading and she has found the ideal job in Japan. She is an editor for one of the largest publishers in Japan.

Her job involves the reading and editing of books magazines from “Novels” to “Manga” comics. In other woirds, she gets paid for something she would normally pay to do!

Her English has improved impressively since her arrival in Toronto.

But all good things must come to an end. Rei-chan is due back at her desk in Tokyo next week.  We really will miss this beautiful and charming young lady!

Well, summer is here! At long last! This is the time of year we fire up the BBQ!

On Thursday and Saturday evenings, we cook up enormous (and I mean really big!) homemade real beef burgers! We serve them with chips (crisps to the British) and juice!

We let them go for a mere $3.00 each! Almost nobody eats more than one of them! They are quite substantial and it would take a serious glutton to call for seconds!

I’m hoping for some feedback on this entry. If you had our burger, do you agree it is one of the very best deals in town?

Leave your comments. We’d like to hear from you.

We get some pretty interesting visitors to our hostel here in Toronto. Wendy (from Holland) is a typical example.

Wendy is a real “Woman of the World”.

She is young, attractive, intelligent and adventurous. In short, a woman who is not bound by convention. When you speak with her, you just know that she is the type who lives life on her own terms.

She has thus far visited every continent on earth save Antarctica and South America and when we spoke to her, she was heading south to take care of half of the problem and practice her Spanish and Portuguese language skills.

AS far as we are concerned, Antarctica isn’t even a issue! Ice is ice. Snow is snow. And if you’ve seen one penguin, you’ve seen them all!

The only reason most travelers would go there is for bragging rights. If you meet Wendy, you’d know instantly that she’s not like that!

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Bhante is a Buddhist Monk who has been coming to the hostel for a number of years.

He’s been here so often, we no longer consider him a guest. Bhante is a friend.

Chinese heritage and adopted the tenets of Buddhism. Today, he is a well-respected writer and educator on religious practices.

You can never tell when he will pitch up at our hostel in Toronto. You would not be surprised to hear of him being anywhere in the world from places like Malaysia, China, the U.K.. the Caribbean, U.S.A., Canada, you name it!

He’s just finished publishing another book on  the subject of Buddhism.

Drinking age, that is.

In the U.S.A., Federal Legislation pegs the “age of majority” at 21 years of age in all states!

In Ontario, the lower age requirement to enter an establishment  licensed to sell liquor has occasioned a lot of young American University students to vacation in Toronto.

John, Khongchee and Ryan are three young students from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. If you aren’t familiar with the city or the state, the state borders Illinois on the west side of Lake Michigan and the city is north of Chicago on the lake’s western shore.

The city is also famous for “Happy Days”, “the Fonz” and beer. (Except the lads, since they are only 19, aren’t allowed to drink it there, legally!)

Hence the drive to Toronto! Ryan has been here to the city and hostel before. They are fun-loving All American boys. They are also on a bit of a budget because they purchase the cheapest American beer they can find. (Yuck!)

Ryan is completing Paramedic Training in Milwaukee and Khongchee is studying Kinesiology. John is taking a “Liberal Arts” Degree, that coupled with a driver’s license will qualify him to drive a cab. As students, they provide the politically correct answers for the reason for their choosing Canada and Toronto to visit!

It’s considered “safe”, “clean”, “ethnically diverse” and “multi-cultural”; not to mention it is the nearest foreign country to Milwaukee!

But I wouldn’t listen to their politically correct and practiced answers. They’ve been having a pretty grand time during their visit.

And it is obvious that the real reason for their trip have been the pubs, nightclubs and the beer!

Sam is a young undergrad from Texas University (Austin) where he is immersed in Japanese studies. He even speaks the language with considerable facility.

It sort of follows that he would be attracted to the Martial Arts. He is.

Sam holds a Black Belt in Ju Jitsu. He has come all the way to Toronto for a weekend advanced self-defense seminar.

His interest is so keen on his chosen field of study that he has already made long-term plans to obtain his Doctorate and his thesis will be an examination of the “spiritual component” of Martial Arts. Or if, indeed, there actually is one.

Personally, I believe it is a manufactured quality. I merely pose the question, “If a man truly is peace-loving and non-violent , why does he dedicate his life to learning how to beat the daylights out of his fellow man?” That doesn’t sound very spiritual to me.

It should be very interesting to hear Sam’s take on the issue.

Most seasoned travelers rely on internet “hostel ratings” when choosing where to stay. In fact, these ratings can be a pretty good indicator of the hostelry’s quality.

However, they can also be a little misleading. They make no distinction between a hostel with a few dozen beds and one with a few hundred beds!

We tend to regard unsolicited accolades as the “highest” form of praise.

About a year ago (unbeknown to us) a former guest started a “Canadiana Group” on  Facebook. At last count there were already 545 members!

Many former guests have left some pretty nice comments too! We neither maintain nor edit this site. Nor have we promoted it (until now).

Check out this group of former Canadiana guests and you’ll get a fairly good read on how they feel about the place. And if you have been a guest, post a comment and let us know what you think!