Canadiana Backpackers Blog

Last Friday was our second hostel “event” planned and hosted by Mia and Robyn – the “Portable Party” girls. (So named because anywhere they go becomes a party.)

Speed Dating? It could have been a disaster. But our two “party animalettes” really know how to create a festive, relaxed, fun-filled atmosphere.

Speed Dating works some thing like this: A long table with girls on one side; boys on the other. The couple facing each other gets 2 minutes, or so, to strike up a conversation to see if you are compatible and a possible “match”.

Now young male backpackers are not noted for being very articulate and most of them have only one thing on their minds. (And it is usually not politics, religion or the weather.)

After two minutes, Mia blew a whistle and it was musical chairs as the men (boys) moved on to the next female. This continues until every couple had a chance to chat for 2 minutes.

Sad to say that this was a “pretend dating” event. No dates or connections were achieved (as far as we know.)

The ladies were asked to choose their “favorites”. The clear winner was a hirsute Australian named Kane who won, not because of his irrepressible wit or man-of-the-world savoir faire but  mostly because he’s a nice guy and a real gentleman.

His win came as a bit of a surprise. Did I mention he is Australian?

Kane – the winner

The four vary attractive young ladies sitting on our patio were sipping wine purchased at Niagara-on-the-Lake. They had just returned from a day long excursion to Niagara Falls.

As a lot of travellers often discover, it is  quite a bit less expensive for three or four travelers to hire a car and drive themselves than to take the day-long bus tours. A rental car also provides you with the freedom to go wherever you choose.

This adventursome group of four were medical students from London’s Imperial School completing their final two years before qualifing as physicians. Sarah, Jodie, Martha and Claire are in Canada to attend the wedding of two fellow students in Ancaster, Ontario; thye bride’s home just down the road from Toronto.

This group of ladies all have interesting careers ahead of them. Their areas of interests are very diverse – from pediatrics to plastic surgery.

Jodie (the designated driver) who is perhaps the most adventursome of an adventurous lot, was planning to dedicate her time and skills to some organization such as Doctors Without Borders.

Dedicating your life to confront three of mankind’s greatest enemies = poverty, disease and ignorance – takes a speaical type of individual’ howeever, all four of our future physicians are looking at different branches of medicine. And all are eyeing their future career choices motivated by service.

Jodie is still considering woring in the third world; however, other factors have come into play. A future family, is a very big consideration for most young ladies. Jodie still has to figure out how to balance two very different and very difficult challenges.

Jess Hannagan is an Aussie darling, born in Melbourne, raised in Cairns but from Brisbane!

She studied acting and teaching and has worked in both. Jess followed the cultural explosion happening in Toronto and just had to be a part of it.

Arriving in Toronto in December of 2009, Jess entertained everyone with her endless clothing layers, fab hats and scarves.

Jess lived in the hostel for a month before moving over to the famous Corned Beef House. She was a hit at the hostel New Years Eve masquerade party and few do not have photos with and of her! Jess is very proud of her -15C walk home “with no coat, nuffin!” (as pictured).

She is loved by all at the hostel and is known for “understaying” her welcome by her fans.

If you know what a “toxophilite” is, you will know what the following entry will be about.

Estelle Come from France is a young French backpacker on a year-long working/holiday visa. Her English skills are slowly developing so she has settled in to work her year abroad in a Francophone milieu. She lives and works in Montreal.

But she arrived in Toronto to speak the language of a “toxophilite” – a lover of archery. She speaks fluently with her bow.

Estelle competed in the 70 meter Olympic Style Event and placed fifth in an internationally rated field of 22 world-class archers.

She obligingly uncased her bow on our patio to show fellow backpackers just how sophisticated modern archery equipment has become.

Early June, is a very busy tournament time for acrhers in Ontario. In  the last week of June alone, the archery calander lists a further 10 tournaments to be held around the province before July 1st, Canada Day.

What’s that, you ask?  OK here goes. LGBTTIQQ2SA = “LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER, TRANSEXUAL, INTERESTED, QUEER, QUESTIONING, TWO-SPIRITED and ALLIES.” (Hopefully, that includes all of us.)

The 30th ANNUAL GAY PRIDE CELEBRATION kicks off in Toronto  on June 25th for a ten-day celebration of the cultural diversity of the LBGT community of the GTA.

Toronto has come a long way in the past three decades – mostly because we had a long way to go. This city has always prided itself on it’s tolerance and cultural diversity. But sometimes mere tolerance is simply not enough.

About three decades ago (in a far less enlightened city) the 1981 Toronto Bathhouse Raids resulted in the mass arrest of more than 300 individuals. The subsequent protest march evolved into Toronto’s Gay Pride Parade which caps off “Pride Week” activities.

On the 25th Anniversary of that protest (the 2005 parade) newly appointed Toronto police chief Bill Blair became the first Chief of Police in the city’s history to participate in the parade. He marched alongside politicians of all parties, including several Federal and Provincial Cabinet Ministers and Mayor David Miller. The city had matured from mere tolerance to being actively supportive.

We’ve come a long way in the past three decades and as a consequence, Toronto won the bid to host the 2014 WorldPride Celebration.

Toronto now has the largest Pride celebration in North America. It was estimated that more than a million people participated in the 2009 Toronto Pride Week activities. WorldPride 2014 here in Toronto should dwarf that number.

We still have a long way to go. And as the acronym LGBTTIQQ2SA suggests, we will only truly progress if all go together.

Three hour boat tours got a bad rap on “Gilligan’s Island”.

But we have an inexpensive ($20) three-hour boat tour to the scenic  Toronto Islands. The catch is you have to paddle your own boat. It’s fun.

The tour leaves in a 14 seat, so-called “War Canoe”.  (The large canoes are also sometimes referred to as “Freighter Canoes” as they were used by the Voyageurs on fur trade expiditions.)

In other words these canoes are based on the vessels that explored Canada more than three centuries ago. Canoe travel is still a tradition on Canada’s 3,000,000 lakes.

It is an easy 45 minute paddle to the islands, a park that offers the very best views of Toronto’s skyline.

The normal trip to the island park is a $6 Ferry Ride that takes about 15 minutes (excluding line ups and wait times).

In addition the walk from the Ferry Dock to the scenic coves where our canoes land is a jaunt of several kilometres each way.

In so many ways our canoe trip is the best way to see the Toronto Islands.

So as they say… join us each week for a trip to this enchanted isle….but minus Gilligan, the Skipper, the Movie Star, the Professor, Mary Anne and no hurricane either.

Tours leave the hostel on Saturdays at 3PM. There is a brief video of the canoe tour on our this website.

Last April we posted a “blog” about the impending destruction of the Fox and Fiddle, the hostel’s “local” located just one block from our front door.

The two-story pub is closing to make way for yet another downtown high-rise, upscale condominium.

That blog entry caused a rash of responses consisting of moans, groans and outraged protests. (See previous entry: “The Dead Fox”, April 19, 2010).

As well as being the hostel’s “local”,  “The Fox” is also the scene of one of the hostel’s most popular organized “events”.

Monday nights are music master Richie Rich’s “Karaoke” nights at the Fox. It is always well attended by backpackers from our hostel. There are at least 30 and usually 50 or more of our backpackers in attendance. (Some of them can actually sing too.)

Anyhow, last Monday Karaoke leader Richie made a welcome announcement. The Fox has recieved a reprieve until September. Construction delays mean the Fox will be open for beer, their delicious wings, and fun-times Karaoke this summer.

Good news indeed. Let us know how you feel about it. (We’ll see you Monday night Richie and you too Tara and Sara.)

Portable Party? Glad you asked.

Two of our younger staff members, Robyn and Mia, have been best friends for most of their lives (since something like the fourth grade, I think).

To put it mildly, the pair love to have fun and one of their parents once remarked that the two of them were a “portable party”. In other words, just about anywhere they turned up became a party.

Those of us who work with them, know and accept the truth of that statement. But Robyn and Mia must prove it to all and sundry.

Last Friday, they organized and held the first hostel “Portable Party” which was a pretty easy task for the two party “experts”. It was a roaring success as the photos we will post below will attest.

It all went rather smoothly until around 10PM when all the power went out in the area. Well, some twits thought it was a good time to toss some water balloons into the crowd when they were shielded by the the darkness.

I won’t name the culprits except to suggest that anyone who wants to avenge a soaking, can look to Robyn and Mia as suitable candidates.

However, responsible staff members that they are, the two packed up their portable party before 11PM and moved it to “Oh Boy’s Burgers” on Queen Street , West (known for cheap beer and big hamburgers) so as not to violate noise abatement bylaws and upset the hostel’s neighbors.

Both girls have served notice that this was merely the first “portable party” of the season. We think their are some fun times in store for those who visit Toronto and stay at our hostel this summer.

A lot of you might not remember “Twiggy”, a doe-eyed,, stick-thin, English supermodel of the late 1960′s.

The connections we make with Twiggy and our “hostel friend” Leanne, is the are both short-haired, attractive, blond (sometimes) and English. I should also mention that Leanne’s surname happens to be “Twigg”, as in the ex-supermodel’s nickname.

(Although Leanne is slim and trim, she is not thin to the point of anorexia as was her namesake,”The Twig”.)

Leanne first stayed with us when she arrived on vacation in the summer of 2007 and became part of the Canadiana family when she returned on a working/holiday visa for a year from 2008 to 2009.  Even after she moved out into her own place in Toronto, she was a frequent visitor back “home” at the hostel.

But Leanne never made it on our blog or our wall photos of “Notable Guests”. It isn’t because we didn’t try. She was quite uncooperative when we tried to take her photograph. It was never the “right time” – vanity, you know.

So Leanne left Toronto in December of last year without making it on our to wall of friends and notables.

Last week, Leanne returned for another visit. And this time we were determined to get her picture. (It wasn’t easy either. We finally managed to snap a few photos when we caught up with her on our patio just five-minutes before she left for the airport.)

A lot of people pass through our hostel every day. And people like Leanne are like “family”. (A pic of Leanne will soon be added to our wall(s) of “Notable Guests”.)

She promises to return for a visit this fall and we look forward to it.

The annual North by Northeast (NXNE) Music Festival was launched yesterday at Toronto’s Downtown Hyatt Regency conveniently located in the heart of the city’s Entertainment District.

It is also where our hostel is situated; in fact, we are a mere 100 meters north of the Hyatt.

The NXNE Festival is a music industry “event” showcasing new talent from all over Canada, the U.S.A., and poits beyond.

This year’s format has been enlarged to fifty venues showcasing more than 650 bands over a seven day period. In addition, there are 40 films to be showcased at the National Film Board (NFB) located just one block east of our hostel.

Since our hostel is so conveniently located in the heart of Entertainment District, we have our share of bands and performers staying here during the festival.

One notable gust this year is Peter Sotos a California based music promoter/agent who represents a select group of U.S. bands.

He is here in Toronto to network with music industry professionals to promote his stable of artists. After all, that;s what the NXNE Festival is all about.