It's a small world after all... (hello cheese)

29th June Wednesday

Today we were moving location from Newmarket to Toronto.
We got up nice and early, had our first breakfast, and went for a very pleasant walk through Newmarket to try and find an ATM, and a post-box. The post-box was for us to send our postcards from all the very local, definitely-not-a-thousand-miles-away places we'd recently been to like Texas, Santa Fe, and Washington D.C.
Very conveniently we passed a flower and gift store on the way, and we were able to purchase a bouquet of flowers (hand chosen by us, but arranged by someone who knew what she was actually doing) to thank Angela for letting us stay. We'd already bought a packet of beaver droppings (chocolate, in case that wasn't immediately obvious) in Ottawa which we planned to give her.

It wasn't a particularly long or strenuous walk, but by the time we got back to the house, we were all ready for breakfast number 2. We're such fatties these days! Please don't be alarmed if we arrive home as wide as we are tall.

Talking of good food and drink- yesterday Angela introduced us all to an incredibly delicious drink- Chocolate Chai Tea! It smelt of warm cinnamon and chocolate (basically like walking into a Starbucks at Christmas time), and tasted great too!

Not too long after our second breakfast, we had lunch. We did pack/ do blog/ write our journals in between these two meals, but it really wasn't a massive amount of time which had passed. Angela sorted us out with some absolutely delicious salmon, tomato, cucumber, and lettuce grilled sandwiches- we are definitely going to miss the wonderful meals we've had here!

Stephanie's mother, Carolyn, came round later that afternoon to meet us which was lovely.But she wasn't able to stay all that long, as we really had to get going to catch our 2.12pm bus to Toronto.

As usual the bus journey probably isn't the most thrilling thing to write about here. Gillian was sat next to a very friendly Torontonian lady who gave her some tips on what to do, and where to go in the city. She even helped us once we'd got off the coach to locate the subway station we needed to use to get to the hostel.

We got the subway. We were absolutely astounded at the kindness and friendliness of the people here!! We were looking at maps on the subway, trying to figure out if we were on the right one, and I swear nearly half the carriage seemed to jump to their feet at once, all determined to give us their advice and aid. Someone told us where we needed to get off, someone else told us where to find the best maps, another man jumped up and gave us his map, and everyone went out of their way to vacate the area around the doors so we could get out at our stop in a very unusuallly (for us) hassle-free manner (which is saying a lot when you consider all our luggage).

Bessie and Gillian made use of the excellent free service provided at the station (also known as an escalator). Alice, meanwhile, decided to put them to shame, and walked up the stairs, bag in tow- she's one crazy kid.
After a good while spend searching up and down the street for the exit Alice had materialised from, Gillian and Bessie eventually found her stood alone on a corner, and then they all made the mile walk to the Planet Traveler Hostel.

We arrived at the hostel, and to our great surprise, bumped into Sarah (the stem cell researcher we'd met in the Algonquin Park) in the lobby. We had a nice little catch up, and then checked in, and headed to our room after a tour of the place. Turns out Planet Traveller is the most eco-friendly hostel in all of North America- and uses less that the energy used for a hairdryer! Not exactly sure how that works, but they do have solar panels on the roof, and geo-thermal heating.

Our room was amazing! We had an ensuite bathroom, and it was all very clean and tidy, and best of all our beds we made for us already! Taking advantage of the pre-made beds, we all lay down on our top bunks (the three girls already there had bagsied the bottoms), and had a massive pig out. We ate our dill pickle crisps (dill pickles are a Canadian thing) that Kelly had given us, Alice's left over fudge, Gillian's cheetos (bought somewhere in Ottawa!), and probably some other stuff too, and then went off to buy dinner.

We went all out and did some proper grocery shopping after wandering around Chinatown for a bit, and purchasing some alcohol from the only store in the city with a licence.

Once we'd got back to the hostel, we cooked our dinner (stir-fry vegetables, and free rice provided by the hostel), and then we ate it (no kidding). Next stop was the rooftop with our bottle of wine, which we had now discovered to our dismay was only 9% alcohol, and ridiculously overpriced for it. At least it tasted good. We drank it on the rooftop with a beautiful view of Toronto's skyline, while eating grapes. I've said it before, and I'll say it again- we are very classy people!

(Us and Sarah).

On the rooftop (and this is where it gets weird), we saw Sarah again (meeting her at the hostel had been surprise enough), but some Irish guys sat with her called over to us and were like "Hey, do you girls remember us from Ottawa?", and suddenly we realised we did recognise them! They'd been staying at the jail house hostel in Ottawa at the same time as us, and had been at the hostel bar on the same evening as us (which progressed into the fateful night that we ended up in a lesbian bar). Small world isn't it! I mean we were only at the Planet Traveler for one night, and to bump into, and recognise some people we'd spoken to for about 10 minutes at another random hostel in Ottawa was absolutely insane.

Anyway we chatted with everyone up there for a while, and then headed out to a club called Crocodile Rock. We had a really great time- it played some really good music and was pretty busy which provided a wonderful atmosphere. We did end up losing each other again for a little while, but we all got re-united at the bar a bit later (standard meeting place).

Having successfully squeezed five people into a four-man taxi, we got back to the hostel, stayed up talking a little bit longer, outside, stood in a circle. Circle time for the win!

Then, exhausted, we went to bed.