CANADA DAY!

1^st July Friday

Canada day commemorates Canada’s birthday. It is 144 years old today. There are probably people alive today that are nearly as old as this country. Crazy. To celebrate, our hostel was putting on a special breakfast of Eggs Benedict. We ate it in the basement cafe. It was delicious! Our guidebook suggested a ‘historic district walk’. At the words ‘historic’, Gillian started listening (true history geeky-ness showing). We emerged from the hostel with map, guidebook, and camera in hand. The only thing that would make us look more like tourists would be a John-style hat, and possibly a Hawaiian shirt. We passed a parade in one neighbourhood celebrating Canada Day:

 On the way to the historic district we passed the site of the original houses of Parliament. In the war of 1812 (America vs. Canada/the British), the Americans took control of the Canadian houses of Parliament. The British responded by just blowing the buildings up (no messing about then). After America retaliated, the Canadian/British marched to Washington D.C., set fire to the White House, and then left- not even bothering to try and occupy the place. Apparently this fact is not advertised too much in American history lessons; the Canadians say it was the only war the American’s ever lost.

The historic district of Toronto used to be an old distillery where all the ale, beer and whiskey was made and shipped across the world, mostly to the British it seemed. The area became really run down until the 1990’s. But in 2001 the current owners updated it into the ‘yuppy’ area it is today. It certainly is very artsy. There are loads of art galleries and expensive knick knack shops. We wandered through fantasising about what we’d buy if we owned one of the apartments for rent there, which were converted from old warehouses with huge windows and exposed brick walls. We also bought some handmade soap.

We stopped at a very expensive cafe for lunch.

 Afterwards we found a shop that sold Segway tours. In case you didn’t know, a Segway is a machine that you stand on to drive, holding onto a handle to steer. To go you have to lean forward on your feet, and lean back to stop. They look like they are out of a sci-fi movie and are absolutely AWESOME!! The coolest thing we’ve done. EVER. We had a personal tour guide called Wayne who gave us a short tutorial. Gillian was absolutely rubbish and painfully slow (at the beginning, she hastens to add!!). Alice and Bessie on the other hand were brilliant, complete naturals (yeah whatever, is Gillian’s response!). 

(She was going VERY slowly- it was an intense training!)

Wayne took us round the distillery district for an hour, pointing out historical facts on the way. We also stopped at the Mill Brewery where we tried some free samples of beer. There were two very light flavours, one dark beer –a Tankhouse Ale (quite the acquired taste) and a wonderful coffee beer. It was as if beer and coffee had a baby that was even more incredible than the two parents. Pure heaven. At least Alice thought so. Gillian and Bessie weren’t quite so convinced. Needless to say, after this particular stop, we were all complete pros on our Segways- no more wobbling at all! We also stopped at a fancy chocolate shop to try some free samples. All too soon we had to return to the Segway shop. It was a shame because (especially after a few beers) we were getting pretty good at it!

Look at them go! (post beer tasting)

We had a look at Hästens later, a bed shop that provides beds for the Royal family at a cool price of $90,000 upwards, and pillows at $200. We had a little lie down.....

Also revisited the choc shop and sat on a bench for a while. We finished our historic walk passing Toronto’s first post office, a sculpture garden, and a supermarket on the way.

It was heavy!!

Back at the hostel there was a special dinner of cheeseburger and mash so we sacrificed tomorrow’s breakfast food voucher and sat on the 5^th floor patio eating them.

We were soon joined at our round table by 2 Mexicans (unnamed), a Colombian (Fabio), two Germans (Simon and Paul), two Canadians (Sam and Greg), and three Americans (Ray, Mike, and Ben). So we pretty much had it covered when it comes to international relations at the dinner table. Might as well have set up a G8 Summit or something!

We mostly all just talked about ourselves. Ray and Mike were teachers in Arizona, so we had a nice long chat about various educational systems, and then about where each of us had been travelling and the such- it was all very fascinating. The one thing we’ve all really come to love about hostelling is the people you get to meet, and the stories you hear from them!

I’m sure we’re also providing people with a few entertaining stories (or we hope we are!) For example, part way through this cheeseburger meal, Bessie went back up to the room to use the toilet. Gillian went soon after, and found the room key-card Bessie had used to let herself in (which was in fact Alice’s), in the bottom of the toilet. Bessie was highly embarrassed, which made it all the more funny. Delightful story for you all right there!

At 9pm we all reconvened in the lobby downstairs, ready to go out for some fireworks. Our smallish group of about 10 people had somehow multiplied several times over to form a group of around about 30! It was a noisy, song filled walk over to Lake Ontario (some very interesting arrangements of Queen were the songs of choice). Once there, we decided we all rather fancied a drink, so headed off to the nearest bar (which turned out to be a restaurant, but we used it as a bar anyway because we were running out of time), bought ourselves a tequila each, and then went to join the larger group.

Upon realising that the queue for beers was rather long, and growing with every passing second, we quickly jumped into the back of it, and once at the front, bought several beers each (to prevent future trips into the queue). We had a very nice beer called a Steaming Whistle, which was brewed locally and tasted very nice.

At that point the fireworks started over in Ontario Place. We were pretty far away from them, but the display was lovely, and we were in a nice large company of fellow travellers, and had some cold beers, and it was a very pleasant temperature too. This is definitely the life!

After fireworks we were all in the mood for a bit of a dance. We headed off to find somewhere that played some music. On this journey, Alice and Bessie found themselves absolutely desperate for the loo (sorry so much of this entry seems to revolve around the toilet!) The two of them found a portaloo on the street (which was behind a closed fence which went all the way around, might I add), and decided breaking through this fence and into the portaloo was a fine old idea- which is exactly what they did while the rest of our international friends, and Gillian, waited patiently for them outside.

Alice got stuck because Gillian decided to lock her in!

Next stop was a bar, where we all got a few more drinks, and had some very interesting conversations with everyone (to be honest, everything we discussed that night was pretty interesting). This is a photo of the whole mad group.

Soon we found ourselves all pretty worn out, so headed back to the hostel (it was a long walk- we’d come a long way in search of that bar!) We chatted for a bit in the basement, but soon we all went our separate ways to bed.

This is a photo from Las Vegas which our friend Ashleigh took, we really wanted to put it on the blog but Bessie vetoed that idea (untagging it on facebook as well!). So we came up with a deal, Gillian and Alice would replicate the photo on subsequent nights out and we'd put all three up:

This is the original, completely natural photo.

These two are staged!!

That Tall-ish Tower in Toronto

30^th June Thursday

We had to check out of the hostel at 12pm today so naturally Gillian and Bessie rolled out of bed and about 11:38am and had to run around packing and taking a shower to get ready in time. Alice had already been up for a long time so she went down to the kitchen to make the most of the free breakfast on offer (yes she did steal some free bagels for us to eat later).

After checking out of the hostel we walked to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). Here we walked around on our own for a bit before bumping into a tour that was going round, so we tagged along. The tour guide, an old German man, was very funny and extremely enthusiastic. He talked about a painting of a ginger woman, the Tom Thompson exhibition (he was a Canadian artist) and the Henry Moore exhibits. The last place we went into was the Galleria Italia. This was a long, naturally lit walkway along the side of the gallery. It was built using funds donated by the Italian community in Toronto, who had their names engraved on wooden beams spanning the walls of the gallery. We would have had our names engraved there too, but unfortunately none of us had a spare $500,000 lying around. Aesthetically, the gallery’s glass walls were built to look perfectly curved but in reality only one beam went straight up. All the other beams sloped into the middle to give the impression of perfect curvature. In the centre of the gallery was a 200 year old cedar tree which had fallen in a storm several years ago. The tree was partially hollowed out to leave only the original sapling exposed in the very centre of the giant trunk. Not a very good description, but here’s a photo, and as you can see it must have taken bloomin’ ages.

Our guide said that Michelangelo once said, he didn’t create marble sculptures, God had already created them. He, the artist, merely chipped away the stone to reveal the sculpture beneath. This was very true of the tree- the sapling was just hidden by the tree which had grown up from it.

By the time the tour ended we were all in a funny mood. We sat down in one gallery and started talking about the colours in the paintings, then the symmetry in our faces, then the shape of Alice’s nose, and then our hands. At one point Alice was chanting “Empire State, Not Empire State” as she turned her hand from one side to the other. She was referring to the pyramidal shape of her fingers when viewed from one direction, and the uneven pyramidal shape when viewed from the other. Obviously. If you’re confused at all by this, don’t worry, we are a bit too.

After some odd looks from the security guards we made a hasty getaway and went to Kensington Market for some desperately needed tea and coffee. The place is very hippy and stylish, but you could tell it was once a very run down area. Alice reckons that once people started to become ‘at one with the whole hippy vibe’, then the area became stylish (her words, not ours).

We then dragged our suitcases halfway around town (do you see a recurring theme here?) to get to the next hostel we had booked- HI Toronto. We spent ages preparing our butternut squash soup. Alice put pepper in it, Bessie put peppercorns and they both put in chilli powder. This was too spicy for Gillian (especially after biting into a few peppercorns!) but she said it was delicious anyway (it was). With our soup, we ate our (stolen) blueberry bagels. Can’t say we’re not being economical! We even had leftovers, which we kept in the fridge to eat at another time.

We headed out into the night to make our way to the CN Tower. We could see it towering over the skyline in the distance as we approached. The whole structure was lit up in the colours of the rainbow to commemorate Pride Week. Here it is in blue:

To ascend up the tower we had to first pass through security. There were the most bizarre sensors which we had to walk through. They looked a little like metal detectors but blasted air at you and took three successive photos while you were inside the booth; photos of us with our eyes squeezed shut against the high wind speed). Thank goodness we were all wearing shorts and trousers and not skirts! Not entirely sure what kind of security that was, but they deemed us non-terrorists, and let us go.

We squished into the elevator (Bessie is telling us we’ve turned into true North Americans by using this word); we were packed in like sardines. A few ear-popping moments later we emerged some way up in the air, in a large, round pod.

We admired the spectacular views for a few minutes- we watched the Roger’s Stadium’s roof close, and marvelled at the blackness of the Ontario Lake. You honestly couldn’t see it at all. It was pretty odd seeing all these skyscrapers which have towered above you impressively all day long, being reduced to miniature looking structures below. We wandered around, then ventured outside, before returning inside to walk around staring at the floor. It was made of glass, and you really could see ground, the whole 350 feet (that is a random guess by the way, we can’t remember exactly) below.

Having descended back to a more normal height above sea level, we walked back to the hostel. On the way, we passed a whole load of people walking in the entirely opposite direction. At first we thought we must be missing out on some top secret event no one had bothered to tell us about, but turns out they were actually just a bunch of people dispersing after seeing a Katy Perry concert nearby. Gillian had had Katy Perry songs in her head all day, so maybe we’d all picked it up subconsciously. Either way, next stop was to get our second dinner- a hot dog. We sat and ate it on a wall, people watching. Then we headed to bed.

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.

Pool Hopping day

28th June Tuesday

We slept in today, it was beautiful. Angela had called round all her friends with pools to see if we could use them. Everyone was more than happy to have us round so at midday we went to the Morrison's pool (Angela's niece's husband's family) in Newmarket. Their pool was lovely in a beautiful garden. It came complete with reclining chairs and a diving board! Dave (Morrison) was very friendly and made us feel welcome. We soon got down to the taxing task of sunbathing.
In the pool Gillian taught us some of her synchro swimming moves, including a really cool one called the dolphin where you form a chain with your feet around someone's neck and do a massive backwards roll with three people in, remembering to breathe at the surface. After several attempts we managed it, gasping for breath at the end. Sometimes I wonder if there can possibly be anyone cooler than us in the world.

We ate our picnic lunch with Angela, leftovers from yesterday, and after a bit more sunbathing, returned back to Angela's briefly to do some laundry (yes, we succumbed and decided clean clothes were a luxury we could afford!). Our next stop was another of Angela's friend's pools. Kelly had been working a night shift at the hospital that night and had only just woken up. Despite this, she was still very generous and bought us chips (crisps) and drinks. We played around with the lilos in the pool and with the family's dog. When the water got too cold to bear, we got out and chatted to Kelly and her daughter Taylor for a bit. We were constantly amazed by the kindness and genuine interest people showed us despite us being total strangers to them! Something you don't see everyday in the UK.

That evening Angela cooked us lasagne, then we helped set her up on Skype. We had a few attempts at talking to Andrea (her daughter), and made Angela practise so much until she knew what to do off by heart. Angela- if you need any help, please don't be afraid to email!

That evening, Stephanie and Trevor came round to say hi. Stephanie is Angela's niece and it was Trevor's parent's pool that we'd crashed that day. They asked us about our journey and we ended up re-telling our tale from start to finish. When saying it out loud, it made us realise how long a journey it's been and how much we've fitted into our time. We all appreciate how lucky we are, definitely going to treaure this experience for ever!
That night we went to bed far too late. Again. Beforehand though, we got a few replies from our hostels. (Remember how we were trying to change the dates to stay in Canada for Canada day?) Basically, we couldn't stay any longer in our hostel in Toronto and so we had to book another HI hostel. Also, we'd accidentally told New York hostel people that we'd be checking out a day before we needed to, they said they were fully booked on our last night. As of yet we haven't managed to book anything else so our last night of this grand adventure may well be on the streets of New York. Something to remember I guess. Don't worry! We'll definitely find something soon! Slightly worried about next year, trying to do a degree when we can't even book a hostel right. Hmmmm.

Niagara's Fury...

27^th June Monday

Got up. Showered. Had an excellent breakfast; bagels, tea, coffee, and some really cool Canadian cereal called Lucky Charms. Left the house (we can’t get enough of the fact that we’re actually staying in a house!).

We drove to a nearby “parking lot”, and picked up one of Angela’s friends, Doreen, who would be joining us on our adventure to the falls. It was Doreen’s birthday, but we weren’t allowed to mention it! Doreen grew up near Niagara, and so was able to be a personal tour guide for us all across the area. It seemed like a completely idyllic place to live- the flower and tree arrangements everywhere were all created by people at the Horticultural College, and it was truly beautiful!

We arrived  at a beautiful little town called Niagara on Lake (by Lake Ontario), and wandered  around the streets. It was incredibly clean! We were very impressed with the general cleanliness- we’d thought Washington was clean and litter-free (compared to places such as New Orleans which just had a bit of a grubby vibe about them), but Washington doesn’t even get close to the beauty of the streets in this place. Flower beds lined the pavements (“sidewalks”), and neatly trimmed trees stood on every corner. We passed plenty of little souvenir stores and art galleries, and (to our utmost delight) some fudge shops. Fudge shops, might I add, which had free samples laid out for people like us to come in and try. Generosity here knows no ends! Having had a nice little appetiser to our lunch of fudge chunks, and pretzels with dips (another shop with free samples), we had all whet our appetites, and were more than ready for lunch. To be honest, when are we –not- ready for food?

The lunch we had was definitely the best lunch we’d had this entire trip! We sat on a bench in a park area right in front of Lake Ontario, the sun was out, and we had so much food: BBQ chicken, cheese rolls, regular rolls, sausage meat, cheese, Caesar salad, tomatoes (or as Angela and Doreen say, “too-mate-ohs”- we still love the accents!), cucumber, potato salad, apple juice, yoghurts, strawberries, blueberries etc etc. – it was a proper feast, and I can’t even begin to say how much we appreciated having so many fruit and vegetables after all the fast food we’d had to have while on the road.

After we’d finished, we hopped back in the car and drove along Lake Ontario, past some houses which we would all be very happy to buy on two conditions: 1) somebody else pays the several million dollar price-tag which comes with them, and 2) we no longer have any qualms about lavishly splashing out on houses which could easily fit Wembley Stadium inside. I think we could all happily concede to condition number 2. Any offers for #1??

Upon arriving at the Niagara Falls, we drove around the car park and while searching for a vacant spot, played the fun game which is impossible to play back home, but can provide endless hours of entertainment over here, of ‘where has that car we just drove past come from?’ You see, over here, on the number plates of the cars is a helpful little sign telling you which state in America, or province in Canada the car is from, and then an amusing little quip or statement about the place underneath.

E.g.
Nevada
79FJ 3493
The Silver State

Or

Ontario
29DH 38R8
Yours to Discover

We saw cars from: Ontario (obviously), Quebec, Manitoba, California (which we can say with experience is a freaking long way away!!), Wisconsin, Florida, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and a whole host of other places. See, wasn’t reading that list of places fun?

Niagara Falls. Wow, it’s pretty hard to describe what it was like, so I think we’ll let the pictures try and do some of the talking for a bit.

(The three of us and Doreen, at the top of the Falls).

Bessie, Alice, and Gillian decided to go on the famed boat ride, the Maid of the Mist, and after being equipped with their highly flattery (and totally stylish) blue, plastic ponchos, found themselves suddenly being rained heavily upon by spray, at the bottom of the Canadian Falls. It was a wonderful experience, and one we’re all going to remember!

Once we’d met up with Angela and Doreen again (who’d managed to find a prime spot for reading while we drenched ourselves in a giant waterfall), we headed up to what Doreen describes as the “tourist-trap”; the rather tacky, but nevertheless exciting Clifton Hill. Alice bought some fudge, and we all decided to immerse ourselves in a bit of true Canadian culture, and visit one of their most popular coffee shop chains; a Tim Hortons.

The fudge!

I know a lot of the day has been us having drinks, eating breakfast, or fudge, or lunch, but try as we might, we just can’t control our stomachs! So just ten minutes later we were in the car, and arriving at a lovely little restaurant called Betty’s. We all had some truly delicious meals, and finished it all off with an assortment of fruit pies; lemon meringue, strawberry and rhubarb, blueberry and cream... mhmm!

After a wonderful day out, and two meals to die for, we all clambered back into the car, and headed home. As you can probably imagine, in the one and a half hour drive back to Newmarket, we all partook in our favourite pastime, and slept.

We ended the evening on the computers doing a bit more booking of hostels. You may well be wondering why we were booking more hostels when we’ve already booked everything (don’t worry, we’re not extending our stay indefinitely- as much as we’d like to!)
We discovered to our mild horror a few days ago, that we are leaving Canada on the evening of the 30^th June, and that on the 1^st of July is a national celebration of an annual event called Canada Day. We couldn’t help but massively regret that we’d be experiencing Independence Day in the States, but miss spending Canada Day in Toronto by just one hour. Obviously, we weren’t having any of that.
We emailed the hostels to un-book two nights in New York, and to try to extend our stay in Toronto by two days. Remember this part of the story, because part two is coming in tomorrow’s blog entry, and it’s all a bit embarrassing!  

NB// If you scroll back down to 'A Day in New York', the video is finally working!