Taking in Toronto ….

With so much to see and do in Iceland, I was beginning to show signs of organisational overload, and so was seriously behind with arranging lodging and activities for the North American leg of our journey. We originally thought we would fly directly into Florida but Toronto just happened to be the cheapest destination in the North American continent with Icelandic Air, so in good travelling style we decide to treat it as another opportunity and see where it leads us …

But with our arrival in Toronto just a day away, it was seriously time to find somewhere to stay especially as we were arriving in at night. I had sent of a few enquiries for self-contained apartments and had NO response – the first time this had happened and not what we would have expected for Canada.  Desperate times call for desperate measures, so with city hotels at $250++ a night, we booked into ‘Canadiana’ – a backpacker’s hostel spread over several terrace houses and conveniently located in the downtown area of Toronto.

The Icelandic Air flight into Toronto was relatively long compared to our previous short hops, and on arrival we were singled out by Canadian Immigration for some gentle extra questioning – although we still weren’t asked to show an onward ticket or evidence of funds.  The Immigration Officer was very friendly and appeared to be satisfied when we explained that we wouldn’t be staying more than about two weeks.

We took one of the airport taxis downtown and were surprised at how large and spread out Toronto was, and coming in at night it was a kaleidoscope of colour.  Fortunately, the hostel had one triple room left at $77p/night (rather than the dorm rooms), and the room was in one of the terraces separate from the main building.  Our building had only one other bedroom with which we shared a bathroom down the hallway, so after paying our deposits for two sets of sheets and four towels we all head back out into the cold night to trudge two doors down the street.

Our room had one of those triple bunk beds, with a single up top and double down the bottom, so it was back to the girls sharing a single bed which they were not too happy about! Breakfast was provided every morning but consisted of either pancakes or toast. Tea and coffee were always available and the communal kitchen was downstairs in the basement to prepare our meals.

The hostel is close to Toronto’s Chinatown, and one afternoon we walked the few blocks to explore some of the cheap Chinese stores and have dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. On the way home we stopped at one of the fruit and vegie shops and buy some strawberries and raspberries to put on our breakfast pancakes to make breakfast more palatable and healthy.

Our stay in Toronto coincided with St. Patrick’s Day, so on a beautiful clear (but cold) morning we made our way into the city and watched the procession. For nearly an hour and a half we saw everything from Irish dancers to Irish Wolfhounds, and got back to the hostel to enjoy an Irish stew on the house for lunch.

That afternoon we took the ferry across to the Toronto Islands a small group of islands in Lake Ontario.  We take the ferry to the eastern most point of Centre Island.

Obviously during the warmer months, the locals flock here to enjoy the beach, parks, carnival rides, and every type of boat ride from canoes to yachts….but in the winter there were no bikes for hire as advertised, the café was closed and the ‘maze’ had mysteriously disappeared.  As the signage both at the ticket booth and on the island have not been updated to reflect this we were a bit disappointed. The only thing we found was ‘Franklin’s garden’ that the girls and I were familiar with having read ‘Franklin the Turtle’ story books! It was a long walk where we saw hardly anyone and most of the still water was iced over, and was unanimously voted the most boring activity we had done thus far.  Oh well can’t win them all!

David’s birthday falls the day after St Paddy’s day, so he got pancakes for breakfast (!) and some presents (read necessary toiletries!) two blocks of Hershey’s chocolate and the promise of going out for dinner that night.

While we ponder over our next move (north to Boston or south to Niagara Falls and onto Washington), I contacted Heather a Canadian woman who had travelled in Australia with Gill an English woman and good friend of our family. I lived with Gill for some time during my time in London. Heather did a stint with Elizabeth E cruises in Mackay and worked as their hostess. During her time off, she would spend a bit of time at our house. Heather now has her own business representing Canadian designers and although it was during a busy fashion week she generously offered to come and meet us for a drink at a local restaurant where we were having dinner at to celebrate David’s birthday. It was lovely to see her after 20 years, and unfortunately spent all our time talking and catching up that I forgot to get a photo together. Whilst we are inside the snow starts falling again and we head home in the blizzard!

Our last day in Toronto we decided to join some others from the hostel on the Steamwhistle Brewery tour – backpackers hostels never change do they? Anything that involves alcohol! The brewery is so central it’s practically at the base of the CN Tower, about a 15 minute walk from the hostel. Probably not the best place to take children but it is still educational… well kind of.  It is a small boutique brewery making only one kind of pilsner that is housed in ‘The Roundhouse’, once the workshops for steam locomotives that helped pioneer Canada.

Steamwhistle  do everything in the one location so we take a tour learning all about the ingredients, fermenting process, bottling and distribution, with a few free ales along the way. The company has embraced the ‘retro look’ and the bottles they use are a distinctive green and styled on the 50’s-60’s shape so they can even be used in the old vending machines. They even use vintage trucks in the same distinctive green colour to deliver their beer around town.  Very cool. The beer was good too.

While we first thought we could enjoy a trip up to the picturesque New England area, the weather really wasn’t co-operating. More snow storms were forecast, and the time and the connections to get us to Boston were complicated and expensive. So we decided to head first to Niagara Falls, and then to cross into the US and south for Washington DC instead.  Four nights at an inner city backpackers was also enough for us!  Gosh I must be getting old!

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber