Clare the Explorer

The tourist cap went back on for the weekend folks…

On Saturday I tried for the third time (don’t ask – I don’t know why I found this so hard!) to visit Greektown and this time I actually succeeded. It is a nice neighbourhood – full of souvlaki restaurants and cute little shops and we had a nice couple of hours poking around the area. I finally bought a hat – very attractive jobby with a pom-pom and ear flaps – I figure if I am going to look bad in a hat it may as well be REALLY over the top! We finished the afternoon off with some hummus and pita and the obligatory souvlaki and it was all delicious. This means the only one of the ‘neighbourhoods’ I have not actually visited yet is little Portugal so perhaps I will try for that next week.

Saturday night there is normally a sports event or something that the hostel gang get together for – sadly our events co-ordinator finished up last week so at the moment we are fending for ourselves and in rather unoriginal fashion went to the pub. We did branch out slightly though and managed to avoid visiting Upfront (where we seem to end up every day at some point) so that was something! I called it a day about 12.30 but the “young ones” pushed on to the nightclub area where they apparently walked around for a couple of hours and came home again. Hurrah for being a nana and not wandering around in the cold for hours says me!

Sunday morning I listened to the All Blacks game (well some of it anyway) with Kiwi in the kitchen before heading out to do some shopping. I was keen to go and watch it but $20 just to get in the pub seemed a little steep when no-one really wanted to come with me! Hopefully we will manage to get a few people together and go for one of the games before the end of the tour though because I haven’t seen any rugby for months and I am having a little bit of withdrawal!

Anyway – shopping focused mainly at the Department stores this week. I am starting to get most of my stuff together for Christmas so just wanted to pick up a few things, including some wrapping paper and cards. The two big stores in Toronto are Sears and the Hudson Bay Trading Company, and they both have amazing in-store Christmas displays and decorations, plus really impressive windows set up already. Apparently here once Halloween is over it is officially the Christmas season – I can’t quite get my head around it yet but it is good to have some help getting in the mood since everyone’s presents will need to be in the post in about three weeks!

Sunday afternoon was lovely and sunny for a change so Patrick and I went to visit The Beaches. We caught the street car through the slums of Toronto and I was starting to wonder where the heck we were going when you suddenly arrive in a lovely, leafy residential area. The beaches (on the shore of Lake Ontario) are sandy and quite big – I can imagine that in summer they get huge crowds out there. It was very pretty with the last of the fall leaves around and hopefully I will be able to put some of the photos up for you soon.

Well better go but I hope you are all well and talk to you soon!

Pool, Pumpkins and holiday Plans

See how I almost managed to get an alliterative (is that a word?) title there folks? So how are we all? Things are good here in sunny Toronto - freezing cold but the sun is shining so I can live with that. There have been rumours of snow all week but so far nothing...

Well my stories are not quite as exciting now that I am pretty settled here in Toronto but it was Halloween this week so I have managed to have a bit of a Canadian experience - on Monday my workmates took the morning off work (I will never have a bad word said against New Zealand public service work ethics again after seeing these guys in action!) to carve pumpkins! Our team's one did not take out the main prize - that went to a killer bunny, which was frankly AWESOME - but still looked very cute in its beach comber outfit. That got me all inspired so when I got back to the hostel on Monday night I rolled up my sleeves, selected my knife and carved myself a pumpkin. It was actually quite fun, even if we did smell a bit dodgy afterwards. The people at the table next to us at the pub for the after match function must have been a bit curious, as must be all the canadian's who walk past our hostel windows and see our very basic efforts!

There was lots of candy and chocolate everywhere I went this week and heaps of kids out on the streets trick or treating - it was very cute as long as you can get past the blatant commercialism of the whole thing!

I have now competed in two hostel pool competitions too by the way - not winning any prizes yet but the product of a mispent few years at university is that I am not as uncompetitive as I first feared... watch this space for further progress reports, as the pool comp is now a weekly event here!

This week was moving week so I have now moved up in the world to the 8th floor of the hostel, with a great view of the fall leaves in the church yard across the road - it is certainly a nice change from a view of the rubbish bins and concrete courtyard where the local homeless congregate in the mornings. Homelessness is a huge problem in Toronto and I am still finding it hard to get used to the number of people begging on the streets, and how aggressive they can be. I can understand how this could happen in a country like america without decent social supports but I can't figure out how canada thinks this is ok.

Yesterday I decided that I had been here too long (two months if you can believe it!) to not have done more travelling so I have booked myself a trip to Boston in about 4 weeks - I am really excited about it and can't wait to be back travelling again, albeit just for a long weekend. Has anyone been and have recommendations??

Well, I had better go and put my washing in the dryer... I am doing my weekly wearing shorts and flip-flops around the hostel on Saturday thing as I am out of socks and trousers again. I am totally sick of every item of clothing I own and I really need to get some more and some new stuff but can't quite bring myself to spend the dosh yet!

Anyway - hope you are all well! Talk soon,
Clare