Boston Invasion Party time!
Living near the center of Montreal with Daniella meant I could finally do some easy tourist things, but that didn’t really happen as we spent most of the day in Sex Shops. I didn’t get pictures. The previous day was really nice and we had hiked up to the Mount Royal which the city is named after to eat Ice Cream and watch the mad guy rant to himself in the sun. Plenty of tourists and a nice place to hang out, was maybe the last nicest of the year for the Canadians in that neck of the woods as winter had started its move south and wouldn’t be stopping for a while. They say in Montreal that the spring lasts for 2 hours it is so quick, I was hoping the fall would be a little slower.
I can’t wait for the weekend to begin
When I was working all the time weekends were either spent on the job or cacthing up on sleep, my social life was a disaster and a constant stream of no-date Saturday nights was boring and depressing. Since I left all that has changed and I am so happy with life right now. Maybe people will think its just superficial nonsense, meeting up with strangers, having drinks with people I met on the internet but its so much deeper than that. Everyone deserves to live, travel and have an interesting life and the people I meet are either stuck somewhere and saving to go away or living their dreams of moving around the planet. Couchsurfing is definetly the way to live you life, I love it!
Dancing in the Dark
Today was a great day in Montreal. After going to bed at 5.30am (gulp!) I woke up at 11.15 and set off for my cycling date with Daniella. I had been playing poker the night before with the Montreal boys and the time had literally flown by. How they all manage to stay up until that time and not worry about work I never found out, although I suspect Louis and Yorvis are secretly millionaires, Mikhael was between jobs and Andres was working afternoons. Never found out what Ben was doing, but in the morning he was gone. I only lost $10 over 2 games though and didn’t buy in, so I think my gambling problem is under control and now I have had a good practice for Las Vegas!
A walk in the woods.
The woods smelled of strawberries, but maybe that was just wishful thinking as the season was too late. Maybe it was the ones Daniella had brought with her, we ate some for breakfast, but not poor Mounia as she is allergic. Somehow we had managed to stay up until midnight and didn’t drag ourselves out of our tents until 11am. I had a cold night despite my down sleeping bag and crappy sleeping mat. Perhaps another couple of pairs of socks would have stopped my feet feeling like ice blocks.
Snoring Bears in the wood
The 2 polish girls Andres and I had stayed awake until 4.30am didn’t turn up until the next morning, seems like they had a long night and they crashed right away. I spent an hour rearranging my backpack for the camping trip I had arranged through couchsurfing. We (well it wasn’t just me) were a bit dissorganised though and we didn’t leave montreal until gone noon and we still needed to go food shopping for the trip. The attendees were myself, Renae from Perth Australia, Mouina from Morrocco and Daniella from Mexico. The last two are studying in Montreal and saw it as a good chance to see some of the local flora and fauna near their new home cities. We stopped off on the Interstate and stocked up on Tortillas, fruit and Beer.
Russian food and dancing
Friday night was the fourth irregular couchsurfing Montreal Food Discovery Tour meeting at La Caverne. I was downtown for most of the afternoon wandering around looking for interesting things, I made a 2 minute trip into Payless Shoes to replace my Converse all stars which were literally killing my feet. See shoes, try shoes, buy shoes… bliss. Good thing too as the restaurant was miles away. I found the street but soon discovered it was all the way over the hill which montreal is built around. I eventually gave up, got the bus and found I was 200m away…. bleh.
Im all stiff!!
Not in the erotic sense of course, I went rockclimbing last night for the first time. Ok I did it in Thailand up a mountain, but that felt more like the guy pulling me up. Was where the Tsunami hit, I wonder if he is ok…Im in Montreal, everything is in French, sexy girls keep walking past, it really could be in France except Im on the wrong continent. I came over on Sunday afternoon with a couple of guys from Venezuala who live here. I met them on Thursday night in the Cadillac lounge and then went dancing.
Dinner with the Guys
I took a walk over to the camera store Mikhael had told me about which was a good few kms, was pretty good. I even had a play with the new Canon 40D which is very nice, but Im still happy with my 30D, I have to take a few more shots. Still can’t find the daypack I want though, but they had some nice ones in there. Prices are the same as the UK though so it would be best to wait until I get to the states.
In the evening I was invited to dinner at Yorvis and Loius’ new apartment and drove over with Mikhael and Andres. Andres’ girl was also there along with Ben, a canadian guy who speaks excellent Mexican spanish. Its really nice that I get to meet people other than other backpackers and see some kind of normal life. They put on a DVD they got with a board game and Im ashamed to say I kicked all their asses. How half of them can go through life and not see half of the best movies of all time I will never know, but then I do have several years on most of them 
Playing tour guide
I woke up at around noon when Bonnie came downstairs, but was still tired. I made myself useful and filled the dishwasher, 4 guys living together and a working dishwasher that was empty :p Bonnie helped to tidy up too, it was the least we could do. Marks house is in Greek Town and actually just around the corner from where I had my first brunch in the Only Cafe, but we walked the wrong way and ended up at some organic supermarket vegetarian cafe which was nice. Bonnie is really great, she works as a graphic designer for a travel magazine and has been lots of cool places. My kind of traveller, someone who cares more about the trip and having random adventures than actually getting to the final destination. She ended up in Mozambique trying to get to Tanzania and had a blast not doing what she wanted to.
We wandered into town down the main street and got the subway further in to get out of the sun. It has been really nice this last week, not a drop of rain, clear skies, just warm enough… the perfect english summer we had missed. Its nice just to walk and talk, and Bonnie was an interesting girl too, so far better than exploring on my own. We had a look in the Ontario Musuem but at $15 was too much to go in, and had a look in at the library which was prety good too. Mark needed to borrow Bonnies car to take his empty kegs back so we headed home before we had a chance to get down to see Lake Ontario, I guess she’ll have to go see that herself on next week.
I had another night to kill and decided to spend it at the local salsa club instead of with Mark, his boys and Bonnie but got trapped into sitting around chatting and drinking beer. They have a sweet set up, Matt and Mark (a third mark!) have some decks and are really into their music and are always mixing stuff and working on tracks. Shame they can’t get it together properly but I wish they would, really cool guys.
I was late for salsa and bouced from pub to club twice before I saw Neil who I had met at the Brunch meeting on Sunday outside and he showed me where everyone was sitting. Jeanne, Andreas, Yorvis were also there, along with a couple of other girls who weren’t coming dancing. I was looking for Maria, who was not there yet, so didn’t see the. Its fun to seemingly hook up with mostly random people you meet through a website. Much better than talking to the drunk in the corner of the bar
Salsa wasn’t that great though I have to say. Too fast, and then they stopped playing salsa for ages, $10 to get in and expensive beer. I only had one. Andeas and yorvis were great dancers though, although they made Jeanne do all the work. Made it look so easy, but I think Im getting my head around it a bit more, I think the beer might have helped I better get more practise in before I hit Latin America.
If you add me to facebook you can see the photos Megan too when she turned up. Im in as travel trousers
1/2 a Mile high
Thursday was the the day I had to move out my hostel, so I woke up on time and sorted out my stuff a bit better. I also really needed to finish up the tourist things as I was still hoping to get a ride the next day to Montreal, although I hadn’t heard back from Dave. I sent him another message and then went for a good walk back into Kennsington Market and China town. I had bought a ticket for the CN tower for $20 which wasn’t cheap, but i figured I had to check it out.
I got my camera out too and took some photos, not saying they were any good, but I have been a bit lazy with the photography so far and needed to become more concientious about my new hobby. Lunch was at a vegetarian chinese place that gave me a massive portion, easily enough for 3 people so I had to get a carry out (which I then left in the hostel). I wandered down to the CN, swiped my ticket and headed up to the top. It was quite good fun, the glass floor was good, but not really that scary. Its so tall it doesn’t seem real. Would love to bungee from it.
Mark had finally agreed to let me stay and also had another surfer, Bonnie from LA, who was due in too. We all swapped messages and I was angling for a lift from the hostel which didn’t really work, but I was just too lazy to get the subway. I left it too late too, and by the time I staggered out with my stuff I realised my knees were kind of sore so just go a cab. Bonnie is great, and a true travel writer, as it she works for a travel magazine. They dont do editorial content anymore which is a shame, but Im sure she has plenty of good advice for that field.
Mark, Bonnie and I had to get to a big bookstore before closing at 9pm as the New York Times had an article about couchsurfing and Mark was quoted! Nice! So we got the subway in and the wandered through town in the evening before heading to the reverb club to watch a band that Megan knew. Where are all the melodies these days? I dont think its because Im old, I think its because I knew what a good band sounds like but I can’t really see them making it. The band after called ‘After Party’ were much better, had a hot singer too which is nice.
Maria also came so when that was over she drove us to the Cadallic Lounge to meet the other CRs. Dave was also there and apparently got told off for not getting back to me about the lift the next day. It was all good though as a couple of guys that live in Montreal were going there on Sunday and I was welcome to join them. Another couple of days in Toronto and a chance to dance salsa on friday night! Winner!
Dead day
I got up late, which was half because I was so tired, and half because I spent all night with the terrrible snoring. I had a short wander around town, joined the Mountain Equipment Coop, which is an awsome store and tried to find a day safe backpack. No luck there.
The afternoon was spent trying to do my laundry, mostly unsuccessfully,the kiktchen area was closed and then the dryers broke so I hung around waiting for them to become free, which they didn’t as people kept refilling them. Waste of a day really. I eventually got my clothes clean and then just messed around on my laptop until the social evening event of meeting at Sneaky Dees, but that was quite late. Met up with some more CS guys and talked about skiing. I really wanted to go after that conversation!
Noodles, Drums and bad vibes
We managed to get out the Bates Motel for just after 11am, which was good, I just hope I get my $300 deposit back on my card sooner rather than later, ie not getting it when Im in Montreal. We cruised up to the backpackers but I couldn’t get in until 1pm so we headed up to Kensington Market to get some coffee and chinese food. Might have to go back and buy some clothes, they have lots of pimping gear up there. The backpacker look is so last year, vintage 70s gear might be the way forward.
Tried a couple of ATMs with my card but they all wanted to charge me a couple of bucks per transation. That was ok for me at the airport but not in the city, I found the RBC didn’t charge me later on so I will be sticking to them. I was broke though so I couldn’t treat Britni to the lovely mangosten they had in the chinese fresh food stalls. Im sure I can find some in Chicago, although at nearly three pounds a pound they were very expensive. Thailand has spoiled me
I got dropped off and we said our sad goodbyes. Really great girl, I hope she gets back to doing what she loves, photography, as soon as she can, I could do with some lessons Was gonna be a long ass drive back to Chicago and she drives like a maniac so I hope she made it ok! She taught me a trick or two, and Im not talking about her singy-songy southern accent! More importantly I hope she doesn;t get sacked, first time she has had a sicky but it was Niagara Falls dammit with some great company, she had to come.
I moved into the Canadania backpackers which is downtown and then went for a walk around. I’m getting my bearings now after driving around the city for a couple of days looking for random things, I spotted the Toronto branch of the Mountain Equipment Company and made a mental note for the next day. Not that I can carry much more, I only really bought a sleeping mat and now it seems like I have no room and the damn thing fit on the outside! The beastie boys are playing this weekend too, but looks like I will miss it as hopefully I will be in Montreal by then.
Kaydi had invited me to the last drum circle event of the year so I got cleaned up and we rode the street car west to the park. Its nice she can take some time out of her last years study to show me a few things. The park has a big bowl in it and it was packed with hundreds of people playing the drums and maybe a thousand in total. Fire jugglers, people with glow sticks, people dancing… We met a couple of Kaydis friends from saturday and sat dinking wine and laughing at the girls in front of us grinding away at each other. Too dark for photos despite my camera, I really needed my flash but I wont make that mistake again.
They finished up at about 10.30 which Im sure the local residents appreciated as a hundred drummers tended to make a lot of noise. It was kind of strange to listen to it too as it was completely organic, Im not sure anyone was in charge and it slowly changed into different rythms as you sat there. You could hear melodies in the pattern too somehow. Very strange. Very cool. I walked west with the Kaydis friends back to their place which was over the Pizza Pizza as I was meeting some couchsurfer friends in a local bar although I was very late and I got my first sense of bad vibes on the way.
Some well built white guy with a mohican was walking towards us, minding his own buisness and it seemed like when he was 5 meters away he saw my camera on my shoulder so he looked at me, touched my arm as he passed and started saying ‘Hey buddy, can I get…’. I felt like I was about to be mugged, but I ignored him and just kept walking as he ran out of ideas of things to ask me for. I had no cigarettes and I wasn’t going to give him any money so why should I stop? So he could find an excuse to smack me?
We got to the bar a while later and I met up with Mark and Megan again, sadly I had missed most of the other people as it was a bit late but there was quite a good group still there and we even had a couchsurfing barmaid working the bar. A bit later she was very glad we were there. I also met Dave Smaller who said he was going to Montreal on friday so looks like I can get a cheap ride share there. The guy in my dorm room said it cost him $90 which seems a bit expensive.
Eventually there were just three of us left and we went out for a cigarette with Dani the CS barmaid and during the constant stream of panhandlers one of the other guys in the bar came out and started telling us his story which was kind of bizzarre. He said he had been back in Toronto 4 hours as he had been deported from the the UK for asking his clients in the defense industry where the WMDs were. His cousin had recently been killed by friendly fire and he had had enough. Seemed like a bizarre story, but the guy was very drunk and kind of emotional. I mostly believed him, but then he said he didn’t have any money for his bar tab, insulted Dani and lied to her about lending Mark $50 and lost any respect he might have just gained.
I guess if we see him on the news in a few days killed by the CIA there might be something in it. He was writing it in a blue binder about the general and the dutch protistutues it was his job to buy for them with his platinum mastercard. Very strange story.
These couchsurfers area lot mroe hardcore than the Birmingham lot as there are meetings planned for Wednesday and Thursday too. I can hardly keep up! Im not getting much sleep as it is, and despite being in a dorm in a comfy bed I had the usual dubious pleasure of beeing woken up by some noisy German who wouldn’t stop snoring. He would stop when I would kick the underneath of his bed but soon started again. At least I wasn’t up since 5am like the english guy in my room. I need to organise my pack and dig out my ear plugs….
Ah, the romance of getting drenched.
At the hostel I had left a note seeing if anyone wanted to come to the falls on monday morning, but there were no takers! Stupid fools were paying $40 a pop to take the bus down and I only wanted a bit for gas. The fools. I managed to persuade Britni to come along though so I wasn’t going to be lonely. We hit the road with the usual confusion with Marta the tomtom girl sending us all over the place and had a good sing song on the way down, now I know what Styx sound like! Proper highway driving in the day is much more intense, but its only 1 1/2 hours away.
I was slightly confused about the whole thing, as you are when you have never been anywhere, but Im glad I saw it in Canada, they have a nicer view I reckon. We also had the wind coming to us so got all the spray as well which was fun Its a real tourist trap, unsuprisingly, but was nice to be there and check it out. We had another lovely day, sunny and clear, rainbows from the falls. Was a nice place to spend a couple of hoursShame I can’t post any cliched photos yet, but they will come!
We headed back and went for Pizza Pizza, no rats this time but was nice to be by the lake near the harbour as the sun set, I gave a pathetic salsa lesson on the stage, I really need to get drunk and go dancing. Seemed like a really short day somehow, but it took a lot of driving. We drove back up to the airport to drop off my car and wished the striking workers luck in their struggle against the man! I wonder what to do about the 2 parking tickets I got…? :p
Now we had a dilema as Britni should have been back at work the next day but couldn’t get back in time and we didn’t want to impose on Judy again so we started looking for a place to stay. The guidebook gave us some clues but we were still out of luck after a dozen phone calls, we didn;t really want to pay $320 for the honeymoon suite at some posh hotel.so we headed back to the scary place we had done a u-turn earlier.
No needles under the bed, no blood, just a big spider on the ceiling and a reasonable price. The guy at the reception was kinda scary, but it was late, we were tired and I doubt we would find anything else better. For me it had to beat the car and Judy’d floor by a considerable margin!
The Brunch Bunch
I got up at 7am (my parking expired) and drove north for a while until I found an empty street to crash in and then got a couple more hours sleep. The camping mat was a god send! :p Then I thought I better find some breakfast but all my GPS could find was a closed Jamacian Cafe. Pity, looked pretty interesting to eat in. I sat around a lot in the nearby car park, tried to get my GPS track off my little logger (unsuccessfully) and then went wifi hunting which was better. I had a bit of mail and some ebay related task for my folks.e so good to me
Even though my requests to couch surf on with someone in Toronto had been mostly regected (thanks anyway Dan, shame you had your move this weekend) there was a sunday brunch organised so I thought I would check it out and make some friends. I was kinda late, nearly had a head on crash while looking for the place but 8 people were already there, most hosts but a couple of guests. We went to Murphys Law and sat outside under the trees. Was nice, despite the bird shitting in my hair Everyone was cool and pleased to see me even though I didn;t say I was going. Maria, Mark, Carlos, Judy, Britni, Megan, Ian and Ians host…. I can’t find her name !! :p
We sat arround chatting, had a bit of food before heading over to the circus festival in the nearby park Was quite a nice day, I even caught some sun, we watched some slightly annoying australian entertainer torture small children for our amusement while Britni and Megan beat up Carlos (that damn Brazilian Machismo!). Britni also described how to kill a man by popping his testicles, which she wouldn;t demonstrate :p Judy had to run off to a wake of all things, Megan dissapeared to her vegan pot luck dinner and Maria was busy too but we were joined by Barnado, a gay model from Uragua, who was an interesting guy.
I volunteered my transport so we could go over to Church street whch is the gay center for a look arround, we sat in a bar out the back and missed the drag show but I think the conversation was much more fun. Anything an everything was up for discussion, which is always fun. Its nice to have a conversation where you can just talk and listen and everyone is cool. Barnardo had to run off but we went back downtown to meet Megan for Karaoke. That was bound to be fun, I murdered the Doors LA woman, Bohemian Rhapsody and then we all got up to do Love Shack. I wan’t even tipsy :p
I drove Britni back to Judys who was hosting her and when we eventually got there she pleaded my case and I got to sleep on the floor. Yay, no car jacking potential and my couch surfing cherry was popped!
Living the dream, stealing bandwidth and sleeping in my car.
Its going to be 6 degrees tonight apparently, not the best time to be homeless in Toronto, although the forcast is mid twenties for next week so things are looking up for the time I move into the hostel. After brunch my mission was to get a sim card and a sleeping mat, I typed camp into my tomtom and drove the 8 miles it told me to. Luckily it wasn’t a gay store, but what I hoped, along with a lot more shops in a plaza. I spent about 4 hours there going in all the shops. First I tried a news agents and the woman who was working looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language when I asked for a pay as you go sim card. I also found who to call to replace the ancient canadian sales tax refund I still had. $193 will come in handy, pity I dont have the intrest from 7 years on it.
I found a electronics type store and yes they did sim cards. My eperience in the UK on tueday spoiled me as it took about 45 minutes (with the assistant on the phone to the company) just to get me sorted out. They wanted loads of details and the stupid thing cost me 30 quid! With only $10 credit. Simply insane! Still I now have a local phone number although Im not convinced it wouldn’t be cheaper to continue using my o2 sim since I will only be here for a month or so. I will have the same nightmare in the US too no doubt.
I bought a power inverter too so I could charge my laptop in the mini van. I also spent some time discovering I could put all the seats into the floor so I can really stretch out, should be handy for the freeze fest tonight.
I got my sleep mat, tried to use the internet in a coffee shop but failed and then went for a sponge wash in the supermarket :p Loving life on the road, but I was staring to stink. I drove back into town and by chance parked up near an open wifi spot so I could send a quick mail and update my blog. I can see this being a perenial problem as I move about but Im sure I’ll get by.
I also got the address of a hostel and went down to book myself in for when my mobile room goes back to the rental company. The girl on the desk was shocked when I said I was sleeping in my car and said I could take a shower, which was very nice Compared to my week in the Gobi Desert I was doing fine, but she looked at me like I was scum
I’m just chatting to Tim at home and Kaydi who I met in Ireland last year. Shes a torontonian and I’ll be meeting up in a while for a drink. I’ve paid my parking all night and need to move at 7am so better not get too wasted. I think I better stash my stuff in a locker at the hostel too, getting robbed will not be a good move.
Homeless in Toronto
Woke up at 8.30am quite cold but alive, and no knocking security guards kicking me off the car park. Figured I would get breakfast by Lake Ontario and drove where ever my tomtom told me until I got to a nice beach with plenty of people playing volleyball. No showers though so I’m kinda stinky. The plan for today is to buy a camping mat so Im not cold on the floor and get a Canadian Sim for my phone. I need to call Kaydi and see what happening tonight, hopefully a party, but not before I have a shower.
So I just finished my breakfast in ‘The Only Cafe’ which is pretty nice, I could tell when I drove past and saw the pictures of random rock & movie stars on the billboards outside. It was so good I went and put another hour on the parking meter, if only to charge my laptop battery….
Rat Pizza?
I found somewhere to park up all night and came to the Canadiana Backpackers to sort myself out for when my car had to go back. I stole their wifi, took a shower (the girl on the desk took pity on me, she looked disgusted when she learnt I was kipping in my car) and got some overnight parking. I arranged to meet up with Kaydi, the girl I met in Ireland last year, and her boyfriend in a local bar before heading over to celebrate her friends birthday. They took me to a cool bar called the Underground, lots of guys, i thought it was a gay bar! :p
We got caught up and introduced to Jeff, whos a nice guy, I hope I didn’t insult him too much when I made a face about him being in advertising :p Actually a really hope I didn’t, the guy was huge! We jumped in a taxi and went over to meet Kaydi’s friends, who were a bunch of crazy punks and nice people. We caught the tail end of the band at the pub and sat out freezing in the unseasonally cold Torontonian weather. I wasn’t feeling it too much but it felt wuite warm to me Tiffany was also there but I didn’t get to chat to her too much which was a shame, shes very quiet, I need to get her drunk again and then she goes wild
After a few more drinks we headed to pizza pizza for a slice and everyone dissapeared, we went around the corner and up some half missing stairs, climbed over old bicycles and carpets, into a flat worse than where the young ones lived Through the kitchen filled with dirty pots, past other dark rooms into the living room where everyone was watching that short gay curl hairy aerobics trainer do his thing on a 14″ TV for some reason. This was a hardcore student flat, empty beer cans, old pizza, stack of old hifi gear, PS2 and a few big cages.
I guess the last thing you want when eating your tasty Mexicana Vegetariana is a rat in your face but I soon found out what the cages were for. My sister would have run screaming, but it was kind of fun putting the rat in Jeffs pocket, tossing them to each other, watching them run around. Maybe not very hygenic, but fun to play with.It did kind of put you off your pizza though. I would love to go back and take some pictures, but I think the moment has passed They were fun people to spend the night with, but I couldn’t live there, it was really gross