So it started off with an all nighter (pretty much) at home with my gorgeous sister Talyse, Rynocerous Harker and Jason Crazy Till, watching the hilarity of We can be heroes. It seemed like a dream leaving my house for the last time for 7 months. Had an eventful start off – forgetting my camera charger gahh – dad had to rush back home while I checked in. When he came back, he had grabbed the wrong one! Double gahh! So they are mailing it over. After an emotional goodbye, I headed onto the plane for my flight down to Sydney beginning my ‘walkabout’ journey, which has been months in the making.
Reading the book mum had made with all your photos and was quite emotional – thanks for so many lovely messages, so many people I am going to miss dearly. The 14 hour flight to Vancouver was a long one, got myself into a routine of sleep
movie sleep movie. In the transfer to Toronto I had to get my work permit…piece of cake. If anyone is looking at coming to Canada, it is so easy to get visa’s and permits. The Yanks on the other hand are on the other ridiculous end of the scale.
Due to the wait for the permit, I only just made it back to
my transferring flight with seconds to go, my vegemite spread the only casualty of the journey through customs. Paw paw made it through, luckily, my wrath would have been at large if that were seized.
Toronto – such warm weather was a pleasant surprise. Bussed it into
the city centre, soaking up the beautiful greeniness that is Canada. Very nice.
Checked in to Canadiana backpackers inn, with a view of the Toronto CN tower from the front door. Stayed in a dorm with a bunch of 4 Pommies outnumbering me the one lone aussie. Went out that night for a wander, grabbed some food….by myself haha table for one please. I also had to ask the waitress how much to tip her…haha I wasn’t sure whether it was 10 or 15%. She told me 15, so please let me know if this is too much and she is pulling a swifty on me.
There are a lot of homeless people around town, begging for money. I felt inspired, and ended up asking one of them to come to dinner with me…but he kindly refused out of courtesy to the restaurant, and he had already eaten. So after a bit of a chat with him, I gave him some change and went back to the hostel, deep in thought.
The next day - Tuesday, after surfing the internet on the free wireless for a while and taking advantage of the free pancake breakfast, headed out wandering the streets like a lost tourist. Opened a bank account, subwayed out of town to the closest Walmart. HUGE! They sell everything which is very radical. The customer service is woeful though. I saw a customer and worker getting into a massive argument due to lack of service. It’s surprisingly obvious that the workers really don’t want to be there. Bought me a prepaid phone, blanket, pillow, sheets.
Taco bell for lunch – not too shabby. (table for one?). After a long walk home carrying all my gear, my feet needed a break so facebooked my good friend martin meerkat rutkowski.
went for a walk down Queen (not that the street name means anything to you) street to Eaton Mall which is a pretty fancy place. H &M is the best store! Great clothings. Apparently it’s a big chain round Europe, unfortunately not Australia. On the way back I stopped for a moment in a very pretty park, with black squirrels wandering around. Took some selfies haha, and read my novel. Its great that the sun is up until 9pm. That night I saw Prince of Persia with a couple of my new roommates – an Aussie guy, Scottish girl and British guy. These Canadians take their movie candy bar to the next level! Extra butter dispensers for your popcorn!!!
Wednesday I woke up eagerly early in the morning to stream the best Origin game I have seen in quite a while! I felt a bit stupid cheering vocally (“Up yours ODonnell!!”), and complaining to the ref in the backpackers lounge by myself. A few people came by to see what the heck was going on. Unfortunately the rain made an appearance in the morning but fined up quickly. Headed out to the markets with my newfound roommate friends Bisrat, Abel, and Andrea. We were out for a good 8-9 hours, walking around town, many many kilometres.
feet were about to drop off!
The food here is the best part… $2.30 powerades come in litre bottles, and vitamin waters are cheaper and bigger as well! Plenty and plenty of yummy snack foods and sweets for cheap – its great!!! It’s better than great!
Tomorrow, I am heading to Muskoka Woods summer camp 2 hours north of
Toronto– very excited!!!
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