Packing Permutations

How much can you pack in 23kg? Believe it or not quite a lot. This year the company I am working for in Spain decided to book everyone on direct flights to Madrid on Air Transat. My previous experience with Air Transat has been positive, but because they are a budget airline their baggage allowance is also budget.

Most transatlantic flights allow 2 bags weighing 23kg PER BAG. Air Transat allows 23Kg TOTAL with any amount of bags. This complicated my packing plans for the next 14 months. I needed some summer camp clothes for Spain, dress clothes for work and fall clothes for Russia.

Despite these initial setbacks, I finally found a packing list that worked. It probably includes a lot of stuff that I really don’t need and there is things I probably forgot. But as always the contents of my bag is never the same when I depart compared to when I come back. Things get left behind and I buy new things.

I kind of broke my own personal rule about travelling with only one big bag and one day backpack (the contents of the packing list are divided among the backpack, daypack, suitcase and purse pictured above). I justified this to myself by remembering that I was going to be away for more than a year. I probably could have got it all one bag instead of taking two half empty bags.

So now my entire life for the next year is contained in four bags with 23kg of packed baggage and 12kg of carry-on stuff.

Approaching Adventures

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After finally completing my travelogue of NYC, this is just a quick update on my upcoming travel plans. I will be leaving the continent of North America June 22nd to call Europe home for the next year and a bit. My first stop will be Berlin for a few days before starting work in Spain. Like last summer I will be working first in Pueyo de Jaca and then in Alba de Tormes. In August I will also be working in Alba. Then beginning in September I journey to the land of Dostoevsky, the Kremlin and the Trans-Siberian Railroad – Russia. I will be teaching English in the small town of Reutov (just outside of the Moscow Ring Road). More details  to come!

The Best of Toronto

Before I leave Toronto for the foreseeable future I thought I comment on some of the fantastic finds I’ve had since moving here four years ago.

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Best place to get food at 3AM – While you may assume the only food venues open at this time would be McDonalds and Tim Hortons, you are gravely mistaken. Enter 7 West – a cute cafe open 24 hrs a day 7 days a week. Serving salads, pasta and delicious desserts.

Best place to study – With several libraries on campus a UofT student can be picky about where to study. My personal favourite is Trinity College’s Graham Library. Just the smell of the wood desks and fireplaces makes you feel at home.However Victoria College’s Pratt library is a close second. At Pratt you feel like you are in Ikea.

Best free wifi – Most coffee shops these days have wireless, but most require you to pay. So if you are looking for free access in downtown Toronto look no further than the Toronto Reference Library on Yonge St just north of Bloor.

Best sushi – One thing I miss the most when travelling abroad is the abundance of sushi places here in Toronto. Everyone seems to have their personal favourite. My vote goes to Sushi Club. So good I had them on speed dial!

Best crepes –As a student breakfast often rolls into lunch and as such you come to love brunch food. Crepes-a-go-go makes the best crepes hands down both sweet and savory. They also quite an authentic atmosphere with all of the staff speaking French.

Best place for groceries –After moving south of College Street I discovered the wonders of shopping at Kensington Market for food. Before I had simply frequented the area for clothes and jewelry, but with two bakeries, two cheese stores, a butcher you can’t go wrong for price and quality.

Best place for a selection of tea – While in Kensington Market you can stop in for some loose tea (or a cup of coffee) at Moon Bean.

Best place to hold a party – A great place for a party of any size is Andy Pool Hall. They have a unique decor, DJs and dancing after 11 and of course pool tables. No matter you group’s tastes there is something for everyone here.

Best bet on a Monday night – Looking for something to do on a Monday night? Head over to the Reservoir Lounge and catch a great set (or three) of jazz by Sophia Perlman and the Vipers. I recommend the Reservoir Red if you are craving a martini while you are there!

Best junk food deals – Craving chocolate, candy and other junk food? Don’t pay full price, wait for the day after Easter, Valentine’s day at get it at Shopper’s Drug Mart for half price!

Best ethnic food – One of the most unique experiences I’ve had in Toronto was eating at Ethiopian House. It’s a reasonably priced dining experience if you get bored of sushi and dim sum.

Best way to spend an afternoon – Got 5 hours to kill in Toronto? The AGO recently completed their renovations and is a fantastic art gallery to visit. See my previous post for details.

Best Sunday brunch – My first year in Toronto I had the good fortune of booking my birthday at the Bloor Street Diner for brunch. It is hands down my favourite spot for brunch – but it is only open on Sundays. The chocolate fountain is alone makes it worth the trip!

Best Canadian fine dining – Looking to impress someone? Take them to Canoe not only is the view from the 54th floor of the TD tower impressive but so is the seasonal selection of Canadian food.

Best cheap beer and food – Einstein Pub is the closest pub to my place, but it is also the best deal in the area for cheap house beer and food. If you order the wings get them with the hammered sauce.

Best place for window shopping – The area of Bay and Bloor has undergone lots of renos including the arrival of some of the most expensive stores in Toronto. So if you don’t want to spend any money, but just browse this area is fantastic.

Best martinis – College St between Bathurst and Ossington is known for its quaint cafes and martini bars. Personally I find Souz Dal the most reasonably priced martinis and it also has an extensive list from which to choose.

Best cakes – Although they don’t make their cakes in house, Future Bakery is great spot for dessert and/or coffee. In the summer the patio is a bonus!

Best place for home supplies – Other than Canadian Tire I find myself getting the best deals for home supplies at the local Dollarama. For things where quality is not a big concern you can save a lot of money by shopping here.

Best place to get fit – There is the perennial debate between students about which is a better place to work out – the Athletic Centre (AC) or Hart House. When I lived across the street from Hart House I definitely went there, but after gradually discovering the AC I found it more convenient with more equipment and less people. It is not has ‘hard core’ and intimidating as people think!

Best pad thai – After fencing our standard place to go was the Red Room. Not only are their prices quite cheap but the Pad Thai is unmatched in my humble opinion. The Green Room and Nirvana are owned by the same people and are also worth your time.

Best all nighter – Despite conflicting opinions, one of the best events of the fall is Nuit Blanche. An all night art festival that intrigues and entertains!

Toronto Snob

After living in Toronto for four years I’ve come to realize why the rest of Canada hates Toronto (aka the center of the universe). It’s because of people like me who move to Toronto with good intentions, but then after a few years become acclimatized to Toronto living and could never imagine moving away. You worry that if you move somewhere else it just can’t compare to the fabulousness you’ve found here in Toronto.

You become used to things like walking out of your downtown apartment and hailing a passing cab at any time of day or night. You have an unending choice of restaurants, bars and cafes from every different ethnicity, music style and taste. All the great concerts come to Toronto. While some people may hate the TTC it still is far superior to Calgary’s, Edmonton’s or Winnipeg’s poor excuses for transit systems. Thank goodness for the blue line night buses (aka the Vomit Comet)! Torontonians love the wide variety shops, stores and boutiques available in different districts. Toronto’s districts themselves are part of the reason we love Toronto – Kensington Market, Queen St. W., Yorkville and the Danforth are communities unto themselves.

All you really have to do is pick up any issue of Toronto Life to realize these truisms of Toronto snobbery. One day at the hairdressers (a chic Yorkville salon) there were none of my usual magazines on the table so out of curiosity I picked up the January 2009 issue. The theme of this magazine is the roasting and toasting of Toronto. They brag about everything Toronto from shopping, architecture and food – especially food. It is not a guide for those living in Toronto, it is a guide for those who ADORE living in Toronto and have money to burn.

After coming to this interesting revelation, I’m kind of glad I’ll be leaving Toronto at the end of June. If I don’t leave, I fear I could be sucked into this all-encompassing cocoon of Toronto love and never understand why the rest of Canada hates us. Some may say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it – I should stay here because it is a great city. I like to counter that variety is the spice of life – I love to travel and experience different things, even in Canada.

    

Student of Speech – Edition Four

This is the final installment (for the moment) of my Advanced Communicator Bronze speeches. I’m scheduled to give my next one in January. I’m working on a piece about roomates. But for now enjoy the extended story of a previous blog post from 2007 titled ‘Continental Crossover.’ This speech of the same name goes into greater detail about my experience on the Eurostar and in Paris. Stay tuned for details of my winter getaway to Florida next week.

Have you ever had what you thought was the worst day of your life? Well you obviously lived to tell about it. I invite you to relive the worst day of my life and hopefully laugh and learn from it.

Good evening fellow toastmasters, this evening I invite you to travel back with me to June 2007 where I am standing in line at London’s Waterloo Station waiting to buy a ticket on the famous Eurostar train that connects London to Paris through the underwater chunnel. It’s about 4pm and I’m trying to get a ticket for the 5:15 train which would arrive at 8:30 in Paris. This would give me plenty of time to find a hostel and settle in for the night. I felt like I had been standing in line for eons – mostly because of the weight of, when a very British female voice comes over the intercom. “Attention all passengers travelling on the Eurostar, currently our computer systems are down and no purchases of tickets may be made at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Any inconvenience… I had to be in Paris tonight. The train that I wanted to be on was leaving in an hour! My breathing accelerated faster than a train could pull away from a station and my heart was beating faster than the train could go over the tracks. Then I came back to reality and I realized there was nothing I could do, so why should I panic? So I camped out in the in line and waited. Finally 45 minutes later the line started moving again and I reached the ticket counter.

This distinguished looking gentlemen says, “How may I help you miss?”

I respond “One student ticket for the 5:15 to Paris please.”

 “I’m sorry miss we are no long selling tickets for that train.”

“Well how about the 6:15”

“Well miss there are no more student tickets, but I can get you a full fare ticket.”

“Yes fine”

 “Marvelous”

There was nothing marvelous about it! I pulled out my travelling life preserver – my credit card – and sighed.This was the price I had to pay for what I thought would be a once in a lifetime experience – going on a train that travels under the English Channel – how cool is that! Right?

Sorry to ruin everyone’s great expectations for the chunnel, but it’s really just like any other tunnel – dark and boring. But I had to take a picture just to prove I was there. So I’ve got this photo on my computer of my reflection holding my camera and smiling. Everyone wonders why I took a picture of myself in the middle of nowhere

While waiting to arrive in France, the train ride gave me valuable time to reflect on the first lesson I’d learnt that day. Lesson #1 -Do your research – While I had travel experience with buying same day transit tickets in Spain, not every service in every country is the same. So had I looked into the Eurostar more closely I would have known that I could have saved quite a bit of cash 

So while this wasn’t a great start to my evening, the shenanigans didn’t end there. When I finally arrived at the Gare du Nord in Paris it was 9:15. I first called all the hostels I had numbers for but all of them were full – apparently peak tourist season starts early in Paris. Before I started to panic I realized there was a ton of hotels nearby that I could check into. But each one had a sign on the door that said ‘complet’ -You don’t have to be fluent in French or a rocket science to realize pretty quickly that complet means -full. Finally 30 minutes later, exhausted, hungry, and drenched in sweat from lugging my bag around I found a hotel that didn’t proudly display one of these signs. Luckily the man at the front was obliging.

“That will be 60 Euros madame”

Once again I handed over my life preserver, cringing – knowing my credit card usage had now doubled in the space of 4 hours.

“Merci, here is your key.”

As I rode in the tidy elevator up to the second floor another travelling tidbit became apparent. Lesson #2 – Book ahead for accommodation. It is always more relaxing to arrive in a city and have somewhere to go. I do a lot of stuff when I’m travelling by the seat of my pants, but never again will I leave accommodation up to chance.

This lesson was further instilled in me when I arrived in the room. While 60 Euros isn’t outrageous – it was definitely more than I should have paid for this room. It was of modest size, but looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the WW2. And the bathroom installations could have been in a museum depicting the early 20^th century. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse a small dark object skittered across the floor. As it turned out Hotel D’Orsay – should really have been called hotel cockroach.

As I laid down in my rather lumpy bed I could only reflect on my third and final lesson of the day. Lesson #3 – Expect the best but prepare for the worst. While generally my travelling have been wonderful and that’s why I keep travelling, there are, just as in normal life, always going to be accidents and things to learn from.

So while I survived this experience without any serious damage – except for my bank account. It definitely goes down as some of the most unpleasant hours of my life. It has definitely a useful experience to help me better plan my future travels and of course as useful material for a speech at Toastmasters.

 

 

 

 

Student of Speech – Edition Two

The assignment for my second ACB speech, was to create an entertaining speech using content from external sources. I found this quite difficult. Usually I use my own story and anecdote material. I find it is much easier to recall under pressure your own words, rather than the words of others.  But anyways here is my speech titled ‘Addiction’ – my ode to chocolate!

It’s 1 AM the night before an essay is due, I’m sitting at my computer making last minute changes to the essay. I’m stressed, I’m tired and I’m trying to concentrate. So I turn to my weakness, my addiction. It’s not coffee, it’s not cigarettes and its not alcohol. It’s chocolate.

Luckily relief to my stress is close at hand. In the kitchen is a bag of dark semi-sweet chocolate chips that will melt in my mouth and give me the energy to keep working. I try to put off the craving as long as possible, but in the end my addiction wins out. I get up to go to the kitchen. But disaster strikes as I arrive in the kitchen, one of my roommates has got to the stash first. There is no more chocolate.

Good evening toastmasters and honoured guests. I’m sure many of you can sympathize with the adage ‘that desperate times require desperate measures.’ Most people have a vice or weakness and chocolate is mine – but I’m not alone. I’m sure there are others in this room and across the GTA that love chocolate as much as I do. According to Statistics Canada, Canadians purchase 6.7 kilograms of chocolate per person each year. And it is not only here in Canada but it is a world wide phenomena. If you type in ‘chocoholic’ into Google it returns over 1 million websites. These websites provide everything from gourmet chocolate, recipes and chocolate related literature.

Some websites advocate chocolate being the best medicine. “When no one understands you, chocolate is there.” Apparently for some it is even better than a doctor, “Chocolate is cheaper than therapy and you don’t need an appointment!” Daniel Worona advocates for the chocolate diet in which there are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and chocolate truffles.

If you want wear your chocoholic badge with pride, have no fear slogans can be purchased online. These can be purchased as bumper stickers, key chains and fridge magnets. My two personal favorite slogans, “If there is no chocolate in heaven, I’m not going!” and “I would give up chocolate, but I’m no quitter.”

But rather than give up this delicious habit I have just come to accept moderation in my addiction. Because as Judith Viorst puts it, “Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands – and then eat just one of the pieces.” Also I abide by the 12-step chocoholics program: never be more than twelve steps away from chocolate!

There is just something about chocolate, the way it melts in your mouth. Its creamy, rich feeling on your tongue.  I just can’t give it up. For those of you non-believers out there go out and try some chocolate tonight and not the cheap stuff you can buy in vending machines. No, I’m talking about 60% coco premium dark chocolate or immerse yourself in a chocolate truffle. My name is Hilary and I am a chocoholic!

 

“Why fall in love? I’d rather fall in chocolate!”

Student of Speech – Edition One

While living a lowly student’s existence in Toronto, my attention has turned to one of my other new found passions: the art of oratory. I have been a member of Toastmasters for over two years now and it has taught me how to better persuade, inform, entertain and inspire my audience. Through a system of peer evaluation I get feedback every time I speak. But true to form I have also been studying speechcraft.

I have recently been reading and listening to great speeches of history. It became blatantly apparent that there is a difference between the written word and the spoken word. Art of speechcraft and art of oratory. The same text can be delivered differently depending on the speaker. Take the Gettysburg Address. There is no audio recording of Abraham Lincoln delivering this famous speech. All that remains is the text. On American Rhetoric you can find three different speakers delivering Lincoln’s words, each evokes a different feeling. In my opinion Johnny Cash does the most powerful rendition, but feel free to check it out and disagree.  

Here is my first speech I delivered for my Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) in September 2008 – titled ‘Lost in Translation’. As discussed above the spoken word is hard to capture in a text only format so bear with my, at times, incomprehensible style of writing. It sounds better spoken I promise. Enjoy!

No entiendo. Я не понимаю. Je ne comprends pas. No matter what language you say it, the phrase ‘I don’t understand’ is one of the most frustrating phrases of all time.

I’ve been lost in translation many times on various travels, but surprisingly I find myself lost in translation here in Toronto, more than abroad. And it’s not with my ESL students, nor in any language classes I have taken. No. I seem to find myself lost in translation trying to decipher ‘manspeak.’

Good evening fellow toastmasters and most welcome guests. How many of you have ever been shocked, confused or just flabbergasted by something the opposite sex has said? So you probably understand where I’m coming from.

As a toastmaster I strive to improve my communication skills in all areas, but as Toastmasters has yet to create a speaking manual titled ‘Getting Through to the Opposite Sex,’ I have to muddle my way through based on past experience.

While there are many books on communicating with the opposite sex, all you have do is type it into Google to see what I mean.  Sometimes it seems what you need is one of those pocket phrasebooks that you could just whip out in emergencies situations, like at work, in a meeting or most frequently on date.

Let’s take the example of one of my ex-boyfriends to illustrate my point. We’ll call him John Doe. For some reason John never quite go the translation right. For instance look at our first date.

First there is pre-date conversation.

John: Where do you want to go?

Me: I don’t mind wherever you want is fine.

John: No really, you pick.

…Translation of what John actually meant: Stop being indecisive and say something

Me: I don’t care you chose.

 … Translation of what I actually meant: Be a man and decide

 And once you do settle on a time and place then there is the crucial 1^st date impression.

(Sitting down waiting and saying to myself)I thought he said 6:00, maybe he did say 6:15 or maybe 6:30

John: Sorry I’m late.

Me: That’s ok.

…Translation of what I actually meant: No it is not ok. You better not do this again

And finally there is the scramble to pay for the bill. Now I’m a modern 21^st century woman and don’t mind paying halves on the bill – but once and a while -ESPECIALLY on a first date its nice to be paid for, so I do the fake search for the purse act – where you take a good minute or so to locate your wallet in your purse and then some more time getting cash out – all the while giving the man enough time to jump at the chance to pay for the bill…on most men this little trick is highly effective.

Men love to say ‘I’ve got this’

To which I say ‘Are you sure?’

They respond with ‘Of course.’

All the while I know that in 99.9% of cases I never have to pay. Unfortunately John Doe didn’t know ANY ‘womenspeak’ and this little ploy ended up backfiring horribly…I ended up paying for the WHOLE bill, as he was oblivious to the fact that the bill had even arrived at the table and the waitress had taken my credit card to pay for the entire meal.

But it not just about the vocabulary and signs men and women use, it also about a difference between how men and women communicate ideas. Men I find take more of direct and somewhat abrupt approach, while women love to dance around the issue without really saying what’s on their mind. Luckily I have another great anecdote about John to prove my point

4 months later John and I were surprisingly still dating. It was approaching my favourite time of year – my birthday and week later Valentine’s Day. Being the chocoholic that I am, it is a great time of year to get given chocolate and to buy all the discounted chocolate after Valentine’s Day.

 We were on another one of our typical dinner dates, when he dropped the bomb in the middle of a simple dinner conversation.

 

John: So…I don’t believe in Valentine’s day

Me(thinking to myself):What do you mean you don’t believe in Valentine’s Day?

 This shocked me to my core – how could he be so blunt and unmovable on this issue. A woman would have first started a conversation about the time of year, and then brought up the delicate subject and said something along the lines of ‘I’m not too big into Valentines day, what do you think’

Both these ways attempt to communicate the same idea but in essentially different languages. And if you don’t speak the other language – this can result in hurt feelings, cultural misunderstandings and bitter resentement.

John definitely helped me learn ‘manspeak’ a little bit better so I wasn’t as shocked with its abruptness. But unfortunately John didn’t get any better at ‘womenspeak’, so I had to let him go 

Even though John Doe and I broke up a while ago, but I still remember something he said to me. ‘Why is it that you never tell me what you want?’ True to ‘womenspeak’ – I was more of a passive-aggressive-appeaser. I always said ‘whatever you want’ or ‘I don’t mind’ when I secretly did have an opinion. It wasn’t that I was sacred of sharing my opinion it was just I didn’t want to impose my choices on him. But later I found out apparently that’s what men want they want a simple direct answer – just the facts ma’am, just the facts.   

I have now realized that if I was more direct in my communication maybe there would be as many John Does in my life. But on the other hand, communication is a two-way street and I know there are also definitely some men that that require some basic training in how to talk in ‘womenspeak’. I think if I put as much effort into communicating in ‘manspeak’ as I do into learning other foreign languages and maybe one of these days I’d no longer be lost in translation.

Afternoon at the Art Gallery of Ontario

After the Frank Gehry Renovation

Since coming to Toronto over three years, I really haven’t seen much of ‘tourist Toronto’ (CN Tower, Casa Loma, Science Centre etc) When I compare what is available to do as a tourist here in Toronto compared to other cities that I have visited, Toronto pales in comparison. I have always found Toronto to be a fantastic city to live in, but rather boring one to visit. However after a friend invited me to visit the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), I realized that Toronto may not be so ‘tourist toxic.’ 

I had previously visited the AGO on two occasions once during Nuit Blanche and the other time during the renovations when they had an expo on Andy Warhol. Both times I found the gallery pleasant enough and with good exhibits, but it never seemed to be a gallery of large substance. So I was surprised to see that the AGO was now 5 floors plus a basement with a seemingly unending number of galleries. I spent almost 4 hours there and see did not see everything.

The AGO has a wide range of art, so no matter what kind of art you are into, there is something for everyone (including kids and kids at heart!) Being a fan of modern art and photography I was not disappointed. The fourth and fifth floors are dedicated art from the 1960s to the present. There were several large installations, including golf bag totem poles, a fabric washroom, the famous walking women by Michael Snow and a mysterious cube of metal shavings. Interspersed between these were paintings ranging in subject matter from an almost-too-tall for the room painting of 9/11 to General Idea’s paintings on AIDS.

 However if modern art isn’t your thing – if you didn’t enjoy the Pompidou centre you probably won’t enjoy the 4^th and 5^th floors – don’t worry the 2^nd floor is packed with 19^th-20^th century Canadian Art. I don’t think I had seen before in my life so many paintings by the Group of Seven. It was fascinating to distinguish between their different styles and guess which paintings belonged to which painters. Other famous Canadian painters abounded. Many galleries were solely dedicated to 19^th century ‘Christmas Card’ painter Cornelius Krieghoff. Abstract art by Paul-Émile Borduas and Jean Paul Riopelle was also abundant. Paintings of the associates of the Group of Seven, Tom Thompson and Emily Carr, were also present. There was no doubt on the 2^nd floor that you were in a Canadian art gallery!

Our visit concluded with a perusal of the first floor which included Ken Thompson’s vast European art collection, two smaller rooms of modern art installations, most of the gallery’s European art and some small exhibits on photography. This first floor seemed to be typical of most art galleries I’ve visited – a large collection of religious art and sculptures from the 17^th century, an impressionist gallery and some cubism. I found the photography gallery interesting. There was a good variety of photographs some dating back to the 1840s and some taken of modern industrial projects by Edward Burtynsky.

The one area we didn’t get to visit was the basement. Fortunately, I live so close that I can take advantage of the Wednesday evening free entrance from 6:30-8:30 just enough time see the model ship collection and the Inuit art.

The Art Gallery of Ontario definitely is one of the best galleries I have been to. I was very impressed with the size of the collection and the variety. It belongs in a category along with some must see galleries, like the Joan Miro museum in Barcelona, the Guggenheim in Bilbao and the Pompidou Centre in Paris. It is definitely a must see of Toronto!

enRoute | The Travel Report 2008 — Canadian Bias?

On my way back from Calgary to Toronto, a flight that I make usually four times a year, a had a quick browse through the December issue of Air Canada’s in flight magazine enRoute. My curiositywas peaked by a traveller’s survey enRoute | The Travel Report 2008. It asked typical questions like ‘What is your next destination?’, ‘Favourite European City’ and ‘Your favourite thing about travelling’. But overall I found many travellers tended to have a Canadian bias in their responses.

I found that Canadian cities rated higher than expected. For example, who knew that Vancouver would be rated in the top 10 for ‘City with the most vibrant nightlife’. While I have not visited some of the other cities on the top 10 list, I have been to Vancouver and it did not impress me. I would submit that both Lisbon and Madrid definitely deserve an honourable mention in this category. It would have been interesting to know what some of the cities listed in ‘Other’ people chose.

Even more shocking was that Toronto made it on the list of  ‘City with the most interesting modern architecture.’ Granted the new archetecture for the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Art Gallery of Ontario is quite impressive, but these two buildings alone don’t make up for the boring skyscrapers that dominate the downtown skyline.  I think the only reason Toronto made that list was because it has no ancient architecture!

The most entertaining part of the report was reading the sections that had written responses like ‘Your best travel tip.’ I agree with most of the tips except “Always pack more than what you think you’ll need.” — a rookie mistake. Believe me when you are going through security or hauling your suitcase/backpack around you will regret following this advise. Bringing more just means you have more things you can lose, right? Besides the only thing you really need in case of emergency, the life preserver of a traveller, a credit card. The Mastercard adage, “for everything there’s Mastercard” truly applies here. One tip that I will take to heart is “Visit Nunavut before it’s ‘discovered.’ ” I would love to visit the north of Canada, especially before it is overwhelmed by tourists or global warming! This tip definitely made me move up Nunavut on my travel wish list.

Finally one thing it would have been interesting to find out is the age of the respondents. I almost laughed out loud when I saw the number one response to ‘Your preferred type of accomodation’ was luxury hotel. I know this would be my parents response to the question, but while it is nice to to endulge once in a while there is somehting to be said for ‘roughing it’ in a hostel. I was surprised that hostels weren’t even mentioned! They are a great place to meet locals, fellow travellers and get the best tips for cool places to see. Now while it is not cool for people my parents age to be staying in hostels, for anyone under 30 it is THE place to stay. Which makes me wonder if everyone would responded to this survey was over 40.  

This made me realise how diverse people’s travel interests were and how they change with age. With many of the results, I found myself in disagreement with the top picks. I think this boils down to where you’ve been. If you’ve only visited a handful of cities in Canada and the United States, of course Toronto has a pretty great nightlife. But as the saying goes the more you travel the more you know. And I think what is most telling about the diversity of travelling interests is the percentage of people that picked ‘Other’ for some of the top rated city categories, in some cases this was as high as 40%. So as with every survey take the results in context.

 

 

You Know You Are a Backpacker When…

So I haven’t written much of note lately…mostly because of a hectic semester, law school applications and just life! More on those things when the semester from hell ends (in two weeks!)

Anyways while taking a 2AM study break, I happened across my journal from the summer and came across this list I made of all the things that most backpackers can relate to (or at least things I’ve done as a backpacker!). Just thought I’d share…

You know you are a backpacker when…

1. You’ve gotten lost, even just for fun
2. You’ve slept in airports, bus stations, train stations etc
3. You’ve hand washed your clothes
4. You get upset when passport control doesn’t stamp your passport
5. You’ve spent way too much money on something to get yourself out of a bind
6. You’ve saved a ton of money on fabulous deals bartering
7. You wear flip-flops 24/7 – and now your feet are cracking
8. You own at least one guidebook
9. You’ve discovered the gold mine that is budget airlines in Europe
10. You love the “Where Have You Been?” application on Facebook
11. You’ve gotten dirty at one or more festivals
12. You’ve woken up people in your hostel
13. You’ve been woken up BY people in your hostel
14. You’ve partied ’till sunrise
15. You’ve ‘creatively rearranged’ your backpack at the airport weight scales to meet the 15kg maximum EXACTLY on budget flights
16. You’ve saved money by taking overnight buses and trains – and then regretted it the next day
17. You can tell what country people are from based on their backpack brand
18. You need a haircut
19. You’ve gotten smashed with people who until one hour ago were complete strangers
20. You get excited for flush toilets and indoor plumbing
21. You look forward to hostels with free Internet
22. You’ve invented your own system of packing
23. You’ve come home with completely different clothes than you left with
24. You look at people with suitcases and shake you head
25. You’ve gone free camping
26. You’ve been lost in translation
27. You’ve been confused about public transportation
28. You’ve had some close calls, but not close enough not to live and tell everyone about them
29. You never buy books, you just wait to trade them at hostels
30. No matter how much you travel, you always want to travel more!

If you have any other ideas for the list, feel free to add a comment!