From Toronto we were heading to Canada's next "big city" nicknamed Winterpeg by Canadians due to its extremely low winter temperatures. Winnipeg on our arrival was surprisingly warm. The journey from Toronto is long.... 38 hours to be precise. This is also providing that the train is running on time, which VIA rail are very quick to point out may not be the case. Unfortunately this is also one of Canada's less scenic route so come prepared to entertain yourselves. We were stocked up on food, snacks and had our travel kettle prepared for tea and coffee. Food on board is expensive so make sure you get it before you get on board because there are very few stops along the way. We were staying with a friend we had met while staying in Halifax. Tara our friendly Canadian had spotted fellow lesbians at the hostel and had approached. What quickly ensued was what Tara describes as the friend U-Haul. Within 24 hours of meeting she had decided we were cancelling our reservation in Winnipeg and staying with her. We rocked up to Tara's place after our epic journey and were welcomed into her home. Luckily we had Tara because I'm not sure what one does in Winnipeg without friends. We ate some really good Japanese, went down to the Forks, which was a First Nations trading post, and for the rest of the time we netflixed and chilled (the non dodgy kind) with our U-Haul friend. We sadly waved goodbye to Tara and Pusspuss (the cat) and headed towards Edmonton. We were stopping in Edmonton to stay with friends of ours we met and traveled with on our first trip. We had the most wonderful time during the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend being welcomed by our friend’s family for a big Thanksgiving dinner. Edmonton is another one of those places that you should really have friends for. We did enjoy our trip to North America's biggest mall though. From Edmonton it was off to Jasper. A word of warning the train is almost always delayed arriving in to Edmonton and it gets further and further behind schedule from there. This train journey is spectacular and if you can get a good seat in the dome carriage to view it will be well worth it. From here you can spot wildlife such as long horned sheep, bears, moose, caribou among other things. There are also beautiful mountain vistas and river views. Jasper is a great little mountain town, which is a jumping point for hikes and the Jasper National Park. We stayed at the H.I hostel 7km out of Jasper ($27.50 CAD pp. for a 36 bed female dorm) which runs a shuttle to and from town ($5 CAD) several times a day in summer and twice a day in winter but there are often people from the hostel who are driving to and from town. The walk in to town is also very pretty. If you are hoping to head to Banff from here be warned that other than hitching a ride with another traveller (possible at certain times) there is only one company that do this and it costs around $120 for the relatively short journey. While you're in Jasper something worth trying is the Bear Claws from the fudge shop in town. Also if you're coming from Vancouver or Edmonton it may be worth getting some groceries there, as they are expensive in Jasper. Due to the characteristically late arrival of the Jasper to Vancouver train we ducked in to the local microbrewery The Jasper Brewing Company (here we go again with the beer) to sample some of Jaspers finest brews. This was to be our last train journey in Canada and was just a gentle overnight trip arriving the next morning at 9am. This is another very scenic journey and well worth the trip. We were heading for Vancouver and the other coast of Canada. Vancouver is a great city for food and has some good tourist hotspots such as Gastown, Chinatown and the Grandville Market. It is a very walkable city and easy to navigate. We have a couple of friends in Vancouver so we split our stay between a friend’s house and an Air BnB ($70.60 AUD) in a central location. They have a thriving gay scene and until marriage equality was achieved in the states it was the most popular LGBT wedding location in Canada. Just be careful with the weather in Vancouver, as it is often wet. We also highly recommend the walking tours here (listed on our walking tour page) of Gastown, which was really interesting and also finishes up close to a very cool microbrewery called Steamworks which was worth a visit. Our last stop on our Canadian Tour was to Victoria on Vancouver Island. This involves a bit of an obscure journey from the centre of Vancouver. To get to Victoria we needed to catch a bus to the train station a train to the bus station then a bus to the ferry port ($5.50 CAD for bus/train and $17.20 CAD in for the ferry). This is a time consuming journey but is a lot cheaper than the alternative, which is a bus then ferry for . It is also well timed and a lot easier than it appears on paper. Once you reach Vancouver Island by ferry it is another bus to Victoria ($2 CAD). The ferry journey is an hour and a half, which is just long enough to grab a good buffet lunch on board. Seems a little strange but it’s a good buffet and some actually catch the boat just for lunch. In Victoria we stayed at the Ocean Island Inn ($27 CAD pp. for a 6 bed dorm), which we wouldn’t really recommend but unfortunately the H.I in Victoria has a couples dorm that excludes LGBT couples that meant we could not in good conscience support them. Victoria is a sweet little town to wander around. There is a floating market/community on the edge of town, which is really interesting and even has a few resident seals. Also of note is another microbrewery called Canoe Brew whish is a lovely bar to while away an afternoon. Victoria brought the end to our Canadian tour. Canada is a beautiful country with some very friendly and generous people. The thing about Canada though is it is really designed to cater to the outdoorsy types. As neither Dani nor I are in to hiking and we did not have a car a lot of Canada is inaccessible. What we were surprised by in Canada was their craft beer scene. You hear a lot about Portland, Oregon and Belgium and as a Kiwi expat living in Sydney I was aware of the developing scenes in New Zealand and Australia but Canada has some wonderful microbreweries from Nova Scotia to British Colombia. If you are in to craft beer I would seriously think about Canada on your list. Budget Time $$ What it actually cost: 42 days = $5803.23 Rail Passes: $1607.70 Food: $1419.30 Drinks: $568.55 Accomodation: $1406.46 Car Hire: $233.81 (including 1 prepaid tank of petrol/gas) Transport: $230.86 (tolls and public transport) Souvenirs: $190.59 Entertainment: $103.91 Miscellaneous: $42.02 Petrol/Gas: $28.07 From a budgeting point of view Canada was another interesting one for us. Having pre-bought our rail pass across the country and booked a number of AirBnBs we were again considering daily expenditures that were without two of the main daily budgeting considerations. Again though, we were pleasantly surprised by how much cheaper things in Canada could be with a little consideration and careful planning. A couple of little tips to keep costs down should you happen to do a trip that even vaguely resembles ours. 1) Never buy food on the train!! It is ridiculously expensive and often fairly poor quality. Yes, some of the journeys are unfeasibly long but just make a trip to a supermarket before you go and stock up on food and snacks that don't need refrigeration! (On a side note, we are actually those seriously weird backpackers that travel with a mini travel kettle and re-usable 'keep cups'. This may look and feel a bit strange at times but on the train this proved to be a life saver when we could have free tea and coffee whenever we wanted throughout many long journeys we took!) 2) Research public transport options and walking routes before you arrive in a new place. Everything in Canada is on a large scale and unless you plan really carefully you will often find that your accomodation isn't always close to train stations or major transport hubs. After a long and often uncomfortable journey on a train/bus it is incredibly tempting to just take the easy option! To avoid the urge to just 'jump in a cab' and waste $20-30 make sure you have an idea of means and routes to get to your final destination that do not involve this terrible money pit option! This piece of advice is a good one to follow in all countries and all cities! It also stops you getting ripped off by cab drivers if you do resort to a taxi as you'll have a good idea of how far you should be travelling and therefore how long it should take and how much it should cost! 3) If you are heading to Jasper or Banff for a short trip try to buy your groceries before you get there. Both of these National Parks are out of the way and therefore all of the supermarkets have extortionately high prices for everything! 4) Consider the different tax rates in each province. Alberta has the lowest tax rate of all of the provinces in Canada so if you need to buy electronics or anything expensive while you are in Canada and you are planning on going through Alberta then wait until you get there...you wouldn't believe how much you could save. (Avoid provinces like Nova Scotia, Québec and British Columbia for these kinds of things) Overall, Canada was definitely not as expensive as we thought it was going to be. This was partly because we made friends along the way who offered us places to stay meaning we saved on accomodation and transport in cities, but also just because good planning and organisation meant we didn't fall into evil money traps. We did not skimp in Canada (as you can see from the amount of beer that we drank) but we were careful not to waste our money in this relatively expensive North American destination. LGBT: Canada is an extremely LGBT friendly nation, having recently celebrated 10 years of marriage equality and having their prime minister march in pride. In most cities we visited there was a very large celebrated community and everywhere we went there were pride flags in windows and rainbow stickers on doors. This even extended to smaller places like Halifax, NS and Jasper, AB. The only places we heard of any major conservatism was in Alberta and even then everyone we met was lovely.
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Trains, New Friends and MicrobreweriesDuring our time in Canada the exchange rate was about dollar for dollar for CAD and AUD so I will only convert to USD from whatever currency we paid in. So, like Dani has a thing for universities I have dragged her to the corners of the earth in search of my family history. In all fairness, I do also have an interest in her family too, but in this quest yet again we were off to an obscure part of Canada to follow my ancestor’s path. This brought us to Nova Scotia, a beautiful part of Canada often left off people’s travel plans due to it’s perceived lack of visitor appeal. We had planned a few days in Halifax followed by a 3 day round trip of Cape Bretton Island. Due to the location of Nova Scotia and it's limited backpacker scene the cheapest way to explore is surprisingly to hire a car. This cost us $233.81 AUD/177.69 USD for 4 days. Tip: there are notice boards in all the hostels where you can join ride shares or advertise your car to share costs. We also found that the majority of hostels in the lesser-travelled destinations are Hostelling International (HI) hostels, meaning that a membership quickly becomes worth it. Membership cost varies from country to country but can end up saving you quite a lot. Also for Australian and New Zealand travellers your YHA membership entitles you to the same discounts. We stayed in the HI in Halifax, which cost us $30 CAD/22.80 USD per person with the discount for a 6-bed dorm. Halifax is a cute, small town with a great craft beer scene. Check out Garrison’s Brewery down by the ferry terminal with a sampler known in Canada as a ‘flight’ of beer and take home a growler (1.8lt) of your favourite. Canada is an expensive country to travel around; an easy cost saving method is cooking your own meals when in hostels. This may seem obvious to many of you but as foodies this is not something we do too often, as the food in a country/region is frequently a reason for our decision to visit. In Canada the majority of the country is famous for its produce (like the salmon in Nova Scotia) rather than specific dishes so buying local produce and cooking it ourselves seemed like a totally legitimate money saving choice! After a nice few days relaxing we were off around Cape Bretton. It’s a reasonably short drive from Halifax to Baddeck and we stayed at a nice social hostel called Bear on the Lake ($32 CAD/24.32 USD). This is some way from the nearest shops so make sure you arrive with supplies for meals. It is also close to a microbrewery called Big Spruce where you can pick up a growler (see picture above) for $26 CAD/19.76 USD and you get back $10 if you return the bottle to the brewery when you’re done. From here we made our way to Pleasant Bay along the Cabbot Trail stopping at some very picturesque towns along the way. If you’re anything like us (not many people are) you may want to stop at the Salmon Museum ($2 CAD/1.52 USD) in Margaree Harbour for an informative lesson on salmon, their life cycle and fly fishing. Dani and I are big fans of odd museums and Dani is an avid salmon eater so this seemed like the perfect stop (Dani was even able to pick up a souvenir patch for her backpack). The Cabbot Trail has some beautiful scenic spots and walking trails. We also heard about plenty of wildlife spotting however we weren’t lucky enough at this point to see a moose. Your entrance ticket entitles you to 24 hours in the National Park so you can take your time and stay along the trail like we did. We stopped at the only hostel in the park, which is another HI hostel in Pleasant Bay. We were pleasantly surprised when we were booking to find that a private double here costs the same as 2 beds in the dorm ($60 CAD/45.60 USD). This is another stop where you need to bring your supplies, as there is nothing around you. The next day we headed down to St Anns Bay (where my ancestors had settled) to see the museum they have there in the Gaelic College. This is honestly a bit of a let down but it’s good to see that the Gaelic community in the area is still thriving and speaking Gaelic. We wound back down to Bear on the Lake and then the next day on to Halifax. Tip: One thing that you should be aware of when hiring a car is that you should never prepay the tank of gas when you hire it. It seems like a very good idea at the time but it is a full tank. This means that unless you are going to make sure that the tank is on empty (ask Dani about how this almost cost her our marriage one month in) it is not worth it. From Halifax we were catching our first of 7 trains across Canada. Many Canadians we met were under the impression that the rail trip across Canada is very expensive but it doesn’t have to be. We paid $803.85 CAD ($610.54 USD) including tax (for non North Americans you have to watch this when checking prices as tax is rarely included) for a 7-journey pass. A journey consists of where you get on and off the train not the length of the journey. The pass lasts 60 days and the only condition is that you cannot go backwards. If you’ve been looking into travelling Canada you will probably be aware that it is one of the largest countries on earth. This means that what looks like a short trip may take you the better part of a day. Our first stop was Québec City, which was a mere 18 hours from Halifax. We were staying in an Air BnB property ($31.60 AUD/24.06 USD for a double room) just 1km from the centre. Québec is a beautiful walled city but I did have to disagree with the local who tried to compare the wall there to the Great Wall of China. We did a walking tour here as we find it the best way to see a city but we weren’t that impressed by the guide. A restaurant that is well worth checking out if you are looking to try local Arcadian (French) cuisine is Le Buffet De L’Antiquaire where a meal for 2 will cost you around $50.68 CAD ($38 USD). Also of note is the The Montmorency Falls which is an easy local bus trip from the city which costs $3.25 CAD. The next stop really was a quick journey (a mere 5 hours). We were staying with a friend of mine from NZ, which was great. I preferred Montréal as a city to Québec and it was full of funky little neighbourhoods. Each neighbourhood has something different to offer. Head to the Jewish neighbourhood for some amazing Montréal bagels at St Viateur Bagel or dance the night away in the gay district decorated for pride all year long. Whatever you’re in the mood for, you can probably find it here. One must try that wasn’t great for me (Riv the vegetarian) but was great for Dani (the omnivore) was Schwartz Deli. This Jewish Deli has been around since 1928 in the St Laurence neighbourhood. It is credited as the creators of Montréal smoked meat and is still “the” place to find it in the city. I can’t speak about the meat but Dani did look like she’d found heaven when she was tucking in to the sandwich (see food album for pictures). We also walked up to Plateau Mont Royal (the mountain the city is named for) for a pretty great view of the city (if you can appreciate it after a 2 hour zigzag walk up). From Montréal it was 7 hours to Toronto. Due to trains only leaving Toronto 3 times a week we planned six days here (which could easily be filled) but we were lucky enough to meet a lovely gentleman in Cape Bretton who had invited us to stay with him about an hour out of Toronto with his wife and daughter. Due to this we split our time between the city and our 3 glorious days in the country. In the city we were staying in an Air BnB ($46 AUD/34.96 USD), which was a short cable car ride from the centre, or a 7km walk. Toronto is a very flat city on a grid, which makes it very walkable. This gives you an opportunity to check out all the cool districts Toronto has to offer such as Little Italy, Little Portugal, Chinatown, Queen St West and Church and Wellesly (the latter two being LGBT districts). It is also a foodie city. The international flavours available are incredible and the quality is surprisingly good. There are also many all-you-can-eat places that are really cheap. Every backpackers dream!! Our favourite was an amazing Indian restaurant called Little India that cost $18 CAD/13.68 USD each for their lunch buffet. In the Distillery District make sure you check out the Mill Street Brewery. Not only is this district really interesting but also the flights are awesome (sensing a theme in Canada yet?!). After 3 days of wandering (including the obligatory walking tour) and eating we headed off to the countryside where our local hosts spoilt us. We were taken up to Lake Muskoka in Gravenhurst and on a steamboat to see the start of the famous Fall colours. Unfortunately we were a little early for most of the change but it was still a beautiful scenic trip and made all the better by the eccentric steamboat enthusiast who commentates the journey. Our wonderful host also drove us to see Niagara Falls, which is a site to behold. The thousands of litres cascading over the edge is something you can only really quantify by being there and allowing yourself to be drenched in the spray from the falls. We had actually researched how to get to Niagara from Toronto before meeting our host and found that the cheapest way to get there is via the Greyhound bus however there are trains/bus combinations you can take. (You might also want to consider hiring a car and driving down yourself. It’s worth noting though that the car parks right in front of the falls are $15-20USD for the day where as the ones a few minutes walk and a couple of streets back go as low as $5USD.) The Canadian side of the falls also has a lot of odd attractions and the usual tourist traps like Ripley’s Believe it or Not and Hard Rock Café. Dani and I have a secret liking for the overly tacky (see South of the Border in the USA road trip) so we had fun wandering past the dinosaur minigolf and Dracula themed restaurants!
We spent our last day with our host at a wonderful little community movie theatre where if you bring your own bowl they fill it for a dollar. From here we were off to Winnipeg but we’ll leave that for the second half. So they say that travel is about the journey and not the destination and as a couple of relatively seasoned budget backpacker travellers we are often willing to accept that! There have been innumerable occasions on which we have decided to take a 22 hour bus journey instead of a 2 hour flight in order to save ourselves the money and to give us a chance to see a bit more of a country. Most of the time this does save us the money but the journey probably isn’t quite the window into the country that we romantically sold it to ourselves as being…as we trudge down the motorway or through endless baron desert! In spite of the often dull nature of the intermittent journey, as long as it does what it says it will do and leaves and arrives within a reasonable window of our expectations no one is about to kick up a fuss…Unfortunately this was not to be the case with over a days worth of travelling that we underwent, fruitlessly utilizing four different modes of transport across two American states and Canada! When we finally reached the end of our 30 hours, we were all but ready to throw in the travelling towel and head back to our jobs and the dull monotony of a 9 to 5 in the predictably slow but reliable Sydney rush hour!
We would like to say that this nightmare of travel was a result of us attempting to do something massively obscure and off the beaten track, however, all we actually achieved was a brief round trip into central Manhattan from Newark Penn station and then getting from our AirBnB accommodation in Newark to the airport and onto Halifax in Nova Scotia and the hostel we were staying at there. Sounds pretty simple right?! You have no idea!!!! Newark, NJ - New York City, NY - Newark, NJ - Halifax, NS We arrived into Newark mid-morning of September 10th, left our bags in the secure hold at Newark Penn station and then headed off to spend our last day in the USA back where it all began in NYC! This was the start of a seven-stage transport nightmare that would not come to an end until early evening the following day…and this is what it looked like…
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