Our stories so far have been rather bland and so we thought we would tell you about the hostels, which have been a bit more interesting
Montreal - Canada
Our first night we land and arrive at the hostel and we aren´t in the main hostel but in a building down the road. We arrive and find our room only to see big burly teenagers carrying in cans of beer and a keg. Have to admit we thought, what have we done!
But the lads turn out to be very friendly and they are part of a rowing team and they are currently in a competition at the olympic stadium. they are 16, 18 an 19 and they are with their coach Cindy, who is also very nice have to admit I can only remember Mitch´s name who was the 19 year old.
The hostel was cleanish, only down side the bathrooms had no locks and so when the door was shut someone was in there. This policy seems to work well and didn´t hear of any intrusions.
Also we saw a skunk on our way home one day.
Ottawa - Canada
Hippie hostel, it has a very hippie feel about it, you have to take your shoes off as you go in and so everyone is wandering around barefooted. All the different rooms have names as do the bed and we stay in the African room.
We meet loads of nice people and it is werid when they say hi to you in the streets, we know people in Ottawa. A few pot heads though.
The hostel is pretty clean and really nice, great place to stay.
Toronto - Canada
After a very long walk we finally arrive at out hostel, OMG, it is scary from the out side. The large picture window is broken and there is a small piece of glass stuck to the hole and the cracks radiate from this to the very edges of the glass, the glue sticking the piece of glass over the hole has gone a nasty brown colour and this is in the centre of the window. The broken pieces of glass still sit on the inside of the window, also on the inside there are faded, horrid dried flowers and the curtain is pulled and is filthy and faded.
We knock on the door and no one answer, I knock and knock and still no one answers, so out of fraustration I ring all 4 of the doorbells. That brings a dirty little man with white hair and black teeth. He invites us into his office and it is like something out of a horror movie, broken bits of computer, type writer and general junk sit everywhere. We check in and he is really sleezy. The front door has a lock and they there is another lock to the corridor where the bedooms are and then another lock to our room. There is even a digit lock to upstairs where the kitchen is.
We go to our room and it is full of furniture, you can barely get through to the room itself. First a plant holder of course no plants, a book shelf with no books, behind that a table with two small stools, next to this a huge fridge that of course isn´t on. Next to the fridge another little table with a microwave on and on the microwave an electric clock. Opposite all this is a little kitchen on one side then a walk through bit and then the sofa. Next to the sofa is our bed. Amazingly full room with a tiny bathroom next to the bed. Also the little kitchen has a hot plate that is of course screwed down. Also there is not cutlery or pots and pans so how you are suppose to use this I don´t know. When we use the shower it leaks from the bottom and so we end up with the bacthroom covered in water. All in all ridiculous.
What is really werid is that we hardly see anyone else at all, it is a massive hostel and we see virtually no one else.
When we step outside the hostel and it is right next to a homeless persons shelter, so we are approached by homeless and people ovbviously on drugs, quite a scary place.
Niagara - Canada
A lovely place the falls are amazing, the hostel is a short walk from them as well. It is almost clean, although the carpets lead a bit to be desired. The bunk beds are home made and there is no way I can climb onto the top bunk, no ladder, and so Colin has to do aecrobatics to get on and off.
New York - America YMCA
After all the trouble of finding the place and the extremely long taxi ride, we arrive at the YMCA only to find it is in an amazingly rough area and is actually a homeless hostel. It is advertised as having a gym and a pool for residence to use, but the gym is full of scary, muscly blokes. We check in and we find out that we are on a womans only floor !!! Great for Colin. There are notices everywhere stating they are overbooked and due to this there are men on this floor.
We find our room and our double bed is actually a bunk bed, at least this time it has a ladder. The room is private, however is so small you couldn´t swing a cat because you and the cat wouldn´t fit in the room.
There is an old lady walking the corridors who talks constantly to herself and walks up and down the corridor, however she does break in conversation to say hi and wave at you as you pass !!!!
New York - American 5th Ave Spot
When we arrive they dont have a dorm for all 5 nights and so they upgrade us for the 1st night to a private room. Yippee we think, especially when we open the door and the room looks lovely, a three window bay, big double bed, flat screen TV. Lovely.
However on code inspection we see the carpet, is in a desperate need of a hover, and I notice mouse poo everywhere all near the edge of the room and the beds. The TV isnt tuned i9n properly. The shower doesnt run properly, the cold tap on the basin doesnt work at all and the hot tap is tempremental to say the least as it only turn off when it wants too.
