Nuances of Canada

We've been here a little over two months. Every country has their quirks and this is what we have noticed about Canada and Canadians over the past few months.

Basements are huge!

Every house has a huge basement underneath their home and it is massive. Imagine an attic without the sloping ceilings. It's cool that they have the extra storage space but they are also a bit creepy - particularly when you find a snake hidden behind some boxes!

Heating: where are the radiators?

Homes in Canada mostly seem to have heating vents & grills on the floor or at the bottom of the wall. The heating come from the (huge) basement and heats the homes this way, Only seen a few radiators during this trip ;-) They also call boilers "furnaces".

Close links with Britain

The opening question we've most often been asked is "where in the UK are you from?". It's really nice that most people recognise we're British rather e.g. Aussie or Kiwi, and almost everyone has some link to the UK through relatives. We end up talking about a random place around the UK just because a cashier in a shop happens to have an uncle there, which is a lovely addition to a standard day! They also have good teabags and most places have kettles, which is very welcome for our tea habits :)

Groceries are EXPENSIVE

Vegetables are typically around $2.50 a pound (around £3.30 a kg), even for cheaper root veg like onions. We're used to bulking out meals with veg but it's crazy how much more they are! Meat and cheese are also expensive, but by less of a margin. It's frustrating as we want to experiment with vegetables after working at the Healthy Rabbit cafe, but it costs a lot!

Junk food is expensive you don't find any £1 ($1.60) chocolate bars or bags of crisps here!

Toiletries are also expensive - most face wash, shampoo and shower gel costs over $5 (£3), whereas we'd always pick up whatever was on offer for £1 that week in the UK. Petrol is cheap though, around $1 per L (about 63p/L).

The nature is breathtaking

Canada has half the population of the UK, and is 38 times bigger - so there understandably is a lot more space. However, we weren't expecting the staggering beauty of a lot of the places we've seen. The forests, lakes, rivers and waterfalls are just amazing, and we've been lucky that the Canadian government have given out free National Park passes to everyone this year to celebrate Canada being 150. There are loads of great trails (which are often well signposted) and great views. Two highlights for us so far have been snowshoeing with freespirit tours through a forest regeneration area which was eerily silent, and seeing The Grotto, an icy and windswept cliff onto Lake Huron. Everyone keeps telling us how amazing British Columbia is and we can't wait to see it in September!

Snowshoeing

The Grotto

We're learning a lot about ourselves on this trip: what we want to do long-term with our careers, the kinds of jobs we would find rewarding and if we want to stay in Canada. It'll take some more time to figure all this out, but for now we're enjoying exploring and meeting new people! 

In the wild area of Kitchener

Okay, so Kitchener isn't exactly in the "outback" in fact, it is a population of over 200,000 (2016) and is less than an hour away from Toronto. It is still in the province of Ontario but closer to the American border.

We had organised a last minute workaway as we needed to catch a flight from Hamilton, Ontario in just over a weeks time so couldn't stray too far away from the area. When this opportunity in Kitchener came through we had to take it. We had contacted a number of workaways but due to the last minute nature of our request several said no and a couple said yes - if we couldn't find anywhere else.

Luckily, a wonderful man called Tony responded and said we were more than welcome. It was the exact hospitality we were looking for after a rather rocky end to our stay in Brantford. It was a little nerve wracking as we were essentially going to stay with a complete stranger for a week. Emma is a fan of crime shows so thoughts about serial killers, especially in the Canadian countryside did go through her mind!

We were collected by Tony late in the evening and driven to his home. His home sat about 35 minutes north of Brantford but south of Kitchener. During the car journey, we learnt that Tony has an adopted son who is a keen mechanic and another workawayer from Mexico was living with him as well. Tony had sadly lost his wife a few years earlier so enjoyed the company of workawayers from all over the world, plus the help they could offer around the home.

Tony had recently started a new career and was in the middle of training to be a truck diver and was aiming to complete his training during our stay. Luckily he passed and within a few days of our stay he was off to Vancouver for a delivery!

His house was a small two story home in the process of being renovated. He'd built an extension onto the back of the house to all space for a lounge. It was a lovely large sunny room and will be perfect for the warm summer afternoons (and reading a book on winter mornings!)

We stayed in a spare room which had a double bed - which took some getting used to after a month of being in individual single beds!

Our new home!

Our room.

Volunteering

As per the usual workaway agreement we worked 5 days a week, 5 hours a day on whatever Tony needed. Our job for this workaway was to organise and catalogue boxes. The lounge and dining rooms were full of clutter and boxes, so we knew we would be kept busy! Once the boxes had been organised, they needed to be moved to the basement. As with all Canadian homes, the basement is essentially an extra floor, which meant plenty of storage space! 

Tony offered full board and food with this workaway, which meant we were able to save some pennies during this week.

The only surprise was to find out that the house was built on swamp land which meant they get snakes during the spring months. How did we find out? we found a snake, behind a box in the basement. Terrifying.

Clearing space for boxes and hoping to not find snakes!

Some down-time with Ruben the Mexican workawayer.

The lounge after cleaning and tidying!

The dining room after some organisation and cleaning.

New storage space!

Reorganisation & storage!

 The Location

As mentioned above, Tony's house was in the countryside. We also had no car so we had to walk 40minutes to the public library to get a decent internet connect and to get any groceries. This did mean we had a daily stop at Tim Hortons for a doughnut and some coffee.... oops! We didn't see much else of Kitchener unfortunately, we enjoyed staying at Tony's and our daily walks to civilisation. 

Sights along the walk to the llibrary!

Catching some R&R!

Essentially this workaway was perfect for some relaxation and recuperation. Getting back to basics with limited wifi, reading more, daily long walks, continuing to eat healthily and get some of our own time back. We caught up on wedding planning, stag do planning and ourselves. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay with Tony, it was a great sense of accomplishment giving him his lounge and dining room back. The rooms were reorganised and cleaned meaning they could be used as soon as Tony gets back from his trip. 

Reading.

Food.

Relaxation.

Next stop, Moncton, New Brunswick!

Living the healthy life in Brantford.

Intro

Brantford is a sleepy town based 105km from Toronto. It's located in south-east Ontario and is known as the birthplace of ice hockey player Wayne Gretzy (the David Beckham of Canada, apparently). Not much happens here, as we were told by immigration officers, bank clerks, random Canadians and other travellers! Let's hope it's better than expected.

We arrived around lunch time, after spending 2 hour on a greyhound bus (Canada's megabus, although they have that too!). Our destination: The Healthy Rabbit. A vegan and vegetarian cafe, based in the heart of Brantford and a 10 minute walk from the bus station.

We arrived during rush hour, being greeted by Mia, the cafe manager and later Justin, the owner, came to great us. Upon arrival, we were given a taste of coconut hot chocolate which was delicious (and worth googling a recipe!). We planned to stay for 6 weeks here, but ended up staying 4 weeks.

The Healthy Rabbit

Volunteering

From the healthy rabbit workaway page, we were expecting to be involved in cafe work, building a yoga studio and other arts and craft projects throughout our time here. Emma was keen to get stuck into cafe work and hopefully gain some DIY skills with the yoga studio. David was especially keen to develop his cooking skills and knowledge in all things healthy. As we'd done a 9 day cleanse before coming to Canada to reset our appetite and eating habits, we were keen to put in place new healthy routines by sampling the tasty vegan/veggie food!

The day to day voluntary experience consisted of 5 hours shifts, with a 30min break. On a typical day, Emma was in the front of the cafe, brushing up on rusty skills from 9/10 years ago and David mainly spent time in the kitchen helping the chef prepare food and make dressings and desserts to ensure everything was always fully stocked. The shifts varied greatly depending on how busy the cafe was, and it was common to find time to help prepare foods although towards the end of our 4 week stay the cafe was going through a busy spell.

David got more involved in developing a new website for a new venture of Justin's and Emma did get involved in writing the rules and guidelines and thinking about volunteering events.

We had a daily allowance for food, $25 for our meals (from the cafe) and porridge provided. It was easy to live within these means for us as the food was so filling and kept you going! 

The best bit about the experience was meeting and getting to know the volunteers (you know who you are!) and staff (shout out to Mia, Nick and Alex!) there! Everyone got on and brought their own personalities and experiences to the mix and we enjoyed day trips, weekends away, shifts and evening chatting and laughing. It's true that the people really make the experience. It was great that there were such a fun group of volunteers there while we were!

As with all experiences there are highs and lows.The low point was deciding to leave early, we won't go into it, but let's say sometimes it's best to move on from situations where you simply aren't comfortable anymore. To be honest, it's turned out to be the best decision for us. No regrets. We had a great time overall but it's a shame our stay ended the way it did.

A taste of what we ate throughout our time at the Healthy Rabbit.

Chia seed pizza

Ceaser wrap

Ready to work!

The accommodation

In the main volunteer accommodation there are two, three layered bunk beds with a shared lounge, kitchen and bathroom. We stayed here for one night before moving to a private accommodation in a shared student house. The room offered, two single beds and some storage and once we got the heating working it was a lot more cosy. The first night saw Dave layering up in thermals as it was freezing! We had a shared lounge and kitchen which were pretty standard. 

Although nice accommodation, it was quite separated from the other volunteers; so we spent a bit of time there but mostly came home after a shift and went to bed, ready for another busy day!

Brantford & the surrounding areas

Yes, Brantford is a sleepy town but we kept ourselves busy! Daily yoga practice at Moksha Yoga ($40 for a month!), ice skating on the town square ice rink, celebrating Dave's birthday at Rocklings Bar and Grill, walking along the grand river trail and general volunteer antics; watching Che 1 and 2 (so boring........), and other films. Finally, you can rent a car and get around to some pretty spectacular areas. Yoga was a big highlight for us as we went almost every day (there were around 4 classes a day) and as it was hot yoga, it was great to warm up while it was so chilly outside!

Hot yoga

Wandering around Brantford

Dave on the ice

Emma on the ice

Hamilton waterfalls:

On our first weekend off, we went exploring with some other volunteers. We went to Webster falls, Tiffany falls and Tew Falls. There are handy trails to get to the falls, although icy the walks were lovely and a great things to do over the weekend. 

Webster Falls

Tew Falls

Tiffany Falls

Port Dover:

We were looking for somewhere less than an hour away, just to see what was around. The night before we went we had a stunning sunset in Brantford and we hoped to see the same the next day. We weren't disappointed, we saw a beautiful sunset over Lake Eerie and enjoyed some Eerie lake fish and chips at The Beach House before taking a million photos of the view.

Kolapore Uplands:

WE WENT SNOWSHOEING! It was a lot of fun, we went with freespirit tours who offered a half day tour for $50 each. We thought this would be a great intro into the activity. The great and most amazing thing about the tour was how much of the forest was untouched. We saw animal tracks of porkipines and coyotes, and listened to the eerie silence of the forest. I have a feeling we may do some more snowshoeing next winter. 

We also took some time to watch a lovely sunset over Georgian Bay

Bruce Penninsular:

A volunteer, Maria mentioned a cute cave called The Grotto based in Bruce peninsular. Of course the photo was taken in summer and looked glorious so we didn't expect much when we got to The Grotto. We were mistaken! We hiked for around an hour before reaching The Grotto and the view genuinely took out breath away. The cliff, rocks and brush facing Georgian Bay were covered in icicles. The water was clear turquoise, offering a stark contrast against the white ice and snow. We spent a long time taking photos and just looking at the view.... then took some gimmicky yoga photos ;-)

Williamsford Mill:

It was suggested that we stopped at Williamsford Mill on the way, if we had time. We did some research and decided it would be nice to stop off on the way back from Bruce Peninsula. It was the cutest cafe, FULL of books and the smell of food. We enjoyed a lovely coffee and a large lunch here taking some time to take in the atmosphere. 

Being healthy, vegan and vegetarian

Everyone who knows us, knows we love our food... our waistlines show it and we are suckers for cooking a nice big meal, because it's a nice thing to do. 

Being at the Healthy Rabbit for 4 weeks, we both are reaping the benefits of such a healthy lifestyle. We did have a packet of chicken nuggets in the freezer and treated ourselves to a steak... but overall with the change in our diet we both have lost weight and reduced the ghastly bloat we were carrying around. The BIGGEST surprise was that we weren't hungry between meals, we didn't really crave sugary food (in fact, somethings are too sweet now!) and had an insane amount of energy. 

The foods which the Healthy Rabbit created were simple; a rice and leafy base topped with a selection of veg and topped with some yummy dressings. You can add tofu for an extra protein boost and one a few occasions we had protein shakes but this was at the beginning of our stay when our bodies were adjusting (especially after yoga!). By the end, Emma just enjoyed the taste of tofu, so continued eating it. 

It has made us think about what we eat; we're going to eat more consciously but whilst we're travelling and have beef brisket awaiting us on our wedding day...everything in moderation to start with! ;-) 

Next stop, Kitchener!

Getting started; Toronto, SIN, Bank accounts, Jetlag

We left the UK on the 24th January 2017 to start a new life in Canada on our IEC working holiday visa's. We had a week planned in Toronto to get our Canadian life in order; bank accounts, Social Insurance Number (SIN) and getting over jetlag.

We landed, tired and excited in Toronto Pearson's International Airport ready for our adventure. We joined the long immigration line and waited for a while to speak to an immigration officer, who wrote some stuff on our declaration card before telling us we had to join another line to get our visas. We must have spent a good 40mins to 1 hour waiting before getting to an immigration officer. We both spent around 5-10mins getting our POE's checked and then waiting for the visa to print. Then off we went... our new life had started in Toronto, Canada.

Next stop, Planet Traveller

We had planned our trip through BUNAC, and through the package we bought from them - the essential pack - we had a 2 night stay at planet traveller. It was a bit of a challenge to get to the hostel, as we had out first experience on the street car, where you can only pay with exact cash or using a presto card. Luckily, some friendly locals helped us after we found out we didn't have enough change or a presto card... 

The hostel was your basic, nice, friendly hostel. We were in a mixed dorm, which has 6 beds. We grabbed some dinner and went to sleep, and tried not to wake up at 4:30am!

The next day we popped into the SWAP offices, another perk of using BUNAC; their sister company who are there to help us out. We popped into find out information about banking and SINs, and we lucky enough to find out there was a induction the next day. FYI - I 100% recommend you attend this!

Setting up bank accounts was so easy, again a super friendly banker helped us open credit and debit cards. We had to wait a week for the credit card to be delivered...thankfully we'd still be in Toronto, just!

SIN's again, super easy. Went into a service Canada building and spoke with a friendly lady and within 10 minutes we could both get paid in Canada - woo! 

Planet Traveller

Next stop, Airbnb

We stayed in an Airbnb appartment in downtown, it was small and comfortable although the reviews we read didn't quite meet our expectations. No toilet paper, mouldy food in the fridge, collecting keys from a random apartment a 15 minute walk away (not easy with big backpacks!)

Once we were settled, we began exploring; china town (pho hung, is yummy and cheap!), distillery district for the light festival, Toronto power plant art gallery, Cat cafe and just walking around the city.

Airbnb in downtown Toronto

Toronto Light Festival, Distillery District

Pho Hung dinner, Chinatown ~$7

Wandering around, the Distillery District

Toronto Power Plant Gallery

Next stop, Brantford

By the end of our stay in Toronto, we were really keen to start out first work away experience in Brantford, Ontario. It's known for being a very quiet town where Wayne Gretzky came from, and we were going to volunteer in a Vegan and Vegetarian Cafe.

Follow us on instagram for daily updates of our time in Canada :)

After one month of hot yoga, the results are in!

A month ago I wrote a blog about staring hot yoga in Brantford. We have now moved on from Brantford and are now staying in Kitchener, so feels like a sensible time to see if there was any progress....

When staying in Brantford, I was in the fortunate position to go 3-4 times a week. Every session was tough, sweaty but I managed to find some inner calm and relax into it. I'm not sure how realistic it will be to continue doing yoga that frequently, but after seeing these results.... I may be persuaded!

Both photos were taken without a warm up, in the evening after a busy day.

Say what? My fingers are closer to my toes!

Improvement or what! In ONE month!

Let's look at that again in more detail....

Even if you take into account for the slightly different camera angles, there is certainly a difference. 

Face on photos make it much easier to see the difference - I can't believe this!

This is honestly the closest I have ever been to touching my toes, in my life. I had hoped for a a slight improvement, but this is much more than I ever imagined! Hot yoga has helped my flexibility and stiffness in my body, which has felt amazing. The only downside was the acne breakout I experienced; however, I was too lazy to do much about it besides buy tea tree oil as I knew we'd be moving onto another town in a few weeks. 

As for the other positions in yoga I mentioned in my previous blog. 

- Childs pose: A very slight improvement, I found that my forehead could comfortably reach the floor by the end of a session. Depending on the day, I could sometimes do this at the beginning. 

- Hero's pose: very little improvement here - still using blocks but it is much more comfortable now!

Anyway, thanks Moksha Yoga, Brantford - I am impressed! We have downloaded an audio session to continue doing yoga, when we can, on out travels :)