Hello Toronto
I arrived in Toronto at about 5:30pm and was grateful all I had to worry about was my backpack, and that my friend had let me borrow her leather jacket. It was about +5 Celcius, and really windy. I walked out of Union Station and asked a nearby smoking VIA staff guy how to find the hostel. I then took off through the streets and wind and cars and skyscrapers... the city is beautiful. I quickly decided that riding the train, vs. renting and driving a car, was a good decision. I had arrived in the middle of rush hour, and didn't envy the honking cars. The walk became 20 minutes (despite the ambitions of Google Earth), but I found Global Backpackers' without much problem. I checked in at the counter with a really helpful staff member, and then asked about their packaged Niagara Falls trip.
I ended up in a 4/6 bed female dorm and stashed my stuff, then dashed off to the AGO - Art Gallary of Ontario - before it closed. The guy at the front desk told me that I could get in for free on Wednesday nights from 6-8:30, so I wanted to get in as much as I could. It was only a few blocks from the hostel, and I spent the next hour or so wandering around the 4 floors, admiring the art. I saw 3 original Rubens, and an amazing black-and-white photography display about blindness in Mexico City. The building itself is fascinating, with winding stairways that wind in and out of the building, allowing you to see the north and south sides of Toronto.
I returned to the hostel and discovered that their advertised "restaurant" only worked in summer, so I went back to a Persian Shawarma store I had seen earlier on the way to the Gallary and had a chicken wrap. I went back to the hostel and curled up in my top bunk, luckily without too much noise around me.
However, since I went in April (before the summer season apparently begins), there was false advertizing saying that they had a restaurant open at night - they do not have that except in summer months. They did not have (or at least maintain) any sort of "lights out at 11pm" rules, and the bathrooms looked as if they were only cleaned once a week (if you go here make SURE you bring flipflops for your lousy shower experience. Showers only allow you to choose hot or cold water - not both. The computers' internet is advertized as free but you have to pay $1 CAN for each 15 minute segment (Wi-fi is free if you carry a laptop).
I stayed 2 nights. On the second night I returned home late (about 12:30 and found that someone in my 8-girl dorm had removed all of my bedclothes and books to the shelf, and had made up my bed and put her things on it. After sleepily wandering up and down the stairs to talk to the night guy at the front, I finally figured out that the last inhabitant hadn't removed her sheets, so the newcomer felt free to remove my things. I had to remove another visitor's sheets (gross) and make up my bed at 1am. I think that if this had not happened, I could write a better review - but all the girls in the room said that a staff member had given them the ok. I shrugged it off because I'm a no-drama type of girl, but I can't give a positive reccomendation for GBV.
