Minerval

This weekend I will be traveling to Buffalo, NY. I frequently visit this city because I visit an O.T.O. lodge called Pyramid Lodge. I have been visiting this lodge for more than a year. On this particular visit I plan to fill out the paperwork to apply for my Minerval. I will be staying overnight, but people are letting me stay with them. This will be a very low budget trip. I am only paying for bus tickets to get to and from Buffalo.

St Catharines

Yesterday I visited St Catharines for the first time in my life. Currently I am considering moving there. It is the largest city in the Niagara region. It is warmer than Toronto by a few degrees. This is why the area is so popular for wine. The temperature is much better for growing grapes.


St Catharines is known as the Garden City. I spent the day in the downtown. First I was checking out a program for people who are going through a mental health crisis. This is an alternative to hospitalization for people to put their lives together. It is called Safe Beds. I am planning on staying with them as I turn my life around. 

I spoke with a counselor who was very kind for quite sometime. Afterwards I browsed some of the shops downtown. I came across an artist run center. There was a musical performance in the evening. This was how I spent my night. A musician with politically motivated song lyrics took the stage. It was an enjoyable evening with food provided by Food Not Bombs. The musician was named David Rovics. I bought his CD and was very impressed with the music. 

My tickets cost $16 round trip from Toronto. The bus was very crowded both ways because it is the Thanksgiving week-end in Canada. It took an hour merely to get out of the Toronto city limits. The drive takes less than 2 hours normally.

My First Day In Indianapolis

I arrived in downtown Indianapolis at the bus drop off early on the afternoon of July 24, 2014. Neither Indianapolis or Columbus have a bus terminal for Megabus. Megabus because is one of the cheapest bus lines. The 6 bus tickets I purchased for my entire trip came to less than $30. If you book in advance there are many exciting day trips to take from American cities for as low as a dollar each way. People often express disbelief when I explain how low the price of my bus tickets are. 

In Indianapolis I had made reservations with the hostel well in advance. Typically I make all hostel arrangements through Hostelbookers, but no Indianapolis hostels are listed on their site. I found The Indy Hostel online quite easily by doing a search. I had hoped to walk to the hostel. The map application on my phone said it was within 2 hours of walking distance. I have been trying to lose some weight and had hoped to get some exercise. The walk did not go as well as planned. I walked along a different street just 1 block north of the one I saw in the directions. Somewhere along the way I got completely off path. My lack of experience using the Google application was apparent on this first day in Indianapolis. 

I walked for a couple of hours. No stores or fast food restaurants were along the way. Highly frustrated, I walked and walked and walked expecting to find a place to sit down to have a closer look at the maps. I walked past many interesting sites. The Children's Museum was along the way. I ended up walking along 30th Street as the application suggested. Never  could I find the street to take a turn on. The area became more and more rural in appearance. There was a naval base along the way and golf course along the way. At this point I was highly frustrated and hoping to find the street on the map at any point. 

I walked further and eventually shops began appearing at the intersections on the streets. My phone was running out of juice. I needed to find a fast food restaurant to sit down in. Finally I found a Burger King where I purchased a lemonade for one dollar and sat down. At this point I checked my location on my phone and did a search for the hostel. It said there was still 2 hours worth of walking to do still. It was almost exactly the same amount of time as when I had started. At this point I decided to take the bus. 

There was a pregnant girl standing at the bus stop. I was glad she was there because she let me know that I needed to go all the way back downtown again. I would have waited at the wrong bus stop to ask the bus driver for directions if she hadn't been there.

It took a long time to get to the hostel. I had to take 2 buses. My bus back downtown took me back to where I had started. I headed eastward on the bus once again, but this time it stayed more Southern route. 

The hostel was very spacious on the main floor. It was very attractive. The kitchen had lovely wood flooring which was highly polished and made up of 2 tones. I stopped off at a grocery store after I got off my final bus. There was a grocery store nearby, but it was a bit expensive. The kitchen was handy. I made a stir fry before heading off to bed in the dorms which are located in the basement. This basement is not so bad. It was not humid. 

Leaving Columbus

I am at a coffee shop in Columbus, Ohio. My bus will be leaving for Indianapolis in a little more than an hour. I spent most of my time walking around Columbus yesterday. My sense of direction was off. My intuition led me off in a direction opposite from the hostel. This was not a displeasing experience. Columbus is a very attractive city with a gorgeous area in the southern part of the downtown. I walked down some residential streets which were practically out of a story book. It reminded me of Montreal, except everything was in red brick. The streets and sidewalks were constructed of cobblestone. Every house I passed was extremely charming. It was a beautiful walk. Eventually I found a McDonald's. Columbus does not seem to have as much commercial stuff in the immediate downtown vicinity. It is one city without a Starbucks on every corner. I have not seen a single Starbucks since I got here. There aren't a lot of stores on the streets. It is a bit challenging to find what you are looking for.

I assumed I could walk to the hostel. It began getting dark when I gave up. I had hoped to hail a cab. This isn't a city to do that in. I had to go in to a restaurant on High Street to ask them to call a cab for me. I was very frustrated at this point due to some mood issues. My nerves were shot. I had been shouting about my frustrations on some of the side streets. This is something I do often enough as I get agitated frequently. By the time the cab arrived my nerves were zipping along a mile a minute. I was full of the jitters as I rapidly spoke to the cab driver and tried to appear like a normal human being. My wallet was empty when it came time to pay. I had to get the cab driver to drive around in search of an ATM. These are not close to the hostel which is on Indiana Avenue. It cost me about $10 extra because of this.

I  spent very little time at the hostel. They have a hot tub in the backyard. I relaxed in it for 10 or 15 minutes. I didn't find the temperature particularly hot. I got cold and went back inside. The room was nice. There was only 1 bunk bed. I was sharing the room with a male. He went to bed around the same time as me. I had a lot of mood problems yesterday which disturbed me throughout the night. I had to keep getting up during the night to find ways to relax myself.

Leaving Buffalo

I am at the Buffalo bus terminal. My only night in this city for this trip is now finished. I am getting ready for the long bus trip to Columbus, Ohio. The bus will be pulling out of the station at 10:30AM. Arrival in Columbus, Ohio will occur around 5:30 PM. My time in Buffalo I have enjoyed immensely. I always stay at the same hostel whenever I am in this city. It is located 667 Main Street in an older style building. The interior has loft style ceilings. I enjoy the lounge area on the 2nd floor. This hostel is called Hostel Buffalo Niagara. It costs about $26 a night. I had to pay a percentage online when I booked through Hostelbookers. They don't take bank cards. I had no visa card available to me. The young lady at the hostel was very nice. She let me get settled in before I went off in search of an ATM. There are 2 nearby. The first one wouldn't let me withdraw from a Canadian account. The second one allowed me to do so, but charged a $3 fee.

After I paid for my room I went off in search of vegetables. There is a list of grocery stores in the lobby at the hostel. I was going to search for a Food Co-Operative, but rushed off without bringing the address. In my mind I knew exactly where it was. I was wrong. By the time I got to Elmwood I had forgotten where I was headed. I could not remember if the store I was looking for was on Elmwood or Ellicott. I decided to keep walking north along Elmwood.

Eventually I found a very large grocery store. It was near this co-operative I once visited when in the city last year to help out with Food Not Bombs. Whenever in Buffalo I typically help out with Food Not Bombs. They are a vegan organization which is pro-peace. They give out free food in Lafeyette Square on Saturdays and Mondays at 1PM. 

At the grocery store I bought some pumpkin seeds, garlic, broccoli, and carrots. I came back to the hostel and started doing a stir fry on the gas stove in the hostel kitchen. There were some people I chatted with while cooking. They were from Australia. This was the young woman's first time in the USA. They were heading off to Boston. I was complimented on the scent of my stir fry. I went to bed after cooking dinner.

Before checking at the hostel I rushed over to the local art supply store. I know somebody who works there. This is a store called Hyatt's All Things Creative which is located on Main Street just before Allen. It is only a few blocks north of the hostel. I rushed with my suitcase. I thought the store closed at 5PM. That is only on Saturdays. Monday to Friday they stay open until 6PM. 

My friend was working. He was  helping somebody with amputated arms when I entered the store. I was impressed to see an amputated person buying oil paint. It reminded me of a calendar my old psychiatrist gave me of the art work created by people who paint with their feet or mouth.

I needed to buy a new sketchbook while at the store. A value pack of 2 sketchbooks with grey toned paper for $14.95 was what I settled on. Recycled coffee bags were used to create this paper. A coupon for $5 in coffee included beneath the cellophane. I was told this coupon was for Spot Coffee. This morning I found out that it was not. It is for Starbucks. I need to send it to the art materials manufacturer and they send me an e-code. I also bought some multicultural colored oil pastels at Hyatt's. These are a variety of flesh tones meant to show diverse ethnic groups. These colors should be interesting on grey toned paper. I needed to spend $20 to get my rewards card punched. Hyatt's has a frequent shoppers card. After a number of $20 purchases you get $20 in free art supplies.

The Wayfaring Buckeye Hostel

This month I will be taking a week long voyage to Indianapolis. There will be many stops along the way. One city I will be visiting is Columbus, Ohio. I don't know very much about Columbus other than it being the writer James Thurber's place of residence for most of his life. I will be staying in Columbus for only one evening before I go to Indianapolis. I will be coming back to Columbus for about 8 hours on my way back to Toronto.

The Wayfaring Buckeye Hostel is where I will be staying while in Columbus. I have booked a bunk for less than $30 for 1 evening. This hostel is on a residential street in a former duplex. I have been exploring some of the websites to learn more about where I will be staying. This will help me know what to expect when I arrive in the city. I will be traveling by bus to get to Columbus from Buffalo, New York. When I get into the city I will need to take a bus to get to The Wayfaring Buckeye Hostel. It is not within easy walking distance of the bus stop.

The hostel has many wonderful looking features which will enhance my visit. They offer the free use of bicycles so you can sight see in this manner. I am not sure if I will be doing this. It has been a while since I have rode a bike outdoors. I only use stationary bikes while I am at the gym. In Toronto we have a very congested city. Bicycling is something many people feel safe doing, but I am not one of them. It still seems like a fun idea for those accustomed to bike rides. When I was younger I used to enjoy packing up camping gear and cycling from village to village in the region I grew up in.

The Wayfaring Buckeye Hostel seems like a great for a summer visit. It is an air conditioned facility. Frequently I read reviews of other hostels where people complain about the heat in the summer being an issue. There is a back patio and yard which can accommodate musical performances. There is a fire pit and BBQ which can be used. I might do this while I am there. Veggie dogs might make a wonderful dinner for the evening. There is also a hot tub in the backyard which can be used.

Breakfast is included in the reasonable price they charge. Hostel Reviews I have looked at say the breakfast is cereal, bagels, and cream cheese. As a vegan I imagine this will be adequate for me. I am a vegan and sometimes I need to omit many foods which are provided by different hostels. Cereal and bread products are usually okay for me. These products don't include butter as far as I know. Some hostels have croissants which are very delicious, but not good for a vegan. In the past the hostels I have attended have provided soy milk for cereal. It is not easy to predict what will be provided at a hostel before arriving. Within most hostels there is a kitchen where you can prepare your own food. This hostel includes this as well. It makes it great for travel where you are watching your money. 

There are towels included for free. Many hostels will charge you a couple of dollars for clean towels. There is also a washing machine for people on longer voyages. A book exchange is also onsite.  

Facebook Fan Page

I have created a fan page for this blog on Facebook. In July I will be traveling to a few different cities in the United States. I currently live in Toronto, Canada. I frequently travel to New York State. In July I will be traveling to 3 different American cities. 

My first stop will be in Buffalo, New York. I frequently go to Ordo Templi Orientis events in Buffalo. This is a city I am quite familiar with. 

The next stop will be Columbus, Ohio which I have never visited. I will be staying for only 1 evening in this city. This city is known as the hometown of James Thurber. He is an American writer who I remember from high school. 

The rest of the trip will be spent in Indianapolis for the Left Hand Path Conference. This event was created in 2012 by Jeremy Crow. They took a 1 year hiatus and now it is happening again. This time I will be traveling to Indianapolis to exhibit my visual art in their art show.

Wandering Old Montreal

I spent my time walking around Old Montreal as I was waiting for the bus. The bus terminal is within walking distance of the harbor. I checked out of the hostel at noon. I went straight to the bus station. I still had 3 hours to go. I strolled around. These are some of the photographs I took of this lovely historical region.

Montreal Visit

This week I traveled to Montreal for 1 evening. I was there to pick up my art work from a month long gallery show in the plateau region. This gallery is also a restaurant which features Hungarian Cuisine. They play some Gypsy music on Sunday evenings. This gallery is called Fokus Gallerie. It is on Duluth Avenue just off of St Laurent. St Laurent is a wonderful street to spend time on. There are many interesting shops and various places to get a coffee. 

The plateua is not very far from where I was staying. I arrived at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I came by bus. The tickets I purchased through Megabus. The tickets came to $33 round trip. This trip takes 5 hours from Toronto.  

I checked in to a hostel which I had never stayed at before that night. This hostel was the HI - Montreal Backpackers Hostel. It was more expensive than I had thought. I had signed up at Hostelbookers website. This website is the one I most frequently use to determine lodgings for my travels. This hostel is one of a whole franchise. The price listed on the website was for those who have an HI membership. I didn't and it cost about $30 to stay for one evening. This included a complimentary breakfast of bagels, cereal, fruit, coffee, and orange juice. Hostebookers website is connected to a rewards program. I collect points to redeem for gift cards. There is a site called Mypoints where you are rewarded for shopping online.  Hostelbookers is one of the websites where you can collect points.

In Montreal there are many things to do. This trip was very short. I didn't get an opportunity to do very much. I merely visited the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. I really like this art museum. I went early in the day. It was a Wednesday morning. I had to wait for the museum to open. I took some photographs of the art work outside the museum. There are various sculptures which you can see outside.

Planning For The Future

I have been back in Toronto from my trip to Montreal for a couple of weeks. There will be a return trip to Montreal this April. 

I have been making many plans to travel to Detroit this summer. There are lots of inexpensive plots of land and real estate due to the city going bankrupt. I realize this city has a lot of crime. I am still going to have a look at some of the cheap real estate. I hope to move to Detroit in the coming year. I am looking forward to getting away from Toronto and starting a new life. 

I have noticed that there are activities in Detroit which appeal to me. I am a little bit nervous about the crime rate. I do feel that the lower cost of living might be a good thing for me in the future.

Back From Montreal

I am back in Toronto from my excursion to Montreal. This trip lasted 4 nights. I arrived home on Wednesday evening. It was a 6 hour bus ride back to Toronto. I listened to music on my way back. There are lots of details from my trip that I will be adding today in blog posts. While I was traveling I found that I was generally too busy to make posts about all the activities I took part in.

There were 4 nights spent in Montreal. This was a good time. I made good use of my vacation. I had an art show. I visited the fine art museum. I attended a fundraiser for my grade school classmate's theatre project.

Old Montreal

Yesterday I spent my time wandering Montreal. I visited many shops in Old Montreal. I had some conversations with people in art galleries. I looked at some art work. I visited some shops which sell Inuit art. This was how I spent my morning. I woke up early and began walking south to the old port.

It was about a quarter to 10. I went into a design shop. There was a man sitting there at a desk. I started to talk to him because he noticed me admiring these illustrations of celestial events. He was very enthusiastic about these pictures. He worked in the store and was a man 8 years younger than me. He was an attractive fellow who was quite tall. He talked for quite some time. I found out that he is also a visual artist.

He showed me his art work on the computer. He manually alters photographs with drawing techniques. His art work is from photographs of a freeway structure built during Expo 67. These pictures he had drawn clouds into and darkened different shadows with graphite and other materials.

After I left this store I browsed another one next door. I had been waiting for this store to open because it had many plants. I saw many terraniums with cactuses which I enjoyed. I longed to have one, but know that this is not the time to make that kind of purchase.

I left the store and browsed old Montreal. I visited many shops. There were several art galleries that I visited. I chatted with a girl. She liked my art work, but gave me a few suggetions of ways I could improve it. She works in a gallery which is owned by a Quebec painter. He does all of his art work on black canvases.

I then went to 2 seperate galleries exhibiting Inuit art. I chatted for a long time with a young woman about the work. The second shop wasn`t quite as friendly. They had polar bears rugs. There were many animal rugs with the head attached. There were fur coats and life sized stuffed polar bears. I looked at them for a while before making my way outside.

Gallerie Fokus

I have finished hanging my 3rd solo gallery show. It is in the plateau region of Montreal. I walked over there this morning. It was a 40 minute walk from where I am staying. I hung 19 pieces. I am hoping to sell some of them. It would be nice to make a little bit of money.

This will be a fun trip. I am glad I got this out of the way. Tonight there will be live music. I feel pretty tired right now. I am thinking of taking a nap before I leave.

Depanneur

I am staying in Montreal at a backpacker hostel on Mackay Street. It only cost $19. It is called Auberge LÀpero. I will tell you a little bit about it while I am here to stay. There are many rooms here. The kitchen is upstairs. It is on the Concordia Campus. I was on this street a couple of years ago. This was back when I was a smoker. I was looking to buy a lighter. I was looking for a convenience store, but nobody knew what I meant. I remembered to call it a depanneur and finally had some luck.

This was less than a year from when I quit smoking that I was on this street. I needed to have my cigarette. Now I have given cigarettes up. Nobody thought I could do that, but eventually I proved them wrong. The hostel is across the street from this depanneur. It is quite the memory to recall. The lighter had a skull on it. I lost it soon when I got back to Toronto.

In Montreal

I have arrived in Montreal. I am staying on Mackay Street. This is a new hostel where I have never been. I got here by bus. I left at noon today. It took more than 5 hours to get here. It is a pretty long way from Toronto to get here.

I am here in Montreal. I want you to know that I am here. I am here for 4 nights. I am staying on Mackay Street. I am close to Crescent Street. That is a place to go. I have had my hair cut there when I was 20 years old. They painted my fingernails blue. This memory came up today. My old boyfriend was really angry. He thought a sales person had pushed me into something. He didn`t think it was very good that I had bought something off the street. He thought I was very docile. It didn`t seem very great. My ex-boyfriend was kind of mad, but it turned out to be a good deal. It was a pretty good hair cut. It was in a fancy salon and they gave me a special deal. I wasn`t very good at saying no to things. I did not have a lot of money. This was why my boyfriend was angry. This was many years ago. I walked by that salon today. The memory came up. I remember eating in those restaurants back when I dated Tom. I remember ordering spaghetti carbonara in one of the restaurants there. We got a pitcher of sangria. This was a summer many years ago. That was back when we were happy together.

I know my old boyfriend lives in Montreal. I haven`t spoken to him in years. I went and had the phone cut off when he wanted to come and visit. I had the phone cut off. He wanted to stay with me for a full month. This was after I had broken up with him. You might not want to know why. I was very stressed out by him and him and her and maybe a couple of other people too. I went and had the phone cut off. I thought everyone could go to hell. I was having a solo art show in Toronto in Yorkville at the time.  I wanted to become famous. I thought I`d show them all.

I know my ex-boyfriend lives in Montreal. I saw something today. It drew up another memory. I heard he hosts a jazz night there. My ex-boyfriend hosts a jazz night here in Montreal. I walked by the bar it`s at. I never noticed it before. It`s just around the corner. I never knew it existed. It is a bar called Grumpy`s. I heard that he is there. I know I won`t go into Grumpy`s. I probably won`t see Tom at all. I am a very strange person. I don`t bother with my ex-boyfriends at all. I only have 1 of them on Facebook. There might be one I will talk to on the phone. I don`t really talk to him very much, but I might call him if I need to ask him something.

Beginning New Travels

James Gillray (1756–1815)

 

 

 

 

I am getting ready to do some traveling. I have been in Toronto since the beginning of this year. Soon I will be going to Montreal. In Montreal I will be doing an exhibition of my visual art. This will be exciting. It will be my first solo show in 11 years. Many exciting plans are cropping up. I look forward to the future.

Yesterday I posted an event page on Facebook. This attracted some interesting ideas. I was invited to exhibit my art work for a church called the Gnostic LVX Church. It is located in Hoosick Falls, New York. This is a village which is very small. The doors of this church are opening on Spring Equinox. I will be exhibiting about 30 paintings and drawings. This will be occurring in May. I will get to select a piece of art work produced by children for the child to receive a grant for classes.

Next week I will leave for Montreal some time on Saturday. I will be traveling by bus and staying in a backpacker hostel. I found some amazing deals. I travel by bus frequently. The website I visit to get good offers is www.megabus.com. My backpacker hostel was found at www.hostelbookers.com. This is a great website. I found a hostel for less than $20. I will be staying in Montreal for 4 nights. The entire lodgings are only going to cost $78. That is a great deal. My bus tickets from Toronto will cost about $70 in total. The trip will not be very expensive. I always travel on a shoestring budget. I don't earn a lot of money. I only work part time for a catering company.