Jelly Bean Happy Stay - September 16, 2017
The last time I travelled on my own was 7 years ago. Emma was a newborn and I went down to help out Anna and Neal as best I could. It wasn’t something terribly new for me. Laur and I had driven to St. Catharines from Sudbury and back on many occasions, and I had slept over at the Glausers before – so this did not seem like a big adventure.
But going to Toronto on my own and staying in a motel for two nights and finding my way around the Davisville area, and then getting home again? For me, that’s a really big deal. Yes, I know that I might not always have my hubs to make all the travel plans and to accompany me, and I really need to learn to do things on my own. I guess I’m planning on me “getting that one-way ticket” first.
OK, step number one. Find transportation. There is the Go Service, but it usually involves transferring from the Go Bus to the Go Train – and that is leaving a lot to chance with someone who gets as easily disoriented as I do.
I found an amazing service called Megabus that would take me directly from the St. Catharines bus terminal to the one in Toronto, and then back again (two days later.) And Laur was happy – more than happy – to give me a lift to the station. (And to pick me up too.)
Step number two. Find a place to stay. I went on booking.com and “eegads!” The prices! The cheapest hotel in the area I wanted to be in was over $200 per night…except for this thing called a “homestay.” Jelly Bean Happy Stay (not its real name) was only $40 per night and only a 45-minute walk to the place I would be visiting.
I grant you, not all of the reviews were great. Folks posted things like:
“I paid two nights but slept only one and left the very next early morning.”
“You do have your own room, but the room is so shabby that you feel you live in a shelter.”
“Rooms clumped to each other. Badly soundproofed. All rooms in the basement.”
“Too many rules to follow, rudeness of staff and the fact that I sleep in a house where the owner lives with his whole big, noisy family.”
But I was not expecting nor wanting the Hotel Hilton. (Fortunate that, as it turns out.)
Step number three. Figure out how to get from the Toronto Bus Depot to Davisville. That would be the easiest part. The subway would take me directly – with only a short walk on either side. (Good thing, that. I pack like I’m never returning.)
So, on a Monday morning, off I went. Laur dropped me off at the St. Catharines bus depot and Megabus dropped me off at the Toronto terminal. With help from a friendly lady, I found my way to the subway. With help from a friendly lad, I found my way to my destination.
I am not sure that I could have easily found my way from where I visiting to Jelly Bean Happy Stay but someone insisted on giving me a ride. A good idea to take it. Walking in Toronto in an unfamiliar neighbourhood after dark – naivete only gets you so far.
I told my driver he might be a little shocked at where I was staying. But it didn’t look too too bad from the street. I was greeting by the receptionist, Candy (not her real name), whose office is in the home’s living room. This wide-open space is also her bedroom. Oh my. There were instructions to remove my shoes and I already had, and she led me downstairs to my room in the basement.
The room was minimalist – which I really like. And it was right beside the bathroom, and had I been the only tenant – that would have been perfect. There was a sign on the wall that smoking, drugs, and intoxicants were not permitted – and she gave me my key which was attached to a beer-bottle opener. All right then!
There were four other rooms in the basement – most of them had couples staying in them. So, having the room right beside the bathroom was perhaps not the best location. Thankfully I had brought a fan and earplugs.
But more noticeable to me was the activity overhead. There were a few other units above me, plus the homestay owners’ family of four. This is a small bungalow. I suspect this is the reason for the stress on shoe removal. But I slept not that much worse than I usually do.
The mornings presented the biggest challenge. At 7 am there was a line up of four or five waiting to shower and shave and “toilet.” If you find it difficult to “toilet” under time pressure and to the listening ears of an audience, this might not be the place for you. Having said that, the bathroom was truly clean – though pretty basic.
My biggest chuckle was the promised morning coffee. There was a community kettle that I could fill from the laundry sink, and there was some granulated coffee in a disposable cup sitting on the counter. There were mugs and cups I could grab from the drainboard, with a sign reminding me to wash my own dishes.
The walk to where I was visiting was very pleasant the first time – it turns out I could take the Kay Gardner Beltline Trail for most of it. The second morning, the day I was carrying a full backpack and dragging a suitcase over fine gravel, not so much. I’m grateful to GoodLife for the cardio and strength to do this. And to Mennen speed stick for deodorant.
Now you are likely thinking, why in the world would I pay to stay in a room in a basement in a small bungalow inhabited by likely about 20 people, when the folks I was visiting with were a mere 10-minute drive away?
It’s because the people I was visiting had a one-week old infant. Yes, I was visiting son Tom and daughter in law Julie – and baby Jasper. The Park-Stevens have a one-bedroom apartment and a baby who has no concept that nights are for sleeping.
I was truly delighted by this baby boy during the day – it was a joy to hold him and chat to him and feed him some of his mommy’s milk from a bottle and take him for walks in the stroller. But by 7 pm, I was ready to go to bed with a good book and a few podcasts. Tom and Julie don’t go to bed until 10, and Jazz – he likes to eat, spit up, be burped and be changed 24/7. Listening to 9 people use the bathroom beside me and 10 people shuffle around over top me was bliss by comparison.
Would I stay at Jelly Bean Happy Stay again? Absolutely. For some reason, it feels like a known quantity to me. It feels like something I would run – I can’t stand clutter and I can’t stand under-used space. And when I think more about it, I realize I did run one of these in Sudbury. I had two bed-sits built into our home at 465 Loach’s – with a shared bathroom – and we rented them out at very good prices to university students.
A few major differences. The people who lived over top of them (us) did not take off their shoes before entering, did not speak in low tones, did not keep the noise of the TV and radio down to a minimum. And they had four kids plus their friends, plus a minimum of three dogs and an indeterminate number of cats.
Thankfully, we did not have a review site.
But going to Toronto on my own and staying in a motel for two nights and finding my way around the Davisville area, and then getting home again? For me, that’s a really big deal. Yes, I know that I might not always have my hubs to make all the travel plans and to accompany me, and I really need to learn to do things on my own. I guess I’m planning on me “getting that one-way ticket” first.
OK, step number one. Find transportation. There is the Go Service, but it usually involves transferring from the Go Bus to the Go Train – and that is leaving a lot to chance with someone who gets as easily disoriented as I do.
I found an amazing service called Megabus that would take me directly from the St. Catharines bus terminal to the one in Toronto, and then back again (two days later.) And Laur was happy – more than happy – to give me a lift to the station. (And to pick me up too.)
Step number two. Find a place to stay. I went on booking.com and “eegads!” The prices! The cheapest hotel in the area I wanted to be in was over $200 per night…except for this thing called a “homestay.” Jelly Bean Happy Stay (not its real name) was only $40 per night and only a 45-minute walk to the place I would be visiting.
I grant you, not all of the reviews were great. Folks posted things like:
“I paid two nights but slept only one and left the very next early morning.”
“You do have your own room, but the room is so shabby that you feel you live in a shelter.”
“Rooms clumped to each other. Badly soundproofed. All rooms in the basement.”
“Too many rules to follow, rudeness of staff and the fact that I sleep in a house where the owner lives with his whole big, noisy family.”
But I was not expecting nor wanting the Hotel Hilton. (Fortunate that, as it turns out.)
Step number three. Figure out how to get from the Toronto Bus Depot to Davisville. That would be the easiest part. The subway would take me directly – with only a short walk on either side. (Good thing, that. I pack like I’m never returning.)
So, on a Monday morning, off I went. Laur dropped me off at the St. Catharines bus depot and Megabus dropped me off at the Toronto terminal. With help from a friendly lady, I found my way to the subway. With help from a friendly lad, I found my way to my destination.
I am not sure that I could have easily found my way from where I visiting to Jelly Bean Happy Stay but someone insisted on giving me a ride. A good idea to take it. Walking in Toronto in an unfamiliar neighbourhood after dark – naivete only gets you so far.
I told my driver he might be a little shocked at where I was staying. But it didn’t look too too bad from the street. I was greeting by the receptionist, Candy (not her real name), whose office is in the home’s living room. This wide-open space is also her bedroom. Oh my. There were instructions to remove my shoes and I already had, and she led me downstairs to my room in the basement.
The room was minimalist – which I really like. And it was right beside the bathroom, and had I been the only tenant – that would have been perfect. There was a sign on the wall that smoking, drugs, and intoxicants were not permitted – and she gave me my key which was attached to a beer-bottle opener. All right then!
There were four other rooms in the basement – most of them had couples staying in them. So, having the room right beside the bathroom was perhaps not the best location. Thankfully I had brought a fan and earplugs.
But more noticeable to me was the activity overhead. There were a few other units above me, plus the homestay owners’ family of four. This is a small bungalow. I suspect this is the reason for the stress on shoe removal. But I slept not that much worse than I usually do.
The mornings presented the biggest challenge. At 7 am there was a line up of four or five waiting to shower and shave and “toilet.” If you find it difficult to “toilet” under time pressure and to the listening ears of an audience, this might not be the place for you. Having said that, the bathroom was truly clean – though pretty basic.
My biggest chuckle was the promised morning coffee. There was a community kettle that I could fill from the laundry sink, and there was some granulated coffee in a disposable cup sitting on the counter. There were mugs and cups I could grab from the drainboard, with a sign reminding me to wash my own dishes.
The walk to where I was visiting was very pleasant the first time – it turns out I could take the Kay Gardner Beltline Trail for most of it. The second morning, the day I was carrying a full backpack and dragging a suitcase over fine gravel, not so much. I’m grateful to GoodLife for the cardio and strength to do this. And to Mennen speed stick for deodorant.
Now you are likely thinking, why in the world would I pay to stay in a room in a basement in a small bungalow inhabited by likely about 20 people, when the folks I was visiting with were a mere 10-minute drive away?
It’s because the people I was visiting had a one-week old infant. Yes, I was visiting son Tom and daughter in law Julie – and baby Jasper. The Park-Stevens have a one-bedroom apartment and a baby who has no concept that nights are for sleeping.
I was truly delighted by this baby boy during the day – it was a joy to hold him and chat to him and feed him some of his mommy’s milk from a bottle and take him for walks in the stroller. But by 7 pm, I was ready to go to bed with a good book and a few podcasts. Tom and Julie don’t go to bed until 10, and Jazz – he likes to eat, spit up, be burped and be changed 24/7. Listening to 9 people use the bathroom beside me and 10 people shuffle around over top me was bliss by comparison.
Would I stay at Jelly Bean Happy Stay again? Absolutely. For some reason, it feels like a known quantity to me. It feels like something I would run – I can’t stand clutter and I can’t stand under-used space. And when I think more about it, I realize I did run one of these in Sudbury. I had two bed-sits built into our home at 465 Loach’s – with a shared bathroom – and we rented them out at very good prices to university students.
A few major differences. The people who lived over top of them (us) did not take off their shoes before entering, did not speak in low tones, did not keep the noise of the TV and radio down to a minimum. And they had four kids plus their friends, plus a minimum of three dogs and an indeterminate number of cats.
Thankfully, we did not have a review site.