Westdale Is Actually Worth The Trip!

In Hamilton, about a 15 minute walk from the University, is a little village called Westdale. It reminds me of downtown Charlottetown, the way the one street is lined with shops and cafes and such. I've been there a few times, mostly only to the bubble tea and the walk-in but never really took the time to have a good look around. Wasn't really meaning to today either, I had just meant to go to the bank and then take a bus to Limeridge but as I was taking my time getting there and also signed up for a library card on the way (the library is quite nice, though rather small), I missed the bank by 1/2 an hour. So then, waiting for the bus, I realized that the mall closed in two hours anyways so there would be no point considering it takes an hour to get there, I decided to keep walking down.

If you go past the Tim Horton's and the TD, sort of across the street from The Barn, there is a sweet little bookshop called "The Westdale Bookworm". Almost every available space is stacked with tons and tons of books. Used, but in excellent condition. The kind of place you can spend hours in just browsing, and you can't feel guilty about buying a lot because all of the books are 50% off original price or less. The owner is really nice too. I don't remember her name, but she loves the place though it keeps her very busy and she doesn't mind chatting at all. Plus she will even give you a bit of candy with your purchase, as well as a generous supply of bookmarks :) So if you're looking for a good book and a good time, be sure to go there. Definitely worth the longer walk.

Heading back, sort of across the street from the Walk-In (which is right beside QQ's), is a place I don't exactly remember what it's called but on the outside it advertises gift baskets. I went in to check it out and see what it was about, and it turned out to be this really neat place full of fair trade goods and things from around the world. Definitely recommend their chocolate, and the coffee you can order smelled nice and rich too. If you go, be sure to check out their assortment of buttons. They've got an interesting collection of buttons with slogans that you'd actually want to be carting around with. The chocolate that I had was the Equita fair trade dark chocolate with Earl Grey Tea leaves which sounded kind of odd but was actually pretty good and came recommended by the person who was working there. Ever have chocolate-covered coffee beans? Reminds me of those, but like crushed and in a chocolate bar, and also with tea rather than coffee. Doesn't sound too appealing but try it; you won't regret it. For $3 per 45 g it's kind of pricey but when you think of all the good you're doing in the world by your support, it's not a waste of your money at all. Way better than buying a cheap generic one, and the quality is so much better anyways.

Then there's this other shop called "Write Impressions" which is across the street sideways from the little plaza with the old movie theatre (the one that looks like the ones that you see in the actual movies). It's one of those fancy overpriced stores but it has a lot of great paper. I was going to buy this little cosmetic bag because it had great saying on the back and was only $10 but since I don't really have a use of it I guess it's a good thing that I'd forgotten, though I would've like to support the company. It was a really neat thing to do. Anyways, a word of advice for when you're there: always check the price - never guess. I was about to buy this small candle (I kind of ruined my other one; another story for another time) but when I looked underneath for the price it was $12.99 for a candle a little bigger than a shot glass! Ridiculous. But a nice place anyways.

I went to quite a few other places and there were a still quite a few more that I had wanted to go to but it was late and a Saturday and most places were closed and I'm not going to write a review on every single one. But I totally change my mind about how there's nothing to do in Hamilton - you can shop!