Canada, eh

Well we made it to Canada on time. For the first 5 days we stayed at a Kiwi couple's apartment in the West End of Vancouver. Initially we were only staying 2 to 3 days but Tim and Fern went away for the weekend and said we could stay at their place. Good old Kiwi hospitality again. Fern is a chef at the Vancouver Aquarium and she got us on the guest list, so we got in for free. It was very cool with Beluga whales, dolphins, sea otters and heaps of other weird fish.



After seeing the sea otters, I really want one for a pet. Just watching them made you laugh as they played around in the water, beating each other up or lying lazily on their backs. At one stage a couple looked like they were having a real scrap but then I realised it was a little more amorous than that.

We met up with Claire from camp for lunch one day. She was staying with a friend in Vancouver. We went out with her and her friends on the Saturday night too. I had a little too much to drink and can't remember half the night. After getting up worse for wear the next day, Tim and Jess departed for Big White in the van and left me in Vancouver, officially ending the road trip. I moved to the HI Central Hostel in Vancouver and am using that as my base at the moment. On the second night, a Monday, there we had a Pub Crawl which was a good way to meet a whole bunch of new people.



On the Tuesday night I went to an NHL (professional ice hockey)presason game between the Vancouver Canucks and the San Jose Sharks which was cool but unfortunately the Canucks lost 2-0, however it was cool being there for the atmosphere. Canadians are so die hard into their hockey. I then went for a few drinks with a Kiwi girl (Abi) and a couple of German girls (Kathrin and Katey). After several nights out I noticed how bad my wallet was looking. Booze in Canada is so much more expensive than the States and even back home. A six pack of the most common beer costs C$11.

Due to my diminishing funds I decided to do some free stuff. One day I went walking around Stanley Park along the sea wall which is 15kms long. I walked in my jandals and ended up getting blisters. The next day I thought it would be good to walk to Grouse Mountain on the other side of the harbour. I thought it was probably an hours walk but after 3½ hours I finally got there. The gondola up is C$30 so I decided to do the notorious Grouse Grind. All the tourist books I read said don't do it unless you're really fit. I thought I was but found out how wrong I was. It is a 3km natural stairmaster basically, straight up the side of the hill with several thousands steps. Really fit people use it for training. I was passed by about 20 people. Eventually after 1hr13min I made it to the top in a sweating, sore-bum-muscles, about-to-have-a-heart-attack heap. The fastest time for the day was 37 minutes. This year's record for a woman 60-70yrs is 1hr6min. But when I got to the top the view was worth it. I got there just before sunset so got to watch the lights come on in Vancouver. It was very pretty as the sky turned all shades of red.



For the weekend I took a tour up to Whistler. It is a very pretty and modern resort but it is really expensive to do anything and it'll get more that way too because the winter Olympics are being held there in 2010. Whistler is essentially another state of Australia too. The Aussies are everywhere. For the 4 days there I just hung out with a Kiwi (Louise), a Aussie (Meridee) and an English couple (Martin and Jennie) and we just mucked around. The Saturday and Sunday weren't too nice so we spent some time playing boardgames inside.



One night we had a spa and the next we had a sauna which was really nice in the cold weather. After coming back to Vancouver I again went out on the Monday night pub crawl but the rest of this week I have taken pretty casually.

This weekend I am heading on another 4 day tour but this time to Vancouver Island. When I get back next week I am planning on heading inland towards the Rockies since I've nearly been here 3 weeks. How and where I'm going I have no idea but hopefully I'll sort something out.

Well I'm up to date at last. Only 6 weeks left in Canada and then off to Peru for my 13 week South America trip. I'll try to be more frequent with the info. Catchyas.