Canada and Beyond

Aug 24th
Just a quickie to say I’m back. I’m jetlagged up to the eyeballs. Went to bed at 11pm on Mon night and got up at 5.33pm yesterday. My maths skills aren’t up to working out how many hours sleep that is, but it’s a lot! Then I fell asleep at 7am this morning and slept til the afternoon. So now I’m nocturnal.
Journey was long but fine. 8 hours to Glasgow, then a four hour wait for my train which took 4 and a half hours. So it was very very long. Since I’ve been back I’ve only watched one TV prog and that was Emmerdale. I’m determined not to go back to watching every piece of mindless pap that appears before me, but to spend my time in useful pursuits like reading and planning my next step and other stuff like that…
Incidentally, the weather here is terrible! Not that I’ve set foot out of the house all day, but I can see it’s very grey and dreary. I fear for my tan.

Aug 19th/20th
It’s 1.03 am on the morning of my last day in Vancouver. In a jolly mood as I’ve had a lovely day topped off by going to see a very funny film and now have two cans of slightly warm beer waiting for me in the hostel fridge. Film was ‘The 40-year-old Virgin.’ I’ve never seen an audience enjoy a film more, though it’s quite possible some of them were drunk, especially the guy in front of me. Highly recommended despite naff title. The audience applauded at the end which I always think is very sweet as it’s not like anyone can hear.

All the letters have faded off the keyboard so every other letter is a typo. This is making my mood fade rapidly from good to very very bad. I’m in the Korean internet cafe trying to avoid some annoying Japanese git who’s always following me around prattling on about how much he loves lying naked on Wreck (clothing optional) beach and complaining that there aren’t enough things to do naked in Vancouver.

Spent day gawking at cruise ships (there were two ginormous ones today so I didn’t know which way to look) and wandering around the shops trying to spend my wages from last week, as Canadian money is pretty worthless in the UK. Bought various things then left the bag at Starbucks (though later found it). Then lost the book I got out on Hillary’s library card. Think I’ll just leave the country and accidentally forget to tell her. Not really, I wouldn’t do such a thing….!

Went to Whislter for two days. It was breathtakingly beautiful, especially around the golf course. I’m not a big fan of mountains in winter, the snow makes me feel cold. But in spring they’re all green and covered in fir trees and it just makes a person want to frolic around with a herd of goats like Heidi or her from the Sound of Music. Lots of great lungfuls of country air (except on first day which I spent in bed because it was raining). Even put on a bikini, which I haven’t done for years, and sat in the tepid hottub. Got spectacularly lost on way back to the hostel to get bus home. Whole point of staying in this hostel was that it was so convenient, only 15 mins from the village, but still took me an hour and a half to walk home because I went the wrong way. Had a terrifying few minutes of thinking I had no clue where I was but finally bumped into someone I knew who kindly escorted me back to where I was meant to be while I sobbed hysterically with relief.

I have six separate pieces of luggage. On Sunday I will have luggage dragging behind me, hanging from both arms, across my chest and attached to my back. Whilst lugging it back from Hillary’s I was aided by a nice UK expat who put it on the back of his bike and pedalled it to the station for me while I walked his dog (though I have to say I wasn’t chuffed at having to pick up it’s strangely green poo).

Was briefly panic-stricken today when I realised the airline hadn’t sent me my ticket. But it’s all ticketless travel these days so turns out I just print it out myself from the internet. The potential for me to forget to do this is pretty huge.

Just been reading other people's blogs from across the internet and some of them really get on my wick. Why does everyone have to be so worthy and pretentious, having great big long monologues about why they travel, what prompts ... [Continue reading this entry]

4th day of mini-vacation in Whistler, posh ski-resort 2 hours out of Vancouver. Too tired to get out of bed at check-out time this morning and thought I heard someone barfing in the girl's bathroom next door, so a good excuse ... [Continue reading this entry]