Back in Vancouver!

MP3 track of the day - Lose yourself - Eminem

Weather - It's hot, hot in the city, hot in the city tonight

Again, due to traffic outside my window, I woke up quite early and got prepared to leave Victoria. First I had to return the bike I had rented yesterday and also I needed to get some seasick tablets for the ferry journey I was going to take today.

All went well and I was back at the hostel eating my breakfast around 9:30am. I did one final check around the hostel to see if Rosy was up (so I could say goodbye again) but alas, she wasn't, and then I left, with a little bit of food, (took me' chunks with me!) and headed out for the 10:45 to Vancouver City.

Apart from the enormous queue to get my ticket (why, oh why, when the queue is going out the door don't shops and service providers open all desks ... we had one bloke to serve all of us. Maybe companies think people like lining up in an endless queue for years on end, I don't know) all went well. Boarding the bus I took two seasick tables and got ready for the ferry.

Now these seasick tables don't say on them 'none drowsy' and I'm glad as I would have sued the company under the trade descriptions act ... I almost fell asleep on the coach (and the ferry) after taking these tablets ... they seem to be a little strong however, if I end up in another hostel with someone who snores, I think I've found a cure.

Once docked on mainland Canada, it didn't take long before we got to the bus station in Vancouver. It's funny to think I was last here over a month ago, but I still remember where to go to get into town and find the HI hostel (which seems to be on fire, it's so hot in here!).

I got in the hostel, locked my bags up and went for a long and beautiful shower. After this I just wandered around the same streets I had been to a month ago (I saw the swinging pendulum in the HSBC bank and I also thought about topping up my 'ying' and 'yang' ... but decided against it).

Tomorrow I haven't got a clue what I'm going to do; I will probably leave around 4pm for the 8:35pm flight back to blighty, so during the day I may just write a sum up of my trip on here ... don't really fancy going out just because of the sake of it, or else I'll end up spending money. Oh talking of money, my final average daily budget check has gone up again to £64.06 ... nearly £15.00 per day over my predicted amount.

doh!

Toodle Pip!

Mouse and cake

MP3 track of the day - Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

Weather: Perfect weather; sunny but not too hot ... brilliant

Before I start ... LEWIS HAMILTON WINS IN CANADA AND IS TOP OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP ... COME ON!

Anyway the start of the day didn't go that well. Last night I was talking to an English couple who had been to India and Thailand; they told me that they had a mouse in their room and I was glad I didn't ... I spoke too soon.

After getting up this morning, having a shower and generally getting ready for the day I decided to make my bed. My bed has two blankets which, when I originally put them on my bed, had a little area where they over lapped. Under this I had put my 'sheet sleeping bag' because there was no sheet to separate me from the blankets (and it was a good job I did). Anyway, I pulled the top blanket away from where it over lapped with the lower blanket to find a baby mouse snugly asleep. Now it was actually quite cute (reminded me of my brothers two mice, 'Chip' and 'Pin', but we won't go into the story of their fate) but I don't remember putting a mouse there last night. Anyway I gathered up the blanket and took it, at arms length, to the front door.

Have you seen the scene in 'Faulty Towers' where Basil carries a bin at arms length ... this was similar but a blanket instead of a bin. As I went passed reception the lady asked if anything was wrong to which I replied "... it depends on what you mean by wrong. There is a mouse in here and I'm taking him outside..."

As I got to the door I christened the mouse 'Toby' and wished him the best of luck as I launched him into a 'free falling air dive' out the door. Coming back in the woman was very apologetic and it seemed like 'Def con 1' had been activated with all the traps being laid down. The traps in Canada are different to the UK; here they have, what seems like, sticky tape with nuts attached. I didn't think it was very humane, the poor little thing would get it's feet stuck on the tape ... but then I remembered the UK method of the great big, spring held, metal chopper and thought the Canadian method was probably better. The lady then said it was the spring season and it's around this time when mice have hundreds of babies ... which was reassuring (the Canadians do have this unfortunate tendency to always tell the truth). I then spoke to some other hostel mates who said they too had a mouse and it appeared that, within this hostel, there is a 'IMH' (International Mouse Hostel) as each room had it's own 'mouse tenant'.

After this I checked all my bags, the floor and my food. Luckily, because I can't be bothered to cook, all my food is well packaged and there were no bite marks in any of the plastic bags my food was in ... so I then moved it to higher ground.

The whole episode reminded me of an article I read within my 'Backpackers Bile' book where, within the 'budget chapter' this guy was saying he was looking around a hostel in Asia when he noticed tarantulas hanging from the celling ... however he was on a budget so he had to stay there. Okay I can cope with mice ... but I draw the line at tarantulas.

It was only 9:45am by now and I was going to meet Kristoff at the Skytram station at 10:00am. Kristoff is a Canadian I had met on the Greyhound from Winnipeg to Calgary and we chatted on Facebook and decided we would go to the 'Granville Island Market' together today. However I waited at the station for around 40 minutes but no sign; I'm not sure if my phone is working properly for receiving and making calls so, even though I had his cell phone (mobile phone) number, I couldn't call him.

After 40 minutes I decided to go off on my own ... maybe I'll see him at the market (plus there was this homeless bloke who looked like he was on drugs and he was swearing and kicking things within the station ... think I prefer the mouse, Toby).

It took me a while to get to the 'Granville Island Market' but it was worth it; there was lots to look at, touch and smell and I just wandered in between all the stalls. However everything was expensive (in a market!) but it was getting near lunch time and so I bought a big slice of pizza for $4.50 (£3.00).

Now, when I was in Banff, Rosie (the cyclist) and I had been on a quest for cake. I hadn't really thought about cake before I met Rosie but ever since I had been on the lookout for it and, when I was in the market, I found this cake stall with all these beautiful cakes at a really expensive price ($4.25 each). However I still purchased a slice of 'New York style chocolate cheesecake' which was actually nicer to look at than to eat, but it filled a whole (Canadians can't do cake).

After this I headed for a walk along a couple of the beaches (Sunset and English Bay Beaches). It was lovely as loads of people were out enjoying the sun, playing football, beach ball and there were musicians playing different styles of music all the way along the beach's ... it was lovely. Vancouver has really come to me and this display of 'small community gathering' in such a big city was very pleasing to see.

Once I had finished walking along the beaches I headed, once more, along the beautiful harbour front walk to downtown Vancouver, to go up the Vancouver tower. It was okay (met a girl working there from Nottingham), the sights from such a clear day were good but the actual reason I bought a ticket was to return tonight (it's a day pass ticket) so I can see Vancouver at night ... the tower stays open until 10:30pm so no problem there.

I'm back at the hostel now but not for long. I'm going to read the last ten pages of my book before heading back into town to post it home, purchase another book, have tea (don't fancy cooking here with Toby's family around ... somewhere) and then go back up the tower for my final attraction of this part of the tour. I shall then head back to the hostel, do a mouse sweep and try to get some sleep.

So here ends part two of my tour of North America; I call it 'the race to the west'. I've had a great time and I look forward to heading into the USA and up to Alaska.

Toodle Pip!

P.S. Did I mention that LEWIS HAMILTON WON IN CANADA!!!

4D - home experience packs

MP3 track of the day - Sunny afternoon - The Kinks

Weather: hot, very hot with a very strong sun (however I didn't need any sun cream ... maybe I'm used to the sun)

Today I decided to go to Vancouver's Aquarium, west Canada's most popular attraction. The aquarium is located in the middle of Stanley Park; stepping outside of my hostel the weather was beautiful, which was a slight problem as I thought the aquarium might be packed (being a Saturday) ... but with the weather so good maybe the Canadians might spend their time in the park instead.

I decided to walk along the harbour footpath as the walk is quite beautiful and I'll save money in regards to the bus fair. I also missed a few photo opportunities, along the harbour front yesterday, and so I wanted to get these done.

I stopped within the park to have a drink of water and a chocolate bar before entering the aquarium. Yet again I managed to blag the student rate (after the guy asked me what university I went to and a lectures name) which was great as it saved me $5.00. The aquarium itself was good; I saw beluga whales, dolphins, sharks, sea turtles, sea otters (brilliant) and a host of other things however I didn't think it was worth the full adult fair of $22.00 (£15.00). The aquarium was indeed packed ... packed full of children (shouting, crying, running and getting in my way!), where do they all come from?

I saw fish and reptiles from the tropic zone, the British Columbia coast and Canada's arctic. About halfway around there was a '4D cinema' ... '4D', never herd of that. The cinema's was showing a nature programme of some sort and the price was covered within my admission ticket. Just like Macaulay Culkin (in Home Alone) I decided to 'give it a whirl' .

Once sat down I found out three things; firstly '4D' referred to a '3D' film with additional special effects (more on that later), secondly the programme we would be watching was the 'Planet Earth - Shallow Shores' episode which I owned, and had seen, at home. Finally the third thing was that this was only a 15 minute showing and so the episode had been shortened to meet the North American peoples concentration span.

I was a bit gutted I had wasted my time to see something I owned at home; however, on the flip-side, I was proud to see a BBC documentary being viewed in a North American cinema and I was looking forward to seeing the animals in 3D.

Now the '4th D' were special effects to 'emerge the audience' into the film. They included a spray of water (done when a creature created a splash on the screen), bubbles when we were watching an underwater scene and, for some reason I still cannot understand, a poke in the back from the chair when a water snake came on the screen.

As you can imagine, having water sprayed into your face, bubbles floating around and being poked by what felt like a big stick was very off putting and the novelty soon wore off. However the North Americans loved it and even clapped at the end of the programme (I know comedy is terrible over here, but this is ridiculous).

I left the cinema, on the one had annoyed that I had wasted my time, and secondly with a great new idea. I called it the '4D home experience pack'; for $30.00 (£20.00 in real money) you get a big stick, a bottle of water hair dressers use and a bottle of bubbles and a blowing stick thing. The instructions are perfectly simple; sit down to watch your favourite film and get someone else to join you, who isn't bothered about seeing the film; it is there job to squirt water in your face, poke you with a stick and blow bubbles to obscure your view and bingo ... 'the 4th D experience, in your own home'.

Then I thought further; what if you don't have someone who could do the '4th D experience for you'? Well I solved this by adding the option of hiring a professional 'cretin' to do it for you. I could even create a new degree ...

Person one: "... so what degree do you have?..."

Person two: "... I got a first BA (Hons) degree in how to be utterly annoying whilst someone else is trying to watch a film..."

After this 'experience' I went outside to see the Dolphins and the Beluga whales before visiting the frog exhibition and heading out feeling the same feeling as I did when I visited Calgary Zoo. Should we really cage these animals up? Some signs were encouraging; they said that "... the specie in this tank is endangered and that the aquarium is delighted to inform you that the male and female had just given birth to a healthy set of fish. Hopefully once the numbers were back up some could be released back into the wild..."

However the cage for the Belugas wasn't that big and you still had idiotic people taking photos of anything and everything, mainly using there flash (which can't be nice for the animals). I didn't take any photos but if you want to see more about the aquarium, click here.

It was 1:30pm and lunch time as I left the aquarium. I did hope that the aquarium would be a little larger and that it would take me a little longer to look at everything. I found the hot dog stand I located yesterday and purchased 'the big one' (I had also brought some crisps and a bottle of water with me).

At 2pm I headed back into the city, again walking down the harbour path. This part of the city has grown on me and its very beautiful. It was 3pm when I arrived in the city centre and I hate that time; it's too late to really start anything new (as loads of stuff closes at 5pm) but it's too early to go back to the hostel.

I read my guidebook and decided to get some shopping and then head back to the hostel. As I went shopping I decided to do something I have been putting off ... I purchased an American Hershey's milk chocolate bar just to see what it tasted like. Allot of people have told me that Hershey's chocolate tastes vial; waaay to sweet with a horrible after taste. However the bar was okay; no way near as good as Cadburys or Nestle but eatable.

I'm back now and it's 6pm; I'm going to catch up on my uploading of photos, check out today's F1 qualifying and cook tea (bought another stew meal, same make as the ones I had in Jasper). Not bad on the cash front today, $47.00 spent.

Tomorrow I'm planning on going to Granville Island as there is supposed to be a market, then a walk along a couple of beaches and that's it. If the weathers good I may take my book with me to finish reading it either on the beach or in the park (though then I would have to post it home and buy another book ... more money). Hopefully if I get back in good time I may also be able to catch the Canadian F1 ... mum I hope you are recording all of the races?

Toodle Pip!

P.S. I emailed Seattle about a Baseball (rounders) game and it looks like I'm going to miss it as the only game soon is Friday night, and I fly to Alaska Friday afternoon ... nooooo. I really, really wanted to catch some American spot but I arrived too late for the ice hockey season and now I'll miss the rounders. When I'm about to travel home from Vancouver I might have to make a special trip to Seattle.

P.P.S. the World Cup has started. In Canada there are loads and loads of England shirts being worn and England flags flying ... I always liked the Canadians.

P.P.P.S. LEWIS HAMILTON IS ON POLE AT THE CANADIAN GP! COME ON!

P.P.P.P.S. If you haven't seen the Planet Earth Series buy it (click here). It is a superb outlook on the wild life of our planet. The last disk is three, one hour debates about what is happening. Don't be put off by the talking it's worth it ... oh and remember, before watching it make sure you purchase your '4th D' home experience pack.

Park Life

MP3 track of the day - Park Life - Blur

Weather: sunny and cloudy to start with, however clearing late afternoon to be perfect (Just like the BBC weather said).

My first job today was to extend my stay here at this hostel for a further three days; there is lots to do here and I liked the hostel. However when the woman said that it was $26.25 a night I queried this as I had paid $20.00 previously on 'hostels.com'. She seemed to get a little 'upperty' but accepted the amount and booked me in. She was nice to me when I arrived so I hope I didn't upset her ... still we are talking about $18.75 here and I'm on a budget. I then booked my hostel in Seattle and emailed them to see if they had any information about me being able to catch a baseball (rounders) game whilst I'm visiting.

I headed out early towards Stanley Park; now it appears that the harder you try to save money, the more you spend. Firstly I had to get some cash out of the bank (missing that pendulum again) and then I realised I didn't have any change. I had gone passed loads of corner shops that I could have purchased a cheap bottle of pop in, however I though I would wait until I had located my bus stop to the park, as there was bound to be a cheap newsagents there ... no. There was a bakery thing and they charged me $2.35 for a bottle of pop (it must be the most expensive bottle of pop in the world!) however I now had change for the bus and so I hopped on ... $5.00 already spent.

My first objective was to walk around the whole of Stanley Park; this was no mean feat as the 'riverside path' was round 10km long. During my walk I took a few photos, eat chocolate and actually, towards the end, got lost and ended up on 'English Bay Beach' (which was very nice, just not where I wanted to be).

Once back where I had started I then hunted for food. Now my original plan was to stop at one of the many 'hot dog' stalls along the riverside path and pay around $5.00 for lunch; however there weren't any, not one, zip ... nothing. I therefore found a map and tried to located eating places, however I only found four restaurants marked. I decided to give a the 'Bar and Grill' a whirl as I was pretty hungry by now and it was the closest.

Looking at the prices within the restaurant my face dropped; it looked like I wasn't got to get much change out of a $20.00 note, but what choice did I have ... walk the 40 minutes back into town ... I don't think so. I therefore sat down and ordered the 'Angus burger with bacon and cheese' with fries on the side ... oh and a coke.

Actually it was really good; the burger was a proper burger with bacon, cheese and lettuce. Still I was right and it cost me $20.00. I therefore decided that after this big lunch, I would have a snack for tea and re-coupe some cash ($25.00 spent).

After a 5 minute walk I went passed the aquarium I am going to visit tomorrow only to find a 'hot dog' stand there as well .... nooooooo! My 'ying' and my 'yang' must be waay out of kilter. Anyway I decided to put this down to experience and to remember the 'hot dog' stand for tomorrow.

It was early afternoon and I decided now to concentrate on the inner parts of the park. I had done the riverside path and to be honest, it wasn't really worth it ... no great views to be had. I therefore went in search for the 'totem-pole free exhibition' where I took a few photos and tried to pick out the features taught to me at my lecture yesterday at the university. I then headed into the park to walk around some of the biggest 'red wood' trees within the park (they are huge) before heading to Beaver Lake.

Funnily enough I didn't see any beavers, however I did see a few racoon's and some ducklings. I also met a Scottish couple and a couple from Northumbria; both were very pleasant even if they weren't from the midlands!

The day was getting on and I had covered allot of Stanley Park; I therefore decided to walk back into downtown Vancouver along the waterfront. Now my impression of Vancouver, up until now, was that it was pretty grim with loads and loads of homeless people (they are everywhere ... one asked me for my half drunken bottle of pop ... what the most expensive bottle of pop in the world ... no way) everywhere. Also the public transport here is run by electricity (very commendable) which means that there are cables in the sky over every road (making nice photos of the city impossible). However I had now found a very pleasant part of the city (be it quite small) and so I walked along the harbour front and took some photos (the harbour front still isn't as nice as Halifax's).

Finally I went to the store I got the wicked deal on chocolate yesterday to purchase more breakfast bars (as I had run out) and tea for tonight. This lot cost me round $6.00 and, as a bonus, there was a 'Coke' van outside handing out free bottles of promotional Coke ('ying and 'yang' back on form) and so I got one.

Back at the hostel I turned on my netbook to update my blog, upload my photos etc only to find that 'Mr Gates' and 'Mr Norton' had other plans. After 3 hours of the 'hour glass thing', restarting and generally shouting 'work you &*£$"!' the netbook is finally working correctly. Therefore I'm sorry if this blog seems a little rushed as it's getting late, stuff to do and I've got a oriental chatting into my ear about something.

Toodle Pip

The importance of balancing your 'ying' and your 'yang'

MP3 track of the day: Singing in the rain - Gene Kelly

Weather: Rain, rain and ... err ... more rain (until 6pm)

I've decided to stay in Vancouver another 3 days as I've got quite a few days to burn before my flight to Alaska; there seems to be plenty to do here (even though Vancouver looks a little run down) and the hostel is cheap and nice. This meant that I could take my time around the city which was good, as the day started with heavy rain and so I decided to stay in and check somethings on the internet (weather for one) until around 1:00pm when I decided to head out into the rain.

As my new camera memory cards didn't have any cases I have been asking (when I find one) camera shops if they sell the plastic camera card cases, and today was no different. I found a camera shop in town and asked there, however he said no ... but then he went behind his counter and gave me two that were lying around for free ... bonus, job done!

As it was raining I decided to head to the museum of Anthropology, located out of town on the 'University of British Columbia' campus. This required 2 buses to get there and all my navigational skills to get around, what appeared to be, the largest campus in the world.

I hate university campus areas, they are full of students doing student things like talking about rubbish in big groups, skateboarding around like its 'cool' and trying to withdraw $3.75 from an ATM.

When I arrived at the museum it seemed pretty good, however my trip there had taken longer than I expected leaving me only two hours to do the museum and the Japanese garden next door. I managed to blag student rate at the museum and got in there just in time for a free hour long tour. The tour leader had to be a lecturer from the university because she was very knowledgeable and she kept saying "... what I find fascinating about this piece is..."

She went through the main gallery there were wooden totem-poles from the first nations American west coast peoples. She explained the differences and it was all very interesting. Most of the tour was focused on this part; we did venture into a collection of ceramic plates donated by a bloke from the Czech Republic (Koerner) who fled to Canada at the start of WW2. Now, if I was fleeing Nazi occupied Europe, the last thing I would remember to pack would be my collections of tea sets ... each to their own I suppose.

We then stopped at a new exhibition called 'border control'. The museum had commissioned certain artists to create a piece about 'borders'; the idea was that these borders keep people apart and can also mean the difference between a rich healthy life, or a poor short life ... and the art was meant to reflect that. It was very clear that some 'artists' either mis-read the memo, or just didn't get it (I mean, how can 6 jugs placed in a circle have anything to do with borders ... I would get the museum to ask for their money back). The one that the lecture pointed out was this piece of hundreds of 'paper boats' (actually made out of plastic) that were located through out the gallery (attached to the ceiling) and met at one point to carry onto the end of the gallery together (supposed to symbol two rivers meeting). The bit she found 'fascinating' was the, and I quote, "... the childish simplicity of the piece..." I thought yeah, that's because a child could have done this and I bet it would have been allot cheaper.

We finished off at the museums pride and joy ' The Raven and the Beast'; a replica piece about the story of how humans first entered the world, within the eyes of the first nations peoples, it was pretty impressive. I didn't take any photos within the museum but you can find images of what I saw there here.

After the tour I headed back to the main gallery to have a last look at the totem-poles of the north-west American first peoples before heading out to the Japanese gardens.

Unfortunately they closed at 5pm and it was 4:30pm when I got there. Some 'student' was sat within the kiosk and explained to me that he liked to make sure everyone was out 20 minutes before closing (flaming students ... even when they have a job they can't be bothered to work the full time) and that he reckoned to get 'inner peace' I would need an hour at least within the garden. I wasn't really that bothered about 'inner peace' (though when he said this I fully expected to see 20 students within the garden high on pot, and I looked over the walls to see if I could see the smoke) I was more bothered about the $6.00 entry fee for 30 minutes. To add even more insult to injury, my guidebook states even though this is the best example of a Japanese garden, outside Japan, anywhere in the world, it didn't actually use any Japanese plants (how lame is that? Another 'student' half attempt of making money). I decide that, as I'm planning on going to Japan, I'll see a garden there and I headed off.

There was only one problem with the above and that was that my 'ying' and 'yang' were out of balance; I had been to a Chinese garden and so my 'ying' was fully charged but I hadn't been to Japanese garden making my 'yang' low on juice. I therefore decided to walk around the Japanese garden (actually I was trying to see if I could peek in) stopping at each corner to turn 360 degrees anti-clockwise whilst humming 'Kum-ba-yah' to make sure I had an even balance of 'ying' and 'yang'.

Once this was done I set to getting back to town and once back, I found a 'London Drugs' store which I went in and found my favourite biscuits on offer and chocolate at 5 bars for $4.00 ... I bought both of these and a bottle of water getting some great deals ... my 'ying' and 'yang' were working well. The girl at the counter served me as if the building was on fire. She was in such a rush that I was just about to suggest that her 'ying' might be a little too high when she started to serve another person.

After this it was around 5:30pm and I had about 30 minutes to kill before I wanted to go for tea, and so I headed to the waterfront again and read my guidebook. After this I went for a Chinese (not too worried about overpowering my 'ying' as food doesn't count) and then headed back to my hostel.

Well tonight I plan to get a good nights sleep as my 'ying' and 'yang' had told me tomorrow would be a good day weather-wise (actually that's a lie ... BBC weather said tomorrow would be good) and I want to go to Stanley Park.

Today I've spent £38.00 ($20.00 on my hostel, $5.00 on transport, $12.00 on the museum, $10.00 on shopping and $9.00 on tea) which is much better ... hopefully tomorrow will be even cheaper.

Toodle Pip!

P.S. What's that Chinese thing where energy flows through the house and if you have your four-poster double bed pointing east, under a roof beam, without a pair of pink slippers (toe's together to form 'v') pointing west ... you wake up every third Monday with a really bad headache and bad karma.

P.S. I haven't been drinking, or taking any drugs or participated in anything illegal in regards to the 'ying' and 'yang' ... I've just lost the plot that's all.

P.S.S. Being thoroughly bored of rubbish American humor (only us Brits can do proper comedy) I went onto Utube and found this ... it's very funny

From the east to the west

9th June 2010

MP3 track of the day: When you were young - Killers

Weather: Very overcast but hot at the same time.

My hostel is really nice, what's more there is only two of us currently within my dorm (and he doesn't snore, and he's tidy) and therefore I got a really good nights sleep.

After getting ready I sat down with my netbook to look up my 'MP3 player manual' off the internet, to see if I can fix it. For the final time I plugged in my MP3 player into the mains, in the vain hope, that it will charge and come back to life ... and it did, few ... saved me bit of money.

I continued to go on my netbook until around 2pm. After this I headed out; I had to do a bit of shopping...

• 1x bottle of shampoo


• 1x tube of toothpaste


• 1x set of earphones (as mine were broken)


• 3x 4GB camera memory cards

Thinking in British prices, I reckon this lot should cost me around £35.00 / £40.00. I went to get some cash out of a bank, HSBC, which had this huge swinging pendulum going straight across the entrance hall ... I waiting for it to swing passed me before running across ... just encase it fell. As I left the bank (missing the pendulum once more) three Canadian policemen stormed the building straight past me ... I thought 'ummm ... someones in a spot of bother'

£50.00!!! £50.00 for my shopping (and I only purchased 2 instead of 3x 4GB camera memory cards). Well there goes my daily budget; after shopping I went back to my hostel to make sure the earphones and camera memory cards worked correctly and then headed out again to do a little bit of sightseeing. Having spent a fortune (when I was trying to use my Vancouver stay to knock down my daily budget) I decided to do some 'free' sightseeing. I first went to 'Dr Sun Yat-Sen Garden'. Situated in China town it's a Chinese garden; the garden is split into two sections, one that is $15.00 (£10.00) and one that is free. As I'm going to China next year I decided to stick to the free garden and take a couple of photos.

After this I headed to the harbour where I walked along the 'Canada Place'; a building that was designed in the style of a boat. It was a little emotional; I stood there looking into Vancouver harbour realising that I had crossed the mainland of the 2nd largest country in the world. From Halifax to Vancouver I had stopped off at thirteen places, walked on glaciers, seen walled medieval cities and taken stupidly long coach trips but I had done it; I have to say that the harbour at Halifax is much, much nicer ... however the comparison is a little unfair as Vancouver harbour is one of the busiest within north America.

Walking back along 'Canada Palace', on the floor, there were the names of all the major places within Canada in location order. I therefore took a photo of all the places I had visited (and some I hope to visit later on); lots of people thought I was bonkers as I was running around, looking at the harbour floor, taking photos.

After this I headed into 'Gastown'; the oldest part of Vancouver and quite seedy. However there is the worlds only 'gas powered clock' located there which, on the hour, whistled the Westminster 'Big Ben' tune ... which was highly comical.

Finally I went into a food court for tea (pizza) and then headed back to my hostel. First job was to wash some more laundry; as I was stood there, one eye raised over my book watching the washing machine take off, some guy asked me how does the washing machine work? How ironic; however being a 'laundry veteran' of three washes I then explained the fine arts of the 'washing machine' and told him that this machine had no 'google' either.

For rest of the night I planned to update my blog and look at my photos ... however Bill Gates had other plans as he sent through the biggest update known to man, which froze my netook. I therefore let the update run ... cursed Billy a few times ... and went to bed.

Tomorrow will be another lazy day and, depending on weather, I will either go to the park or the museum ... or something cheap.

Toodle Pip!

Fire Torpedo one!

8th June 2010

MP3 track of the day: none - my MP3 player seems to be broken (more on this later).



Weather: Sunny, dry and cool ... perfect

I woke up rather early this morning and I decided that, instead of trying to get back to sleep in the 'pig sty' of a dorm I was staying in, I would pack up my stuff and a wait my coach at the bus station.

First thing I did was to put my MP3 player on charge (as it had ran out of juice yesterday) for the journey and then start to get ready. As I looked near my bag with my camera in it I noticed a puddle of liquid, which the source seems to have started with a cup my moron of a dorm mate had knocked over. Panic over took and (as both my camera and my netbook were in the bag) I moved my bags out of the way and checked that the outside of the bags were dry ... they were.

Once ready I picked up my MP3 player only to notice that the screen had gone black. When charging usually there was a battery with the word 'charging' flashing, however nothing. I played around with it to see if it was a loose connection ... nothing. So I put it in my pocket and headed off to the bus station.

I was glad to have left the 'Samesun' hostel in Banff; sure it's not there fault in regards to the behaviour of their guests, but as every dorm seemed to be the same it did feel as though this was the kind of backpacker they were trying to cater for (the young slob ... or my brother Edd).

I arrived at the bus station 1hr 45mins before my coach was due. Once there I tried several ways to charge my MP3 player (through this netbook and a normal socket within the bus station ... nothing). For the rest of the time I spoke to an Aussie who was working in the bus station and who was also a professional wedding photographer with too much work on (which is good). He had a Nikon D700 (very nice bit of kit) and a 50mm lens which he said was superb. He also must have been the happiest Aussie in the world (for 8:00am in the morning); he chatted to everyone and was a really nice fella.

Anyway my coach arrived and I was greeted by a very happy and helpful driver; however I was not so amused ... I had a 12hr trip and no music. There was only one hope, a girl I had met in Jasper and 2 days ago in Banff (Lilly) said she was going to be getting on this coach at Lake Louise and hopefully the case was still true; then I would have someone to talk to.

After an hour we pulled into Lake Louise and there she was ... few! All the way we chatted about lots of subjects (including what annoys us about Canada ... with hindsight probably not the best subject for a Canadian coach). There were few moments of comedy, apart from a gentleman, to our left, who fell asleep and snored like the sound of a British WW2 battleships sonar when it detected a U-boat ... very funny.

Also after we switched drivers the second guy must have always wanted to be a tour guide and he picked out bits for us to see; the best one was a waterfall in which a few people got their cameras ready ... only when we got there if you blinked you missed it.

After a tea stop we got back on the coach, had another change of driver, and were told that 'it was government inspection time' and that our coach could get stopped and everything would have to be searched. This driver was a bundle of joy, he made it sound like we had a 99% chance of being searched and therefore we would be delayed an hour. He also said that we would be arriving late into Vancouver and he then spent the next 10 minutes telling us why in a very depressing manor.

Luckily Lilly had her netbook on her and around 40 films on a hard drive. We sat down and watched 'The meaning of life' by Monty Python ... quite funny but very rude.

Just before Vancouver we were pulled into the government inspection area; the coach crept along to the nearest guard only to be told to 'go on our way' as the police had just stopped a truck and were busy pulling that apart. As we pulled out a cheer from the passengers erupted and everyone breathed a sign of relief as we new we weren't going to be delayed another hour.

We finally arrived in Vancouver at around 10:15pm (should have been here at 9:30pm). Normally I try to arrived at my new location in daylight as I don't like walking, with all my stuff, on my own at night. Also I had heard mixed reviews of the area in which I was staying, I was a little worried. Anyway as soon as I got out of the bus station I said goodbye to Lilly (as she was staying in a different hostel) and I walked to my hostel. The walk was fine; it was only 5 minutes from the bus station and along a main road, so no problems. The hostel is very nice and I've only got one other person in my dorm (who is tidy and doesn't snore ... bliss).

Looking at my average I've gone up AGAIN ... £52.13. Not sure how this has happened as I haven't spent allot recently (I think). Still, I'm not in Vancouver and my hostel is only $20.00 a night and so I hope to save a bit of cash whilst I'm here. I hope to get the average knocked down below £50.00

Still the word awesome is the bane of my life (but is being used less); tax still isn't added onto prices and the Canadians can't do cake or chocolate (plus all food seems to be expensive). On the plus side everyone is very friendly and the Rockies has been amazing ... I just hope Vancouver is too.

Should get a good sleep tonight; tomorrow I need to head into town to fix my MP3 player and purchase a little bit of stuff.

Toodle Pip!