Vancouver Vancouver

Wandering along the beach looking out towards downtown Vancouver

Not quite the same ring to it as New York New York, but I couldn't think of a single cheesy movie or song title with Vancouver in it. Anyone?

So I made it to Canada! Only 15 days in this lovely country though, so I will have to return. I can't believe that I will be home in under 2 weeks. This trip has gone so fast!

So the bus trip from Seattle was fairly uneventful, and the customs incredibly easy. No trouble there at all. I had arranged for my friend Megan to meet me at the bus station, but when I got there she was no where to be seen. My bus had been half an hour late, but I figured she would have checked with one of the staff. After looking around and not seeing her, I gave her a call.

"I was there but I left after half an hour" she said. We must have missed each other by minutes. Apparently the staff wouldn't tell her if my bus had come in and so she decided to make her way back to her place in case I had decided to make my way there. She gave me some directions, and it was actually very simple to reach her.

She lives in a very cool suburb of Vancouver called Kitsilano in possibly one of the tiniest flats I have ever seen, so I was very grateful that she let me stay with her.

It was cool to hang out with her. We cooked some dinner and then the next day, as she had the day off, we went to an awesome coffee shop to hang out, drink coffee and play backgammon. Deciding that her backgammon board was too tiny and annoying to play on, we hit the thrift stores to try and replace it. Although we found the most gorgeous board, we decided that $20 was too much to spend, although she did buy another couple of games, and so wine and board games were the order of the day.

Hanging out with Megan

Vancouver is a beautiful city. Surrounded by water, there are lots of cool little hangouts. Granville Island is one of them. A cool food market overlooking downtown which sits on the other side of the water, it was great to sit and listen to buskers, and watch the world go by. One busker in particular caught my attention, as his voice was just awesome. Not being able to place who his voice sounded like, it wasn't til he played Paolo Nutini that he solved the mystery for me. I ended up buying a CD of his music and I'm very glad I did.

The fantastic busker Stephen Spender playing in Granville Island

The weather was lovely, and so I wandered along the beach, meandering my way back towards Megan's place and to a place called Kit's Beach near her flat.

I was supposed to meet up with a friend Trent whom I had met in the animal sanctuary in Bolivia. Megan had already expressed that she was looking forward to having the place to herself, and so when he had to postpone, I decided to go out anyway. Megan had told me of a cool arthouse cinema within walking distance to her, so off I trotted, and for a mere $7, I was treated to a double feature of two Canadian films I hadn't heard of, called "Chloe" and "The Necessities of life". Both were good, and so it was a good night, although it still would have been cool to hang out with Trent.

Next day, I finally left the sanctuary of Kitsilano and headed downtown, wandering around. Meeting up with Megan, a couple of her friends, and also Trent and a friend of his, we played pub quiz (oh how I've missed my weekly dose!) and it was an awesome night!

Quiz night with Megan, Trent and some of their friends

Today Megan and I had brunch, coffee and then I bade her farewell, and swapped to my hostel for one night before my Rockies tour tomorrow. I'm doing a four day tour before heading to Calgary to hang out with one last friend. And then that's it! The trip is so close to being finished!

But it isn't yet, and today I finished my time in Vancouver by hiring a bicycle and cycling through Stanley Park, one of the biggest urban parks in the world. It was very cool, and because it is situated on the water (like so much of Vancouver) it had some pretty beautiful views as well.

Hanging out with my bike
The Red Buddha and me
A beautiful lake inside Stanley park which is rapidly decreasing as the forest takes over

And so now I am almost going to go to bed at the extremely early time of 10pm. I haven't been sleeping well, so I am very excited to hopefully get a good night's sleep tonight. (edit: worst night's sleep ever! So loud, hot and uncomfortable)

Only a couple more travel blog entries left, and then back to boring mundanity. Well new mundanity, since I will be a student again in a few short weeks.

As per normal, photos to come once I get the time.

Sleepless in Seattle

Well actually I slept quite well (which is a thing that is becoming more of a rarity on this trip as my back has been behaving quite badly) but I'll stick with the cheesy blog titles for now.

So we dropped off the rental car at the airport about 5pm, and Nina was being picked up by her friends, but me and Uli had to make our own way to our respective places. Which was totally fine. Nina very quickly let us use her iphone to check the internet to work out the buses, and I was in such a rush that I chose a route with the shortest amount of changes but didn't check the total time it would take me. As it turns out, now knowing the city a little bit better, it was a ridiculous route. I first of all had to wait a good 40 mins for the first bus (and I fully acknowledge that I should have used the public phones at the airport to call my friend, but I didn't want to miss my bus. Having only one route to get to my friend's house, I decided to stick with it. Getting dropped off the first bus to wait for the second, I realised that we were deep deep in the suburban wilderness of Seattle. There was no one to ask. Getting on the next bus, it was 7pm, and when I asked the bus driver how long it would take, he said that it would take just under an hour. Asking if I could borrow his cell phone to ring my friend, he said "that's going a bit far". Accepting this as fair, I asked the only other person on the bus who said that she would, but she was probably the only person without a cell phone in Seattle. I asked a couple more people (offering them a couple of bucks, but knowing that in the states everyone is on a contract so it costs them nothing extra) and they looked at me like I was crazy.The said "I don't think so" with an air of such disdain that you would have thought I had just asked them to jump off a cliff. Anyway, frustrated, tired, hungry and a little concerned that my friend would be worried about me, I finally got off the bus about 8pm, and found the apartment. Now if I hadn't been so tired I would have realised that there was a call button on the outside of the apartment. However this guy who was on his cell phone at the door, was covering this and when I asked him "do you need a cell phone to ring in? I don't have one" he replied "I don't know what to tell you" and walked off. Thinking I needed a cell phone, I asked about 4 more people to use their phone, all of them saying no, and finally exhausted, I found a kind person in the supermarket who let me use hers. After realising that I could have saved myself the trouble and just used the call button, I felt a bit stupid, but nonetheless it was great to see my friend Danica and meet her boyfriend Erik. Telling them the story about how no one would let me use their phone, they were surprised but guessed that people weren't listening to me, but are so used to being accosted by homeless people for change, that they just say no.

We went out to dinner and had a great night, and then the next morning, determined to have a great day, I got on the bus and wandered to Pike Place Market. Which was, by the way, awesome. It's a famous market, and I wandered around for a while before, stopping to watch the famous Pike Place Fish Market where they throw the fish from one side of the area to the counter. It is a bit of a smelly place, but it was very cool.

Pike Place Market

about to throw the fish to the counter amidst many onlookers

Meeting Danica for lunch at a Russian place (Erik and Danica had decided to take me on a foodies tour of Seattle), I wandered down to Pioneer Square where I took a fascinating and very funny tour of the underground. Very cool.

In the immortal words of Mr Bowie "down down underground"

Meeting up with Danica afterward, we met Erik in a Korean BBQ restaurant where we were provided with the meat, and we cooked it on a grill at the table. I say "we" but really, other than a photo opportunity for me, Erik cooked pretty much everything.

Pretending to cook.

Erik the real chef of the night takes over

Danica had taken the next couple of days off, and so we had a great two days together, doing cool things such as going to a gorgeous view of the city, seeing the troll under the bridge, and taking a chocolate factory tour of this amazing chocolate company who produce fair trade and organic chocolate with flavours such as Chai Tea, and Coconut Curry. We also went to a HUGE thrift store where I bought books 9 and 10 (my bag is getting very heavy now, so I am hoping that that is it, bookwise).

The city of Seattle as seen with the lovely Danica

The Fremont Troll who lives under the bridge

Thursday night, I caught up with a friend Justin (and his amazing yellow car!), from New Zealand, which was great. We went to dinner with some of his dance buddies and at some point had a heated debate about the merits of Ebook vs real book (I am totally for real and he was fighting on the Ebook side.)

Justin and his amazing yellow spaceship car

Next day, met up with another kiwi friend, Mark in the afternoon and on the bus I was running late so I decided to give the Seattleites one more chance to be nice to me and lend me their phone so I could let Mark know I was running late, and the girl in front was so nice and did. Where was she when I needed her the other day? Went to the university where he is studying to drop some stuff off and then had a couple of drinks before meeting up with one of his friends later on. We also went to a drag show which normally isn't totally my thing, but it was pretty good. I realised how much Cher actually does look like a drag queen because the man impersonating her was the spitting image!

I know that it is hard to believe but this is a man and not Cher

Saturday was my last full day in Seattle. It was the Fremont Fair and parade for Summer Solstice and it was amazing. Unfortunately we were slightly too late for the nude cyclists all dressed in body paint, but the parade was just awesome. Met up with Mark afterwards, and hung out, and the phone connection was so bad that I couldn't get hold of Justin who was also there. Had an amazing time at the fair, people watching, eating the free samples for lunch(one of them was hummus and pita bread chips-Yum!) and wandering through the market. I was coveting this awesome clock made out of forks and spoons, but had decided that I couldn't really afford it, when Danica surprised me by buying it for me! I tried to refuse as it should have been me getting her a gift to show my gratitude for letting me stay and showing me an awesome time in Seattle, but I let her buy it for me, buying Danica and Mark dinner instead. It made me feel a little better. The clock is awesome though!

All I saw of the naked bikers

Some of the cool parade




Pigging out on the free hummus and Pita with Mark

my new wall clock

The next day, Danica and I left nice and early to make it to the bus station for my bus to Vancouver. Unfortunately fate had different ideas. Someone had decided that it was an awesome idea to bash the wire door opener of the apartment parking lot, so it wouldn't open despite all our efforts. We still had time for a taxi so we called, but 25 minutes later, it still hadn't arrived, so we called another. Of course 5 minutes later both arrived at the same time. Taking one, not sure if I took the first or the last I explained that I had a bus to catch in 15 minutes. Although he said the Greyhound would be late, he was amazing, and drove very skillfully, weaving his way to the station. I made it just in time for the bus, only to sit and wait 15 minutes for it to depart.

But, I didn't mind. I had made it to the bus and the adventure to Canada was underway.

Sorry for the novel(again). Did I mention what a great time I had in Seattle!

The Road to Seattle

So since I last left you, I have made it to Seattle! But you don't want to hear about that yet. There's time for that later.

Last time I updated, the three of us were in a little town called Gold Beach. It was raining heavily and visibility was slim to none on the coast. After another day of heavy rain, and no sign of it stopping for a couple of days, we made the call to go inland to a little town called Eugene after a wet but cool visit to a lighthouse.

I went to the top of this lighthouse. It was pretty awesome

Eugene was a cute funky town, and the following day we went to a vintage store where I got an awesome black short sleeved shirt which is my new favourite item of clothing. The weather was still not great, so we hung out in little coffee shops people watching and and eating Mexican.

We had a couchsurfing stop the next night in a wee town called Corvalis. Another funky town, we wandered around til our couchsurf host got back from work. The most beautiful little place, Ebba (our host), her three flatmates, and her 15 chickens welcomed us into their home, where Ebba made pea soup form scratch and wild rice. It was pretty cool there. They totally eat everything they can unprocessed, and grow a lot of fruit and vegies and of course eggs. We had a fantastic dinner and wine, and then we had a great jam session with one of the guys that lived there. Ebba has lived in this place for 4 years, and although all her books are in the house, she chooses to live in her van. I don't know if I could permanently live in a van, but it seems to work for her. It was an awesome little stop and a nice change from motels (Otto excluded of course as that motel was a very cool spot!).

Hanging out with Ebba and one of the chickens

Onwards to Portland we went, stopping again in a funky wee coffee shop, and went to this amazing place called Kennedy School which was a primary school which closed down in the early seventies, and has been totally revamped into a series of bars including "The Boiler Room" and "The Detention", a cinema, accommodation and just amazing funky artwork everywhere. It was such a great idea and use of an otherwise unused building and part of a whole bunch of buildings that had been reborn under a couple of brothers named McMenamin. See below for more details. It was a pretty cool place.

http://www.mcmenamins.com/427-kennedy-school-home

The Boiler Room bar at Kennedy school. This place was incredible!

We went to our couch surf host's place, and she was this awesome chick called Rose. we had a lovely evening and we cooked her dinner and then played board games. My perfect evening.

The next day we wandered in to the city, and we were totally lucky as not only was it the Rose Festival and the Saturday market, but it was the most perfect day with no clouds, and apparently the warmest day they had had all year. I absolutely love Portland! It has this amazing quirky and interesting vibe to it, and the most amazing bookshop in the world called Powells. We wandered around for a couple of hours and could have spent a LOT longer in there.

Powells City of Books

I restrained myself from buying many books (they were so cheap!) but ended up with 3 (which brought my tally of books I'm carrying in my pack to 7). Promising myself that I wouldn't buy anymore books, we wandered around Portland and found a thrift store where I found book number 8 (It was cheap!).

Also in Portland was the amazing Saturday Market (also interestingly on Sundays) with an amazing amount of people watching and cool buskers.

Portland Saturday Market

The awesome beautiful day in Portland was finished off by a gorgeous sunset with perfect clear views of the sunset and mountains and then going to one of the bars in Kennedy School which was cool. We finished off our Portland experience the following morning with a trip to Voodoo Doughnuts, where I had been told that I had to experience the Maple and Bacon doughnut (with real bacon!) and so dutifully, I did. Amazingly it was one the nicest things I have ever had!

With my Maple and Bacon Doughnut

So we made it to Seattle and I made it to my friend Danica's (although it was a bit of a mission getting there!).

The road trip was totally awesome and I got on really well with both Uli and Nina. I'm so glad that it all worked out and I found people to road trip with, and although the weather was a bit dodgy in parts, it was the perfect way to get up to Seattle.

Photos to follow as per usual when I can be bothered and have more time.

On the Road again

So after 10 days in San Francisco, two days ago I started a road trip with a couple of girls that I connected with through couchsurfing.

The rest of my time in San Francisco was fantastic. I love this city. The weather has been perfect, and I've met some great people and seen some cool things and places.

Staying at Brian's house was awesome. It was totally chilled, and although it was 40 minutes from San Fran proper, it was a nice train ride and only $4 each way, so I was able to go into the city to enjoy it from his house. I met Brian when I was in Europe and we really clicked, and so it was great to know that 3 years on, we got on just as well (probably better because I got to know him in so much more depth).

Meeting up with Nina from Switzerland on Sunday, we made our way to the airport to pick up our rental car. After a good bit of selling from the woman who worked there, we were convinced to upgrade to a Hybrid car which would save us money on petrol on the long run.

We found our little blue Nissan Altima, and the first thing that we noticed was that there was no key! Working out how to open the door, we pressed the very aptly named Start button. Pressing it twice and hearing nothing, we were confused. How do we turn the car on? Putting it into gear, the car moved, and so silently (as this car makes no sound!) we moved out of the carpark and out of San Francisco.

The obligatory Golden Gate photo

Stopping at the iconic Golden Gate Bridge on the way out of town, we got to our location for the night, a little town called Point Reyes. As we hadn't picked up the car until 6.30pm it was 9pm by the time we arrived. We chilled out for a while in the lovely hostel there, and were ready to head out the next morning. We were told that we couldn't leave Point Reyes without going to the Bovine Bakery or getting a coffee and some fruit at Toby's. And so we did, and sat in the little tables outside, watching the world go by, and feeling like we were part of this tiny little community. In fact we enjoyed hanging out there so much, one and a half hours had passed before we realised, and we had to get on the road.

Now, the observant among you may realise that I mentioned two girls and have only mentioned one, Nina. The second girl, Uli, from Germany, we were't picking up until Eureka.

So onto Mendocino, a gorgeous little town with some beautiful views (although on the coast they all have beautiful views). Californian towns all seem to have a very big organic feel, and this one had its organic store in a reformed church! Very cool. We stopped there for a couple of hours, and then when we got on the road again, we realised that there was no way to make it to Eureka tonight.

My first dose of driving on the right side was a little scary for Nina at first, who had to keep yelling 'KEEP LEFT' as I kept veering to the very right of the road, but I seemed to get into the swing of things after a short time and started really enjoying driving on the coastal roads. Nina is a great driver, so she will drive into all the cities, and we'll share the rest.

Stopping at the tiny town of Westport, California, population 299, we were in for a treat. With only a pub, a general store and a small motel, we weren't expecting much, but it was getting late, and the room was relatively inexpensive. Greeted by 84 year old Otto, who ran the place by himself, we were convinced. Just the most gorgeous old man, and he convinced us more with cups of tea, home made cookies and stories about his late wife and his life (his wife was married seven times before him and apparently it was lucky number 8 as their marriage lasted 44 years before she passed away). We knew we had found an absolute character in Otto, and just meeting him brought a smile to my face. We wandered down to the completely empty beach to watch the sunset which was pretty cool.

Sunset in Westpot


The following morning after he made us coffee, and home made jelly with toast, we took a few photos, and after wanting to take Otto and the Westport Inn with us, we got back on the road.

With Otto and Nina at the Westport Inn

The first thing we did was a ridiculous tourist stop, which made me laugh so much, that we just had. In America, they have drive through everythings and so I as not surprised when, for a mere $5 per car, you could drive through a Redwood tree and take photos. I couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing, but it was cool in a super tacky way.

The >Drive thru tree.

Shortly following that I spied 'Hobbiton USA' and I yelled 'STOP' to which Nina did. Not having seen Lord of the Rings, she couldn't quite understand why the fascination, but I had to take photos. The attraction was closed, but this is what I found about it on Wikipedia:

Officially endorsed by the San Francisco Hobbit Club, Hobbiton, USA, is a steep hillside nature walk that winds past concrete recreations of scenes from Tolkien`s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Prerecorded explanations of these scenes are narrated by an unidentified Hobbit fan, who sounds like he`s spent the majority of his life playing Dungeons and Dragons and attending Science Fiction Conventions.

Hobbiton is in some disrepair, though the stolen Bilbo has been replaced, and we suggest you do the whole trail while you can."

It was shut, but I did get a photo of Gandalf on the hill. Nina wasn't interested anyway, but it would have been pretty funny to walk through.

The Pacific West Coastline is beautiful. After driving through the Avenue of the Giants (Redwoods trees, this time ones that you can't drive through) we finally made it to Eureka and met up with Uli, a German girl.

So, now we are three. It^s pouring with rain, and we are in a little town (although not so little as Westport) called Gold Beach. Tomorrow our adventure continues...

If you're going to San Francsico...

...be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.

In Dolores Park, with the San Francisco skyline behind me

So I'm in San Francisco, and have been for a week now so time for an update.

I got in on Thursday, after a 2 hour delay on my flight from Vegas. I was surprised that the security on a domestic flight seemed even more stringent than coming in to LA, but the flight was largely uneventful.

Got to my friend Phil's place, who I know from school, and we made a nice meal and drank some New Zealand wine. It was pretty cool.Phil has just moved to San Francisco, and lives in a gorgeous 18th floor apartment in the central city with beautiful views. He hasn't got much furniture yet, but he bought an airbed for me to sleep on.

Hanging out with Phil

I had a chilled couple of days with him. I wandered down to Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, which is the tourist wharf with shops and buskers, and a whole bunch of sea lions relaxing on the docks. It was pretty cool, and there was even a Left handed store which I thought was pretty cool.

The next day was Saturday, and so he left early to go buy a bed with his girlfriend (he has also been sleeping on an air bed) and when we came back it was off to IKEA for some more furniture shopping. I've never been to IKEA before. It is a huge furniture store which hasn't quite made it to New Zealand yet (although I think Auckland is getting one soon) which specialises in furniture for small places. The cool thing about IKEA is that it set up its furniture into different rooms so you wander around the different rooms. I took photos in all of "my rooms" sleeping on the bed, hanging out in my reading room, taking a shower. It was good fun, I couldn't believe that no one else was doing it (I guess they were all actually buying furniture).

Sitting in my library at IKEA

When you buy something, you then go to this huge warehouse where you pick up the kitset for your item. It was pretty cool. After that, Phil took me and Stef (his girlfriend) to the MIssion district for a burrito. The burritos here are amazing! Then we wandered down the streets looking at some of the street art! It is incredible in this area.

Cool street art in the Mission Disctrict

Sunday, I headed slightly out of San Fran (40 minute train away but only $4 to get there) to a small place called Pinole, where a friend of mine, Brian lives. Brian cooked us dinner and we had an awesome night catching up. He lives with his brother Sean, who is also a really nice guy. I was only going to stay until Wed, but as staying with another friend fell through, he said I could stay until Friday. It's great to see him again, and it's been really relaxed staying here. As he and his brother are moving towns to one 4 hours south, in two weeks, he has a lot of packing to do. So I have been heading into the city, and sightseeing to give him space and time to do this.

Me and Brian with the giant tub of yoghurt and giant wine glasses (one full bottle in these glasses)

Monday was Memorial Day (I guess our equivalent of ANZAC Day as it is tribute to the war veterans). It was a public holiday. I rang a friend of mine, Andie who I know from back home, and she said "Come over, we're having a BBQ". So I did. Brian had stuff to do, so I left him to his packing, and went and spent an awesome day, hanging out with some cool people, catching up with Andie and generally enjoying the sunshine and wine that was to offer.

Hanging out with Andie on Memorial Day

Tuesday I went to a thrift store. It was amazing, with the book section about 20 bookcases full of almost brand new titles for about $1.50 each. I bought two (although I could have bought a LOT more). One for me, and one as a present for Brian.

Yesterday I went to Alcatraz which was amazing! The audio tour that was included in the tour was just fantastic and added a real spooky feel to the place.

Locked up in Alcatraz!

I also went to a couchsurfing meetup in the evening which was very cool, and I got to meet some wicked people.

I have a few more days left in the city. Today, I'm hanging out with Brian, then tomorrow I head back into the city in a hostel for my last couple of days. I've meeting up with a few couchsurfing people, and on Sunday or Monday a couple of us are hiring a car so we can get up the Pacific Coast to Portland and then Seattle.

San Francisco is my favourite city of the three I've been to so far. If I was ever to live in America, it would definitely, without a doubt be the place that I would live. It has a chilled out vibe, and some parts really remind me of Melbourne, or even Wellington.