Coming soon…

First of all, apologies for the lack of updates!

 

Biiiiiiiig post coming later!

Sleepless In Seattle

…yes, yes, I know. Lack of imagination with the title. But it had to be done.

So, the latest instalment of my travelling adventures took me once again over the US border to Seattle. I was meeting with my friend Brigette again, as neither of us had been there before; it was conveniently located equidistant from Vancouver and Portland, so made perfect sense! I once again took Bolt Bus down – as simple and as easy as the last time I used it, $40 return – so a bargain too.

Unfortunately due to feeling particularly ill the previous night, I slept most of the journey down; once arrived at the AirBnb that we had booked, the sudden thought of a “quick nap” to refresh seemed appealing. Fast forward 6 hours…oops! Needless to say we made best of the rest of the evening, heading out for a walk towards Lake Union before heading for dinner – definitely needed at this point, given neither of us had eaten much all day!

 

I was also introduced to Geocaching. This is essentially a worldwide treasure hunt. You’re given a location which you find via the GPS on your phone, then you have to find the “prize” – this could be anything from a sheet of paper which you put your name and date on, or a small gift/trinket – the understanding is that you leave something of your own, or simply take a picture and put it back. In our case, it was a small cylinder in a street sign post with a roll of paper in; we signed our names and put it back – it was well hidden! The rest of the evening consisted of wandering around the Pacific Science Centre area and underneath the Space Needle.

With Saturday done with, it was a reasonably early rise on  Sunday to make the most of Seattle! The first port of call was the EMP Museum. This place was awesome! It houses everything from Lego play areas to try-it-yourself musical instruments – also a Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix exhibition. One of the main things that grabbed my attention was the “If VI was IX” sculture (if you can call it that..). This was comprised mainly of guitars, however included a piano and a couple of other instruments. It was very striking, floor to ceiling:

 

Pretty cool so far, right? However the best bit is that this is a “living sculpture” – meaning that this was actually playing a composed piece of music! As you can see in the picture above, some of the guitars had actuators mounted on them, both to pick the strings and to compress the fret board:

 

So that once you combined all these sounds, you had a melody; which could be listened to on supplied headphones. Next up, it was upstairs to the Lego room. This contained some very impressive stuff, including models of the Space Needle:

 

And New York’s Flatiron Building:

There was also an area to build your own models, this was jam packed with people’s creations – from houses to what seemed like cut scenes from movies; very cool.

Moving on, next stop in the museum was the Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix exhibitions. These seemed to flow into each other nicely; along with the guitar history exhibit. They featured things like the Fender Strat played by Hendrix at Woodstock:

 

And Eric Clapton’s first Strat:

 

It also featured things like this 1920’s Stroh Hawaiian:

 

Moving on, it was time to try our hand at playing! Now, neither of us are that musical. Nevertheless, a try was had, and probably some melodies murdered in the process. There are lots of booths for anyone to have a go, along with soundproof booths for anyone wanting privacy; you could even record your own song whilst you were there!

 

Eardrums successfully ruined, we stepped out into the sunshine to be greeted with what can only be described as the cutest thing on the planet. New to Seattle, Glaucus was on his leash and exploring it’s limits – however he took the time out of his busy schedule to have a scratch:

 

The day continued with a walk along the waterfront and finding some late lunch and taking in the views of the harbour and Puget Sound:

After walking back along the Waterfront, we had a look around the Olympic Sculpture Park. Unfortunately only one picture from there, but I’m pretty proud of it:

Given the fading light, it was time to head to the Space Needle. This was opened in 1962 as part of the World’s Fair and has since become the main feature of Seattle’s Skyline. Whilst not the tallest building out there, it’s still very striking:

Of course, the views from the top are even more so:

We spent around an hour on the viewing deck; luckily the weather was ideal – it was clear and hardly any wind. Perfect for just sitting and watching boats mill around the harbour, or try to spot familiar things using the numerous telescopes dotted around.

Monday brought around another early start and a visit to the Museum of Flight. This I was particularly excited about, because, as a bit of a geek, it housed one of my favourite planes, the SR-71 Blackbird. First flown in the 60s, it still holds aviation records for altitude and speed –  85,069 feet (more than twice the altitude of a normal passenger jet) and a top speed of 2,193mph, or Mach 3.3. To put that into perspective, that’s Los Angeles to Washington DC in a little over an hour. I could go on, but I won’t bore you with the facts! Needless to say I’m a fan. Take a look:

The museum has a lot to offer – including sections on space exploration, both world wars (although I found that the coverage of certain events that happened during the war(s) felt a little….biased, lets just say that they were a little star-spangled for my liking…) along with notable aircraft and their relative engines and power units. There was also the original Air Force One, along with a Concorde and the first Boeing 747:

Having spent most of the day at the Museum of Flight, it was time to head home – so that concludes our time in Seattle. I feel that a lot was missed however; so another visit will have to be scheduled – luckily it’s not too far away, making it a doddle to get to, especially as the Bolt Bus drops you pretty much in the centre of town as well. As an added bonus, the entire weekend cost under $300 including accommodation, entry to places and food, so a bargain too considering how much there is to do.

Thanks for reading – I’ll hopefully have another update soon!

Heading North; Whistler!

After a long week, myself and one of my roommates, Alison, decided to head to Whistler for the day to catch some end of season snow. She had a couple of days to use up on her Edge Card; This of course meant that I could get a little discount on a day pass!

After an early start (7am on a Sunday shouldn’t exist..!), and some hassle navigating through Downtown (as there was a Sun Run happening..), we were soon on our way, heading over Lion’s Gate Bridge on Highway 99. Now, compared to the UK, this drive was…well, stunning. The highway winds its way around the west face of Cypress Provincial Park, looking out over Howe Sound and Lions Bay before going through Squamish and onwards to Whistler. Once we were parked, it was a simple cast of crossing the road to the village and buying a day pass! The village itself is pretty nice too:

 

Once my pass was bought, we headed up the mountain, taking the Excalibur Gondola up past Base 2 and towards Excelorator Express chair lift. For reference, a trail map of Whistler Blackcomb can be found here. This was only my second time boarding over here, the previous being on Grouse Mountain – safe to say there’s a difference! We stuck to Blackcomb only, and the place is huge in comparison. I found the place a lot more challenging; as the runs are a lot more varied and the surface constantly changes from ice to foot deep powder – quite a surreal feeling going through deep powder at speed with zero resistance!

The weather itself up on the mountain was…varied. It went from being incredibly clear one minute to having almost zero visibility the next! Not ideal when you’re learning; I found myself missing undulations in the terrain and ending up on my arse…several times. Still, when the sun did come out, it was pretty special:

 

After a couple of hours we stopped for lunch at The Horstman Hut, one of the restaurants/lodges on the mountain itself. Whilst not exactly the cheapest ($18.50 for goulash, mashed potato, bread and some sausage(?!)), the food was great and it was a nice break from the wind. The weather came in again after lunch, and with that, came of course, more falling over. However we discovered some really nice runs over on the clear side of the mountain, so spent some time in the sunshine:

 

The rest of the day on the slopes was fairly uneventful, apart from losing each other towards the end of the day! Once we were finished and changed, we headed home, back down Highway 99. We stopped off a few times to take in the views at Britannia Mine:

Tunnel Point:

 

So that was that..Whistler! Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll have time to visit again before the end of the season, however there’s plenty going on up there over the summer; mountain biking trails and ziplining amongst others. I loved it though, and can’t wait to get out there next winter for some proper snow days.

I’m heading to Seattle in a couple of weeks, along with starting to plan other trips for the summer, including Bowen and Gambier Islands. Lots to look forward to!

Oh, I also spotted this at the Horstman Hut:

 

JAMAICA WE HAVE A BOBSLED TEAM.

That’s all folks!

Working and Cycling..

Not a lot has happened the last week or so – the most significant event personally has been securing a job! Given my Hospitality background, I was keen to get a job in that sector to get the money coming in, whilst I look for something in Engineering.

Browsing Craigslist found an abundance of jobs, the most appealing of which was for a Bartender at Point Grey Golf Club. I think I was lucky to find this job – unfortunately there are no tips (unlike the norm, where there are tips aplenty, perhaps $200 a shift for a typical weekend..), however the hourly rate is higher, and I have weekends off, so I can’t complain. There are other perks as well, such as staff meals when on shift, and as I happily found out, free golf! The club hosts PGA Canada tournaments as well, so I feel very lucky to get these privileges.

I’m responsible for running the bar on shift, along with looking after a handful of tables in the bar area – which may sound relatively simple, however this is a non-cash bar, so everything is done on member accounts – a bit strange to get your head around when you’ve worked cash bars for the best part of 10 years! I’m settling in well though, and enjoying it.

The bar that I work on:

Outside area:

And the view:

So I’m pretty pleased with myself!

My other significant news is that I have bought myself a bike! Strangely enough, it was from a pawn shop! I think I got lucky again, it’s pretty much brand new and only cost $230 – so for the money, I think I did well. It’s pretty light, too; so ideal for the hills that I frequently find myself on! Vancouver is an incredibly bike-friendly city, with designated bike routes throughout, so it makes getting around easy. That said, whilst the laws are similar to the UK, there are some differences:

• Turning right on red. This you need to keep an eye out for; not everyone does it, however if you’re riding through an intersection then you need to be observant – both for this, and cars turning left in front of you. Most drivers are considerate, however, so as long as you ride with consideration, you’ll be fine.
• Parked cars. I’ve almost been caught out by this. Its the same issue as the UK; people open their doors and simply don’t look. From talking to an ex-judge on the matter, the distinction lies in where you are placed on the road (as the cyclist). If the parked car on the inside lane opens it’s door, but the door aperture is no wider than that lane, then it’s pretty much 50/50 as to who is at fault. However, if the door is opened into the adjacent lane and it hits you, then the fault lies with the driver. His advice was when there are parked cars on the side of the road, ride in the lane adjacent, but be mindful of staying on the right hand side of that lane, and move further to the right if you find that you’re holding up traffic. The key is to be observant, considerate and use the correct safety gear, including lights and high-vis. (I have some on my bag that I wear to work). My lights cost me $20 for some basic ones, and a reasonable helmet shouldn’t cost more than $40-$50.

I’m finding myself riding to work most days, unless it’s raining (so 50/50 here in Vancouver!), it’s around 9km each way, so a decent distance to keep myself in shape, especially considering that it’s fairly up and down.

Last weekend brought the sun; on my day off I met up with Danielle, another IEC participant, who is also soon to be one of my roommates! We headed to Stanley Park and had a cycle around the perimeter taking in the view of North Vancouver:

Before to Beaver Lake in the centre:

Then rounding off the day with a couple of drinks at The Three Brits with another friend, Ben, with this stunning view:

I’d definitely recommend The Three Brits – it’s a really chilled out place, with a fantastic view and awesome staff – I’ll definitely be returning there.

All in all, a reasonably busy week! I’ve booked a trip to Seattle in a few week’s time, along with planning a trip to Whistler to catch some end of season snow with my house mates at the end of April, so plenty to look forward to.

That’s all for now folks.

Thanks for reading!

Weird and Wonderful Portland

After a busy few days in and around Vancouver, which included being offered a job (which I was particularly chuffed about..),I decided that, in order to celebrate, I would explore further afield. Whilst a lot of people rave about Seattle, I was more interested in going somewhere slightly different than the norm; and given I had met some cool people from Portland whilst staying at the hostel, I thought why not? Visit a cool place, and see some cool people!

So the research began, travel, hostels, AirBnb etc!

My journey started at 6.30am from Vancouver, where I caught the Bolt Bus down, eventually arriving at 1.40pm in Portland. The journey itself was great – all the buses are pretty new, and have leather seats, aircon, free WiFi and power outlets – perfect for helping your journey pass quickly, I simply plugged in my laptop, watched 2 or 3 movies, then before I knew it, I was in Portland! Oh, and for the princely sum of $42, an absolute bargain I think. I’d definitely recommend Bolt Bus over Greyhound; despite being a sister company, the journey was simply a more enjoyable experience, by some way; for pretty much the same price, too!

I had agreed to meet my friend Brigette there; she was kind enough to take me to my AirBnB host, and then show me around for the weekend. Once I had dropped my things at the AirBnb host (which, by the way, was awesome, more on that later), it was off to the centre of Portland to explore. I was introduced to my first taste of Tea – I’ve never been a big fan of tea, I drink it in the UK on occasion, but this was different, this was Chai tea. After around half an hour of trying to get my head around the different types and flavours, including smelling probably most of the menu (which includes around 120 different types..), I settled for the Masala Chai, an Indian spiced tea. It was…different. Nice, but not what I’m used to. I had mine iced; whilst it was nice, I think my eyes were a little bigger than my stomach, I couldn’t drink the whole lot. Definitely need to re-visit and try some different types, though. Once we had successfully lost the car, we returned to the waterfront and had a walk around, and were treated to views such as this:

Powell’s bookstore was of course visited, I didn’t realise how big the place was! There are huge rooms and complete floors full of books, including a “Rare Books” section, with first editions etc. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me, the place was epic.

We also visited a really great pub called The Backstage, a really chilled out place. It’s built in literally the backstage area of an old theatre; the ceilings are stupidly high which made it a really airy and spacious place. It was here that I unleashed my competitive side: I was introduced to Shuffleboard. For anyone wondering what it is, imagine Curling, but without anyone sweeping in front of the stone. You have 4 “pucks” to send down the playing board (a board roughly 18 inches wide, and around 25 feet long..), in order to score points – there are 1 point, 2 point and 3 point zones, each one smaller than the last. The pucks glide on a fine layer of dust, similar to sand. It was really frustrating, yet fun; we finished the scoring at 1 game all before a fight broke out!

Sunday brought the sun, and a chance to walk around the Saturday Market…on a Sunday. Of course. It seems that there’s the market on every weekend, hosting local crafts along with, of course, food carts. You can get everything in Portland, from the usual hotdogs and burgers to Indian and Lebanese. I didn’t get around to it myself, however next time I’m there I’ll definitely indulge.

I like to buy things from every place I visit as a memento, and I found this awesome stall showcasing metalworks made from ordinary items, such as a fruit bowl made from old knives and forks, along with items such as these Robots:

However my budget didn’t quite stretch that far, so I picked up a little spark plug plane:

The markets are also a popular place for street performers; they ranged from living statues to loop-pedalled Cellos:

 

We also discovered that Pioneer Square was celebrating it’s 30th birthday that day, so we went along, to find a massive concert and singalong in full swing – arrived just in time to hear Hey Jude being belted out, a nice reminder of home!

Also a reminder of how far I was from Vancouver:

The one downside of the weekend was getting home. Once I’d arrived at the Greyhound Bus Station, the passengers were informed that, in fact, the bus wasn’t running – the assigned driver had been pulled off that shift to go and collect a broken down bus from elsewhere; the next guaranteed bus was to be over 3 hours later, which would mean that I would miss my connection from Seattle, leaving me with nowhere to stay, as the bus station there is closed overnight. This is where amazing people come in. My friend Brigette drove me from Portland to Seattle, on a moment’s notice, as if it was nothing. So a HUGE thank you to her – I could get used to this part of the world and it’s people!

One stark contrast I’ve found when comparing the US/Canada is the people. In the UK, when you go into a shop, for example – whilst you’re usually greeted, that’s normally about it. Whereas over here, people always ask how you are, how your day is going, and wish you a nice day or weekend. It takes a while to get used to, but it’s certainly a nice change to the sometimes curt British culture. As I’ve said above, people are willing to go out of their way to help you, regardless of what you need.

Also, a quick review of my AirBnb for the time I was in Portland. It was fantastic. I stayed with a man called Jim, he had retired from Alaska, and his home in Sellwood was beautiful. I had a big double bed, bathroom and spare room to myself, and was just left to it. Upon arriving I was given a key for the front door, had a quick chat about the immediate area (he also recommended a few places to eat a couple of blocks away), and was informed that he would be away that night, so I had the entire house to myself! It was a little pricey at $150 for 2 nights, but it felt like a home away from home; I’d definitely stay there again. Find his details here.

Overall, a very enjoyable and relaxing weekend, I’d definitely recommend it for somewhere “different”.

That’s all for now!

Making it Official

During my first week, one of the most important things to do was to make me eligible for work here in Canada. Despite being in proud possession of a Working Holiday Visa, the vital thing you need here is an SIN (Social Insurance Number). This is similar to a National Insurance Number in the UK. To do this, I visited Service Canada; luckily there was an office located straight down Granville Street, where I was staying at the time. The address can be found here. It was a simple case of walking in, visiting the front desk and taking a seat. A representative was soon calling my name, and after showing them my Visa and confirming my address, I had my SIN number, with the card due to be mailed to me. Simple!

Next up was getting a cell phone number. I was lucky enough to be able to bring over an unlocked handset from the UK (note, if you’re bringing an iPhone then a simple network unlock may not be enough, your safest bet is to get Apple themselves to unlock it. A handy site to help. After some research, I decided to go with Fido, a sub-carrier of Rogers. This costs me $64 a month and includes:

• Unlimited incoming and outgoing calls
• Unlimited Canada-wide long distance
• Unlimited text, picture and video messages from Canada to Canadian, U.S. and international wireless numbers
• 1 GB Data
• Call Display
• Voicemail
• Unlimited Circle Calling
• Call Waiting
• Conference Call

There are 3 main carriers in Canada, and each have several sub-carriers which operate with their coverage. Just to note, there are carriers like Mobilicity that cover Downtown Vancouver (and some surrounding areas) only. If you’re planning on staying in the main parts of Vancouver this is ideal, as the deals they offer are great. However, if you plan on travelling a little (or a lot…) as I am, then you’ll find yourself paying roaming charges, which can mount up VERY quickly, especially for data. Think $1.50/MB and you’re not far off. So personally, I found it easier to pay more per month, then I have the “freedom” of travelling without paying roaming charges.

I do also get a post-tax discount for using my own handset, however as you can see this is still expensive! Unfortunately its a fact of life over here!

Finally, Bank Accounts. Unless you’ve gone with BUNAC (who offer 6 month’s free banking with Bank of Montreal..), you’ll have to pay for an account. There are some accounts that don’t charge as long as you keep the balance above a certain amount, however. I went with Scotia Bank, with their Basic Account. This costs me $9.95 a month (fee waived for >$2k a month daily closing balance), and gives me 25 debit transactions. The best way to manage this, I’m finding, is to take out larger amounts of cash and use that over a period of several days. However if you’re not comfortable with carrying lots of cash, then I’d recommend going for the One account, which allows unlimited transactions. I imagine that I’ll end up upgrading to this in the future!

One thing I found strange was that I was given my debit card straight away when I opened the account; its not like the UK where you have to wait for a card, they just activate it in front of you, no name on the card to print!

Voila (excuse the MS Paint edit:)

Note, its not a Visa! Scotia bank are rolling these out in mid-April, so all I need to do is pop into a branch and they’ll exchange it for me!

Apologies for the slightly admin-y post, more exciting things are coming!

Thanks for reading.

 

 

Moving On

As the week rolled on, I had come to the end of my stay at the Samesun. I had got lucky; whilst browsing EasyRoomMate and casually browsing through the listings, I had come across a place that seemed ideal to move into. It was right at the top end of my budget, however if the location was good and I got along with the housemates, what’s wrong with that?

So an email was fired off, to the landlady, Anna. She lived there with her girlfriend, and 2 other girls who she’d known for most of the her life. We were soon chatting on Skype, so I was given a “tour” of the place – it seemed ideal! So a visit was scheduled, just to check the place out in person, and to check that they weren’t all crazies! (And vice versa…). It all checked out, so here I am! It’s down in Mount Pleasant, about 45 minutes walk from Downtown, or around 20 minutes on the Skytrain.

Check it out, the kitchen:

Living Room/Diner:

Back Garden:

Excuse the crappy phone pictures for this post!

So yeah; here I am, finally unpacked and settling in! It’s all got a little real now, I’ve got a house to live in, bank account, cell phone, and SIN. (The process of getting which I shall cover in a later post..). I do feel extremely lucky as I managed to stumble on this place almost by accident, but it’s worked out really well and I’m feeling very chuffed.

The job hunt starts tomorrow!

Thanks for reading.

 

Greens and Blues

Having been in Vancouver for 5 days, I felt pretty comfortable with Downtown; I knew how to get around, I was familiar with the public transport, and I knew where to buy particular things. However I wanted to explore further afield. Having bought a friend’s  snowboard (An ex-IEC’er, he was also kind enough to drop it at my hostel for me, legend!), I wanted to try it out, and see if I could remember how to snowboard, given it had been 9 years since I’d previously been!

So the logical choice was, of course, Grouse Mountain. Having done some research, I had discovered that not only did it have a few decent runs, it was also easily accessible from Downtown! So off I went, with my trusty “TransitTimes+” app running on my phone. For anyone curious, BUY THIS APP. It’s a couple of quid, but will answer all your questions, it tells you exactly how far it is to walk to the nearest bus stop or Skytrain station, and tells you how long you need to be on said bus, or Skytrain. It even tells you the bus stop numbers – invaluable for anyone new to the city.

I walked up Granville Street, to the intersection of West Georgia St & Granville, opposite the Skytrain station. I took the No. 246 bus towards Highland, then hopped off at Woods Drive/Paisley Rd and changed to the No.236 direct to the base of Grouse Mountain. As soon as you leave Downtown, the scenery changes dramatically. You’re treated to views over the bay in both directions, combined with travelling up through thick woodland – its a really nice change to being in Downtown. It only cost $4 as well, given it was 2 zone’s worth of travel, compared to a bus in the UK that’s pretty good!

After a short while I arrived at the base of Grouse Mountain; at this point, it was just like a normal spring day – no snow, fairly dry, nothing exceptional. That was all soon to change though. $60.90 paid, I was on the SkyRide, snowboard in hand. The climb was a lot steeper than I imagined, rising to a total of around 4,000 feet. The surroundings soon changed from green woodlands to snow covered treetops – being from the UK, we don’t get to see snow that often, so its pretty exceptional when it seems to appear so quickly! Once you’re off the Skyride, all the various chairlifts are “free”, so there’s no faff with a lift pass. Oh, the view:

Pretty special.

Having not snowboarded for so long, I was keen to start on the easy stuff, so off to the biggest green run there was, “The Cut”. The bottom end of it is in the picture above – its nice and simple, and reasonably long. Ideal. I was soon back into it; with only a few wrong edges caught, I think I got lucky! Once I’d got comfortable, I headed down a few other runs, Paper Trail and Expo being particular favourites. I also headed to the Peak, via the Olympic Express Chair. The chair ride was pretty long, going up through some narrower parts:

Heading down another blue run, “Heaven’s Sake” (a good challenge for an amateur boarder….), gave this view:

Not a bad place to be!

After spending most of the day exploring the various runs on Grouse, old injuries were starting to flare up, so it was time for home – It was already 5.30, I’d been on the mountain since 11am! Getting back to Downtown was literally the reverse of getting to Grouse, the 236 then the 246 buses.

So, a summary of Grouse Mountain:

The runs are varied, however limited. I think I’d grow bored of it after 2 or 3 visits, however if you’re only wanting to visit occasionally then its ideal. It’s incredibly easy, and cheap, to get to – if you time the buses right you can leave Downtown Vancouver and be standing at the base of Grouse Mountain in under an hour. I visited on a Wednesday, however I think that it’d get VERY busy over a weekend, especially at the height of the season. Something to bear in mind. I enjoyed my day immensely, it was great to get back into snowboarding, however I’m now aching a lot! Final count: a few missed edges and bum slides, one EPIC faceplant.

Over and out.

First Impressions

6am, Uk Time. After 18 months of planning, worrying, anxiety and mostly impatience, the day was finally here – moving roughly 4,500 miles away to Vancouver, British Columbia.

I’d packed my whole life into a (most likely overweight) suitcase, shoved the rest of my material possessions into boxes in my parent’s loft, ready to leave for Gatwick. I was planning to meet my new friends Ben and Hayley there, people I’d met from the IEC Canada 2014 Facebook group.

Security cleared, bag checked, £49 overweight fee paid (ouch!), Ben and Hayley met and lunch had, it was flying time. I was pleasantly surprised by Air Transat; having only every flown short flights economy, I think I was expecting more of the same, but it was overall pretty nice – obviously nothing on First Class, but plenty of legroom, good choice of in-flight entertainment and, best of all, absolutely stunning views!

In flight entertainment courtesy of a touch screen-style interface, along with headphone jack and USB connection (handy for charging your phone if you’re listening to music of your own):

Legroom – I’m just under 6 feet tall with fairly long legs,and always struggle on flights. No such worries here:

Oh, and the views:

Sometimes I had to do a double take, just to check that yes, I was in fact going to be living in this country. I still can’t believe it now, I need to look up at the mountains to remind myself.

Once we landed we had to activate our Visas – a very simple process, once we got through passport control we were directed to a side room where there were 3 or 4 people working to process our paperwork. POE and Passport handed over, less than 2 minutes later we had stamped passports and Working Visas! The longest wait was the queue! All-in-all, we were in the airport around 90 minutes before getting on the Skytrain – which, by the way, is very easy to use! Think London Tube, but nicer, and you’re there.

We were all staying at the Samesun Backpacker’s Hostel on Granville Street. I’d never stayed at a hostel before, so was unsure as to what to expect. If anyone reading this is worried as I was, don’t be. The staff are awesome, the rooms whilst not exactly spacious are clean and comfortable, plus there’s lockers where you can store your valuables whilst you’re out – just remember a padlock! They do sell them on the front desk if you don’t have one, though. The first night was great – Ben and I met downstairs for some food and a couple of drinks. There was a pub quiz going on that night, and before we knew it, we were sat at a table of 12 people from all over the world, England, Australia, Germany, Quebec and France. It was a great night; we crashed and burned on the quiz, but the drinks were good, the food is great and it was a fantastic way to start my adventure in Canada.

Jet lag kicked in the next day, and I found myself awake at 5am, despite my best efforts to sleep more! I took the opportunity to grab a shower before everyone else was awake, and happened to see a guy we met on the way to the hostel the previous night, James. We went for an early morning walk over Granville Bridge for a coffee. Early morning is a fantastic way to see the city; its still fairly quiet, and it tends to be a little clearer. Walking over the bridge all we had to do was turn around to see the peaks of Grouse, Seymour and Cyress Mountains jutting above the buildings.

Once we returned to the hostel and had some breakfast (bagels, toast, fresh fruit and tea/coffee), Ben, Hayley and I decided to go for an explore. We headed south again, over the river and along the south shore of False Creek. With hindsight, that was a great choice, we were treated to views such as this:

We followed the south shore along and then came back over the river via Cambie Bridge. We got a little lost heading back to the hostel, but nothing a bit of google mapping couldn’t sort! We stopped for some lunch at a fast food place across the street from the hostel, for our first experience of the famous Poutine! Hayley went for the standard offering, whereas Ben and I got a little ambitious and went for the “upgraded” versions – Pulled Pork for me, Philly Steak for Ben. We weren’t disappointed! It was probably the quietest few minutes we’d had so far!

After lunch we walked up to Stanley Park – Ben and I hired bikes, and Hayley managed to find about 4 different free newspapers, so spent some time reading about what was going on locally.

The cycle around Stanley Park is nothing short of STUNNING. It’s about 5 miles round, and all flat – we stopped a few times to take pictures:

Unfortunately I didn’t take too many pictures as we went around – the wind coming off the sea was pretty cold, but when we were in the sunshine it was nice and warm!

We walked back to the hostel around 3pm, already shattered – as first days go, it was pretty packed! I had arranged to go to view a house later that day, which happily worked out well, so come the 27th March I’ll have a house to live in, and hopefully a job soon after!

Overall first impressions then – personally, I already feel very comfortable here; getting around is easy as the street layout is so simple! I’ve been walking most places, I was surprised how far you can get in 20 minutes! Everyone is as friendly as we thought they’d be, even more so – everywhere you go, you get people asking how your day is going, then always “Enjoy your day!”, which compared to the UK is a breath of fresh air. The city itself is clean, there’s no litter around, and recycling bins everywhere. The only thing that’s really caught me out is the amount of homeless people – they ask you for spare change, but if you say “no”,  then they walk away. The laws prohibit them from following people, they ask once, get turned away, and that’s it. I think it’ll take a little getting used to, but overall the transition has been fairly simple, and I’ve only been here 3 days!

Over and Out.