Fun in Vancouver

I took the mid-day ferry from Victoria to Vancouver. Once again it was raining and I couldn't see much from the ship. It was also pretty foggy, and I was staring at the fog collecting and gathering on the nearby islands and mountains. It seemed almost like the rain was creating the fog because the mountains were too hot. Seemed like stream or something.

Vancouver felt also like it whirled by. This time there wasn't as much booze and bar hopping, as much as so many things to do and never enough time.  I got there late in the evening and checked in. I went out a grabbed a quick sandwich, and pretty much turned in for the night. I was exhausted! 

This was the first time I didn't feel like a princess in my hotel room. All the hotels I stayed in up until this point were great. The best and biggest one was in Jasper. They gave me so many towels, extra bedding, and all organically made soaps and shampoos. The bedroom there was in the entrance, and it had a separate living room. It was my little luxury palace while I stayed in the mountains.

The hotel in Vancouver was much less expensive, and I could feel it. I had (for the first time since I was ten a single bed. Which was a step up from the couch I had been sleeping on at Simon's. There was just enough room to walk around the single bed, and that was about it. The television was about the size of my computer screen. At first, these things really bothered me. But I got used to them for the couple days I was there. Then Simon gave a get-out-of-jail-free card, and I was "forced" to upgrade my room. He decided to come and chill with me for a couple days in Vancouver. I got a double bed, and the room had a lot more space. At this point, I no longer cared as much as I did when I first arrived there.

My first day in Vancouver I did what I have grown to quite enjoy in a new town. I just wandered. I was staying right in the heart of the shopping downtown. I was surrounded by brand name chain stores, and they were all open late. I was disgustingly happy with this discovery. I also knew, I would probably end up buying a bunch of stuff I would have to figure out a way to get home.

I wandered around downtown checking out different shops. I loved the Chapters, and probably spent about two hours in there. I saw this really cool Sweeny Todd barber type chair in this trendy vintage store.

On my way back to my hotel I stopped by SteamRollers on the recommendation of a friend. He told me to get the Wet burrito, and after reading about the yogurt, and guacamole they put in it, I was sold. I expected this little burrito, and was going to grab dinner a couple hours later. Little, the burrito was NOT. It triple the size of a regular burrito and drenched with these and other delicious sauces on top. It was so mouth-watering I couldn't stop eating. Suffice it to say, I did not grab dinner that evening. I was FULL!

SUNDAY, APRIL 23rd, 2010

Once I had gotten back to Vancouver I sent an e-mail to William asking him if he wanted to hang out, and he did :)

We met up and I took him on a long walk to Gastown. I forgot how cute it looked with it's brick and cobblestone streets. We weren't impressed by the stream clock like all the other tourists were. It's one of Gastown's landmarks, and runs completely on steam. It was interesting the way the steam billowed out of the top. 

We stopped in a cafe and each had a hot chocolate. I love he way William says it, it's a mix between chocolate and the french chocolat. It's like "hot shaw-co-lit". 

We then decided to go to Stanley Park, but walk around the shore to get there. On the way we saw this giant cruise ship.William spoke hopefully about one day going on a cruise and seeing the whole world. He took a lot of pictures of the ship.

We looked across the harbour at how green and beautiful North Vancouver seemed to be. This walk was about two hours or so. We spoke of many things, and saw many interesting things. 

There was this cute water-airport full of planes taking off and landing. We stayed watching the planes for a while, both secretly wishing we could be on them, going to some exotic location. There was also a water-gas station?!! I was so impressed, but yet the questions still looms… how do they get the gas there? I'm sure it's boated over, but it was funny at the time to think of all the silly scenarios.  

The walk was pretty and we encountered many interesting things along the way, like this house on stilts. William took many pictures along the way constantly changing the settings on his camera to better suit the situation.

We also took a break to play leap-frog with some monks. I think Spongy won. 

Then slowly before we realized it… we were in the park. There was a tonne of wildlife and everything was so green and beautiful. We walked through the centre and around Bear lake. We headed over to Ferguson point for the sunset.After the sun had gone we headed back into the city, and back downtown. As we did so, we heard lots of car horns blaring, people singing and screaming. We realized the Canuck's had just won the series. Now they have a series with the Black Hawks for the cup. The streets were such an overwhelming cheer and excitement. William and I couldn't hear one another, and adopted the contagious smiles from the crowd. We grabbed some dinner, and said goodnight around eleven thirty and I walked the happy streets back to my hotel.

I've been enjoying too much and not updating this blog!!

         April, 15th, 2010

         Victoria passed by in a blur. 

        The ferry and bus ride there was a couple hours that seemed to whirl by. I definitely noticed how green everything became and how quickly it did so. However, it was hard to see much from the ferry just because it was overcast and so rainy. (Oh Vancouver!)

         I remember sitting in the bus depot, waiting for Simon to come get me… I felt like falling asleep, and debated doing so, knowing he would wake me up when he got there. I didn't, but struggled to keep my eyes open.

        When we got to his place I took a nap to help me with some energy lost during the train party the night before.

         Then it began…. the endless string of bar hopping.

        We started at a happen' micro-brewery with a live band. I called them the funky shirts. They were a group of slightly older guys (50s - 60s) who all wore really crazy shirts. But man, they were playing a whole lot of classics and they had everyone singing along and dancing. Their musicianship wasn't top notch, but their energy was. 

        Simon and I had dinner there. SpongeBob didn't like the beer, but we kept him quiet, and us from getting kicked out. Some of Simon's friends showed up and eventually we ventured on to greener pastures. Only the cow's were dead, and the pasture was burnt to the ground. 

        We went to the James Joyce (which is nothing like the one in Toronto). It was a pool hall and restaurant/cafe. Simon and one of his friends went to play pool, while the rest of us sat around drinking and chatting. It was a quite, bright atmosphere. I wanted to go back to the dark lively bar. We chilled there until last call. Simon was in party mode,  but the rest of us were starting to crash. He unwillingly lead me to the Cab line.

        Now when I say Cab line, I think (toronto- terms) a line of Cabs waiting to transport people. In Victoria, a cab line is a line of people waiting for a Cab. Most of these people are drunk, belligerent kids who have to get home after the bar. We saw some stupid interesting characters, but I was ready to get to a bed (or in my case, a couch) and in no mood for Shenanigans. 

         These were so pretty rad ducks, they were just chilling on the sidewalk like it was usually... that is until Simon scared them away.

April, 16th, 2010

        The following day Simon showed me how to get downtown, and took me to the harbour. There were lots of sidewalk vendors and tonnes of buskers, each with a different approach, and different genre of music. 

It was pretty there, with all the flowers, and the boats resting in the harbour. The people seemed a lot more relaxed, and there were MANY tourists. It seemed a bit like Jasper, only in the sense that everything is geared towards the tourists.

        We ventured to a couple book stores, and ended up grabbing some lunch at a chain restaurant. Has anyone noticed that a lot of chain restaurants decorate their bathrooms, to make them extreme? Not only did this one look like some crazy Texan's living room, but the toilets were crazy!! They had plastic wrapped around the seat which would feed through a machine to give a sterile surface each and every time. To flush it, there was a metal button on the floor, a couple steps away from the toilet, which one would step on. Sorry to bored you with the details of this washroom… but it was new to me!

        Caesars were on special, and we felt it was our only duty to have some with our lunch/dinner. 

        While we sat on the patio there was this car full of dogs that was on the road right out front of the restaurant. The owners left the back window wide open, and if the big dog really wanted to, it could have easily jumped out. I kept calling to him in a friendly voice, trying to coax him out, while Simon kept telling him to stay. 

We tried to figure out his name. We kept calling out different names, "Paul? Jack? Ralph? Joe? George?Fred? Frank? Jerry? Gerald?" the list went on and on. Sammy seemed to suit him, and I decided on that name, although Simon wasn't satisfied with that.

        There was also a cute little dog in the front of the truck. It had some confidence issues though, because it felt the need to bark and growl at everything it saw, I guess it was to make up for her lack in size. She was quite yappy, and although I preferred her size, we both preferred the attitude of Sammy.

After a few too many drinks, and a great meal, we headed on our way. 

        This evening we had a party in the beach. We met a couple of Simon's friend, watched the sun go down, and made a fire. 

        There were these crazy people swimming. It was about maybe 7 degrees or so, and here these people are swimming away in the dark. When they were done, they came to borrow our fire's warmth. I asked them why they had decided to go. They then showed me the electrolytes. 

        Essentially at different times of the year these bacteria get some kind of charge with positive ions. It they encounter friction, they light up for a split second, kind of like a fire fly. We were moving our hands about the water for a about a good ten minutes just watching it light up.

        There was lots of chatting, and drinking, and joking. The worse joke of the evening was putting this dead loon's body into the fire. The poor thing's neck was broken and it's body was completely waterlogged. Made me sad to look at, but took a while to look away.

         The greatest thing we did was roll a giant stump down to the pit, only for the fire to nearly penetrate it. It took six of us at one point to get it to where we headed it. It was a GIANT stump!

        Once it got too late for the Victorian's we put out the fire. Simon and I decided we would walk back to his place from the beach. It was about a two hour walk, but we had booze, we weren't tired, weren't cold, and ready for the challenge.

         It was quite an epic walk! The terrain went through all sorts of changes, as we walked through the suburbs of Victoria. 

We also had a very long talk, more so than in the past, and although no psychological issues were solved, I think we both enjoyed just chatting about stuff that had been on our minds for weeks, months, and years. 

        Travelling for so long, it was sure nice to have a chat with an old friend who had known me for so long, and I didn't have to continually explain each detail of the story to.

        We stopped on UVic to have a cigar, and refill our drinks. At this point we realized we had been drinking for about twelve hours straight. This thought was hilarious to both of us.

So we took some "we should look like this after twelve hours straight".

      We continued on, and reached a Tim Horton's about thirty minutes later.

We both grabbed hot chocolates, spiked them, and continued walking. We got back to Simon's around 4:30, 5ish, and sat on his front steps. We smoked a cigar each and reflected on our epic walk from the beach and we rested our now sore feet.

My Date with Nate

I awoke to the sound of children screaming. They were arguing with each other about something. It sounded like they broke something as well. I wondered why they were in my room. I sat up quickly confused by this thought. I sat up way too quickly and my head stung. I realized the children were actually in the television. Children in TV appear louder than they actually are.

I lurched across the hotel room and shut it off. I closed the curtains and shut out the blinding light of the sun. With my head swirling, I clambered back over to my bed. 9:20, OUCH!

My phone beeped.

The neighbours were in the doorway.

The housekeeping was vacuuming above me.

My phone beeped.

The housekeeping was cleaning the room to my left.

My phone beeped again.

I began replying to the onslaught of texts.

The housekeeping was cleaning the room to my right. 

At about 11:15 I stopped trying to sleep. I felt horrible, but I knew sleeping was not an option. I got up slowly, and wondered why it was that my head hurt extremely so. I went to the living room and checked out the bottle of gin. Half gone, ah, it all makes sense now.

I quite slowly showered and tried to drink a hell of a lot of water. I was a mess.

One of the texts I had received was from Nate, "Breakfast?"

I remembered we had planned a day of breakfast cooked by the cook. Then hiking through the mountains on the opposite side of town from where I had been the day before.

I headed back across town and had some breakfast at his place. Water, scrambled eggs, water, hash browns, and water. I met a couple of his roommates. Seemed like fun guys, good sense of humours. Two of them were in much worse shape that me. Apparently they had got to a different after-hours party, one that was only a split-second thought the night before.

After breaky we headed out to the mountains. We crossed the Athabaska river and had to stop and marvel at the view.

We hiked a little over half way up the path, and I felt like I was dying. We stopped for a break to drink some water, and catch our breath. We sat on some rocks and were chatting. All of the sudden it felt like someone was right behind us. I turned around and saw a whole lot of someones. In fact it was a whole heard of goats. They were about six or seven metres from us grazing away, not minding us being there at all. I thought it was so great and I couldn't stop staring at them. We sat amongst the herd for about twenty minutes before continuing our climb to the top. 

Once there the view was spectacular. Jasper looked so tiny and quaint, nestled snugly in the landscape. We sat up top there for at least an hour.Afterwards he lead me down to a nearby lake. The water was so clear and beautifully coloured. We sat by the lake for some time.

I could not have asked for better weather. The sun was shinning, hardly any clouds. There was a light cool breeze that whistled in fresh cool air off the mountains. The conversation was one of the best. Nate is a great guy to talk to. We spoke about family, video games, cartoons, movies, economy, society, politics, spiritually, tv shows, and must have laughed most of the day away. He's got great views on the world, and keeps strong open-minded opinions about the way the world is. Not to mention has great stories to share.

We walked back into town and were faced with some Elk. I've never seen Elk before, and was completely impressed with their massive size and calm attitude. The only time I've ever seen Elk before was at High Park Zoo, and they were not half as close. We walked within 10 feet of them. Nate was not impressed at all. He actually seemed a bit annoyed with the Elk, like they were in the way and should stay out of town. They were grazing on some grass about a block away from downtown.

We walked back downtown and I headed back to hotel to start packing up my stuff. I fell asleep for a while, and awoke to a text from Nate asking if i wanted to watch a movie.

I went over to his place and we ordered a pizza, and watched Sherlock Holmes. I feel it's a really well done movie, and I quite enjoyed it.

Afterwards he asked me to stay the night, and although I considered the thought I declined and he walked me back to my hotel. We said our goodbyes and I said goodnight to the mountains for the last time.

Jasper

I awoke feeling refreshed. I think I slept about twelve hours or so. I felt happy still and was excited about the day ahead of me. I ran over to the window and pulled back the curtains. They were still there, it wasn't a dream, "Good morning Mountains," I said I headed to the shower.

One of the first things I noticed about this town (other than the distraction of the mountains), was that it has a lot of cobblestone. A lot of the building have stones in their walls. Also there are these benches. They look like something from the Flinstones. I giggle at them but I really enjoy the way they look.

I went for breakfast. I ended up at this place on the main strip. They were actually done breakfast so I had some soup and a sandwich. 

After I ate I headed through town to the museum. It was closed. It made me a little sad, museum number two I have missed. Directly behind the museum was some nature trails which lead into the foothills and into the mountains. OH FUN!

I looked at the map… Which way… twenty mile loop or nine kms to Pyramid lake. I decided pyramid lake sounded not only easier, but the reward of a lake was at the end.

Within two minutes I was in the forrest. I could no longer see the town, and all I could see was the forrest around me. There was this one rock I passed where I was sure there was a face in it. Did Medusa trap a man inside thousands of years ago? Do you see it?

As I followed along the path I watched the town of Jasper get smaller and smaller. I marvelled at how it existed perfectly with nature completely surrounding it.

I walked along in peace for about an hour or so. I had lots of time to think, and it was so nice to be alone, uninterrupted with my thoughts. I looked over the last year in my mind, and it helped me to better understand myself and my wants in life. I didn't get anything figured out, or come to an epiphany, but it was really nice to have some quiet to think.

SpongeBob and I had some fun staking rocks. I always love the way these mini statues look. Inukshuks!

Every jogger I passed in the woods said hello. All of them were with someone or had a dog with them. I thought it was kind of dumb to go alone. Not only are these woods full of wildlife, but I saw, on a number of occasions, bear prints in the mud.

I eventually ended up in Patricia Lake. It was nothing short of spectacular. The lake was frozen over and the contrast of green trees and hills between the mountains, sky, and lake was breathtaking.

I sat on the lake for about twenty minutes or so. Mouth-gaping stare I'm sure the whole time. Spongy got excited that we were at a lake and kept talking about searching for his pineapple. Eventually he got really excited and tried diving in. It took a bump on the head and twenty minutes of explanation before he understood the lake was frozen.

On the way back I took a detour. Took a path that looped around a different part of the woods. Was I ever happy that I did, for the trail winded further and further up the hill. The view was great and the rolling hills reminded of a bright eyed child, or little house on the prairie. I imaged running up the hill with my hair in pig-tails crying, "pa-pa! Pa-pa!"

The path went back and forth and slowly scaled back down the side of the mountain. I kept marvelling at how steep the slopes were (the ones I was staring right beside).

Not a trail? REALLY!? It certain looks like a tire rim to me. Hum?

I got back from my little hike just in time to watch Buffy… Oh how I love that show! Especially the old episodes.

I killed a bit of time and watched a silly 80s movie about a cross-dressing college kid.

Then I headed to the main strip for dinner. I sat at the bar and had a delicious steak, with some mashed potatoes and asparagus. I took my time there, it had a fun youthful vibe. I decided that I would have some desert, but what I wanted they did not have, so I opted for a glass of port instead (Taylor 20, my face!). I asked for a glass, but what I got was a bucket. The bartender poured me about 9oz. (For those who don't know, 2oz. of pour is equal to one drink). I was shocked, but knew I would enjoy it. When I headed out for a cigar, the bartender came out for a smoke and asked me to come with him to the nearby club (Pete's). He was a good looking, friendly English chap, and we were hitting it off chatting all evening. I decided I would hang out till he was done and follow him over.

Upon getting back inside I met one of the cooks who was at the bar. The bartender had poured him a pint and threw a couple shots of Hyphynoptic in it. It smelt strange, but he said it didn't taste terrible. We started chatting a bit, and I found out he was from Barrie. He seemed nice enough and told me he would see me over at Pete's.

Once the bartender and the manager were finished closing up, we all headed over. I got stopped at the door and asked for ID. I presented my health card, and his response was, "I don't take healthcard's." He wouldn't even look at it, and I had nothing else. I guess I wasn't getting in there.

I began my walk back to hotel. It was probably time to head back anyways, my head was swirling with all the port and drinks before that. I didn't even get a block when I heard someone calling my name. "No one knows me in Jasper," I thought to myself. I saw that it was the cook that I had been talking to at the restaurant. He asked me why I wasn't at Pete's already and I explained.

He didn't seem phased at all. "Let's go over here," and we continued walking.

He took me to a nearby pub and we grab a drink. We chatted some more and laughed an what not. Some of his friends invited us to a party just after last call. I said YES! But it was decided if we were to go to a party that booze was in order. We went to another hotel, or bar type place and bought a bottle of gin. It definitely was sketchy. (sorry daddy)

Then it was decided that one wold need juice with said gin and so the cook and I made a detour to the Mac's Mart. It was weird, the town had felt empty and quiet since I arrived, but during this time people were running around everywhere. The bar we went to, the sketchy hotel/bar, the club I couldn't get into, and the Mac's Mart were full of people having good times. Man, does Jasper ever come alive at night.

The cook, Nate, lead me to his place, and very much discouraged me from going to the party. He said that it would be twelve guys in a garage doing coke all night. I was still down for going, it was twelve guys I didn't know and could chat with while I got drunk. (Not that I was or anything at this point).

We ended up chilling at Nate's wicked apartment till stupid o'clock. Chatting, drinking, laughing. I remember we watched some BAD music videos.

I got back to my hotel at 5:30am.