Hello everyone, Its Christmas time and I have spent a great holiday in Vancouver. It was a different Christmas this year as it was my first away from home. But my room mate and I cooked up a mean dinner and invited a couch surfer from Finland over for the festive season. Along with Skiing and a great hike in North Vancouver it has been a great week! On Christmas eve my friend Louise and I went skiing up at Cypress Mountain. We got a ride up from someone she works with as an instructor.
Cypress Mountain is probably the best skiing that is within short distance from Vancouver. As most of you remember it was one of the venues of the 2010 Winter Olympic games and saw Canada win four gold medals. Alexandre Bilodeau, Maelle Ricker, Ashleigh McIvor and, Jasey-Jay Anderson all won gold medals at Cypress. During the Olympics they had some real troubles with snow and temperatures and at one point had to bring snow in by helicopter to continue with the events. As you will see from the pictures this year is a much better year!
We got up there bright and early for the first chair and the weather was foggy but really sunny and beautiful up at the top, great for pictures! Here are a few pictures from skiing!
On Christmas day I went and meta couch-surfer that is traveling in Canada from Finland named Lasse. I saw that Lasse would be in Vancouver during Christmas and I invited him to stay with us for a few days and have Christmas dinner and a bit of holiday cheer with us! Here is Lasse in front of our home.
I showed Lasse My favorite bar in Gastown and we tried a few great craft brews from Canada and the States, and then we had a few drinks at our place the other nights. I showed him a Canadian Christmas drink, Egg Nog, and he showed me a very Finnish drink, Vodka and Fisherman's Friend. Despite the harsh sound of that it was actually pretty good and the Fisherman's Friend really takes Vodka taste out of the shot.
Lasse really wanted to get out and see the great outdoors and go on a hike and I was also yearning for a walk-about on my day off, so we decided to go up to the Cove Forest in North Vancouver. The area boasts a great view of the Indian Arm inlet and a really great hike along the Bowen-Powell Trail. I told a few of my other friends, Fleur (NZ) and Abra (AUS) to come along for the hike as well. Here are some pictures of our around 5km hike.
As for Christmas, here is a picture of our goth Christmas tree, and a picture of my awesome Christmas breakfast! Be sure to check in late in January for another update! Peace.
When I got to Vancouver I had planned on going to Seattle, A city that has always interested me greatly and now I have finally been. Interestingly enough it is the largest city I have ever been to In the USA and I'm positive I will be back. I travelled to Seattle from Vancouver via BoltBus. It was comfortable, had WiFi and I was able to stow my polo bike for no additional cost. I might also point out to those looking to travel over the boarder with a bike, I hear that greyhound requires you to disassemble your bike and box it. None the less after 4 hours and a REAL hassle at the border (long haired backpacker staying in the US with folks that I'd met only over the Internet and a passport photo that makes me look soooo Black Metal) I arrived in the Emerald City!
Above, a picture of Smith Tower, a building I had only seen previously during my countless hours of playing Sim City 3000. I found out that my one of my favourite bands where playing on my birthday, November 25, at the Crocodile in Seattle. The band is called Earth and they play a uniquely accessible brand of highly experimental and minimalistic Drone Metal. See the sample below.
Here is a great photo of them!
I didn't have a place to stay the first night as my couch hosts were out of town for American Thanksgiving. So I found a hostel called the Green Tortoise right across from the historic Pike Place Market, and conveniently located a block away from Pike Brewery. The Friday that I was there I ate my first burrito of many during my stay and enjoyed a flight of the best beers Pike Brewery has to offer.From memory I enjoyed the Naughtie Nellie Organic Artisan Ale, Pike India Pale Ale, Kilt Lifter, Pike XXXXX Extra Stout, and TheMonks Uncle Belgian Triple.
Then it was on to touring around on my bike, playing bike polo, and meeting my couch surfing hosts in the Capitol Hill Area. My surfers where a bunch of college students that could not have been more cool and accommodating. One of the hosts, Andrew, went out with me to the Elysian Brewpub on Pike. we enjoyed some top brews and exchanged some great stories and conversations. The next day Andrew and I made an hour bike ride up to the notorious neighbourhood of Fremont, or as known b the locals, The Center of the Universe.
We attended the Fremont Sunday Flee Market, The Fremont Troll, Statue of Lenin, and a chocolate shop to fill up on all the crazy types of chocolate we could... even a curry chocolate. (Was surprisingly good!)
I played bike polo at Cal Anderson Park two of the days I was in Seattle and played like a sack of crap. But met some folks from Seattle Polo. No regrets.
Here is a further summary of photos from my trip. Enjoy!
Hello, and welcome to the blog of my travels and interesting life happenings over the next few years. I decided after about 4 years at my job for the government that I would resign and use the resources that I have to travel and drift between place to place, gaining knowledge and experiences that I have yearned for many years. Unfortunately when there is cash flow for travel this usually means that you are working your butt off with not a lot of time to tour. I have been very fortunate to travel to Europe four times over that past 5-6 years but I have always felt that I was only scratching the surface of these places I was visiting. My vacations cut short by that very sweet cash flow that needed to be tended to back in my home town, Ottawa. So I thought hard and thought long, and decided, being 22 and still full of energy that I would start step one of a series of steps(No particular number will be known until Im back in Ottawa ready for the rest of my life).
Step 1: Move to a city that I have always found intriguing and have always had a connection with even though I have only ever briefly had the chance to scratch the surface. It is a city, a province, and a Bio/Eco/Cultural region that has always drawn me in and interested me. So I arrived in Vancouver late in October 2012, the Northern heart of Cascadia. I flew here with no plans... Literally. I didn't have a place to live, a place to work, or really... any friends. At no point has this discouraged me. My first few days/nights were spent couch surfing with a few folks in the area of Kitsilano just south of Downtown Vancouver. It is a pretty preppy, trendy place, very similar to the Glebe back in my hometown of Ottawa. These folks I surfed with were kind and we went out for drinks to a great bar in Gastown called The Alibi Room. It was Fun and they provided me with a crucial place to live until I pretty much landed on my feet in East Van. I found a place in East Vancouver along Commercial Drive('The Drive') with two really nice female room mates. The place is just the ground floor of a 70's duplex with the landlord 'Cozimo' and his wife living above us. It is a spacious and cheep place with a quirky decor that you would find at your Grandma's house 10 years ago. It has a spacious kitchen which is a must for me. The house pictured below would prove to be a a great place to apply for jobs and persue a few passions as well. I hope this is proving an interesting enough read, I have about enough time to write about my job fortunes and a little preview of my trip to Seattle... So I will keep writing for mow while I sit here listening to Crosstown Traffic by Hendrix. After a few days of job searching I decided to deliver a few resumes to a few local places on The Drive near my house(Within about 4 blocks max). After stopping at only three places I ended up at a heath/organic food grocery that is attached directly to an Indian food restaurant that has a nice western fusion. I spoke to the manager and was hired on the spot as a grocery clerk. Fitting as I love Samosas... especially employee discounted Samosas.
A few weeks later one of the places I stopped off at before Sweet Cherubim called me back and hired me. BierCraft Taps and Tapas is a tapas style restaurant/bar that is also within about 3 blocks of my house. I have been working hard here about twice a week as a busser/host and loving it. it is fast paced, social, and it flies by because it is something new and challenging! Not to mention the great food I eat there for my staff meals... So the neighbourhood I am in is a quirky, fun, and happy place with a wide variety of people. It can only be described as a Hip, Environmentally and socially conscious crowd that are happy and outgoing. The types of people are of all age ranges, lots of young adult, young families and a few of your typical 60's and 70's peace lovers. Mix in the 4:20, LGBT, Portuguese, and Italian communities and it makes for one interesting neighbourhood. Here are some photos of the area. Enjoy!
The East Van Bike Polo Court. The worlds first Bike Polo specific court!
And my mode of transport
I planned a trip to Seattle for my birthday to see another city that I have always had a great interest in. But that entry will have to wait for another day. Here is a preview hahaha!
