Good music, good company, many photos, amazing sceneries, good weather, interesting pit stops, couldn't be better. However, at about the 10 hour mark, when we found a random Starbucks in a random small town along the road and stopped for a 30 minutes break, we were getting sick of driving. Kamloops felt like it took an absolute ETERNITY to get to, as you drive by 4, count em 4 towns in over 400kms to get there. Once we passed Kamloops and found the Starbucks, we still had a solid 4 hours to go before Vancouver, it was getting dark, the roads were going from beautiful in to proper winter driving conditions, and we were quite frankly just sick of being on the road. Not to mention I was getting motion sick from having been in a car for so long after spending my entire time in Europe car-less. However, we survived the next 4 hours, me by taking an hour or so nap to get over my sickness, and Samara with a triple espresso, and we made it to Vancouver just passed 20h.Now Vancouver, like most large North American cities, is not just one city, but is actually an agglomeration of cities, all smoushed together; Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, Langley, etc. The metro area of Vancouver itself being on the Western most tip of the peninsula and only having a population of just over 500 000, with the Greater Vancouver area sprawling out over hundreds of kilometers East and having a population well over 2.3 million. So we probably penetrated Vancouver before 19h, but didn't actually get to Toby's flat (an old friend of Samara's currently in law school) until after 20h. And this is by taking the freeway most of the way there. However, from the moment we FINALLY arrived at Vera's Burger Shack located about 20m from Toby's place to get some much needed food and beer after that long drive, it was all great times. Britt, another old friend of Sam's, showed up soon after, followed by Toby joining us once his class finished. The 4 of us just relaxed, caught up, and sipped a few beer before getting some much needed rest on Toby's pull-out couch.
The next day, despite this being the beginning of dizziness, nausea and weakness that would plague me on and off for the next few days, (which turned out was all stress induced - referring back to the existential crisis I mentioned which was apparently subconsciously festering in my brain this entire time), I got my first taste of Vancouver and what it was about, waking up to Toby's breathtaking view from his 12th story flat just blocks from the Pacific Ocean. Driving through the city, you get this impression that you're in this Canadian/Asian version of L.A. What with trees everywhere, very modern man-made but oversized architecture built around cars and roads, and everything very beautiful, but a kind of fake, plastic-y L.A. kind of beautiful. However, it is Canadian after all, so it still does have a very down to earth kind of charm to it, despite taking an absolute eternity to get anywhere, even just in the metro area of Vancouver. For example, for Sam and I to get from Toby's place near the Western most tip of the peninsula to downtown Vancouver, find outrageously expensive 4$ per 20min parking, and walk to our breakfast destination, took well over an hour. As it turned out, breakfast was completely and totally worth it. It had the food and service quality of Cora's, but with this European Colonial Africa themed atmosphere. Perfection. Not to mention with a window seat, fabulous Vancouver sun and +9C weather beaming down on us, and a perfect people watching view of the street. The rest of the day was mainly just looking for parking, wandering and absorbing downtown, meeting David Suzuki at Watch It (which FYI, he is not a pleasant man), meeting up with Britt, and spending over 5+ hours at the tattoo shop of what is quite possibly the slowest tattoo artist on the planet. After this the three of us went back to Toby's where he had just gotten back completely drunk from this fancy law firm mixer, cracked open the bottle of 'Freudian Sip' Okanagan Valley wine Sam and I bought early, ordered late-night Chinese food and watched South Park.
The following day, Toby went to class, a little hungover, but got there nevertheless, Sam went on the hour long drive to see her Grandma and Aunt in a Southern part of the city, while I relaxed at Toby's with some more Starbucks, enjoying the fabulous view from his balcony. Speaking of Starbucks, Vera, remember when we talked about how Berlin had what we thought was a lot of Starbucks, as there was one seemingly on every corner, only to find out it has about 18 well located stores? Well, turns out Vancouver has roughly 400 Starbucks. Which means it quite literally has one every few blocks. Meaning that no matter where you are, even if it is on the very tip of the country, you know there is a place serving all day breakfast sandwiches. Eventually, at about 15h after Toby returned home so I could give him his keys, I left to go meet up with Tom, first time I would see him since August in Switzerland. I figured out Vancouver bus system, which is surprisingly efficient, and went to the flat where he's staying at the moment. From here after catching up on the major details of our lives, we starting walking in the direction of downtown, only to stumble across a fabulous Japanese restaurant a few blocks away. I must explain here for those who aren't aware, that Vancouver's nickname is Hong-couver, or Hong-couvaaah, for a very good reason. It's population, by this point must be nearing at least 50% Asian. So there is an overwhelming abundance of amazing asian restaurants. And as everyone knows my love for sushi, given the fact that I haven't had any in literally months, and Tom is a big fan too, we got side tracked and stopped at the restaurant. It was over this AMAZING meal and speedy catch-up conversation that Tom helped me realize that the illness was stress induced. From here we took a breathtaking 20 minute walk across the bridge to downtown Vancouver, going to a pub with a terrace (Canadian terrace that is, being insulated with heat lamps, even in Vancouver).
From here it only got better, with more laughter and amazing times. Was one of the best nights out I've had in a while. Soon Jackie, a friend of mine from Saskatoon, joined us, followed by a friend of hers. Jackie and Tom, who had never met until that night, got along famously providing us with insane laughter for most of the night. They were like fucking stand up comedians. Eventually we headed to another pub in the gay district to meet up with Sam, Britt and Toby (because as it turned out the entire group was at minimum bi-curious). Gong show (in a good way) ensued from here as the 7 of us had more drinks, and went out to a club down the street. This next part, which started with 3 tequila shots, shall not go in to table dancing detail in a public blog.. Suffice to say it was very good times.
The next day (Saturday), having deliberated for over an hour about our plans driving back, we decided to leave that day, as Sam had to work at 6:45am Monday morning and my weather icon was flashing a little red lightening bolt announcing the 'Cold Snap' that was coming down from the Arctic through the Rockies down to the Prairies that same day. Turns out, it was a wise choice, as it took us an additional 4 hours driving time as we had to slow down to 60kms/hr for well over 500 kms to drive through the thick snow. As we left around 2pm from Vancouver, and our initial time was 14 hours, this meant that this trip back took us 18 hours. 18 hours straight I might add, aside from a 30 minute pit-stop in Kamloops for Wok Box. However, just like last time, everything was fantastic, aside from the last 4 hours, which yet again, seemed like time was slowing down and we would never make. By the time 3am came, we had delved in to over-tired, caffeine and sugar fueled hysteria as we broke out in to a 5 minute laughing fit trying to pick out 2$ worth of 5 cent candy for Samara. We left the Husky with 20$ worth of crap with the attendant thinking we were escaped mental patients I'm sure, only to listen to Aqua, belting out the tunes and laughing hysterically for the next few hours. By the time we FINALLY hit Jasper around 4-5am, the hysteria had worn off, and we just wanted caffeine, food, and sleep. Maybe not in that order. The next four hours dragged by as we finally rolled in to Edmonton, 18 hours later at 8am. We proceeded to go pretty much straight to sleep, only to wake up just over 3-4 hours later, myself with a nasty head cold.
I spent basically the next few days laying in bed watching endless hours of movies and Big Bang Theory, as I was sick and couldn't get out of bed, not to mention the fact that the 'cold snap' had hit and it was now about -50C outside with the wind. Finally at about 7:30pm Monday night, I got a burst of positive energy and booked my train ticket, which left at 11:45pm that night. Or as you read in the previous blog, was supposed to leave at 11:45. But thankfully, I was feeling much better and was only a little sick by this point, and aside from a few hours of sleep, spent basically the entire train ride catching up on many, many articles I'd been putting off reading for ages, and thinking and contemplating this existential crisis I was having, to I must say, as I mentioned in great detail the previous blog describing my love for the train, great success. The train finally pulled in to Rivers, Manitoba (about 20 kms North West of Brandon a full 7 hours late at 11pm. Kyler picked me up and brought me to his place where I stayed the night, to be driven to Virden by Aunty Leanne, over more fabulous conversation, where we had lunch with yet another Aunt and Uncle and Grandma Helen, followed by a leisurely drive home with them (by leisure I mean it took us roughly 3 hours to make the 100 km drive because of stopping for groceries, Tim Hortons, the bank in Reston, and Antler for Grandma). I finally arrived home about 3pm on Wednesday, after 68 hours of travel, 70 if you count the extra 2 hours of errands on the way home.
All in all, it was an amazing trip. Thanks to Sam's incredible generosity, the amazing gas mileage of Jettas, Toby for his pull-out couch, and the many rides I got to various places, the entire trip cost me very little for a fabulous experience. I got to reconnect in amazingly positive ways to two very good old friends, re-new and solidify a friendship with a third, meet some amazing people, and discover a lot about myself along the way. The 'crisis' and intense contemplation on the train ended last night at home in Redvers to amazing self-discovery, with a fresh outlook on life and renewed vigour and excitement for the next chapter of my life.
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