Hey there!!This being the third attempt to put up a blog, I am smart and typing it into word and then copy+paste it!!GENIUS!!!!
So, lets start from the beginning of my trip. I am actually here for over a week now and the first two blogs I tried to post were probably a lot more detailed but this is the best I can do now.
After arriving safely in Toronto at the Greyhoud Bus Terminal I was happy to see that the Airport Shuttle would leave in 10 minutes. Well, I wasn’t anymore whenever the bus driver told me he yet had to go to 9 (!) different hotels before we’d arrive at Pearson International Airport. Thankfully he told me to take a cab two blocks down so I could catch the bus ahead of him, otherwise I would’ve ended up paying $ 50 for a taxi right to the airport. He also called the other bus driver to wait for me in case I wouldn’t make it in time (thank you Toronto bus drivers!!!Only had good experience with them so far!)
Well, I made it in time and from then on, the whole trip was just perfect. The plane left on time without any inconveniences (surprise for I always have problems with traveling by plane) and I arrived about 6 hours later at Vancouver International Airport. There I went straight to the next gate to catch my flight with Central Mountain Air to Comox, Vancouver Island although it wouldn’t leave for another 2 hours. I then realized that the numbers of the departure time on my ticket were mixed up and went to the counter to get it fixed…aaand fortunately they put me on standby on an earlier flight!!! I only had to wait another ten minutes and there I was, boarding the….I really don’t know if you can call it a plane. It was the smallet flying object (any kind of animals excluded) that I have ever seen in my life. First I burst out in a laugh, after sitting down in one of the 18 seats (9 on each side and about half the size of a regular economy class seat) all I wanted to do was cry. After I realized that I was probably NOT going to die that day, I really enjoyed it and had the most beautiful view I have ever seen in my wole life. Well, I wanted to take pictures but I wasn’t even allowed to take my purse inside because it was too small. I realy didn’t want the flight to ever end but, well, it did and after approximately 25 minutes we arrived at Comox Airport. On the same flight as I was also another girl on standby going home to visit her parents and after picking up my bag (that fortunately made it on the earlier plane) they gave me a ride to Courtenay Hostel . There I asked for a bus up the mountsin and realized that I just missed it by 10 minutes.
Well, Kiyokos parents were so nice to give me another lift up to the base, halfway up the mountain. There they left me standing on the side of the road with the words “just hitchhike from here, everyone does it”. For the forst couple of seconds I was dumbfounded. But then the 4th car passing was a staff bus and the really nice driver Randy took me up. Arriving at the lodge he there intodruced me to the supervisor of the restaurants on the mountain who told me to send her my resume. Only then I called Sina who still expected me to come later that night. She came right away to the lodge to pick me up and after a lot of hugs and also seeing Jessy for the first time in 6 months we were on our way to their apartement.
Well, that’s basically it, nothing changed from there. I sleep on the couch, I sent out my resumes but didn’t get an answer until two days ago. But then, Sina and I already made up our minds to leave next Thursday for we now have a car!! We bought a Dodge Neon (called Rolf) about 4 days ago and we’ll try to take it back to the east coast.
About our trip: we will leave on Thursday and drive down to Tofino. There we will stay for 3 days (couchsurfing) and do some hiking, whale watching, relaxing at the (still pretty cold) beach.
After that we’ll drive to Victoria, British Columbias capitol (also couchsurfing there) and see the city, go to the museum, see Emily Carrs house…whatever we’re up to. Then we want to take the ferry from there to Vancouver and try to get some Olympic Spirit. We’re lucky to have found someone there who will let us couchsurf on such short notice during the games. In Vancouver we want to visit some museums, proabably the Aquarium, hang out at Stanley Park and experience the most multi-cultural city on the west coast (don’t worry NY I won’t let you down!) . We tried to get some tickets for an olypic event but it is too expensive. But fortunately we had/have all the skiing athletes up here on Mount Washington. Last week we actually wanted to watch them practice shooting, but they cancelled it again. We still saw the French and Swedish biathletes though. And the Snow Leopard, Ghanas first Alpine Skiing competetor. Go Ghana!
After the sad news of the death of a Georgian luge athlete we watched to opening ceremonies of th 21st Olympic Winter Games on TV yesterday. And today we already have one silver medal!!!Weiter so, Deutschland! So wie letztes Mal in Turin!
Back to our plans for the trip. After Vancouver we’re going to drive all the way to Calgary, Alberta (Olympic Winter Games 1988, by the way) and try to find some work there. We won’t make the trip in one day so we decided to stay in Revelstoke for a night. We are still trying to find someone to host us there, if not we’ll have to stay at the hostel.
That’s it so far. Tomorrow I’ll finally go skiing up here. I will have to rent skiing equipment though, but well, it’s skiing and I hope the price for it will be worth the experience (over 60 slopes and a 415 cm snow base!).
I hope I am doing the right thing by leaving the mountain but I got to say, I can’t even go and sit in a restaurant with my friends here because I am not 19 yet. And in Calgary, Alberta the legal drinking age is 18 so that will be better. And it ias pretty boring up here if you can’t go skiing so I am actually happy to leave and not be stuck up here anymore.
I hope everyone who is reading this is fine (wherever you are at the moment)
Cheers!!!
Tanja
Posts
