22nd July 2006 – 25th July 2006 – 2nd Four Day Break – To Van Couver, Canada and an American baseball match
I am SOO SOOO glad that I got to Canada. It would have been silly to get across the world, and not go to another country barely four hours away by car. We booked our Amtrak bus over the phone, and I felt silly because I was the person with the best English, and had to relay questions to kitty and star, asking them what their REAL names were, etc… We got a convenient lift into Redmond, caught the bus to seattle, and had a while before we were due to catch the bus. I found the most awesome shop in the world, that I had known at that time at least, called “fireworks” gifts. It had all this qwerky homeware stuff, like a poker dotted toaster and rabbit-eared egg whisks. I bought some funny badges and a red rubber ducky with devil horns!! We also found an equally as awesome book shop, which looked like a larger version of the one out of Black Books, and it even had a photography exhibition downstairs, a café and author talks in the ‘basement.’ I found the coolest board game “College-opoly’, using stereotypical school Goths, geeks, etc… as the characters.
We got on the coach, and sat up the back. And off we went on our genuine transamerican- Canada road trip. The scenery was fantastic, with giant bare cliff escarpments, pine trees, and the spectacular Mt Rainier, still covered in snow, like something from the swiss alps.
We stopped at the duty free store and I got some money exchanged – the Canadian currency is awesome and very similar to aussie currency. Plus I think its hilarious that the one and two dollar coins are called ‘loonies’ and ‘toonies’. – I think i remember greg telling me that, once. We were worried about having the right paperwork to actually allow us into Canada and back again. We got through alright, although the immigration officer was pretty horrible, a product of his occupation I guess. He was more concerned with the fact that three girls were entering the country with not a lot of cash on them, and no hostel booked. Coming into van couver at night, over the bridge, seeing the city skyline, was fantastic and very exciting. We got let off at ‘pacific central’, which was near the dodgiest streets in town, at 10:30pm. I know my parents will be reading this and will be quite annoyed for the recklessness of it, but sometimes its fun to be spontaneous. We did have a slight idea of where we were going, and lucky I did have my personal alarm on me, which I carried in my hand the whole way. I crossed the road whenever we got near some drunks and homeless people. But I wouldn’t like to go up hastings street at night again – during the day coming back, star got hit on and followed a bit by some guy.
We found our way to the ‘grand trunk hostel’, which didn’t look like much from the outside. There was a guy outside, who I assumed was another homeless guy, but it turned out he was the manager. I asked if he had any rooms free, and he said yeah but it’s a mixed dorm with a whole lot of Spanish men. So we walked off in the opposite direction along a beautiful part of downtown, with cobblestone streets and old green lightposts. We found a nice hostel above Malones Pub, called the Cambie. The room was small and I shared with star and kitty slept in another room, but considering we got in an 7 MINUTES to MIDNIGHT, I don’t think we really cared. I was expecting to just go to sleep, but the others wanted to check out the bar. You have to be twenty one in America to drink, and nineteen in Canada, but they didn’t check id at all, and I got a beer, and Canadian beer actually tastes quite good, almost as good as Healthy’s chocolate flavoured Slovenian beer. We were just sitting there listening to quite a good live band, who were playing songs that I actually recognised, and I really felt like I was ‘there’, when they played ‘sweet home Alabama,’ a few JET songs, and that one from 10 things I hate about you with the angry girl band. A guy hit on star and invited us to sit and drink with them, but we just stayed where we were. Then we went into the main dance area, and I, amy fell, actually danced, in a Canadian pub infront of a live band, drinking beer. How very unamylike, but hey!! I had a lot of fun – we got into bed at around 3am.
I woke up the next morning covered in mozzie bites for some reason. We got a free breakfast, which was home-made muffins and tea and coffee. I also brought along some aussie cereals, which went down very well. And off we were to start exploring the sights, smells and sounds of Van Couver. We walked along and I realised how much it reminds me of Sydney, much more so than seattle. All the public transportation is so much easier than America – like, I, amy fell, actually managed to direct the others around the whole time, around the entire Van Couver city. It felt very independent of me. Does anyone remember the line of painted life size bear sculptures, which were displayed along circular quay earlier this year? They are dotted around van couver city. I saw a chinese woman going around touching all the bears and saying a prayer, which I thought was quite strange.
We walked along gastown again, down water street, past the steam clock, and found an awesome native American art shop, which was like an art museum, but with ‘buyable’ things. I have discovered my new favourite art – this stuff is fantastic. Indian masks carved out of wood and painted amazing colours, moleskin boots, grey woollen mittens and jumpers, native indian dream catchers etc… I bought four prints which I will get framed when I get home.
I was also on a mission in van couver to find the places from the L word. We found only one – the Ironworks café. Its actually a modelling studio. When I looked in, the café décor was still set up in there, which was pretty cool. But I was actually expecting it to be a proper café, which was a bit disappointing. Not to mention the surroundings – a whole lot of homeless people making a home in the escarpment outside. We climbed over the bridge and found a train wreck with a policeman reporting – a whole line of freight carriages lying zig zag across the tracks. We walked through the park, by the beach and shipping dock, with the blue street lights, which I am sure I have seen at some point in the L word, although the whole time I was in van couver I was looking around saying ‘im sure they filmed something there.’ I had my eyes peeled, that’s for sure!!
We caught a bus to one of the coolest streets I have ever been on. “Davie Street”, with rainbow flags and lots of interesting shops, including a one and two dollar shop called ‘Amy’s Jr Loonie Toonie land”, which of course, I got a photo of. We found a hostel and they were full, but directed me to another HI hostel at the other side of town, along the beach in a beautiful area that looked like the streets of American movies. I found out later that two streets parallel to the hostel was B & T’s house, and I also found out that water street near the ironworks adjoins the WAX workshop if you follow the street down for a few miles.
We got into the hostel – an 18 bed dorm split into four bed sections. Star and I got the end two beds separated from the others, which was good because we had more space and privacy, but an emergency exit sign glared the whole night. We spent the rest of the day on Jericho beach, apparently the nicest beach in van couver but still nothing compared to aussie beaches. This beach had green waves from the seaweed coming ashore, and it was so silty you couldn’t see any part of your body under the water. It was disgusting, but refreshing I guess. We lay on the beach discussing, of all things, history, maths, English vocabulary etc… which seemed a bit random.
The next day we caught a few more buses into the heart of van couvers’ shopping streets – robson street. Bought few more souvenirs and dawdled up the street, finding our way to the famous Stanley Park, which is huge and beautiful. Its as big as a suburb. We walked along the pier with the yachts and a big dutch house, and caught a free old-fashioned trolley bus to the famous Native American totem poles. Star said they looked ‘kitsch’, but I am fascinated by them. They are a lot different to the indigenous Australian totem poles- such prominent designs and colours. Bought some more souvenirs in an awesome native American shop, and then headed over to the aquarium. I wasn’t too keen on going in because I had already been on the great barrier reef and went to San Fran aquarium, recently, but I am glad I went in. they had a whole section on the amazon rainforest – and I saw a giant boa constricter, an iguana, a bright red flamingo, Amazonian butterflies, turtles, beetles, green snakes, bright green and black poison dart frogs. We also watched the dolphin and the beluga whale show, from underneath. It was interesting watching the shows from below the surface – a completely new perspective.
We caught another shuttle bus up to prospect point, where star and I got very excited for spotting our first racoon. The view from there was amazing. They have a bridge identical to san francisco’s golden gate bridge, but smaller, and bright green. After that we caught the bus, past Beaver Lake and Lost Lagoon and got off, to walk back home. Star took some photos by the pancake house, ‘de dutch’, and we caught the bus to hippie street, fourth avenue, where we found a piercing and tattoo studio for star. I was expecting it to be filled with smoke, and dodgy old men doing piercings. But this place, called ‘adrenaline’, was very clean and very trendy, almost as cool as this other shop we found that made its own custom shirts, and sold giant canvas converse shoes as shoulder bags. Even I was almost tempted to undergo a complete transformation there - a lip piercing, short hair, nose piercing and emo clothes. (just learnt that word.)
Watching a lip piercing was the weirdest thing. Its one of those things where you don’t really know how you will react until you see it. I was more nervous than star with anticipation. I was watching intently through the window, seeing star normal one second, then scrunching up her eyes for ten seconds as they put this HUGE pole through her lip after clamping it in place. The next moment, the piercing man stepped back and I saw a huge pole sticking out of stars lower lip. I was expecting blood but there was none. The piercing they put in is huge, because her lip will swell up. It was sort of fascinating though to watch.
After that, we had run out of money for the bus, so decided to walk the few kilmetres to our hostel, which was the longest walk of my life!! By the time we got home it was 9pm and I couldn’t be bothered cooking, so I just had canned soup and bread.
The next day we packed up and headed back into the city. We walked through china town and back to “pacific central.” We waited in McDonalds for a while, and then I went for a walk and who should I run into but Mad Hatter and Fox from camp!!! They apparently went to van couver the day after we came. It was so exciting meeting up with them, in another country- so many questions to ask, like, where did they go, what hostel did they stay in, and how did they get here. It turned out they were catching the same bus home!! We were scared about getting back over the border, because apparently we needed to get our visa papers signed beforehand. But they hardly even checked them, which was a relief.
When we got back into seattle, kitty, fox and mad hatter went home, and star and I met up with fifteen others and went to see an American baseball match: the seattle mariners versus the Canadian Toronto blue jays, who kicked the mariners butt. I don’t really like baseball, like, it was boring to watch, but it was a good experience to go and get the whole American culture thing there. They had the whole “hot dogs, get your hot dogs, have you ever seen them this big?” thing, and I got one that was over a foot long. Took a photo of course. Star had trouble eating hers, not being able to move the bottom half of her face. You know on the simpsons how they go to the baseball game, and they have the giant fingers to cheer, and the corny baseball music that sounds like a mechanical organ? They have that inbetween innings and its very annoying. We got up each time and danced, and the last time they put it on, we got up and danced so crazily we were on the big screen for half a minute. Fantastic. One girl, London, decided to cheer for a fielder, Johnson, because that’s her last name. she kept yelling “go Johnson” etc… until he finally turned around and gave a wave.
I am so tired: so much for following goonies instructions to ‘take it easy and come back to camp refreshed.”
