Travelling Without Moving
So I’m here in Vancouver, a month later, supposedly travelling, but not! Can’t go far when you don’t have much money. So it was time to put the working visa into action. The boring round of temping agencies, stupid computer tests to see how well you can use Word and Excel. I even had to do spelling and “problem solving” tests.
Eventually was posted into a decent job that pays well, no dictatorial boss, and I must have the most amazing view in all of Vancouver – downtown, False Creek, the mountains, are all there right before my eyes. Almost makes up for being cooped up all day.
So then the mission was, how to have fun, on a budget, in my spare time. Tricky, but possible. Free excitements were provided by Mother Nature – big fluffy snowflakes falling outside the 15th floor of an office tower isn’t something that happens often to a Sydney girl! Last week I was happily daydreaming out the window when the whole building started to shake. My first earthquake! The email came around about 5 minutes later informing us that it was a 6.2. Not too shabby! Nothing happens if it’s not on email these days! Poor ol’ Seattle though.
I also had a bald headed eagle drift past my window, lazily floating on the currents. That’s a good sign that life must be fairly in balance here I think.
I managed to catch one gig of the North American Folk Alliance Festival. Folk music is such an all encompassing term that you can pretty much guarantee that there’ll be something you like in the mix, and my only regret that was I didn’t get off the couch and into the pub earlier on in the festival. Real handmade rhythms and intelligent lyrics. I’ll definitely be putting that on the must do list in the future.
A couple of us at the hostel decided that we needed a girl’s night out, a bit of dancing, a change from Malones where we always seemed to end up. It’s a dangerous thing staying above a pub, you don’t even need to put a jacket on to go out!
We headed for the Purple Onion, the famed venue down in Gastown. Very pretentious bouncers. The lounge was very groovy, but all fraternity couples, and the main dance floor was, well young. My only advice would be that unless you’re 18, or are after 18 year olds, it’s not the most comfortable place to be. It wasn’t too bad though, and the live band were very cool.
One of the joys of moving into my own place is that I have cable tv, in my room, all to myself. X-Files reruns every night, sometimes twice! I’m in heaven! I had a semi-Scully experience on my first day in my new job. I was taken down to East Hastings St to check out a new office. We had to wind our way through Chinatown and seedy alleyways of the lower Eastside to get there, and me all dressed up in my suit and long overcoat. Felt a teensy bit out of place in this very poor area, but we were there for a good purpose. It’s good to see all the sides of life. Makes you appreciate more what you have.
Another advantage to living in Vancouver that I have discovered is the proximity to the mountains. Of course there’s Whistler up the road but that takes a serious commitment of time and money. Our first target was Mount Seymour, one of the three ski hills that you can see cut into the forest on the mountains above North Van.
Cheap tickets and rentals provided the perfect setting for teaching Bec, from Perth, how to ski. Don’t know how helpful the combined efforts of myself and Michelle from Edmonton were, but she did a mighty fine job of sliding down a big white slope with two planks strapped to her feet. It’s a crazy sport when you think of it, but so much fun.
The view from the top of Seymour is breathtaking. Not only can you see Mount Baker away down in Washington state, but as sunset encroached, the ocean below turned a brilliant copper, wrapping around the headlands of Vancouver, shimmering with its own golden glow as the city lights came on. A truly incredible sensation to be skiing down a mountain whilst looking at the ocean and a big city. It more than made up for the lack of variety in the runs.
Snowshoeing was another new venture that we tried. As well as the downhill runs, the resorts here all have well marked trails carved through the forest. We strapped on the ‘shoes’, which are just oval shaped aluminium frames with a hinged footbeds in the middle which you strap onto your boots, and off we went. It’s just like hiking really, except I discovered the hard way that you can’t walk backwards! That’s a guaranteed way to fall over, as is playing around on steep snowbanks and then trying to take the shortest way down. But it was great fun and good exercise. Saw my first live woodpecker! They look just like Woody!! Red splashed heads, not much bigger than my hand. He didn’t pay any attention to us, just kept drilling away at his little nail-like holes.
We picnicked in the middle of a frozen lake, basking in the brilliant sunshine, ignoring the cold butts! How often can you do something like that and then be back in the city an hour or so later sitting at your favourite bar savouring a well deserved cold beer?
Last but not least was my snowboarding adventure. It’s long been something that I wanted to try so one sunny Sunday morning I made my way up to Cypress Mountain, which has a regular shuttle bus for those of us without the essential car. The staff are all really friendly and helpful up there and after leaving my house at 8am, by 10 I was on the mountain, set up with a board and a lesson. Have to love that!
Well the verdict is that snowboarding is soooo much fun, but be prepared to discover a whole bunch of muscles that you never knew you had. Don’t bother taking any dignity with you because it is inevitable that you will consistently look like a complete eejit flopping backwards, doing face plants, collapsing off the chair lift into an inelegant heap. But it’s all worth it when you get that flow thing happening. You feel like you’re on a magic carpet and you can conquer the world. Crash, bang, ow! Nobody said it would be easy.
So that’s one way to have at least a little adventure in a month of working hard. But the pennies are piling up and the plans for the summer road trip to Alaska are slowly evolving. Yippee.
Catch you next month.
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