Vancouver – Day 9

My last full day in Vancouver started bright and sunny!

I got up in time for breakfast, had a refreshing shower, and then spent half an hour chatting to the Dutch guy sharing my dorm. He was packing up to head off to Montreal and then back to Holland. He was most impressed with my plans and thought it was wonderful that I was actually living my dream. As he said “most people just dream of what you are doing, but don’t do it.” Fair point, so it helps me quell any guilt I feel for having such a wonderful time – and I certainly have so far.
After he had gone I thought it would be a good idea to “sort out my shit” and get all the washing I had lobbed into my locker last night sorted out and get my bags mostly packed so that tomorrow’s departure is relatively smooth. As I was sorting out all this stuff Ben, an Aussie guy in my dorm, came back and started sorting out his stuff. As he was checking out this morning I just tossed all my stuff aside and let him get on with his packing – I can do mine later. He was most grateful and we chatted for another half hour while he got himself organised. When he had gone I thought “bugger this, why am I sitting around inside when I should be taking advantage of the sunshine” so I went out in search of the illusive tour bus.

I found the nearest stop for it (just round the corner) and waited for it. Along it came and I got on it. It takes about two hours to do its loop and one can just hop off and hop on it wherever one wants. It isn’t a terribly efficient way to get about town because it does a “tourist loop” past all the attractions & landmarks – but then if one wants to go directly from A to B then it is best to walk or catch a bus which does just that. It is good for getting a feel for the city and the locations of places. I was very pleased to note that it didn’t show me anything new in the downtown area that I hadn’t seen already – however it does take one round Stanley Park which would be one hell of a walk!

Having got back to where I started I thought I had better post off the parcel of “stuff” I had collected, sort out my stuff – which I did – and then get my next hostel booked so I wouldn’t have to sleep on a street or in a bus shelter tomorrow night.

I very cleverly managed to lock my wallet & key in my room, but the lovely smiley Aussie girl on the front desk, who I have chatted to on several occasions when we’ve been polluting the atmosphere and killing innocent children, was most helpful and issued me with another key. I got my hostel booked and then went in search of food.
I settled for a lovely little Persian restaurant on Davie Street.

(One thing I have noticed over the last couple of days is the same bunch of bald, bearded, pierced, leather clad “blokes” who sit about outside Starmucks watching people go by – well mainly blokes. Any of these could have fallen out of the back end of Village People (probably literally) and as they all had the same tight black leather trousers and key chains on I thought this must be some kind of uniform. Is there such thing as the “stereotype queer”?)

I did wryly consider how much business might be affected if they changed the sign to read “Iranian Restaurant” – I’m sure it fools the Yanks easily “Gee, that’s the place that makes rugs isn’t it?”

Cynicism aside, it was very lovely – as was the waitress who was stunning. I mean I was stunned because I can’t remember seeing many women that beautiful. That was just an observation. The food was superb and after eating I set off down Davie Street to the Howe Street intersection to locate the place I need to catch my bus tomorrow.

Ah, sorry, I haven’t explained my plan yet have I?

Tomorrow I leave Vancouver for Vancouver Island – Victoria to be precise, the capital of British Columbia. I had this silly idea I might walk around Vancouver Island (VI from now on) until I found out it was bigger than Belgium!
The travel plan is: Check out of Vancouver Downtown, walk down to Davie & Howe, catch buses to TB (it depends on which bus comes first as to where I have to change), catch ferry to Swartz Bay VI, catch bus to Victoria, check in to hostel, collapse & sleep. That is the outline anyway. The journey to TB takes 1.5 hours, the ferry crossing takes 1.5 hours and the bus journey to Victoria takes 1 hour. I told you Vancouver was big!

So all is ready apart from the last minute packing, like toilet bag, etc and then I’m off. As I have now caught up with the blog writing – I will post it when I get to Victoria as they have free Internet access – I might treat myself to a little play time as I haven’t finished my Civ game I started whilst still in the UK!
I will sign off with my new name bestowed upon me by my sister-in-law, the lovely Tracey:

Phileas Blog!

(Note: It reminded me as I was updating my contact entries in Outlook with the email addresses of all the people I have exchanged details with. I mentioned how I felt I was being interviewed by Robert (as in Robert & Sherrill I dined with on the train), well before we left the train in Vancouver he came and gave me one of his business cards with their address, telephone number & email written on the reverse. It turns out he is the Director of Software Engineering for One Touch Global Technologies Inc based in California. Just goes to prove the truth in a bit of advice my mother gave me many years ago: “Always be polite, you never know who you are talking to.” How very true! I wonder if I would have got the job...)