Other Side of The World

Epilogue

Well, that's it.  I'm back in England now and trying to get over the jet lag - after getting up at 1.15pm yesterday afternoon I barely slept overnight!  The trip back was fine and without any real incident.  As we came into Heathrow, we came over central London and when I saw the Eye, St Pauls and the river mapped out below me, it brought a tear to my eye - I was home!  And I'm pleased to say that I breezed through passport control and customs didn't even want to say hello to me, let alone search anything.  My last night in Vancouver was spent down by the marina with a meal of sockeye pacific salmon and some white wine, and then a short stroll across Sunset Beach with the sun going down in the distance.  I even had time to get one final email address as I got chatting to a Dubliner in a bar over a very nice Okanagan Spring beer!

So what conclusions have I drawn?  Things always work well in three's I think, so here are some thoughts:

3 Things I Never Got Used To

1. Prices not including tax - It doesn't matter how long you are there, if you see a shirt priced at $20, you get out a $20 note only to have to scrabble about for some change when it comes to $21.68!

2. Cars giving pedestrians the right of way - Even at the end I was waiting for traffic to clear before crossing, only for them to wait for me to cross.  I'm sure they thought I was stupid!

3. Food portions - They are massive.  If you order a double burger with bacon, cheese, pickles and relish it comes out about 10cm high and only held up straight thanks to a cocktail stick!

3 Things To Take Forward On A Daily Basis

1. Canadian beer is actually pretty decent - If you avoid Molson and Labatts, then you can get some pretty good beers, in Halifax go for Alexander Keiths, in Vancouver, Kokanee Gold, and anywhere else either Sleemans Honey Brown or Rickards Red.

2. Ice Hockey is a great game - It gets pretty cold in England, so why don't we do better at Ice Hockey.  After all, we won the Olympic Gold in 1936, so what happened.  Get Ice Hockey back on the map, it's just as entertaining as football and just as physical as Rugby.

3. Lets all be nicer to each other - Whether you are serving someone, or being served or walk into a shop, say hello and smile and give that person just a couple of seconds.  We'll all feel much better about ourselves and more relaxed.  After all, where are we rushing to?

The final 3 songs are as follows:

Miss You - Rolling Stones

London Calling - The Clash

Goin' Home - Mark Knopfler

ps The photos will arrive soon!

Home Today

As I look out and see once more

The patchwork quilt of a land of yore

No matter how long I've been astray

The tear in my eye says I'm home today

We may not have the dramatic crags

Where a rocky outline zigs and zags

Or falls that riase a mighty swell

And deafen like a beast from hell

Nor redwood trees and man made towers

Where man alike with eagle scours

And the wild country that's home to bears

In which only the bravest hiker dares

No, ours is a land of vales and downs

Of cricket pitches and market towns

Where nothing wilder than sheep to roam

But I'm proud to say that I call it home

Last Post

This in all likelihood will be my last posting from Canadian soil, so cue the tears!  Only joking.  But I do leave to return to England tomorrow.  I have had a chance to walk around the city named after voyager George Vancouver over the last few days and it has started to grow on me.  It has reminded me a lot of Montreal, with its many skyscrapers and busy streets, along with the older part of town which has been re-done recently.  Gastown as the old part is called has some pretty streets full of souvenir shops, cafes and restaurants and also contains a steam clock which pipes on every quarter hour and steam constantly appears from the top of it - it is also constantly surrounded by tourists with video cameras!  But it does feel all a bit touristy and a bit fake, and the worst thing is that if you venture a street or two too far, you find yourself surrounded by people living on the streets asking for money, and a smell of urine in the air.

There doesn't appear to be a lot going on for the tourist in Vancouver but with its multitude of bars and cafes, I could believe that it would be a nice place to live or even a good city to visit if you were in a group.  However, it does redeem itself, firstly with the sea wall walk, past all the various marinas full of fancy boats and nice restaurants on both sides of the city.  You then have Stanley Park which is criss-crossed by trails through the woods and you feel  that you could be out in the country somewhere as it is so quiet and no hints of being on the edge of a city until you reach the extremes.  The park also contains a lagoon which is frequented by swans and canada geese and is very pretty.

I visited the Police Centennial Museum yesterday which is not for the faint hearted.  It contains some history on policing in Vancouver, including details of officers who have been killed, the mounted police, the police dogs, the chiefs and the women who have served, and then it gets interesting.  They have examples of loaded dice, marked cards, fake identities and counterfeit notes, then there are the range of confiscated weapons from flails and axes to knives and guns, including handguns, rifles and semi automatics.  The museum is sited at the old Coroners court, and the mortuary and autopsy room are still there.  The mortuary contains details of grizzly and unsolved murders, including photos of blood covered beds, and freezers labelled with the names of dead TV and film characters.  And the autopsy room contains one of the gurney's on which Errol Flynn was placed when he died in Vancouver, as well as preserved remains of parts of the body from diseased livers to brains showing gun shot wounds - easily the most interesting part.

I've tried some of the local Granville Island beer, which is nice but not as tasty as other beers around Canada and visited one of the local White Spot restaurants replete with their famous burger sauce which I'm sure is nothing other than a seasoned mayonnaise, but you could never prove it!  So that's about it for this trip, I'm off for a meal by the water to say goodbye to the country but I will be back on for one last entry which should include a few photographs as well and of course the final three songs.

Oh Baggage Where Art Thou?

Travelled back to Vancouver today, via the ferry and bus, and at the start I happily pushed my backpack down the shute after labelling it to the Vancouver Bus Terminal and was assured by my bus driver that the bag would make it's way to the bus.  Therefore imagine my surprise as I arrived in Vancouver and bus disgorging all the occupants bags but mine!  I was then assured it would be on the next bus, so following a ninety minute wait (very patiently of course) I walked over to the next bus to arrive, but once more, no back pack.  The baggage people then made a phone call to the ferry terminal and reported back to me that 'BC Ferries had forgotten to put it on the ferry'.  Can you believe it?  I was told it would be there in another hour if I would like to wait, or I could come back before 8 and pick it up.  Seeing as I had no accommodation booked yet, I decided to go back later, thanking myself for not putting anything valuable in there (apart from the sentimental stuff).

I then went Hostel Hunting, only to be advised by three that they were fully booked, but maybe they could help me in the next couple of days, not really much help.  But I finally managed to get in somewhere which is actually quite cheap as well as its only a two bed room, plus you get a free muffin for breakfast - so you can't complain all round.  On returning to the bus depot, and after a little confusion about where it was, I reclaimed my bag after describing the contents of the two side pockets - also thanks to the Sheffield Wednesday owl stencilled to the front!  To quote mr Formby 'Turned out nice again'.

Sadly I had to say goodbye to my aunt and uncle today after a lovely week with them and I will have fond memories of a wonderful barbequed salmon that we had last night!  Once again Wednesday night was music night in Brentwood Bay, this time a blues man who played guitar and keyboards.  He was a great musician with a great voice, but somehow the music wasn't right for the occaision but...He did leave on a good note by finishing with some more rock'n'roll type numbers and got a few people dancing.  It's just a shame it took him two hours to work out what crowd he had.  On Monday I had another swim in the sea, albeit a little colder but still very refreshing and on Tuesday I had another visit into Victoria.  This time I went into the Maritime Museum which was very interesting, and different to the one in Halifax.  It started off with some information about piracy in the pacific, as well as the weather patterns, before discussing the respective claims of ownership by the Spanish, Russians, British and Americans to the northwest coast.

The museum also contains the Tillikum which was a re-fitted canoe which sailed from Victoria all the way to London, the long way round, under the same captain but with different mates, one of whom died.  On the next floors can be found lots of intricately made models, the hudson's bay company's and CPR's fleet of boats moving onto the aforementioned BC ferries and then some coats of arms and memorbillia belonging to the Canadian navy and details of their action in the Atlantic in WW2.  They also have a wonderful special exhibit at the moment, a cornucopia of maritime memorbilia, including slide rules, a chronometer, cutlasses, a squid and octopus preserved in a jar and all sorts of other stuff.  The best thing about the place is that it is housed in the old court house, and you can still see the courtroom upstairs just as it was, except they play a short video in it now.

There was visit by a group of schoolchildren from Cape Breton to Victoria, all of whom are fiddle players, and both groups were playing celtic music in Beacon Hill park when I was there.  It was very impressive, seeing as some of them were as young as 8 years old, even though I didn't recognise any of the music and some of it sounded a bit samey.  I can't understand how happily they performed though, as I would have been scared witless even at that age.  I also took a walk around the harbour and watched some float planes landing and taking off.  Victoria is a very pretty city and full of coffee shops and restaurants, and yet I couldn't quite feel at home there.  It is very touristy which could have something to do with it, but I'm not sure.  It is definately worth visiting though.

It's about time we had some songs for this week, so here they are:

Nightswimming - REM

We Are Family - Sister Sledge

Take Five - Dave Brubeck

Chillin' Out

So I'm into my final week now which is a bit scary but I've had a great chance to chill out over the past few days with family.  I have not been getting up usually before about 9am, followed by a long breakfast, reading the paper etc and sitting on the sun deck.  Nice!  The BBQ was great over the weekend, saw some people who I haven't seen for about 15 years and a second cousin who I've never even met before.  It's amazing to think that even in today's world where travel is so easy that there are close members of family who have never even met each other, whereas not too many years ago they would all have been living in the same square mile, and most in the same house - I'm rambling.

I did visit downtown Victoria briefly the other day and spent some time in the BC museum, which is easily the most expensive I have been to in Canada.  It was quite interesting but after a while a lot of the exhibits tell you the same thing.  However, they did have a special exhibit on speed and how it is such an important thing in today's world in terms of getting somewhere quickly, working quickly etc.  It had some hands-on stuff where you could test your reaction times and speed but mine weren't so good unfortunately so it was probably lucky I didn't see a bear last week!  There exhibits on the first nations were quite interesting, and a lot of their carvings of faces etc reminded me of the celtic carvings I have seen in London and I'm sure that there must have been some cross-culturisation going on centuries ago.  It also seems that they share the same basic principles of looking after nature because it is nature that provides you with food, and warmth and the ability to live.  Somehow through all our progress and civilisation we have lost that basic principle and now believe that nature is there for us to do with what we like.

Spent yesterday afternoon in Sidney, which is a pretty little town with a marina and a small pier - typically it also has it's own Starbucks, but doesn't everywhere these days?  Took a little walk around the boats with the fresh sea air and taking in the views of the US across the water.  In the evening we went down to the lake and swam in the Pacific (the first time I have been swimming in about six years) and although it was chilly to begin with, the water soon warmed up it was lovely, and a great way to cool down on a hot day.  I felt a little stiff afterwards, but it was worth it.  I plan to have another day in Victoria tomorrow to explore around a bit more, and then I will head back to Vancouver for my final few days - so sad!

It's Berry Season

Had a wonderful couple of days up in Banff amongst the Rockies and the forests.  Took some walks amongst a couple of the trails which once you get on them, you could be out in the wilderness because you can here nothing but bird calls, and around you are babbling brooks, and pine and spruce trees - it is absolutely beatiful.  And then when you break out into the open, all you can see for miles around is mountains, one after the other into the distance, some snow topped and most just craggy.   However, it is berry season at the moment, according to most of the posters at the heads of trails and bears like berries apparently and berries can be found along the sides of trails.  This isn't the sort of thing you want to be reading when you're about to take a leisurely walk and you can't stop thinking about anything else, so much so that they tell you to make as much noise as you can while walking and the first song that sprung to mind to hum was 'Teddy Bear's Picnic'!  I'm glad to say that I didn't see any bears, but I did see an Elk, as well as a few squirrel type creatures, although I'm not sure what they were.

Took a look at the Hot Springs midway up Sulphur Mountain, and it is aptly named.  There is a stench of rotten eggs all around when you get close to the springs, but they are worth seeing.  The come bubbling out of the rocks and trickle down in swathes, steam rising all the way.  I didn't take a swim or anything, but the pool was packed.   On the second night, I found myself in the bar (no surprises there you might say) and got chatting to an English girl who was half Japanese, along with a fully Japanese girl, a Swiss girl, a German guy and an Aussie guy.  When we were asked to leave we decided to sit outside with a guitar and seranade the complex (not too loudly of course) but we only had one beer bottle between us, so we were passing it around like a joint and taking little sips here and there.

When it was my turn to pick up the guitar it felt so strange to me because I haven't played in two months and all my callouses have gone.  I was playing at 3am when a patrol car came around, shone a flashlight at us and told us to stop - it was quite comical really - but I think we were ready to go in by then anyway.  Got another overnight bus down to Vancouver and said goodbye to the mountains, they seemed to be there for ages, and then suddenly they all disappeared when we got to the Okenagen - I would definately like to do some proper hiking up there at some point as it must be wonderful.

So I'm now on Vancouver Island with family, big BBQ coming up at the weekend apparently, but already seen a little of the local action at some live music in Brentwood Bay yesterday.  A female singer who at times reminded me of Beth Orton, and yet at others it was more like Red Hot Chilli Peppers.  It was quite an interesting mix, but she was good though, and had some amusing things to say to the crowd.  There were lots of people there, of all ages, with food and sno-cones being sold all around.  You always see these small town gatherings in American films and back in England you never believe they go on - but in reality they do.  It's such a shame we don't have them back home, but I suppose you can never really guarantee the weather.  I've travelled so far in the last few days and crossed three time zones that I'm looking forward to chill out for a bit, but I will try and get into Victoria a couple of times this week before finishing in Vancouver itself.

So to this weeks songs:

Teddy Bears Picnic - Valarian Rosing

The Times They Are A Changing - Bob Dylan

Mobile - Avril Lavigne

Mountain Midst

So here I am in Banff, just got here this afternoon, and the views are absolutely stunning!  The only trouble is Banff itself, with all the hotels, gift shops and people - but I guess that people have got to have somewhere to stay and somewhere to buy something proving they've been here.  I plan to get onto a couple of the trails tomorrow, and once I get past the first picnic area, I should be able to have some time to myself.

I was in Winnipeg last time out, and I'll re-begin there.  After my last post, I went for a little walk into some nice neighbourhoods and found a few bars and restaurants, but it was still a little quiet and not really much going on.  As I said before, I think that if you get to know somewhere, it can be better.  I then headed overnight to Saskatoon, and got very little sleep on the bus and got there at 5.15am (I know).  I was sharing the city with only joggers and dog walkers and had to wander around for a couple of hours before I could get some breakfast.  It was very pretty though, the South Sasketchewan river meanders through, with forest and paths on either side - the bridges are also quite nice.  I visited the art gallery, which was free if a little small, which had a current exhibit on famous people from the area, including one guy called 'Two Gun' Cohen, who was a bodyguard for a Chinese leader!  In the afternoon I visited the Ukrainian museum, and the woman on the front desk would not shut up  I think she was very proud to work there.  They had some nice wall hangings and art, along with a history of Ukraine itself, dating back to BC, and some lovely artifacts of clothing and painted eggs.  It was all very colourful and nice to see and interesting to learn about such a rich culture.

While here I decided to try an english pub for dinner.  On arrival the waitress asked if I wanted a drink, I said yes, what have you got on draught?  We've got twenty beers, came the reply.  Ok, well what are they?  There's twenty, did you have anything in particular in mind?  Having seen a Bass sign outside a ventured to order one, and they had it.  I received a menu and was told that fish 'n' chips was on special.  I felt a bit peckish and thought about having a starter, but they all sounded quite big, that is until I noticed soup of the day on another page.  When the waitress returned I enquired after the soup of the day:  It's for lunch really.  Ok, I'll just go for the fish n chips.  When I got these, the chips were dark brown on the outside, and chewy in the middle and some of the batter was fishless.  When I finished, I said to the waitress, just like home.  She didn't catch the irony!

Anyway, I did like Saskatoon, but it was very small, and again not really much going on  Edmonton on the other hand was totally different, I loved it, and I think that if I had to live somewhere in Canada, it would be here.  Despite getting in at 5am again, and the hostel being on the other side of the river from the bus station, I still loved it.  The river is beautiful, the north Sasketchewan this time, with lovely parklands and trails on either side.  I found a nice cafe for breakfasts near the hostel and one evening had the best meal since I left Montreal, smoked salmon with veggies in a creamy pesto, over vermicelli, followed by a 'just out of the oven' cookie, of banana, oatmeal and chocolate chips - exsquisite!  The feel of the place was really chilled as well, and it was all washed down with a couple of local brews.  I visited the Royal Alberta Museum while here which was fairly interesting, although not enough fossils for my liking!  They did have plenty of live bugs though, tarantulas, beetles, stick insects etc, along with gemstones and stuffed animals.  One diarama was of a increased sized mouse, with increased sized decomposers alongside it  - very grizzly.

The most interesting part was about the life of the Geisha, something which I knew very little about beforehand.  It goes into their history and why they exist and what they are there for and has lots of kimono on display.  Edmonton centre is also quite nice and seems to have plenty of festivals of different types going on most of the year, while I was there it was the street entertainers festival, and there was a guy juggling, and a band of old guys with acoustic guitars and percussion playing 'Pinball Wizard'!  Very different version, but highly entertaining.  Also near by the hostel was Whyte Avenue, a road with lots of coffee shops, bars, restaurants, clothes and book stores as well as local art being sold all the way along the strip.  It was lovely to be able to walk down it, and its the first thing that has reminded me of london in a canadian city since I have been out here.

This is my last stop before heading to my final destination of Vancouver/Vancouver Is. and it is hard to believe that I was in Toronto only 8 days ago!  Only two more weeks left to go and it is hard to comprehend that everything has gone by so quickly - But at least there are still two more weeks eh! - Oh no, I'm starting to sound like a Canadian now!

The Bus

As far as I can tell, I've been on this bus for as long as I can remember...The same seat, just different drivers...Along several kilometeres of highway, past rivers and towns, lakes and forests...There seems to be a vague memory of wanting to travel the world and maybe later settling down with a family...But it's just a memory...A past life almost and all that is apparant now is this bus...Then suddenly it stops and I'm told to get off...I'm unsure what to do and I'm panicking...My heart is beating fast, my breathing ragged, what do I do?  Where do I go?..My legs are shaking as I step down onto a concrete walkway outside a large building...All I can see is a white light...Is this heaven?  Is this what the bus has been all about?..I stare around me...Suddenly I'm tapped on the shoulder and a hand is holding something out...It's a backpack...There's something familiar about it but...I'm not sure...The hand is gesturing that I take it, I'm reluctant...I don't understand what is going on...They're quite insistent, and so in fear of making them annoyed, I take it...I open it and look inside, again there are familiarities about the contents, clothes, a book or two...I stand again and put in on my shoulders...My hand brushes against my pocket...There is something inside!..I tremble as I reach in and pull out the piece of paper...It is folded...I stare at it for a while before unfolding it...The letters form words and suddenly everything is coming back to me...I know what it is and I know what I've been doing...It is a bus ticket from Toronto to Winnipeg.

Second Time Around

And so I've come to the end of my second week here in Toronto and head off to Winnipeg first thing tomorrow morning and since I'm not hungover, I should be able to make the bus!  I have had a chance to wander around some other parts of Toronto this time, including the Kensington Market area, which is totally different in feel to the rest of the city.  The street's are narrower and more crammed in, with an arty feel about the place.  You can buy custom designed t-shirts, along with fresh fruit and veg and dried fruit and other groceries.  It is a lovely area to stroll around in.  Chinatown is also nice, if a little more bustley, but again you can buy good fruit and veg for a good price.

The harbourfront area is a lovely area on a sunny day and reminds me a lot of Halifax harbour in Nova Scotia, or maybe even behind Millenium Square in Bristol, due to the bars and cafes as well.  Just across from the harbour you can see the planes coming into the small airport on one of the islands opposite, and there are also lots of small boats and yachts.  I have been chatting to some more people in the hostel, including today a schoolteacher in Australia, who was telling me how children these days are not as literate as they were five years ago - a scary thought!

I have also had a chance to meet up with Elizabeth a couple of times, and shared some lovely afternoons at the cinema, as well as just chatting for hours as well.  It's just a shame that I haven't been able to hang around longer, but with less than a month to go on my trip and still the west side of canada to hit, I have stayed as long as I could.  I have liked Toronto, even though it is a little characterless, but I'm sure that if you get to know the place then it is a bit better.

A Tale of Two Pub Crawls

When I left you last week my plan was to come back to Toronto the following day - didn't happen!  I went out on the hostel pub crawl with three other guys from england and Rachael who worked in the hostel and got rather drunk and felt quite ill the next day - so I stayed in Niagara as I couldn't face getting on a bus!  It was a good night though, started off in the Bridge, a bit of a locals pub with nothing but a couple of pool tables, a couple of dart boards, a few tables and chairs and a bar and the decor was very plain.  We played darts though, I introduced them to halve-it and Rachael introduced us to Chinese darts.  A few pitchers later and we were off to the Victoria Inn where the owner gave us all a shot of his homebrew liquor - it tasted a bit like burnt leather (well what I'd imagine burnt leather tastes like) but it was nice.  I have forgotten to mention that we were all wearing bright blue t-shirts saying 'Niagara Falls Hostel Pub Crawl' and apparantly the locals have come to recognise them now.

A few of them chatted to us, one telling us where all the strip joints were and how to get there by illegal taxi and we played some pool with the others.  Rachael left us here as she also worked at the Daily Planet (and no she isn't supermans girlfriend), its a pub and it was also our final destination and we rocked up there after midnight and pretty drunk but thanks to our t-shirts we got in for free! Unfortunately I can't remember too much about the place, other than Rachael selling me a B-52 towards the end from a glow in the dark plastic test tube!  And the next day I blamed her for me being ill.  So thats the story of me staying on there and for the start of the 2 nation celebration (1 july being canada day and 4 july being independence day), which all kicked off on friday night with a free concert.

There were two Michelle's playing - Titian and Wright - the former was from just down the road in Hamilton and is up and coming.  She played country/folky stuff which was pretty good and she has a great voice.  The latter was all a bit too Shania Twain for me, along with lots of waving, posing for the cameras and when she sang a slow ballad she sat on the edge of the stage (i was starting to feel ill again!).  Then, just before the fireworks came on she asked the audience to join in a rendition of Oh Canada with her and everyone stood up and started singing - I got up as well otherwise I would have looked very unpatriotic(!)  It was incredible, and I just couldn't imagine that happening in england.  The fireworks were excellent, especially with the back drop of the lit-up falls.  Wonderful!

Now, with my birthday also being 4 July, I thought it would be great to stay on and pop over to Buffalo just across the river - but unfortunately fate conspired against me by the fact that the hostel was full, as was another, and so I headed back to Toronto on Saturday, after the football.  Yes, the football - how gutting was that?  We should have won the game several times over and would've I'm sure if Rooney hadn't been sent off.  I'm still trying to work out what he was sent off for but haven't spotted it yet.  It was a worse ref's decision since Paul Alcock decided to give Paolo Di Canio a red card at Hillsborough!  But I knew Lampard would miss his penalty because he'd had a shocking tournament, and poor Jamie Carragher as well, being subbed on just to take a penalty.  I mean, how much pressure do you need?

Anyway, spent a few disappointed days in sultry Toronto but have kinda snapped out of it now, especially as yesterday was my birthday.  I had got chatting to a new zealander and an irishman in my room the day before and both were keen to celebrate with me.  In the end we were also joined by an american and an aussie (they get everywhere) and we started off at the Steam Whistle Brewery which is just behind the CN Tower.  Free beer for two and a half hours!  Yes all free, as soon as you finish a glass it gets topped up.  I mean, how dreamy is that - something even Carlsberg don't do!  Chatted briefly to a German guy while watching the football who could quite easily have passed for Ronnie Barker and he was gutted with the result.  On the way out Darren, the NZ, spotted a photo of him and he used to be the brewmaster there!  Incredible!

We then went back to the hostel for a few bottles, then back out to Philthy McNasty's (nothing like the one in London) where they had some Karaoke.  I would have gone up but all the people were excellent!  Got chatting to one of them who then took us to a bar where they had some live music which was pretty good and got to sleep at 2 in the morning after a good night out with plenty of laughs.  My time is running out on this session now so I will finish with this weeks songs:

Nice Dream - Radiohead

Hanging Around - Cardigans

One Wild Night - Bon Jovi