Canada, eh?

WestJet are yet another really great airline. I’m gathering that complimentary softdrink and a snack is the norm even on budget North American Airlines. The flight to Vancouver was without drama, I enjoyed my diet coke and cookie and the roomy seat – so much leg room on these WestJet planes, at least the two I’ve been on (I write this on June 6 as I’m flying back to LA, my legs stretched out in front of me). I arrived in Vancouver and found my hostel without drama, it was a simple ride on the new Canada line on the Skytrain which was built last year, and then about three blocks walk. It was chilly but not freezing. Check-in at the hostel was simple; I lugged my suitcase up the flight of stairs (no elevator... one of the few scenarios where I wish I had a backpack) and then I opened my dorm room door.


My mum is going to read this and roll her eyes at what I’m about to say.


The room was a pigsty.


I’m not the neatest person. A bit of mess doesn’t bother me. But in a shared dorm environment, there is a line. There were only two beds occupied by people; and yet there was no room ANYWHERE on the floor for my suitcase. There were piles of clothes, empty glasses and beer cans (note: food and drink is not allowed in the rooms especially not alcohol as the liquor license of this hostel doesn’t allow it; they have a bar downstairs which means you can’t have your own alcohol). It reminded me of that episode of Friends where Ross has the messy girlfriend. I’m not phased by friends whose bedrooms are messy but there is a distinct difference between a shared dorm environment and ones own private space. Ironically there’s a notice on the wall from hostel management giving a warning about the state of the room and telling them that they need to get it sorted or they’ll be evicted. I gingerly pushed some things aside so I could put down my suitcase and went about my business – getting dinner, working out the wireless internet, and then I went to go do some laundry. I was bringing my clothes back from the dryer when the next incident occurred.


So, I opened the door; the door had been locked, the lights were off. But I looked up and in the bunk directly in front of me I spotted someone in the bottom bed. No big deal. She says “oh, I was just taking a nap.” I don’t think anything of this, I say I’ll just be a minute and kneel down to put my clothes back into my suitcase. I then hear giggling from the bed, giggling that sounds significantly like a different voice. I look up, and Girl #1 is standing there naked trying to find some clothes while Girl #2 is giggling in the bed. Girl #1 is apologising for the mess without really sounding like she cared, I remarked that it looked like a bomb went off and she laughed awkwardly while Girl #2 was still giggling. I proceed to shove my clothes down in no sort of logical pattern and stammer an apology and leave.


Clearly I’ve interrupted something.


I avoided the bedroom for hours after that, remaining in the common room on my netbook, and only went back in a few hours later. There was a girl in the bed, but it wasn’t the girl I’d spoken with, I’m assuming it was the giggler. We chat – it turns out she’s nice. They’ve cleaned up a bit which is also good. I find out that she’s actually not booked into the hostel, she’s just ‘staying’ with the other girl and the second bed is being taken up by someone else. I gather that these girls are actually dating, the other one came back in and they exchanged a ‘I’ll see you later, love you *kiss*’ type conversation. Anyway so I’m feeling more settled now – I’d been feeling incredibly awkward about the scenario a few hours earlier and envisaging three days of me avoiding the room as much as possible.


The next morning I set out to start exploring Vancouver. The weather started out pretty gross – damp and showering – but I’m informed by the Australian guy I chatted with over breakfast that Vancouver is like Melbourne; four seasons in one day. Actually on the whole Vancouver reminds me lot of Melbourne in many ways. It’s a city with city life but it isn’t entirely hustle and bustle. It has a funkier vibe, fairly multi cultural, lots of Lebanese/kebab/falafel type places, a bar and music scene. My hostel is in the city centre with bars and clubs, pizza places with super cheap pizza/pop deals, a Starbucks a block away. Vancouver is fairly walkable, if I wasn’t trying to fit so much into two days I probably would’ve just walked everywhere but for the sake of saving time I got myself a daily transport ticket. I pretty much just checked out some of the districts of the city; the area around my hostel, the Yaletown area, West End, Gastown, the Waterfront. You can feel a distinct vibe in each of the areas, like in most cities you have a more upper end area, a student area, the business district, the city centre where there’s a pedestrian only shopping strip.


When I got back to the hostel later on, the messy lesbians had checked out. I had a nap – I don’t know if its just travelling, my screwed up body clock or the tail end of my flu – or perhaps a combination of the above – but I was just really really exhausted. I woke up when a girl came into the room, apologising for waking me up. Her name was Sharon, from South Korea. She was really lovely and enthusiastic and we had a lot in common. We decided to go together to go find something to eat, wandering in the area until we settled upon one of the Lebanese type places. We were chatting with the guy in the shop – who gave Sharon some of his juice for free to drink – and it turned out that he was fluent in Arabic and she’s studying Arabic and so they were talking about it and writing some. We went back to the hostel and hung out for a bit, having a drink in the bar and then hanging out in the common room where I was chatting with another Aussie who’d just arrived – Mark, from Melbourne, who had come to Canada with a work visa. Sharon checked out early the next morning, just there for a night before she was heading for a tour of the Rocky Mountains.


On Saturday I headed out to a big mall where I bought a hoodie for $10 and was super enthralled by this place called the Great Canadian Superstore or something like that. I guess you could compare it to a Walmart without clothes; but it’s bigger than anywhere I go in Australia. Take Woolworths, make it twice as big and combine it to the biggest Big W/Crazy Clarks you’ve ever seen and you’re somewhere near it. I was grossed out to the extreme by the seafood department with the fish swimming around in tanks for you to choose from. I then took my banana, croissant and drink that I’d bought to Central Park where I was entertained by a pair of furry animals... I guess they were squirrels? One of them was black though. Hrm. Anyway they were super cute and I stood still for ages to get a photo of one of them and they then followed me up the path. They were coming REALLY close to me, like, if I’d stood still I really believe it was going to like, run up my leg or something.


I then got the train again headed for Sunset Beach, having to walk a little to get to the beach. Beach is a loose term. Um, bunch of dirty sand? So far the Australian is not being impressed by North American beaches, haha. I was walking down to the Aquabus ferry dock to take some photos and this random guy gave me a rose that he’d ‘found.’ It wasn’t in a flirtatious way, he was with his girlfriend. I took the scenic route walking to a different train station and then went to the Waterfront station so I could take the Seabus (a ferry) to North Vancouver. I got there and unfortunately it became evident that there was no logical bus route to the Deep Cove area where I’d really wanted to visit. I took some photos at the pier area, grabbed lunch and headed back to the city for a wander in the city centre area where I got lost in the biggest H&M I’ve ever seen.


I spent a while at night repacking my suitcase because I had to leave the hostel around 5:30 the next morning to make my flight and I hate being that noisy girl in the morning waking everyone up by crashing around. However the girl in the bunk below me had checked out and no one else wound up checking into the room so I had the dorm room to myself – I watched a couple of episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and felt no shame in chilling by myself on a Saturday night.


Vancouver is the kind of city where I could see myself living. As a budget tourist I felt like I’d pretty much seen everything I was going to see, when I wasn’t going to pay money to go into museums or the Aquarium or whatever. Vancouver is tourist friendly without being overrun by tourists, which I really like. I think they did a lot of work making it tourist friendly for the Olympics; there are fairly new looking signs in most of the areas by the train station with information about the area and sights within walking distance. There are signs around directing you to the nearest public bathrooms. I enjoyed my few days just wandering and immersing myself in the vibe, it was enough to make me think that should I ever get a work visa for Canada that I’d really like to return to British Columbia and spend more time in the area. I really enjoyed the Canadian culture and most of the locals I interacted with seemed really lovely. Culturally I think Canada is more alike to Australia than the US, it’s a bit more laid back and not quite as ostentatious. Having said that, I can’t judge the US on the basis of the three cities that I’ve been to in my lifetime (LA, NYC and Las Vegas) given they are three of the ‘louder’ cities.


I am going to try to insert ‘eh?’ into my everyday vocabulary. Canada is awesome, eh?