Up North

Vancouver

Writing about Vancouver is a lot harder than writing about the previous stages of the journey, because I am no longer traveling and nostalgia is creeping over me. I will still try and give my best because Vancouver deserves a good description, if only to jog my memory in times to come.
I had decided earlier to travel by bus from Calgary, since I would be able to see the changing landscape and the mountains from afar. Walter, a friend I made while studying in Montreal, traveled with me which made the 14-hour trip a lot more pleasant and kurzweilig than it would otherwise have been. I slept during the first few hours on the bus and woke up facing a mountain! We went via Banff and Kamloops through mountains interspersed with lakes (I was disappointed at those lakes at first, having imagined them as turquoise blueish when they were first muddy and only later of a satisfactory deep blue).
In Vancouver I stayed with Jozina, another friend from Montreal, in a quaint house with a lush garden a little outside of downtown. What strikes the senses first upon arriving in Vancouver is the abundance of nature in everyone's front garden (roses!), the size of high rises in downtown - only to be topped by the vast mountains looming in the background.
I guess I "did" more in Vancouver than in Calgary, but then I had 12 days to spend there.
The day after arriving I went camping with Jozina, Walter, and his brother Mark, and although it rained most of the time we spent in Golden Ears Provincial Park a little outside of Vancouver, it still was a great experience. The trees in that forest were higher than I'd ever seen any and all the more majestic for the dull greyness of the sky. Had it been sunny while we were there the trees would have been less imposing, I'm sure. I hadn't been camping since I was a kid, so it was all very exciting, the four of us crammed into one tent, confined to it for half the day, until the rain ceased a little and we ventured out on a hike to some really cool waterfall. On hte way there we stopped at a river to skid stones over the water and see how often we could make them tip the surface before going down. And who could thrown a stone most accurately on a rock at the other side of the river. Sometimes all it takes to pass a few enjoyable minutes is water and a few stones.
The day we came back from camping I had my first sushi experience. All you can eat sushi! My friend Emily, who hails from Vancouver and therefore is an expert on raw fish navigated me through the whole variety of uncooked fish and I must say that although I only really disliked the oysters, I don't care much for raw fish. I prefer vegetarian sushi.
The next night Emily took me and some Australian friends of hers out sailing in English bay, where we spent two hours idling across (with me on the tiller steering, yippieh) the bay, downtown skyscrapers and a mountain range as the backdrop. To grow up with the sea and the mountains in view at all times is quite enviable.
The next days I spent walking around downtown, visiting the art gallery with Jozina, reading on the shore at UBC (University of British Columbia), walking to Stanley Park, mainly enjoying the company of the friends I made last year. On my last night in Vancouver Jozina gave a dinner party which ended with a backyard bonfire at midnight and me saying good-bye to Emily and Matt, soon to be Mrs. and Mr. Rogers, to Jozina who housed me and made me feel at home at her place, to Bernie, my fellow exchange student at McGill, and to Walter, who brought me to the airport on Tuesday morning. I did not cry, but I think it would have been a relief. The tears are still in me, waiting to break free, and I fear my mom will have to bear them once I set foot on German ground.
Here ends the travellogue for now. Thanks for joining me on my trip across Canada.

posted by Conni @ 6:12 AM