Saturday, August 15, 2009
the home of fraiser!
didnt get upto too much in seattle. checked out pike place market: watched them throw the fish, well actually it was a crab when i stopped to take a phote. for those of you who don't have a clue what im talking about there's a fish mongers in pike place market and their are known for throwing fish around. yes its exactly as it sounds. you say what you want the guy at the front picks it up and throws it to the guy at the back who weighs it and packs it up. its that exciting. went to the original starbucks-also very exciting.
other hot spots uncluced: experience music project, underground tour, public library, beer tasting in pike place brewery. got to talking to an auld fella from new zeland there who advised me on where to go! he was all grey beard and beer belly and was pretty sound! one of those proper travelling solo moments.
my most epic train journey yet commenced in seattle-22 hours later i arrived in san francisco.
other hot spots uncluced: experience music project, underground tour, public library, beer tasting in pike place brewery. got to talking to an auld fella from new zeland there who advised me on where to go! he was all grey beard and beer belly and was pretty sound! one of those proper travelling solo moments.
my most epic train journey yet commenced in seattle-22 hours later i arrived in san francisco.
vancouver island : ucluelet and victoria
got the bus from vancouver all the way to the other side of vancouver island. i stayed in a really cute little hostel on the outskirts of the mini town, the back garden opened out onto the water and bears wondered around pretty freely. although i managed not to see any, i think i was the only person in the hostel who didnt. typical. i was lucky to arrive just in time for ucee-days festival. hmmm. it was interesting. there were a couple of stands, a 'beer garden' and a little stage for local bands. the band i saw was middle age man rocking out with i assume were his two sons on drums and his daughter on the violin. go on the small town events!
i walked the pacific rim trail which was pretty quiet so i was super paranoid of bumping into a bear. cos you know when you hear rustling in the bushes beside you its highly unlikely a little bunny is gonna hop out in front of you.
also had my first surfing experience! it was 'awesome', right on. got a good whack on the head from the board more than once but its all part of the salty water fun. hung out with instructors for the evening. crazy surfing dudes.
my muscles were sore for the next few days and i believe that in future i will be a boogie board person.
got a life down to victoria with a guy from the hostel. think he was still drunk when we hit the road but he got better as the trip went on (shouldn't be telling you this mo!)
hung out in victoria for a couple of days-was very touristy but nice. also their mildly obsessed with their british heritage. union jacks were a flyin and they even had the old red double decker buses for their tours. i rented a bike and did some of the galloping goose trail-i did 20k round trip. biked to thetis lake and literally jumped straight in after the cycle. of course i did it when there was a crazy heat wave on-it was a great little swim!
from there i got the ferry from victoria to seattle-back into the u s of a.......
i walked the pacific rim trail which was pretty quiet so i was super paranoid of bumping into a bear. cos you know when you hear rustling in the bushes beside you its highly unlikely a little bunny is gonna hop out in front of you.
also had my first surfing experience! it was 'awesome', right on. got a good whack on the head from the board more than once but its all part of the salty water fun. hung out with instructors for the evening. crazy surfing dudes.
my muscles were sore for the next few days and i believe that in future i will be a boogie board person.
got a life down to victoria with a guy from the hostel. think he was still drunk when we hit the road but he got better as the trip went on (shouldn't be telling you this mo!)
hung out in victoria for a couple of days-was very touristy but nice. also their mildly obsessed with their british heritage. union jacks were a flyin and they even had the old red double decker buses for their tours. i rented a bike and did some of the galloping goose trail-i did 20k round trip. biked to thetis lake and literally jumped straight in after the cycle. of course i did it when there was a crazy heat wave on-it was a great little swim!
from there i got the ferry from victoria to seattle-back into the u s of a.......
Monday, August 3, 2009
vancouver
i spent a week in vancouver. its a great city. i did lots and lots of walking-as fitting into the clothes i 'brung' with me its becoming a little tricky...... walked around stanley park and robson and granville island and the grouse fucking grind. the distance is not the issue (less than 3km) its the 2,380 steps to get to the summit. and if thats not hard enough its so high the altitude is a killer. 3,700 feet above the base which is 900 feet above sea level. phew! but i did it and im not gonna admit how long it took me. the average healthy fit person apparently can do it in 90 minutes. it didnt take me 90 minutes. moving on .....
the sun shone the whole week i was there i even managed to don my (tight) bikini and hang out on the beach for a couple of hours. first time my bikini got its airing on this trip; english bay witnessed the momentous occasion.
anyway stanley park is a gigantic park which takes over the entire bottom portion of vancouver. i walked around the perimeter wall which is the sea wall around the coast. 10 km in all.
managed to catch a gig aswell- say the decemberist shack their stuff on stage to the beats of their new album. my camera got taken away from me by house management though cos it was too big and i didnt have a press pass. seems strange as some of the newer compact digitals have stronger lenses than my 'entry level' dslr. grrr. it was returned to me at the end of the night.
i met up with a friend of annmarie's, who took me to the worst/best karaoke bar-truly an amazing experience. was surrounded by middle aged men flyin solo and singing their broken heart songs. weird thing was they were really good. we knocked back the pitchers and sang a tune aswell.
also went to the cutest restored original victorian house 'roedde house museum'. stepping back in time-i even bought some little victorian recipe cards that were the original recipes of the lady of the house; mrs roedde herself no less. perhaps a white christmas cake this year?!?
the week flew by and it was on wards and upwards.
the sun shone the whole week i was there i even managed to don my (tight) bikini and hang out on the beach for a couple of hours. first time my bikini got its airing on this trip; english bay witnessed the momentous occasion.
anyway stanley park is a gigantic park which takes over the entire bottom portion of vancouver. i walked around the perimeter wall which is the sea wall around the coast. 10 km in all.
managed to catch a gig aswell- say the decemberist shack their stuff on stage to the beats of their new album. my camera got taken away from me by house management though cos it was too big and i didnt have a press pass. seems strange as some of the newer compact digitals have stronger lenses than my 'entry level' dslr. grrr. it was returned to me at the end of the night.
i met up with a friend of annmarie's, who took me to the worst/best karaoke bar-truly an amazing experience. was surrounded by middle aged men flyin solo and singing their broken heart songs. weird thing was they were really good. we knocked back the pitchers and sang a tune aswell.
also went to the cutest restored original victorian house 'roedde house museum'. stepping back in time-i even bought some little victorian recipe cards that were the original recipes of the lady of the house; mrs roedde herself no less. perhaps a white christmas cake this year?!?
the week flew by and it was on wards and upwards.
bus
there was an over night pit stop in calgary and then a 14 hour bus journey to vancouver. oh greyhound. what can i say. the route took us through the rockies for 14 hours which was amazing. but it was still 14 hours on a bus.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
