Yes, we do have lifejackets. As well.

So had a bit of a change of plans since my last entry. As often happens I met up with a bunch of people the night before I was meant to leave Victoria and had such a good time ended up hanging around for almost another week. We came up with a brilliant system to help make it easier to remember everyone's names where we actually wouldn't try, but just called everyone by their country (don't know how many shots it took to come up with this plan but it was a good one). So we had Canada, Mr and Ms Swiss (travelling separately but were married by the end of the night. And offered to adopt me as well so I could be part of the Casanova family. They've separated since though so i'm back on the market I suppose, anybody with the last name Powers take note). We also had 2 Ms Frances, a New York and of course Australia. It was a top night, and the next day Rod (Canada) took Flavio (Switzerland) and I up to his new boat on Cowichan Lake, a few hours drive from Victoria, to go sailing (except we used the motor all the time so technically it was probably driving, or motoring, but sailing sounds nicer). We made that our daily routine for a while - the weather was kind of rainy for a few days so we'd go back to the hostel every night to report on our adventures, but then head off each day, stopping by Tim Horton's for sandwiches and donuts, then cruise around on the lake for a bit.



It was quite cool, we all took on our own roles, of course Canada was the Captain, and became Chief - and only - Fisherman (it's a bit expensive for non-Canadians to get a fishing licence, and we didn't have high expectations for what we'd catch. I was probably First Mate I suppose, as I'd often take over at the helm (People seem to have a habit of thinking I know what I'm doing around boats and canoes, bless them. I can't imagine why), and also documented a lot of the trip (we're planning a documentary eventually), got to be DJ and was general ideas man. I've got a great idea for a marine pizza delivery service I think could be a winner. Just have to figure out a few details, such as whether we'd use people on jetskis or remote controlled boats (note to self - look into trained otters), how to deal with pirates and so on. Switzerland was also a co-captain and most importantly the ship's lifeguard, as he was the only person crazy enough to actually swim in the freezing water and because he floats really well.



We were all quite experienced sailors after a few days although some people seemed to have their doubts - everytime we'd go into a store to get supplies for fishing or would tell anyone about our sailing we'd always be asked within about 2 minutes - 'So, you do have lifejackets don't you?'. We even got a chance to prove our skill on about the third day - by this time we'd recruited Germany, our new deckhand (we mostly seemed to just swear at him) and had been hanging around while Rob fished and the rest of us did Sudoku or listened to music (fishing is so boring). Captain Rod noticed a guy in a boat in the middle of the lake waving to us, and after we'd waved back about 3 times and he still kept waving we thought he might actually be trying to get our attention, so we cruised over to see what was up and they'd run out of petrol. So we tied them on to our boat and started towing them back to their marina. Except they couldn't remember where it was. So we took them all the way back to the main marina (it was where we were headed anyway) so they could refuel, and felt quite proud of ourselves for successfully completing our daring rescue, mainly beacause I think we half expected it would be us needing rescuing at some stage. So it wasn't bad for only our second day's fishing we ended up landing a 12 foot boat, although like any good fishing story we don't have any actual proof - I really wanted to take a photo but we thought it might embarrass them, and now that I think about it, being photographed with them upside down on the dock might have been a bit much.



It paid off as the very next day when we coming into the dock a woman actually said we looked like we knew what we were doing. She actually said that. And this was before Switzerland had even bought his special boat shoes. So with all of this under our belts, once the weather started to clear up Canada, Switzerland and I (Germany had to go back to Vancouver, I think we'd yelled at him too much) headed up to the end of the lake to spend the night on the boat. We had enough supplies for at least a week - noodles, popcorn, Swiss Rolls and pretzels, I don't know what we would have done if we'd actually caught any fish. We found a beautiful little bay to anchor for the night, we watched the sunset and the stars were amazing (I saw the Big Dipper, and it is) but it was quite cool so we'd only pop out every now and then for a quick look.



On our way back the next day Switzerland launched his own little boat he'd bought to go with his boat shoes (it nearly killed him blowing that thing up, it took hours) and treated us to a fine display of boat-waterskiing. Then after one last stop at Tim Horton's for a final donut and to let the ladies behind the counter know we were still alive we returned to Victoria and sadly had to split up the crew so Flavio and I could come back to Vancouver. A lot of the people we'd met in Victoria were already here so it was good to catch up and recount our tales of adventure (I think some of the girls cried a bit they were so relieved to see us again. Or maybe not). We were just in time for the Celebration of Light (and the Simpsons movie, woo-hoo!), a big international fireworks competition which runs every few nights so we've made it a regular thing to go and watch those, and have farewelled some of the members of our little group, which is always a little bit sad but at least now I've got even more people to visit when I get to Europe.



Did the Grouse Grind here in Vancouver as well, a big hike to the top of the mountain which has like 50, 000 steps (or maybe just 4,000 I've been told but doesn't seem like it could be true). It was actually really good, hard work but not too unpleasant - I'm still amazed how happy Ms France and I looked in the photos we took on the way up, I'm sure I didn't feel that happy. It was funny too just how many people there were, it's pretty much an unbroken line all the way to the top, it's like going on a pilgrimage (or with all the panting and heavy breathing like listening to a very long obscene phone call). We even met up with Germany again - France and I were quite happy that he got to the top just after we'd had enough time to catch our breath so we could lauch at how exhausted he looked and pretend it was no trouble for us at all. Nah, it wasn't that bad (although we did get the gondola back down - it was only $5 after all) and I'll probably have another crack at it before I move on.



So next I'm heading down to Seattle for a few days next but will be back in Vancouver one more time next week before I go east. Really this time. Unless I go north. I'm hearing a lot about a place called Prince George, might be worth checking out.

We interrupt this blog due to technical difficulties...

Haven't been able to write much in a while (will explain why shortly) so I've already been in Canada 3 and a half weeks now and it seems to have gone really quickly. Was really nice to arrive in Vancouver, get my visa and finally get started on my year here. I loved Vancouver the first time I visited here so it was good to get somehwere familiar and be able to explore it more thoroughly. Took things pretty easy at first, spent a fair bit of time wandering around Stanley Park, which is a fantastic place, essentially a little piece of forest right next to the city. Also visited the BC University Museum of Anthropology where there are lots of great examples of First Nations carvings and artworks. Arrived in town just in time for Canada Day, so I got myself a little free Canadian flag which I was quite pleased to carry around for the day and went down to watchthe fireworks on the harbour so it was nice to celebrate my temporarily adopted home.



Everything was going fine until my last day there when my laptop froze on me. Went through all the troubleshooting processes but had a nasty suspicion that the hard drive was dead, meaning I'd lost everything on there. Still I was able to remain pretty calm about the whole thing as I knew I had everything important backed up but would still have to get everything sent from back home and set up everything up again. By the time I'd exhausted all options it was quite late and I'd been too busy for lunch, so thought I'd grab something from the vending machine, and was pleased to find I had the exact change. This is kind of a big deal for me as it still takes me a while to rummage around and locate the correct change (mainly because it's so stuffed full of bloody useless pennies) and because tax isn't added until you get to the register you can't prepare the correct change in advance, so any chance to get rid of some coins is a good thing. But of course the vending machine would accept everything except the very last two coins so at that point I that I flew into a dark rage at all machines which refused to work properly, or transform into anything cool (I'd just seen Transformers the night before - I'm sure I'd be much more interested in driving if there was a chance I'd get a car which was really a giant robot in disguise) and went stalking around the city in a bad mood. And forgot my camera on a day with a particularly nice sunset which didn't improve my mood any.



So the next day I was off on a ferry to Victoria, on Vancouver Island where I dropped my laptop off to get a new hard drive and have been on an enforced vacation since then. Victoria's quite nice, particularly the inner harbour with some really nice heritage buildings like the Empress Hotel and Legislative Assembly right by the waterfront. Went to the museum here - they had a special exhibit on the Titanic with a bunch of artefacts recovered from the wreck and recreations of some of the rooms and stuff. When you enter they hand you a card with an actual passenger's details, mine was an Irish guy about my age travelling with his brother. So at first it was kind of fun - you could see what kind of room they would have stayed in, what they could have to eat and there were people dressed in period costume so it had a good atmosphere. But when I got to the iceberg room where they started talking about the crash (there was a big interactive piece of ice to touch, probably not a piece of the actual iceberg I'm guessing though) it occurred to me that being a single male second class passenger, things probably weren't going to work out too well for my guy, which was confirmed by the list at the end of who survived or not. So that was kind of depressing actually, at least until I got around to the next exhibit with the woolly mammoth which cheered me up again. Also in Victoria I went to the Butchart Gardens, which I wanted to see as they're quite famous, and they are quite pretty even if it is a bit expensive to get in and made me feel like I was going to sneeze the whole time I was there.



After Victoria I headed up to Tofino on the shores of Clayoquat Sound on the west coast. The drive's there really nice, actually passes through some very nice mountains which I wasn't expecting to see yet. Tofino revloves around 2 activities really, surfing and whale watching so there's some really nice beaches around there. Not being much interested in surfing I opted for whale watching, was a pretty good trip, a bit choppy though and we only saw one gray whale, but did see some Stellar's Sea Lions and sea otters (both of which are much bigger than I realised) and bald eagles, which I was quite excited about as they've always been my favourite birds. Also caught a ferry across to Mears Island where there was quite a nice walk through some huge old cedars.



Then it was over to Nanaimo on the east coast, which was kind of dull to be honest. I think it's going through a bit of urban renewal at the moment (the hostel I stayed in had been a brothel and shooting gallery a few years ago, but was quite a nice place now) so hopefully it will be a bit nicer in a few years. They do have some nice islands just across from downtown though, I visited Newcastle Island which has nothing but campsites, cycling and walking trails so it was good to really get hiking again. More bald eagles here, was brilliant to be standing around in the forest with one wheeling through the trees just above me, also blonde raccoons (raccoons are meant to be nocturnal but I keep seeing them in the middle of the day so I don't think they're very good at it) and a beach with literally millions of tiny little crabs, which is kind of freaky when you wander right into the middle of them and suddenly everywhere you look there's these little crawling things, but only a little bit.



So I'm back in Victoria now, just got my laptop back yesterday so have been busily reloading stuff onto it and catching up with posting photos and blogs and everything else. Heading back to Vancouver next to pick up my backup stuff being sent from home so I can do work again, and then I have to plan out my movements for the next few weeks, but will probably start heading east to the Okanagan region.