Victoria

Hello everyone! Today was our first full day on Vancouver Island and we woke up to a fantastic meal of Canadian bacon and eggs. After that we took the scenic route to BC's capital, Victoria, visiting the local golf course, the University of Victoria (complete with wild bunnies and a 'moderately-sized' sports stadium - it was Perry Lakes sized, complete with grandstand and lights!) on the way in to the city. We spent the afternoon seeing the sights, such as Parliament House. It is a really cool building that is totally huge and awesome looking. We also walked to Fisherman's Warf, which is a 'floating community' - all the houses are built on floating platforms tethered to the wharf (see the photo below). Alex and I have decided we have to live in one at some point, its hard to actually explain how awesome they truly are.

Little known fact about Canada... the seagulls are HUGE!!! Like the size of a medium dog. They probably would eat Australian seagulls for a snack. And they have yellow beaks... but mainly its the huge thing that is crazy. In fact just about everything in Canada is huge, the ferries (their are busses inside them!), the trees, the seagulls, the government buildings, the seagulls, the cars (every single ute is like an F250 or bigger... some are 18' long!!!) and ESPECIALLY the seagulls. We are currently working on a photo that demonstrates just how massive these gulls really are. Will keep you posted.

We also watched the last few minutes of one of the Stanley Cup (ice hockey) playoff games - Vancouver Canucks vs. St Louis Blues. Vancouver won 2-1, but the Blues got pretty close in the dying seconds. In some circles, hockey seems like a religion here. We overhead a girl on the bus who especiallu purchased a new LCD TV just for that game, and it wasn't even the final in the series.

It is also ridiculously cold! Except the locals don't seem to notice as much. The local teenagers were dressed in shorts and cardigans today, even though it was only about 11 deg. But it was nice and sunny so apparently shorts are the go. Alex and I were decked out in long pants, jumpers and jackets and even then we were still a tad chilly.

Tomorrow we have planned a scenic train trip (with an early 6am start) to another part of the island so more on that tomorrow. And we will post pics of the house as we got home too late for good shots today.

Oh and Alex lost $4 to the stupid bus today cause they don't give you stupid change...stupid canada. Alex is very upset about this. Very upset. I want my money back.

Here are a couple of shots from our day:

It's freakin cold at the local golf course! (Big ducks as well)
Alex about to trespass on a floating home at Fisherman's Wharf
More floating homes
In front of Parliament House ey


Me under the British Columbian Flag inside the Parliament Building

Vancouver Island

Hello everyone, our air travels have at last come to an end and we are now safely housed at Alex's aunt and uncle's house on Vancouver Island. It is really pretty here, we watched the sun set over the island as we rode the ferry from Vancouver. Had our first Canadian meal... unfortunately some rather ordinary chips. However I feel we will be sourcing something more mapley tomorrow.

So far we have a trip to BC's capital, Victoria, planning to get some info about what's fun around here. Fred and Roberta are super hospitable and we are so lucky to be staying in their beautiful house. I'll post some photos of the awesome ocean views tomorrow.

That's probably it for now, we will put up another post complete with photos tomorrow.

LAX

Hello again, Alex and I are currently sitting upstairs in terminal 2 of LAX, stealing the free internet from the airline lounges. Thank god our 13hr flight is over, we have so far been on the road for 27 hours and counting, yet it is only 12.10pm on the 14th here.... weird.
We are slowly mastering the act of sleeping whilst sitting, however the thought of a warm bed right now is incredibly enticing. It's apparently 15 deg atm and completely overcast... rather unlikely LA weather.

We have discovered that airport food is ridiculously expensive, however on the flipside we did find a dollar on the floor in the security check in so things are looking up. Also, Alex wasn't refused entrance to the US so we are doing pretty well at the moment.

In a couple of hours we are going to board our flight to Vancouver and then get a lift with Alex's sister Amelia to the ferry over to Vancouver Island. Fingers crossed the fares aren't ridiculous, however it is looking like we are going to be scraping a living everywhere anyway.

We will post again once we are on Vancouver Island. Miss you all!

Sydney International Airport

Hello everyone! My first post from the road! Alex and I have just completed our marathon layover in Sydney Airport and are only a little while away from boarding our plane to LA. Our flight from Perth went by pretty smoothly apart from some pretty hectic tubulence as we passed through the storm cloud.

The times are pretty crazy with all these time differences. Our 2pm flight to LA which is 13 hrs long arrives in LAX at 2:30pm... and then we arrive in Vancouver at abput 5pm. So we have travelled about 30hrs but will arrive in Canada only 17hrs after we left!! Pretty cool... except we are now somewhat sleep deprived... Alex fell asleep in the check-in line.

Thankyou to everyone who came to say goodbye, especially those who drove all the way out to the airport to see us. It was the perfect, albeit sad, way to start our trip.

I miss you all so much already! I will post again (hopefully) soon after we arrive in YVR.

The Countdown is On

So here I am, less than 77 hours away from my departure. Had my last chance shopping day, so if I don't have it now, I guess it will have to wait!!

I want to thank everyone who turned up to my party last night, I was so stoked and completely taken by surprise. Especially thanks to the many people who helped organise it, it must have been a substantial effort. I am so grateful to have you all as my friends.

I also want to thank my friends at work, the Mountain Design voucher was well spent! I will send you a picture of me with my awesome new rain pants. I'm sure they will be well used, I think Squamish is one of the rainiest places in Canada. Thank you for being so good to me during my first job in the 'real world'.

I'll chuck another post down before I leave/in Sydney airport if I run out of time.

The Plan

The Plan is...

I'm taking a gap year between school and uni to travel around the world and see the sights before knuckling down to 6 more years of education. And this blog will be where I post my photographs and updates on how the trip is going.

Here is a very tentative itinerary subject to approval, mainly of people I would like to stay with and my wallet... (Click on the links to find out more)

Leave Perth mid-April, fly to Vancouver and hang out there for a few days.
Report to Camp Summit and volunteer for 6 months. (I got this gig through Lattitude, formerly GAP Australia. I'll be working with regular camp staff as well as 3 other volunteers)
On my 2 week holiday in August head to Seattle for a few days to see the Storm (my favourite basketball team) play.
After camp I'd like to head to Arizona to visit Spud and Vicki (subject to them having me :) )
Then maybe a trip to New York is in order to visit my mate Bevs at NYU and maybe meet up with the family if they make it over. Also, meet up with my travel buddy Alex after her stint in Alberta.
Another flight over to London, to repack and relax before heading over to Athens, purchasing a Eurail pass and going on a spontaneous 15 day holiday throughout Europe...
Then back to London to kill time until Christmas. I imagine we will try to get jobs, hang out in Southwold, live off the seat of our pants, the normal backpacking stuff.
Christmas with the family, both Aussie and English if things go well. Then Alex and I plan to head up to Edinburgh for New Years.
Then, if we still have any money left, we'll just make it up from there. I suppose that will have to involve a trip home to start uni at UWA in March.

But yes, thought I'd whack this up here so people would have something to look at when I show them to this page...