Travel Category
Greyhound
It is 2am. I’ve been on the Greyhound bus for 7 hours. The sound of the road peeling away under the wheels and the gentle rocking of a cabin should be lulling my senses into a blissful stupor but they bring no respite. I watch through my window into the clinging blackness and try to ignore the poster child schizophrenic that chose to sit next to me. He keeps yelling and yelping, one of three personalities at any time bursting forth onto the bus. Sometimes it’s the retarded boy, others the racist Southerner and when ever a sign came into resolve enough to be read: the educated Harvard scholar. If I am lucky I can catch them arguing between each other as their vessel jerked and roiled about in his seat. Their arguing continues through the night and punctuates the darkness. Around 5am he quietens a little, yet keeps snorting and fizzing and fidgeting. His odour has driven a few of my fellow passengers to move up into shared seats, foregoing their comfortable reclining positions for relief from the smell. I breathe through my teeth and count the hours, the minutes, the seconds until the next stop.
With the break of dawn comes an oasis of a gas station where we stop for food and drinks. My seat partner rises from his perch and lumbers down the isle, carrying with him his most valuable worldly possessions, 15 recycling containers. I stretch and am greeted by numerous faces that smile at me reassuringly and words of praise and amazement at my resolve. Only 13 more hours of travel face me but they lay stretched along the i5 through the new day. The terrain changes in hue and composition as we roll ceaselessly onwards into the morning. California opens before the bus welcoming me into it’s warm bosom. Mesas rise along the highway and farmland covered in dry grass surround the coach as we travel south in the morning sun.
While my strange friend has moved on he leaves a sinister stink he in his stead, standing sentry in the cabin like a ghost. I push my chin deeper into my chest and watch the white lines weave and duck back and forth along the asphalt. We’ll be coming up to San Francisco soon according to the woodsman that sits in the seat in front of me. I look out of my window and drink up the scenery. I gulp it up in an attempt to satisfy my excitement. A new city awaits just on the other side of the bay. A new city, with new sights, new people and hopefully new adventures.
Seattle
People look at me strange sometimes when I say I love the states, but damn it: it’s true. I have had nothing but good experiences here. The people are lovely, and everyone that I have met from the states, save a few obnoxious hangover exacerbating types, have been great, honest, confident and friendly. So it was nice to step off the boat from Victoria to be greeted by Seattle on a warm October afternoon.
Seattle, home of Grunge music, dot com darlings Amazon, Boeing and other cool businesses, is a beautiful city. Teeming with life and coffee shops the city stretches out from the west coast, up and over it’s many hills. I am staying in Capital Hill, a pretty cool district with some interesting characters and great nightlife.
I haven’t done all that much exploring as yet, haven’t even checked out the Space Needle, but I plan to remedy this after Penny Arcade Expo is all done. I did get a moment to wander around downtown though, where I met some locals in a bar who graciously offered to take me bar hopping around the town. As it was midday this was great as I got to see and take note of some cool bars to check out later. I also had a bit of a gander at the famous Pike Place Markets, but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with crowds so I just stuck my head in for a bit of a sticky beak.
I got to go to “The Central” on my impromptu little tour. This bar is pretty famous for having rock 365 nights of the year and has played host to some of the greatest bands ever when they were just starting out. They also have some pretty awesome graffiti in the toilets. “The New Orleans” on the other hand had the creepiest graffiti in theirs, with thousands of little faces staring you down while trying to do a slash. Damn weird.
I am liking Seattle. I can’t wait to see more of the town.
Victoria
Back in January back in Sydney I met three very wonderful Canadians who were adventuring around the east coast. I chatted to Magena, Carlee and Kari often trying to learn what I could about Canada, knowing that in 8 months I would be seeing their homeland for myself. They convinced me that Victoria on Vancouver Island would be a great place to visit and I am glad I took their advice.
Vancouver Island lays off the west coast of mainland Canada. Getting there is pretty cheap and reasonably easy. I jumped on a bus from downtown Vancouver, then took a cheap yet HUGE ferry to the island. The cruise was fantastic, I am not sure how long it took in the end, I spent most of my time just watching the islands go by and enjoying the view. It could have been an hour, probably more, but I am not really sure.
After the enjoyable ferry ride I jumped on a bus to Victoria, where my hostel was located. Victoria is a beautiful little town, very cosmopolitan yet small enough that much of the city shuts down at night. As has become a bit of a feature of my trip I managed to time my visit at EXACTLY the wrong time, with the Victoria Fringe Theatre festival starting on the day I left the town.
The hostel was pretty good but not brilliant, luckily I didn’t spend too long within its walls. I met up with Emmet, a Californian I got to know in Vancouver and we hit up a local bar called Big Bad Johns. It was a cool little place with a great atmosphere. We downed a few beers there before heading back to the hostel. Back there we met Sarah from Quebec and chatted for a while.
The next day I headed out with Emmet, Sarah and her friend whom I forget the name of for a swim in the freezing waters off the coast. I couldn’t spend more than a few moments in the water before I was numb, but the sun was warm and it was nice to get out of the city for an afternoon. We grabbed some lunch and said farewell to Sarah who was headed back to Quebec that afternoon.
Now, remember those three Canadians? Luckily for me they were all back on Vancouver Island and invited me out for a drink to catch up. It was great to see someone you got to know 8 months ago again in their hometown on the opposite side of the world. It felt pretty surreal and it was nice to hear their stories of adventures from their travels. We had a drink in Sidney and the girls showed me around the small town. Magena gave me a lift back to my hostel, something I am very grateful for because the busses had stopped and my clipper to Seattle left early in the morning and I needed to pack.
Thea
Probably the one reason that drew me to Vancouver on my trip was to visit my good friends Laura and Murray to see their new baby, the very beautiful Thea. It has been a very long time since I saw Laura and her husband and it was very nice catching up with them. They are living full time in Vancouver now and raising their daughter, who is around 12 weeks old.
I had a great day with the new family, and Murray and Laura very kindly took me out in their neighbourhood for lunch where we chatted and enjoyed the wonderful weather. It was nice to take a moment out of my hectic travel schedule to stop and just enjoy a quiet afternoon.
I have to say Congratulations to Laura and Murray and a big warm welcome to Thea!
Vancouver
I hit Vancouver a little over a week ago. To be honest my time there was pretty much a blur. While I had only one very important thing to do in Vancouver I had no real plans of what to see or do in the City.
My first night there saw me join a club crawl which took in only two clubs, far from our hostel but proved to be fun none the less. It did give me a chance to meet some cool people, most of whom were Australian, much to my disappointment, but that’s Vancouver for you. It is Aussie central.
Vancouver is a pretty large city, with around 3 million people living in it and its surrounds. It is quite a nicely laid out city, with a modern feel. At the moment though the city is heaving under the weight of the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics. It seems that every inch of the city is undergoing some form of renovation. New train lines have opened expanding the city and linking suburbs. Roads are torn up, footpaths littered with traffic cones and building supplies. All the work made it hard to enjoy the city on its merits.
Most of my days were spent wandering the city centre, meaning I unfortunately didn’t get to see some of the famous parks that surround the city. I did manage to guide a pub crawl though on my last night in town when the hostels usual guide called in late. I had a great time leading the group, as I had been in Montreal and was soon relieved of the duty anyways when the guide finally showed her face.
Vancouver didn’t really grab me all that much, but I must admit I was in a very weird mood coming off the great experience of Montreal. I am not one to write it off so early, and I think I will have to visit again, maybe after the Olympics.
Montreal Centrale
I’ve mentioned my favourite hostel Montreal Centrale in my post about Montreal itself, but I have decided it deserved a special mention. Montreal Centrale was, by far and away, the best hostel I have stayed in in the Northern Hemisphere. During my time there (around 2 weeks in total) I met fantastic people, formed strong friendships, and had a great time. I helped in the Bar, organised pub crawls, cooked, moved furniture, lounged on couches and relaxed in the back courtyard.
Their setup is fantastic. The place used to be a hotel catering for “dubious business types” and has recently changed tack to catering for travellers and backpackers and the budget conscious. This is great because the hostel still has great hotel throwbacks, like clean rooms with TV’s and DVD players and ensuites in each, clean fresh linen, a pile of towels (hand, face, body) waiting for you on your bed at check in, great service and a pleasant atmosphere. The staff are very friendly always willing to come for a drink and entertain the clients.
I can’t thank Francisco, Joshue, Anna, Ben and the rest of the crew enough. If it weren’t for their welcoming smiles and open arms this hostel would have faded into my memories like so many others before it. They have created an environment that is extremely difficult NOT to make friends and meet people in and that is perhaps the most important part of any hostel experience. I met some people I wont ever forget here, and I owe a lot to the staff for enabling me to do so. Should I ever return to Montreal, which I definitely hope I do, Montreal Centrale will be my residence of choice.
If you’re wondering the significance of the image above, this awesome piece of art is what I marvelled at each morning across the road from the entrance of the hostel. Montreal is full of awesome graffiti.
Bixi Bikes
Need to get around Montreal? Jump on a Bixi Bike!
These public bikes are a brilliant idea. All you need to do to hire a bike is swipe your credit card. You get a little receipt with a code on it. Next you just choose any bike, enter the code and you’re off riding. The bikes are brilliant. Sturdy and well maintained. Not once in my time here have I encountered a damaged or clunky bike.
The way the model works is that you pay $5 to have access to the Bixi’s for a day (on a casual basis, cheaper for montly and yearly subscriptions) and you can ride the Bixi where ever you like, for how ever long you like with a scaling pricing structure for longer lengths of time. The best part? If you take a bike back to ANY base station within 30 minutes of grabbing one it costs you NOTHING. You can do this all day just taking a bike, riding where you want to go and leaving it. Such a brilliant idea. There are a ridiculous amount of stations and bikes, so you’re never far from a bixi station and they are carefully positioned to utilise high traffic routes but they cover the smaller streets as well.
As a rider I dig the Bixi’s. They are great for the environment, comfortable and best of all they are technically advanced. Check out their website which has stats on how far the bikes have ridden, maps for phones and account management. I freaking love Bixi!
Tam Tam Festival
I’m back in Montreal, and loving it. Over the weekend I checked out the Tam Tam Festival something I missed out on last time I was here.
The Tam Tam Festival happens every Sunday during the summer season and is completely public. Nothing is organised. It is just people rocking up to the Mont Royale Park with Tom Toms, Shakers, Tins, Drums, Bins or what ever they can hit or make noise with to play with the ever expanding group. Grooves are found and lost. They come in waves, fading when they just aren’t working and building to glorious crescendo’s when going well. People from all walks of life play and enjoy, welcomed to the collective.
On the day I went it was mightily hot, so I didn’t stay all that long but taking a picnic lunch and a blanket would be a good idea if you ever want to check out it. Of course it’s all free and open and you can ride a Bixi bike right to the park!
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil is one of those things I’ve just never really “got”. People rave about this thing, like it is some magical experience blinding to all shows that went before and even those yet to be. It has been placed on a pedestal so high that not even my expectations could reach it. To go along with that, the prices for the shows are ridiculous, adding to my complete lack of enthusiasm to see what all the fuss is about. I can’t move fast enough to the remote when ever I see another Cirque Du Soleil special on TV, scrambling like a soldier diving for cover from a nearby grenade.
When I found out that during the summer festival in Quebec Cirque Du Soleil would be performing for free beneath the underpass in downtown I figured: what the hell, I’ll check it out. And you know what? Colour me impressed, but in muted tones… maybe even with water based paint so I can clean up quickly once the novelty has worn off.
Basically I found the show to be street performers with a massive costume budget. The acrobatics and juggling and dancing was impressive, but nothing I really hadn’t seen a million times around the world, done by crazy hippies or poor travellers to earn a little cash by entertaining tourists. This is over simplifying a little. There were moments I thought: wow, but I think they were massively outweighed by the times I thought: meh.
I loved the costumes, and the music was phenomenal. I am just glad it cost me zero dollars. The show was well worth that price. More than worth it. Sorry to all you Cirque Du Soleil fans out there if you’re offended by my stance. All I know is I’ve finally seen it so you can all stop telling me how I should really see Cirque Du Soleil, but I probably wont see it again.
Quebec
Prague was in my opinion the most beautiful city in Europe. It was like a fairy tale and I didn’t think I would find a city that could top it in the beauty stakes. That was until I found Quebec.
Quebec (or Quebec City), the capital of the Quebec Province is quite a small town with a population of around a million. Its’ skyline dominated by the Old Town built high on the hill in a location advantageous to defence. It is a walled city, in fact the only walled city north of Mexico on this continent. Quebec is clean, beautiful and interesting. While it lacks the nightlife of say Montreal, what little it does have is pretty rocking.
I had a great time walking all over Quebec. I spent the majority of my time in the Old Town, or down at the port. I rested my weary feet in fountains and bathed myself in the blazing sun. At night I couldn’t stop staring at the buildings and streets that glowed with lighting that seemed straight out of a movie.
At the moment the city is hosting it’s Summer Festival with Cirque de Soleil for free almost every night and the “Moulin a Image” a huge multimedia presentation across a ridonkulously big screen (actually the side of a massive silo). Thousands of people flood into the city each night to see either of these two spectacles and to eat at the hundreds of restaurants and cafes that lie scattered through the old town.
On top of all this the Hostel I stayed in, located in downtown was very cool. Totally relaxed, open and friendly with our hosts Pierre and Skippy, the little Jack Russell that would come in and sticky beak in on the rooms. It was a small hostel though, and the 2 toilets and showers sometimes struggled to cope with the demand. I am just glad that I am an early riser and beat the rush.
I only had 3 days in Quebec and there were a few things I would have liked to see that I missed out on. I could have spent a long time just soaking up the atmosphere. Oh well, just means I will have to go back.