The last day.
I made it to Victoria exactly three weeks after I started in Halifax, and as you can see from the title of the post, I made it under budget.
If you’ll excuse me, I just have to take care of something over here in this corner.
YIPPEEE! WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
(clearing throat) Ahem. Ok, now that I’ve taken care of that urgent business, allow me to tell you about my time in Victoria.
I seem to remember telling you how excited I was about finishing my long bus ride saga. Well, I was unaware of how far away the ferry is from downtown Vancouver. In order to get from my brothers apartment to Victoria, I had to take the SkyTrain, a bus, another bus, a ferry, and one last bus. All told, it’s about five hours. Normally, I would have freaked out and started pacing around the ferry. I however, was on my best behaviour. Why? Because I was docking in Victoria! I had made it to the end of my journey, and the end of the country. I was looking out to the Pacific Ocean and it was so beautiful.
When I arrived in downtown Victoria, I was met by Astrid and Todd of A-Channel Victoria. They filmed a spot for the nightly newscast with me, and as usual I was too nervous to remember if I sounded coherent or not. Marc (remember him?) met up with me half way through the interview to play tour guide for me, and Todd got shots of us walking through the water front and Chinatown, cheesy background images that always make me laugh. All in all, I think the interview went well, and Astrid was really nice. She pointed out all sorts of historical buildings and things of interest. Thanks again guys!
Once I was done the interview, Marc and I went to lunch at this great vegetarian restaurant where I ate the biggest mushroom burger I’ve ever seen. Seriously.
We walked around all day and checked out the best Victoria had to offer. In fact, we walked around so much that I missed the last ferry to Vancouver that I could have taken, and I had to spend the night on Marc’s couch. Luckily, it was a very comfortable couch.
I closed off the night at a local pub, where Marc and I had a few beers to celebrate the successful ending of my adventure.
I just want to say thanks to everyone that helped me out along the way, and to those people that supported me at home. You are all so amazing and I couldn’t have done this without you.
What? You heard that? No, I do not sound like that all the time, I was excited.
I happen to love Vancouver. As you may know, I love the mountains, and the ocean, and lucky for me, Vancouver has both. I also love my brother, who happens to live in Vancouver, and who I was excited to see.
But what did I love most of all? Knowing that I just got off my last long-distance bus ride of the whole trip! As much as enjoyed all of the bus rides and the time it gave me for soul searching and people watching, I was SO EXCITED TO GET OFF THE BUS that I may have let out an involuntary squeal. Or six.
One downside, though. When I arrived in Vancouver, it was only about 3:30 in the afternoon, and Josh was busy with a meeting at SFU until 5. So, I could shlep all the way out to SFU with my gear, or I could get a locker at the bus station, store my stuff, and wander around downtown ‘till I could meet with Josh.
After about a millisecond of serious thought, I got a locker and got on the skytrain. But I couldn’t just wander alone. Instead, I met up with my new friend Marc. Yes, the same Marc from the bus. He lives in Victoria, but was spending the day in Vancouver, and was also looking for a wandering partner, so it worked out quite well.
We met downtown and promptly stumbled across the first of approximately three million sushi restaurants in the city. This one, however, had a patio, a liquor license, and some very affordable food. We filled up on sushi and beers and sat in the sun talking.
After lunch, Marc and I walked down Robson Ave, window shopping and talking until he had to catch the last ferry to Victoria (but don’t fret, Marc fans. He reappears in the next post.)
Finally, Josh was done his meeting, and we could meet downtown, I was just a short SkyTrain ride away. Or, at least, I should have been.
Unfortunately for me, there was a bomb threat called in to one of the SkyTrain stations. Luckily, no one was hurt, but it meant that hundreds of Vancouver-ites going home from work were displaced, and I had to find another route to my meeting place with Josh. Which involved me transferring buses …at East Hastings and Main.
For those readers unfamiliar with the Vancouver layout, I’ll try to explain. East Hastings is not a happy street. It’s a street where dreams go to die. And this particular intersection is known as one of the worst in Canada. And I was waiting there for my bus, when a man ran up to me. This man looked…out of sorts. Perhaps what someone might look like had they spent the last three days strung out on meth and cough syrup, but that’s just speculation. As he ran towards me, he started shouting “That one’s mine!”
Now, I’m not a shy person by any means, but when a crazed hobo comes running towards me, I get freaked out. To the point where I might have yelped a little. For those keeping count, that’s twice in one day. I jumped to the side, he stopped running, and then someone handed him a cigarette. Luckily, my bus came shortly thereafter, but I’m pretty sure that I was bought and sold on that corner for a smoke.
Once I made it out of Hastings alive, I finally met up with Josh, and we went to a relatively low-key (and free!) poetry reading/concert in Kitsilano. Now, Josh’s friend is a poet, and he gave an excellent reading at a small café in Kits. The other musicians he performed with, however, did not seem to share his talent. I just have to say this: If you’re truly a good musician, you don’t need filler, like making the audience fill out a quiz. That’s right folks, a quiz.
After we took in just about as much “music” as we could for the evening, Josh and I headed home to his place in New Westminster, and I fell asleep, anxious for the ferry ride to Victoria and the last day of the trip.
