So I said goodbye to New England (and my wonderful friends *sob sob*) on yet another beautiful day, flew out of Boston Logan International heading for Seattle via Minneapolis/St Paul. About 20 minutes into the flight we hit a patch of the worst ‘rough air’ I’ve ever experienced . I don’t take many short haul flights so maybe I’m just unused to Airbuses and their lower buffer zone or whatever the hell it is but whoa that was some serious bounce. At first I just gripped the seat and waited for it to pass but after an hour of solid brain rattling my nerves were pretty frayed and I found myself having a giant panic attack. However many miles above one of the great lakes. Not just a rational ‘I don’t want to die alone in a burning wreckage somewhere in the Midwest’ panic attack, although obviously that crossed my mind once or twice. No, a full blown ‘oh my God what have I done with my life sobbing into my free cookie panic attack’. By the time I landed in the twin cities with swollen eyes and a racing pulse I was ready to walk back to New York and take a boat home. Never was I entering any kind of aircraft in my life, never again, never ever! Luckily for me, my feet and probably my sanity I remembered the stash of Valium I’d left untouched since my second night in New York (used to sleep through 5 Mexican hipsters singing Bruce Springsteen in the room next door). Made my way through the maze that is Mpls/St Paul airport and managed to force myself onto the flight to Seattle. This time not an ounce of bounce and a larger plane meant that I made it to SeaTac in one piece.
From SeaTac I boarded the Quick Shuttle bus to Vancouver and got my first taste of the Pacific Northwest, drove through Seattle at dusk and then straight up to the border. The bus was almost empty so I figured that customs would be a fairly speedy process. More fool me. After being ushered into a secure area with one other guy, a Chinese man who spoke barely any English, I watched from behind a locked door at the rest of the passengers happily boarded the bus. The Chinese guy went first, once they found a translator it was apparent he was violating the terms of his permanent residency in Canada by spending 90% of his time in China. Nothing to do with, except that I was stuck behind him in the queue and the Quick Shuttle bus was threatening to leave with out me. Bearing in mind it’s 9.30pm, the last bus, I’m in the middle of nowhere, on my own being glared at my two security guard and the border patrol who seemed to think I was up to no good just by being there. Just at the moment I was about to go into full meltdown, after my earlier experiences I was already edgy and soooo tired, she remembered to ask me what I needed. A stamp on my passport, a tiny stamp not a full interrogation or deportation. Five seconds later and I’m back on the bus, 20 minutes later I’m at vancouver airport with my friend Cherry and her boyfriend Matthew, an hour later I’m eating healthy food at the Naam, my first since I arrived in the USA and I’m so fucking happy it’s unreal. I’ve never been so pleased to see a glass of wine or a chickpea. Anyway, 16 hours of solid travel later and I was in Canada, hooray.
My friends live in an awesome part of the city, right by the beach and with views of the mountains. My first real taste of Vancouver the next morning was a walk along the beach after a Canadian sized breakfast. It took me approximately 5 minutes to fall in love.
It’s been a long time since I spent any time with Cherry so it was really great to just hang out with her and be taken to various amazing restaurants, cafes and eating establishments. Both Cherry and I like food (in a nice ladylike way of course) and luckily Vancouver ain’t too shabby in that department so much of my trip was arranged around where to eat, some of my favorites were The Eatery, Sophie’s Cosmic Cafe, The Templeton Diner, Finch’s Tea & Coffee House, Steeps, Hapa Izakaya (where I was allergic to nearly everything but finally had the most amaaaaazing prawns and discovered my new favorite cocktail) and last but not least La Casa Gelato. La Casa Gelato or the International Ice Cream Factory sells 218 varieties of ice cream and sorbetto in a staggering selection of flavours, curry ice cream anyone? I had the granny smith apple and lemon raspberry sorbet, divine.
We took a day trip to Whistler where my tiny British mind was blown by the British Columbia scenery. Talk about epic and giant and everything I expected yet more, more, more. Already snow on the mountain tops adding to the drama and my jaw dropping in the back seat. I don’t think anything I say or pictures will do it justice.
Bye, bye Vancouver I’ll miss you but I’m pretty sure I’ll be back! ♥
P.S I’ve had some WordPress issues hence the long overdue update!!
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