Blogs from Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, North America - page 3

Well, after four months of travelling; 10,583 miles; 2 Canadian Provinces, 1 Territory and 3 US states; oh, and 6,771 photographs (yes, really!) I have to hand the van back in less than 48 hrs time. So I have come back to the RV park Burnaby where I started my camping adventures on 1 May. Since I last created a blog entry, I spent a very pleasant couple of days on the Sunshine Coast. The weather there wasn’t quite as good as it gets billed: but I did see a fair amount of sunshine. I made it all the way to the end of Highway 101 (the main road that runs up the Sunshine Coast), and then I drove slowly back down again (i.e. it took four days to do 84 km), stopping at some great ... read more

Well, I picked up the camper van this morning, and drove all the way to Burnaby (it must be all of 10 miles from downtown Vancouver). Staying at a relatively plush RV site (it's got a pool AND a gym, so it must be posh). Feels like a tank to drive. Not quite got used to just how wide it is (8.5ft, but the cab itself is probably only just over 7ft wide, which makes it quite tricky). Backing into a space at the RV park was also a bit of a challenge... but possibly the less said about that the better. Anyway, here's a picture.... read more

We celebrated our first Canadian holiday this weekend, by giving thanks...for good food and good company! None of the locals can give me a reason for why the holiday is celebrated a month before the American Thanksgiving, and many of the locals thought it was a worldwide tradition! Clearly there are many misunderstandings about the holiday... So, looking up trusty Wikipedia, this is the reason we are supposed to give thanks this weekend.... "Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day (Canadian French: Jour de lAction de grâce), occurring on the second Monday in October, is an annual Canadian holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season. Although the original act of Parliament references God and the holiday is celebrated in churches, the holiday is also celebrated in a secular manner." We had Chloe and Lachlan over ... read more

So, we've officially been a temporary resident of Canada for 2 months now, and I think this is an apt time to write about what we think of Vancouver. We've settled in quite well, both are working full time making a bit of money, and generally living each day as it comes. It's not a fancy life; we didn't land awesome jobs in architecture and film as we fantasized we would, but we're beyond that now and working towards our careers is something we've agreed can wait until we return home to Australia. There's no point doing that here - we're not here long time, and both our industries require too much time and money to invest in working towards some very hard goals, very hard because a) we are not Canadian citizens and b) they ... read more

Jambo rafiki langu! (Hello my friends!) Just to preface this... I HATE the word "blog". In fact it might be my least favoraite word in the english language. It sounds like something that I blew out of my nose this morning but I concede that this would qualify as a "blog". Gross. Tonight I'm leaving beautiful British Columbia and long summer nights, street festivals, mountains and beaches for the jungles, savannas, volcanoes and unpredictability of E. Africa. Tomorrow will be spent wandering alongside canals and strolling through green parks in Amsterdam (maybe a Heineken or two) before jumping back on a plane and heading back to Uganda via Nairobi, Kenya. Though it is not my first time in E. Africa, it is the first time that I will be "traveling" solo and largely without company until ... read more