Oh, Canada to San Diego.

Hello everybody, sorry we have been a bit rubbish getting this going, but here it is...
A lot has happened since the 6th August so we might be brief about some bits! We landed in Calgary and only stayed a matter of hours as it was bleak and quiet (it was a bank holiday), we got a bus straight to Banff - a mountain town in the middle of a beautiful national park, the mountains rose up each side of the road as we approached, like gnarled teeth. Banff turned out to be very expensive, all the hostels were booked up days in advance and the hotels were extortionate. we thought about sleeping rough until someone pointed out that black and grizzly bears and cougars come down from the woods at night looking for scraps of food (or stupid tourists.) We found the cheapest hotel we could the ´Banff Aspen Lodge' and roughed it with an on-suite, continental breakfast, hot tub, sauna and steam room. it was good to get a proper nights sleep after the plane and a night in a big dorm with incessant snorers.
Before we left Calgary we met a guy called Pete. Pete predicted that we wouldn't like Banff, except for the hiking, he was right. So after a two nights in the YWCA, we got on a moose bus headed to Vancouver. which took in the sights, stopping overnight at Revelstoke;quiet and quaint (pictured) and Kelowna in the Oakenagan valley, wine country, where we tasted a few of the brews from the Summerhill organic winery.
Vancouver seemed like a nice enough city, Stanley park, which we cycled around, was beautiful. but we wanted to get out of the city and away from the hostel crowd. so we headed for Galiano island, which is one of the gulf islands in the strait of Georgia, where we camped, in the Montague marine national park, and where every hour on the hour a bus with a sole purpose picks you up. The driver, called Tommy C, takes you to the pub (the only pub on the island) and back for free, whilst drumming on the dash with a spatula to Santana, dodging frogs, and shouting like a man possessed. the 'pub bus' was a trip, and a half, or was it a pint.
next stop was salt spring island where we had tried to arrange to camp on an organic farm; they knew we were coming but they didn't know when, and we managed to turn up whilst they were away. Things were not as they first appeared. The owners were brimming with ideals about sustainable living, but had brought their "super sized" American lifestyle with them when they emigrated to Canada. The volunteer WWOOFers turned out to be basically slave labour, one of whom had a slight issue with the idea of human conception and had decided to join the 'voluntary human extinction movement,' needless to say we made our excuses and left for Victoria on Vancouver island.
After two nights at a nice hostel, one amazing Jamaican meal, and a big slice of apple pie and ice cream (couldn't wait for the states!) we caught the port Angeles Ferry to Washington state, got a bus to Seattle, and kept on bussing to Portland Oregon.
Portland was one of the best cities we visited in America; leafy and relaxed almost European feel, it also has the biggest book shop we´ve ever seen, took up one whole city block! We stayed in a lush Victorian house that had been converted into a hostel, and went out for the belated birthday (H´s) meal in an amazing WW2 style American fish restaurant - we tried oysters and think they are rank! Saw our first live music here as well, and although it consisted mostly of various types of arranged feedback, it reminded us or how much we had missed it (already!)
A few days later we got a coach to a non-descript town called Eugene, then hired a car (see the pic!) that looked like a modern godfather type thing and drove to the coast, taking in Florence and Newport, where we ate fish and chips and everyone kept asking us what we thought of them because as English people we are a certified authority on the subject.
We took a joyful 15hr greyhound bus trip to San Francisco (no, it wasn't really joyful at all) where we were supposed to meet Chris - I'm such a slacker - Tuson, but he wasn't there! Stayed in a hostel in a dodgy-ish area and gained a good insight into the city's huge homeless problem. We did lots of touristy stuff, including Alcatraz and the contemporary/modern art galleries, we also went to the Supper club! Its the SF version of the club/restaurant we went to in Amsterdam where you eat on beds, get massages and see transvestites strip (in the case of the US one anyway, the Dam just had a weird guy in a thong - see Adam Hillicker´s facebook for details!). We then got a train to Redwood City to meet Jon & Sue´s (the Cheshires) friend from old times who we stayed with for a couple of days, we were perpetually fed and pampered and got a tour of Stanford to boot. This was followed by a 11hr bus ride to San Diego, which doesn't feel like you are still in America (and is the other best city in America we saw- though for different reasons: sun, sand, surf, burgers, laziness). We stayed in Point Loma in the nicest chilled out hostel, saw S & J´s old haunts, and a photography museum. We went body boarding (Felix would have been in heaven, but also would probably have died! - 10ft waves!), did yoga, and midnight drinking around fires on Ocean beach - it was just like Browndown but with warmth and yanks! One of which kept trying to get Hayley to say lines from Monty Python - oh dear.

Bye, bye America, bye, bye...

n+h x

---

---