Sixty six hours bus ride across Canada

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This update is quite long because I am covering several days...

I woke up at 8AM for the last time in my own bed on June 9th after a very short night since I went out with my friend Frank and got my blog running after so I ended up going to bed at 5AM. I immediately started packing, printing things that I needed, took care of "administrative" stuff that I hadn't done yet (why do something early when you can do it last minute?), depacked and repacked just to make sure I hadn't forgotten everything and generally just stressed about everything. It finally dawned upon me that it was starting, my trip was no longer just something I was telling other people about or something far away. For the first time I really felt like I was going away for a whole year and I felt a mix of excitement and nervousness.

My parents drove me to the bus station and I boarded almost immediately after, saying goodbye to my parents for the last time. By that time I was really sick of saying goodbye to everyone but I wished I could have stayed a few more minutes with my parents before taking off. I sat on the very last seat of the bus right next to the washroom because it was the only window seat left but my hope of having the 2 seats by myself were shattered when, just before the bus took off, a woman came to the back and took the seat. I tried to take a picture of the bus station from the bus only to realize that my batteries were down and my spare batteries and recharger were in my backpack at the bottom of the bus...

The 5 hours ride to North Bay was uneventful and I was not in the mood to talk or read. I just looked outside and thought about what I was getting myself into. The woman next to me left at Pembroke 2 hours after Ottawa so I was quite happy to have plenty of space to lay and try to sleep. The area around North Bay was by far the most beautiful I saw east of the Rockies and North Bay at sunset was quite a sight. The water in the bay was bright orange due to the reflection of the day's last rays of sun and it was truly one of the most beautiful sunset I ever saw. It's a shame I couldn't get a picture of it. In any case I saw this as a good omen for things to come in my trip.

From North Bay we made our way to Sudbury which we reached by 23:30 for what was supposed to be a 2 minutes bus transfert. Of course the 2 minutes somehow transformed in 90 so we had to wait in the freezing temperature outside for a long time. However it was a good thing because I spotted a group of 4 people who were speaking french and since I was tired of just thinking I decided I'd join them. They ended up being really interesting people and we stuck together. Izabelle was a young girl with cool glasses from Montreal going to pick up cherries in the Okanagan valley for the summer. Michel, a long-haired Jesus look-alike in his fifties, was going to the Okanagan valley to hang out (he didn't really give us a reason). Celeste was a french-manitoban going back to Winnipeg after a 4 weeks exchange in Trois-Riviere. Finally, Chalem was going to Wawa (about 14 hours west of Ottawa) from Ottawa. They were very friendly and we talked while waiting for the bus. Michel was funny; we would be just talking about random things and he would start talking about spirituality and religion out of nowhere for 10 minutes straight in a kind of authoritative tone as if he was saying things that everyone should know and agree with. Me and Iza argued a little bit every time and he didn't seem to mind to much and he would end the debate by the usual: You're young, you'll learn. In any case he was friendly and always had something to say which is a plus on a long bus ride.

When the bus finally came we all took 2 seats each so we could sleep. Sleeping was fairly hard. I'd go maximum of 2 hours at a time and then I'd wake up for 30 minutes but I still managed to get about 6 hours of sleep I think. Chalem left at 7:30 in Wawa without saying goobye to any of us! If you meet girls from Wawa be careful, they're not as nice as they appear 😊. We kept on riding all day in the seemingly endless province of Ontario. We stopped at Thunder Bay at 3PM and kept on westward to Winnipeg which we reached at around midnight. Everyone was really sick of it all by this point (except Michel who's been doing the Montreal-BC ride forever and is quite used to it) because we had been in Ontario for more than 24 hours and we just didn't feel as if we were advancing since we hadnt even crossed a border yet and the scenery was fairly boring after Thunder Bay.

Celeste left us in Winnipeg and we realized why she seemed so eager to get back home during the ride; her boyfriend was waiting for her and she seemed really happy to be back home. We said goodbye to each other and she left us. We were supposed to get an hour wait in Winnipeg which I was looking forward to so I could freshen up a bit and take the batteries off my backpack. However since we waited so long in Sudbury our baggage was transfered to the other bus and we left right after we got there. Ahh well, at least we were back on schedule and we were not in Ontario anymore. We rode to Regina in the famous Great Plains throught the night and got in Regina by 6AM. The night was fairly hard for me as the bench were shorter than usual so it was really hard to find a comfortable position to sleep. Plus my butt was starting to hurt from the constant sitting. Iza offered me a pillow which she got from a woman in Ottawa and even though I refused at first, I came back to my senses and accepted it, which probably saved me from a sleepless night. I probably didn't sleep more than 4 hours that night.

From Regina we made our way to Calgary in the Plain, which I must say really are as boring as they are said to be. Iza said it best: "It's not ugly, it's not beautiful, it's just so neutral and repetitive". The only cool thing we saw were 2 bulls fighting each other (we dont know who won, but I had my money on the black one) and a truck passed by with giant plastic monkeys, which I missed because I was half-sleeping. By this time we were talking with pretty much all the long-term people on the bus and I found out that only 2 more were going all the way to Vancouver with me: a cute young mother and her 3 years old son which was, thank god, really well behaved. Pretty much everyone else left in Calgary.

We stopped at Swift Current for lunch and we met 3 punks who were going west by hopping on moving trains. A lady in the bus gave them 20$ and they were quite surprised and happy (one of them rubbed the bill all over his face for 2 minutes in disbelief). We also stopped in Medicine hat a few hours after which really seems like a nice small city (with the world's largest tipi!) and it was the first station who was well-situated, like not in an ugly industrial area with only the ridiculously overpriced station restaurant around.

By this point me and Iza were getting along fairly well so we were talking most of the time. Michel was being more distant, maybe he didn't like the way we were arguing with him on religion (maybe I should practice not arguing for when I'll hit Pakistan/Iran 😉 ), however he was still friendly. We arrived in Calgary at 18:00, 20 minutes late because our last bus driver was the slowest we ever saw. Iza said he looks like the brother of Napoleon in Napoleon's dynamite. I can't confirm this as I havent seen the movie yet, but he really pissed us off because he made my grandmother look like a Formula 1 driver and we really wanted to get out of the Plains.

In Calgary I finally managed to sneak in my backpack while the guys who transfer the backpacks werent looking and I picked up my batteries. Michel and Iza were taking different bus for Okanagan valley and Kelowna respectively so we split there. I finally took some pictures but Michel wouldnt want me to take pictures of him because he was afraid of me putting them on my website (he's into conspiracy theory). I exchanged email with Iza and I'll try to keep in touch.

The ride to Vancouver was really depressing since I was now alone and I had been talking and having fun for the last day and a half or so. Ah well, I need to get used to meet up friendly people and split up a few days after as this is gonna happen often this year... The people around me werent too talkative so I ended up not really talking for the whole ride. The scenery is of course beautiful, but I had seen it all before last year and I was just too tired to appreciate it. For the first time since Pembroke I had only one seat so sleeping was really hard and my butt was starting to hurt bad from all the sitting and I had to constantly change position which was a real pain. The Rockies really are beautiful and I'll definately go back there someday to hike. We arrived in Vancouver at 8AM on Monday and I really felt like shit as I hadn't took a shower since last Friday afternoon. Would I do the bus ride again? Probably not but I'm glad I did it once because it's nice to just cross the whole country and see so many places. It would have been much better if we really had the time off in Winnipeg to just relax and freshen up and also bringing a good pillow is a great idea. Also I'm glad I did it because it really got me in a traveller's mood and now I feel I can take any bus/train Asia will throw at me.

I could only check-in at noon at the hostel so I walked around the city for a bit (after changing clothes in the station's bathroom). I bought sandals (which I had forgotten to buy before leaving, logged on to check emails (but I was too tired to update the blog by then) and just walked around in downtown Vancouver. It was my second time in the city and I loved it as much as the first time. I don't know why but I just love the city, the people are friendly, the ocean is right there, there's beautiful mountains in the horizon and the vibe is just nice. I finally took the bus to my hostel which is closer to UBC in Jericho Beach. I checked-in and immediately headed for the shower. I think they only have hot water in the morning so it was cold but I just didn't care, it just felt so good.

After that I went in the cafe downstairs to watch the end of the Ghana-Italy game (Italy won) with a few guys and then I just walked around the beach and the neighbouring area of Kistilano for a couple of hours. I tried to find a cheap internet cafe to update my blog because Internet at the hostel costs 1$ per 10 minutes which is way too expensive. I didn't end up finding a cheap one nearby so I figured that I'd update the blog the day after. I went back to eat dinner at the cafe in the hostel which is overpriced but I figured it was the best place to meet people. I ended up eating alone as everyone was watching the hockey game and then I went for a walk on the (very beautiful, I must say) beach. When I came back I saw a group of people talking about an album of pictures so I joined. The woman just came back from a 6 months trip accross southern and eastern africa and she was showing her pictures to a few people. She did Namibia, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia and she had really interesting stories to tell. One of the person at the table was a fillipina so when I mentioned I was going to the Philippines she gave me a few tips about the country and places to avoid. It was really interesting but I was so tired I went to bed at around 20:30 and just fell asleep in 5 seconds and slept like a baby.

So now I'm in Vancouver until the 15th at 14:00 where I take off to Hong Kong.

V

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Photos

Izabelle
Picture of Izabelle at Calgary just before I took the bus to Vancouver

V
Me in Calgary

Victor and Iza
Me and Iza in Calgary.

Calgary from the road
Calgary

Cloudy Banff
Picture I took from Banff in the 5 minutes stop we had

Cloudy Banff 2
I almost missed my bus to get a shot at this cool mountain.

Vancouver from Jericho Beach
This is the view I have from the beach just 1 minute walk away from my hostel

Vancouver from Jericho Beach 2
This is the view I have from the beach just 1 minute walk away from my hostel

View from Jericho Beach 3
This is the view I have from the beach just 1 minute walk away from my hostel.

Comments

[Marie-Pierre]

wow
bon voyage victor! je vais suivre tes péripéties avec entrain! :)

[Izabelle du bus]

wow!
Hein c'est tellement cool ton blog! et je vois que j'en ai manquée un bon bout pendant que j'étais dans la vallée! Quoi qu'il en soit je vais devoir me rattraper et lire les histoire que tu as a raconter maintenant que je suis revenue a Montréal. je te le souhaite en retard mais quand même: Bon voyage Victor!