Vancouver Island

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There is so much to do around here that I don’t have the time to sit behind my computer and write for an hour. I was expecting a lot of free time during my travels but the opposite has been true. So far there have always been people around or I have been doing something outdoors. Once I did finish my entry, the internet in the hostel was so bad that I couldn't even upload pictures. Now that I'm away from the hostel, I have more time to write and functioning internet.

I am visiting my friend Alex and we're both messing around on the computer, like a typical Sunday afternoon. I am currently not in Vancouver anymore. I took a ferry to Vancouver Island and arrived at the capital of British Columbia called Victoria. Last weekend I rented a car with Daniele and two others. Rita and Joacime are two friends he made during a conference in Victoria and they were heading to Tofino. I wanted to go there too so I joined them for the trip. We were away from Thursday till Sunday. It was only a few hours to drive but we stopped at most of the nice view points along the way. We drove to Cathedral Grove where they have some of the oldest and biggest trees alive. Afterwards we drove and visited Port Alberni, Chemainus, Victoria, Sproat Lake Provincial Park, and finally Tofino. The last night we stayed in Ucluelet and found a cheap place on the water with a hot tub in the backyard. We had a blast! I have so many pictures, there was too much too see around us, the beaches all around and more temperate rainforest. There were a lot of trails through the forests that end on the beaches. Also, all around us is water and mountains. Some of the views they have here are so amazing. It’s really surreal sometimes.

That’s why I’m glad I had my camera. The reason I said ‘had’ is because my camera is no more. It is currently in a bucket of rice because someone told me it can take the water out of phones when they fall in the water. My camera has fallen in a small, deep hole in a rock we were sitting on. It was so lame, there were no holes anywhere in the rock. Just this stupid little camera shaped hole next to my pocket.. I think they made that hole in there to move the rocks around. Either way, I bought a new, better camera now so I hope I can take even better pictures from now on.

I cannot believe that May is already almost over. Sooo much has happened in one month. It’s crazy to imagine that I haven’t paid attention to which day it is. I can’t remember a single day in May that I stopped and thought about what date it was. Since Saturday that is. I had to fill in the form of the hostel and then I realized May is almost over. Where has the time gone? It feels like I’m in a sort of dream where only amazing things happen all the time. Too bad that there always has to be a time to wake up from it. I have had a lot of time to think about anything and everything and I really believe Canada is a place where I could move to. I know a lot of people would not be happy with it but I seriously feel good here. Of course it is different when you have all the normal hassles and problems that everyday reality brings along. If I would have to choose a next place to live at I would definitely consider Canada, especially West Canada. And I haven’t even been to the Rockies yet! That is going to be amazing.

I am now (when I wrote this bit on Tuesday) at a hospital with my friend Nathan. I met him together with Alex in Victoria when I was on my way to go to Tofino with Daniele and the rest. They invited me over and there I met Alex’ fiancé Michelle, one of the sweetest people ever. We had such a great night at their place. I got to meet Nathan, Morgan, Asya and her son Isaiah. They are so welcoming and friendly. The fact that the icehockey team, Canucks, just won a game made them extra happy because they are HUGE hockey fans. I even started liking it. Since I’ve been in Vancouver, the Vancouver Canucks have been winning the conference finals and they are up for the Stanley Cup. There are seven games and the first team that wins four, wins. The first game was this Wednesday and the Canucks won! It was really close. The score was 0-0 until the last 19 seconds of the game! Hockey games take up only 60 minutes, but it is played in three 20 minute periods with a lot of commercials in between. So after almost three hours we finally won. It was such a relief. I had already given up hope and was expecting to have to wait for overtime. But out of nowhere, Torres smoothly tips the puck in the goal. Everybody went crazy! We were all wearing Canucks jerseys, I felt like a true fan.

Yesterday was the second hockey game and the Canucks won again. It was another intense game, we had to go in overtime before winning. They had so much chances to score and their game was obviously better than that of the Boston Bruins, but they have a really good goalie -Thomas. He makes it hard on us, eventhough our game is better. We only need two more victories to be the champions so nobody is really worried anymore. It's in the bag! Man, I wish we had icehockey back home. It is so much more interesting than soccer. I don't understand why our country is so interested in soccer, nothing is really happening during the game. Just a bunch of players walking on a field, running after the ball and barely scoring anything. Hockey is so much fun, they smash into each other, the puck flies everywhere and the entire game is on ice! I never knew people could be so athletic on iceskates. Quite impressive, I think I'll have to introduce it to the Dutch.

After the game yesterday, we went fishing on the breakwater near the harbor. It was beautiful there. The sun was almost setting, the sky behind the mountains turned the same blue as the mountains, changing into orange and purple on the other side. In the harbor were huge cruise ships full of light that reflected on the water. All that combined was truely amazing. Thats what I love about BC, you don't have to go far to see some of the most awesome sceneries ever.

Before the game I went hiking with a sweet german girl, Raphaela, that I met in the Ocean Inn hostel. I also met three Dutch guys in the hostel, one of them joined us to Mount Douglas yesterday. It was one of the rare warm and sunny days that I've experienced here. There was little wind and once we hiked up it was so warm. It finally felt like summer. Took a while before it got warm here. The past few days have been the warmest since a long time. Hopefully it will stay like this for the rest of my time in BC.

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